Digital content designer volunteer roles

About Roots Academy 

At Roots Academy, we’ve built a learning experience that’s changing the lives of the ummah’s future leaders, change-makers and visionaries.

Our vision is enabling university students to live God-centred lives, so we teach structured, engaging and transformative face-to-face foundational Islamic education to over 2,000 students across the UK, Canada, Australia & USA.

Role Summary

As a Graphic Designer, you will be instrumental in shaping the visual identity of Roots Academy Canada. From designing educational resources and social media assets to crafting digital campaigns and event materials, your work will ensure our content reflects ihsan (excellence), clarity, and spiritual depth. You will help bring Islamic learning to life through purposeful, polished, and impactful design.

Key tasks

• Design Development: Create visually compelling graphics for use across social media, email, web, presentations, and print

• Brand Consistency: Ensure all visual materials align with Roots Academy’s brand guidelines and Islamic values

• Content Support: Collaborate with the social media and education teams to translate ideas and scripts into polished, engaging visuals

• Campaign Assets: Support event and program launches by designing posters, promo kits, and other visual collateral

• Template Creation: Build easy-to-edit templates for internal teams to use (e.g., Canva or Google Slides)

• Revision & Feedback: Adapt designs based on team feedback while maintaining efficiency and quality

• Trend Awareness: Stay up to date on design and content trends, especially within the faith-based and youth development space

• Project Management: Maintain organized design files and deliver work in a timely manner

What we’re looking for

• Strong design portfolio demonstrating creativity, clarity, and alignment with brand guidelines

• Experience using tools like Canva, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or Figma

• Attention to detail and a strong sense of layout, typography, and visual hierarchy

• Ability to take direction while contributing creative input

• A deep understanding of Islamic values and visual modesty in design

• Experience designing for social media platforms (Instagram, YouTube, TikTok)

• Excellent communication and time-management skills

What we have to offer

• Be part of a team of 100+ dedicated volunteers from across the country.

• Receive continuous rewards for those that seek Islamic knowledge from the Roots platform.

• Be a part of a growing organisation that aims to revive and educate Muslims from a grassroots perspective.

• Receive in-house tarbiyah sessions to develop your deen. 

Please note this is an unpaid volunteer position. 

Volunteers are entitled to claim expenses incurred for food, travel and equipment, in line with our Expenses policy. 

Volunteer Graphic Designer

We’re looking for a talented and creative Volunteer Graphic Designer to help us bring our ideas to life and make sure our communications look as good as the work we do. You’ll work with our team to create a wide range of materials, including posters, leaflets, newsletters, fundraising appeals, social media graphics, adoption materials, event promotions and other communications.

What you’ll do

• Take ideas and creative briefs from our team and turn them into strong visual designs.
• Create eye-catching posters, flyers, leaflets and other printed materials.
• Help us produce attractive and engaging newsletters.
• Design graphics for social media and digital communications.
• Create materials for fundraising campaigns, appeals and events.
• Help us tell the stories of the animals we rescue and the people we support through compelling visual content.
• Work within our existing brand and help develop a consistent and recognisable visual style.
• Suggest your own creative ideas and approaches.
• Make amendments and develop designs based on feedback.
• Prepare artwork for both digital use and professional printing.

What we’re looking for

We’re looking for someone who is creative, reliable and has a great eye for design. You’ll ideally have experience in graphic design and be able to show us examples of your work or a portfolio. You’ll be able to take a fairly simple idea or brief and turn it into something polished, professional and visually engaging. You’ll have a good understanding of design principles including layout, typography, imagery and colour, and be comfortable adapting your approach for different audiences and purposes.

Experience using Canva or similar software would be useful, but we’re more interested in your creativity and the quality of your work than the particular software you use.

You’ll need to be able to work independently, manage agreed deadlines, take feedback positively and pay attention to detail.

You don’t need previous charity experience, but an interest in animal welfare and a desire to use your skills to make a difference would be a real advantage.

Why volunteer with us?

Your work will have a direct and visible impact. Good design helps us reach more people, raise more money and ultimately do more for animals and the people who care for them. Your designs could help someone decide to adopt an animal, encourage someone to donate, attract a new volunteer or help us reach a family who needs support with veterinary costs. This is an opportunity to use your creative skills for a local charity where your work will genuinely make a difference.

