The Organisations Holding Exeter Together
Every city has a visible layer — the restaurants, the shops, the events that appear in guides and on social media. But underneath that is a network of charities, community groups, and volunteer-led organisations that quietly hold everything together. They feed people who are hungry. They house people who are sleeping rough. They welcome people who have fled their homes. They connect people who are isolated. They protect the natural world that surrounds us.
Exeter has an extraordinary number of these organisations, and they deserve to be better known. Not just because they need support — though most of them do — but because getting involved with them is one of the most reliable ways to find purpose, build a genuine support network, and feel like you actually belong somewhere.
This is our guide to the charities and community groups making a real difference in Exeter and Devon in 2026. Each one is doing work that matters, and each one has ways for you to get involved.
Homelessness and Housing
St Petrock's
St Petrock's is Exeter's dedicated homelessness charity, and it has been doing this work since December 1994, when it opened its doors in the adapted St Petrock's Church in Cathedral Yard. That centre remains the heart of their services — a unique space in the city offering accommodation routes alongside basic survival services, advice, and support, all under one roof.
Every weekday, their team provides hot showers, laundry facilities, phone and internet access, clothing, and survival equipment to people who are sleeping rough. They also prepare breakfast and lunch on site. Twice a day, their outreach team walks the streets of Exeter to connect with people who are homeless, building trust and offering the basics — a hot meal, a drink, a sleeping bag.
The numbers tell a story: there were 6,200 visits to the centre in 2022/23 — an average of twenty-five per day. Nearly three-quarters of the charity's £700,000 annual running costs come from the local community. They rely on around thirty volunteers to keep the service running alongside their professional staff.
How to help: Donate, volunteer, or simply learn more at stpetrocks.org.uk. They regularly need volunteers for the centre and fundraising events.
CoLab Exeter
CoLab Exeter — formerly known as Exeter CVS — is a cross-sector, multi-agency hub based at Wat Tyler House on King William Street. It's home to around thirty-five different projects and services that work collaboratively across four main themes: rehabilitation and reducing reoffending, recovery, housing and homelessness, and health and wellbeing.
What makes CoLab unusual is its model. Rather than operating as a single charity, it brings together multiple organisations under one roof, creating a space where people can access a range of services in one visit. In 2022, they launched the Urban Learning Academy — an alliance of connected organisations enabling community-based adult learning in accessible locations, empowering people who find it hardest to connect and engage.
How to help: CoLab works with local organisations and individuals to build community through learning, volunteering, and partnership. Visit colabexeter.org.uk to find out about current volunteer opportunities and projects.
CoLab is a good first port of call if you're not sure where to start. Because they house so many different projects, they can often connect you with the right organisation based on what you want to do.
Food Poverty and Community Food
Exeter Food Action
Exeter Food Action rescues excess food from shops and suppliers and redistributes it to food banks and community groups across Exeter and Devon. In 2023 alone, they distributed just over 118 tonnes of food to sixty-four food banks and community groups, supporting thousands of people every week. They're a registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation with a small staff team supported by over fifty volunteers.
How to help: You can register to volunteer through their website at exeterfoodaction.org.uk. They also accept food donations including fresh produce, dairy, ambient foods, and frozen items. If volunteering isn't possible, fundraising — alone, with friends, or through your workplace — makes a real difference.
Food Exeter
Food Exeter is a charity working for sustainable and healthy food for all in Greater Exeter. They tackle food poverty, diet-related ill health, food waste, and unsustainable farming practices, and they run research into community food hubs across the city. Their work has shown how activities based around food — cooking, growing, buying, eating together — can help local people improve their access to food whilst also increasing community connections and building new skills.
They also run the Exeter Quayside Farmers' Market on the third Saturday of each month, which we covered in our guide to Exeter's food markets.
How to help: Visit foodexeter.org.uk for current projects and volunteer opportunities. Their community food hubs are a particularly good way to combine food and connection.
FoodCycle Exeter
FoodCycle runs Community Meals — events where people are invited to sit together and enjoy hot, nutritious meals served with warmth and dignity by friendly volunteers. It's designed to tackle both food poverty and loneliness simultaneously, and it's a genuinely lovely model. They're always looking for cooks, hosts, and food collection volunteers.
How to help: Visit foodcycle.org.uk/location/foodcycle-exeter to sign up as a volunteer.
Supporting Refugees and Migrants
Refugee Support Devon
Refugee Support Devon has been supporting asylum seekers, refugees, vulnerable migrants, and their families in Devon since 2001. The charity was formed in response to the impressive local volunteer support for asylum seekers dispersed to Exeter between 2000 and 2004, and it operates today with a team of nine staff (mostly part-time) supported by around eighty volunteers.
