Make Your Mark

Make Your Mark is hosted by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and overseen by a working group of major stakeholders in Scotland’s heritage, voluntary and equalities sectors. It is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

For volunteers, Make Your Mark connects you with organisations that care for Scotland’s places, history and culture. By volunteering, you can discover Scotland’s stories, care for local places, meet new people, develop skills, network with staff and get behind-the-scenes access. Search volunteer opportunities. 

For volunteer-involving heritage organisations, Make Your Mark promotes volunteer opportunities, connects heritage volunteer organisers to a peer-to-peer network, organises inclusive volunteering case study events, shares best practice and evidences volunteering impact to advocate for more funding for heritage volunteering programmes. To access all of these resources, join Make Your Mark for free by signing the Expression of Commitment. 

Make Your Mark has its roots in Our Place in Time (OPiT), Scotland’s first national strategy for the historic environment. OPiT identified volunteering as a priority for the heritage sector, noting the need to increase the number and diversity of volunteers. A more diverse heritage volunteer base strengthens the stewardship of Scotland’s places and stories, and delivers well-evidenced benefits to communities, including skills development, improved health and wellbeing, enhanced employability, stronger social ties, a deeper sense of place and increased confidence. Make Your Mark also delivers on the refreshed national strategy for the historic environment, Our Past, Our Future, as well as Volunteer Scotland’s 2024-2029 Strategic Plan. 

Since its launch in 2020, Make Your Mark has grown to have more than 130 member organisations, all of whom have committed to making their volunteer programmes more inclusive. Key highlights include developing an Inclusive Volunteering Toolkit, welcoming 1500+ attendees across 40+ events and co-designing heritage volunteer taster sessions with marginalised and excluded communities. 

If you are a volunteer or thinking about volunteering, keep up to date with Make Your Mark by registering on their volunteer portal and following them on Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky. 

If you are a volunteer-involving organisation, keep up to date with Make Your Mark by signing up to their e-newsletter and following them on LinkedIn, Facebook and Bluesky. 

If you would like to support the Society’s work as a charity and enjoy the many benefits of Fellowship, find out how to join or subscribe to the Society’s public e-newsletter to learn more about our work, including Make Your Mark.

For more information, please contact Erin Burke, Make Your Mark Campaign Coordinator, at erinburke@socantscot.org.