HASTINGS, UK, 8 September 2026: Hastings-based IT contractor and Audit Adventures founder Maphi Bayolo has appealed to the mayors of London and New York as part of an urgent last-minute effort to help save Reach Volunteering, a 45-year-old UK service facing closure unless firm funding commitments are secured by 10 September 2026.
Bayolo has used Reach Volunteering on and off since 2024, both to give back to charities and to develop her own professional experience.
Just last week, she was accepted through Reach for a new volunteer role working with a charity as an AI Architect.
Reach connects charities and community organisations with skilled volunteers and trustees. This allows organisations that may not have the resources to buy specialist expertise commercially to access professionals across areas including technology, data, governance, finance, communications and project delivery.
At the same time, volunteers gain opportunities to apply their skills in real organisational environments, build sector knowledge and gain practical experience.
Bayolo believes this type of infrastructure will become increasingly important as AI adoption accelerates and the labour market changes.
She said: “Reach has allowed me to give something back, but it has also given me opportunities to sharpen my own skills and understand the nonprofit sector in much greater depth. Even now, I have just started working with a charity as an AI Architect through a role I found on Reach.
“For working professionals, that kind of experience is valuable. But I think the potential for young people is even bigger.”
Bayolo argues that services such as Reach can also help tackle the familiar experience paradox facing people entering the workforce.
Young people are regularly told they need experience to secure employment, while simultaneously struggling to find organisations willing to give them the opportunity to gain that experience.
She added: “It is the classic chicken-and-egg problem. You need experience to get the job, but you need somebody to give you a chance before you can get the experience.
“Platforms like Reach create environments where people can contribute something meaningful while developing real-world capability at the same time. The charity benefits, the volunteer benefits and, ultimately, society benefits.”
Reach Volunteering has said it is not closing because demand for its services has disappeared.
Instead, changes in the funding landscape have made it increasingly difficult to sustain a national, cross-sector service supporting charities and community organisations.
The organisation has said it needs approximately £200,000 per year for two years, with firm funding commitments required by 10 September 2026 if the closure process is to be reversed.
Funding could potentially come from a consortium of organisations rather than one single funder.
After receiving Reach’s closure announcement, Bayolo contacted the organisation directly to ask whether outside introductions and potential strategic partners would be welcomed.
Once Reach confirmed it was open to introductions and a workable consortium approach, she began contacting organisations she believed could be aligned with the cause.
Her outreach has included organisations working across technology, AI, nonprofit services, workforce development and education.
Among the highest-profile organisations contacted are Claude Corps, linked to Anthropic, and OpenAI.
Bayolo said: “I genuinely believe that organisations at the forefront of AI advancement have a social responsibility to help empower the young people who will enter the workforce shaped by these technologies, as well as the wider population that now has to adapt.
“Teaching people new skills is important, but people also need somewhere to apply those skills, demonstrate what they can do and gain meaningful experience.”
The idea to widen the appeal beyond companies came from social media.
Bayolo is a frequent social media user and has repeatedly seen videos of New Yorkers reaching out publicly to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, sometimes receiving rapid responses to local problems.
That inspired what she jokingly describes as a “bat signal from Hastings.”
She submitted an appeal to the New York Mayor’s Office asking whether Mamdani could help amplify the campaign or encourage London Mayor Sadiq Khan to act.
Bayolo has separately contacted Khan and City Hall.
She said: “I appreciate that Mayor Mamdani is thousands of miles away and Reach is a UK organisation, so geographically this may have absolutely nothing to do with him.
“But I kept seeing people online sending him problems and getting responses incredibly quickly, and I thought: why not send a bat signal from Hastings?
“If a little healthy competition between New York and London gets more people talking about Reach before the deadline, then great. So I am very happy to see who responds first: Mamdani vs Khan.”
Bayolo stresses that she is not expecting either mayor personally to fund Reach.
Instead, mayoral offices could potentially help by amplifying the situation, convening organisations, making introductions or bringing the issue to the attention of people capable of participating in a rescue package.
Bayolo says she has no financial interest in the campaign and does not expect anything personally from the effort.
She said: “This is much bigger than me. If I had the financial power to simply write the cheque myself, I honestly would.
“I don’t. What I do have is a network, a voice and the ability to connect people, so that is what I decided to use. I really hope somebody, or several organisations together, can save Reach.”
With the 10 September deadline now only two days away, Bayolo hopes greater visibility can bring the issue in front of funders, businesses, technology companies, philanthropists and policymakers capable of acting quickly.
ENDS