The role is flexible and can largely be carried out remotely. We can agree projects and deadlines around your availability, so it could suit an experienced designer, someone returning to design, or a creative professional looking to volunteer their skills for a worthwhile cause. If you have a creative eye, enjoy turning ideas into great-looking finished products and would like to use your skills to support local animal welfare, we’d love to hear from you.

What are we looking for?

We’re looking for a creative, reliable and enthusiastic person who can take an idea and turn it into a professional, engaging and visually appealing finished product.

The most important thing is strong graphic design ability and a good eye for design. We’re not necessarily looking for someone with a particular qualification or a specific career background. We’re looking for someone who understands what makes good visual communication and can create designs that catch people’s attention, communicate a message clearly and encourage people to take action.

Our ideal volunteer will have experience creating materials such as posters, leaflets, flyers, newsletters, social media graphics, fundraising materials or promotional content. We’d particularly welcome someone who can show examples of their previous work through a portfolio or examples of designs they have created.

We’d like someone who can take a relatively simple brief from us - for example, an idea for a fundraising appeal or an adoption campaign - and use their own creativity to develop the concept into something really effective. We will often provide the content, photographs and key messages, but we need someone who can think about how best to present these visually.

The ability to work with an existing brand and maintain a consistent look and feel is important. You’ll need a good understanding of layout, typography, imagery, colour and visual hierarchy, as well as an ability to adapt designs for different audiences and formats.

Experience with Canva or similar design software would be useful. However, we’re more interested in what you can create than which software you use.

We’re also looking for someone who is:

• Creative - able to bring fresh ideas and suggest different ways of presenting our messages.
• Visually aware - with a strong eye for composition, typography, imagery and detail.
• Reliable - able to agree realistic deadlines and deliver work when promised.
• Independent - comfortable taking a brief and developing it without needing constant direction.
• Collaborative - happy to work with our team, listen to feedback and make revisions where needed.
• Organised - able to manage several projects and keep track of agreed deadlines.
• Adaptable - comfortable creating different types of materials for both print and digital use.
• Passionate about making a difference - interested in using their skills to support animal welfare.

Previous experience working with charities would be useful but is not essential. We’d welcome applications from professional designers, freelance designers, people looking to build their portfolio, or experienced creatives who simply want to use their skills for a local cause. Most importantly, we want someone who cares about producing work they can be proud of and understands that great design can help us reach more people, raise more funds and ultimately make a greater difference to animals and families in our community.

What difference will you make?

Good design can make a real difference to a local charity. Every day, we have important stories to tell about the animals we rescue, the families we support and the difference our volunteers, donors and supporters make. But having a good story is only part of the challenge. We need to make sure people notice it, understand it and feel motivated to take action.

As a local RSPCA branch, we rely heavily on our own fundraising and community support. The money we raise enables us to rescue animals, provide veterinary treatment, care for animals while they recover and find them safe and loving homes. We also provide financial support to local pet owners who are struggling to afford essential veterinary treatment, helping animals receive the care they need and remain with the people who love them.

A skilled volunteer graphic designer can help us communicate all of this far more effectively.

Your designs could help us create fundraising appeals that encourage more people to donate, adoption materials that help animals find their new homes, volunteer recruitment campaigns that bring new people into our team and social media content that reaches a much wider audience. You could help turn an idea for a campaign into a professional poster, transform information into an engaging leaflet or bring an animal's story to life through compelling visual content.

For a charity like ours, every additional person reached and every additional donation generated can make a tangible difference. Your work will also help us present ourselves consistently and professionally across our communications. This will strengthen our local presence, build recognition of our branch and help people understand that their support is making a direct difference to animals and families in our community.
Most importantly, you will be able to see the results of your contribution. A design you create could help raise the funds needed for an animal's veterinary treatment, attract a new fosterer, recruit a volunteer, find a home for an animal or encourage someone to support our work for the first time.
This isn't simply an opportunity to create attractive designs. It is an opportunity to use your creativity and professional skills to help animals and the people who care for them.

By volunteering your time and expertise, you will become an important part of our team and help us communicate our work more effectively, reach more people and ultimately do more for animals across our local community.

Before you apply

We’re hoping to build a small team of creative volunteers who can work with us on different projects, so we’d love to hear from anyone with graphic design skills and a creative eye.

We’ll review applications and portfolios as they come in and will contact all applicants. We’d particularly like to see examples of previous graphic design work, so please include a link to your portfolio, website or relevant examples where possible.

We’ll arrange a short informal conversation with applicants to talk about the role, your experience and the type of creative work you enjoy.

We’re hoping to start building our creative team as soon as possible, so applications will be reviewged on an ongoing basis rather than waiting for a fixed closing date.

Purpose of the role:

We are seeking a WordPress / PHP Developer to help build and maintain the core web systems that power our public platform and membership services. This is not a commercial web development role. This is about creating digital infrastructure that belongs to the community and serves long-term social impact.

About the role:

As WordPress / PHP Developer, you will be responsible for developing and maintaining the CIC’s main website and connected digital services using open-source technologies. You will help ensure our platforms are stable, secure, accessible, and capable of supporting growth in membership, education, and fundraising. Your work will directly affect how people access information, join the community, and engage with the organisation.

Experience Qualification and Requirements

Formal qualifications is desirable but STRONG experience and passion beats and tops this always.

Main Responsibilities/ Key Duties

· Develop, maintain, and improve WordPress-based websites and systems that support organisational operations, services, and growth.

· Build, customise, and extend WordPress themes and plugins using PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and related technologies.

· Ensure code is clean, secure, maintainable, and aligned with WordPress and open-source best practices.

· Integrate open-source tools and third-party platforms, including membership systems, learning platforms, data tools, and APIs.

· Support the development and maintenance of secure member portals and restricted service areas with role-based access and permissions.

· Ensure websites are responsive across devices and browsers and optimised for performance, speed, and reliability.

· Apply accessibility standards to ensure inclusive access and usability for all users.

· Implement security best practices, including updates, patching, backups, access controls, and vulnerability prevention.

· Monitor platforms and assist with regular maintenance, upgrades, and issue prevention.

· Work closely with designers, content teams, and systems leads to translate functional needs into technical solutions.

· Advise on technical feasibility and recommend improvements where systems or tools create limitations.

· Assist with troubleshooting, debugging, and resolving technical issues across WordPress environments.

· Document code, integrations, system architecture, and technical processes clearly for technical and non-technical users.

· Ensure all systems comply with data protection, GDPR principles, safeguarding requirements, and ethical data handling standards.

· Collaborate with safeguarding and digital leads to minimise risk when handling sensitive or survivor-related data.

Essential Skills and Experience

· Strong practical experience with WordPress and PHP development.

· Experience building or customising WordPress themes and plugins.

· Solid understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

· Experience integrating third-party tools, plugins, or APIs.

· Knowledge of WordPress security, performance optimisation, and update management.

· Ability to document technical work clearly and work collaboratively across teams.

· Understanding of GDPR principles and secure data handling.

· Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work independently.

· Equivalent professional or voluntary experience accepted.

Desirable Skills and Experience

· Experience working in non-profit, CIC, or community-led organisations.

· Familiarity with open-source or low-cost digital platforms.

· Experience building membership portals or learning platform integrations.

· Basic understanding of hosting environments or server configuration.

· Experience supporting volunteer-led or safeguarding-focused digital environments.

What This Role Offers You:

Founding role in a community-owned digital infrastructure project.

Leadership-level experience in open-source platform development.

Opportunity to build systems that directly support social change.

Experience working across digital, education and membership teams.

Direct contribution to a public-facing platform for justice and empowerment.

Priority consideration for future paid roles as the C.I.C. becomes financially sustainable.

What This Role Is Not For:

People who want to work only with proprietary or closed systems.

Anyone uncomfortable working with serious or sensitive subject matter.

Those seeking guaranteed or immediate income.

Individuals unwilling to document their work or follow shared standards.

People who prefer not to collaborate with non-technical teams.

If you believe technology should belong to the people who use it and that open-source systems can support truth, protection and collective power, this role gives you the chance to build the digital foundations of a movement.

Join the Digital Infrastructure Team and help create platforms that serve community, not corporations.