Based at the Exeter Community Centre on St David's Hill, they provide drop-in support, information and advice, advocacy, and integration support. Their vision is straightforward: to help clients feel safe and more settled in Devon during their journey as asylum seekers, refugees, and vulnerable migrants.
They also run a community allotment in Exeter where volunteers and clients garden together on Thursday afternoons — planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting produce in a supportive environment. It's a beautiful example of how practical activity can create genuine connection across cultures.
How to help: Visit refugeesupportdevon.org.uk to explore their current volunteer opportunities. They need friendly, reliable people for their allotment project, drop-in sessions, and befriending programmes.
Volunteering with refugees is one of the most rewarding things you can do. You don't need special skills — just reliability, warmth, and a willingness to listen. Many volunteers say they gain as much from the experience as they give.
Community Development
Exeter Community Initiatives
Exeter Community Initiatives (ECI) has been working to improve the quality of life for people and communities in the Exeter area since 1993. Originally set up by local churches to help homeless people and known as the Palace Gate Project, ECI became an umbrella charity that created more than twenty-five new community projects — several of which, including St Petrock's itself, now operate as independent charities.
Each year, ECI helps more than a thousand people in and around Exeter through its projects. They work with individuals, families, and communities to build self-esteem, confidence, and skills, particularly among those who are disadvantaged, socially excluded, or experiencing homelessness or poverty.
How to help: Visit eci.org.uk for current volunteer opportunities and ways to support their work.
Exeter City Community Trust
Exeter City Community Trust is the city's leading health and wellbeing charity, working in partnership with Exeter City Football Club. With over thirty full-time staff, seventy casual staff, and twenty-five volunteers, the Trust delivers physical activity, education, health, and wellbeing programmes across Devon and Somerset. Their programmes reach more than 45,000 people each year, and around 48% of their work isn't football-related at all.
How to help: Visit exetercct.org to find out about volunteering, coaching, and mentoring opportunities.
Age UK Exeter
Age UK Exeter is one of those organisations doing quiet, essential work that rarely makes the headlines. They support older people across the city with services ranging from information and advice to social activities and befriending programmes. In 2026, they're actively recruiting Volunteer Visitors — people who offer regular companionship to older residents through weekly social home visits, typically lasting around an hour. If you've read our piece on cross-generational friendships, you'll know that these connections benefit the visitor as much as the visited.
How to help: Visit ageuk.org.uk/exeter to find current volunteer roles, including their Visitor programme and community activities.
Samaritans of Exeter, Mid and East Devon
The Exeter branch of the Samaritans provides round-the-clock emotional support to anyone in distress. Their volunteers staff the phone lines at all hours — particularly at night, when loneliness and crisis can feel most acute. Training is thorough, and the commitment is real, but volunteers consistently describe the experience as one of the most meaningful things they've done. If you care about mental health and community, this is frontline work.
How to help: Visit samaritans.org/branches/exeter to learn about listener training and volunteer recruitment.
Devon Connect (Exeter Together)
Devon Connect runs the Exeter Together platform — an online hub where residents, community groups, and organisations can find listings, events, and volunteering opportunities in their neighbourhood. It's essentially a directory for community life in Exeter, and it's worth bookmarking if you're new to the city and trying to find your people. They also list smaller, hyperlocal groups that don't have big web presences — the kind of Tuesday morning coffee group or Thursday evening craft circle that you'd never find through a Google search.
How to help: Browse devonconnect.org/exeter to discover groups near you, or register your own community activity.
The Exeter Volunteer Fair
If you're interested in volunteering but aren't sure where to start, the annual Exeter Volunteer Fair is one of the best ways to explore your options in person. Organised by Exeter Community Initiatives, it brings together over 65 local charities and community organisations in one place, offering hundreds of volunteering opportunities. The 2026 fair took place on 23 April at Exeter Cathedral, from 11am to 2pm. If you missed it, the fair returns annually each spring — keep an eye on the ECI website for dates.
The fair is free, informal, and there's no pressure to commit on the spot. You can chat with representatives from each organisation, ask questions, and take away information to think about. For many volunteers, this was where their journey began.
Wildlife and Conservation
Devon Wildlife Trust
Devon Wildlife Trust is the county's leading wildlife charity, working to protect and restore Devon's natural environment. Their Exeter office is based at Cricklepit Mill on Commercial Road, and they have a thriving Exeter Local Group that organises regular events and activities.
Volunteering opportunities include practical conservation tasks at Exeter Valley Parks — Mincinglake, Ludwell, and Riverside — as well as help at events, work at the Cricklepit Mill Wildlife Garden, and participation in their Youth Ranger programme (monthly Saturday morning sessions for young people).
How to help: Email [email protected] or visit devonwildlifetrust.org to find current opportunities. The Exeter Local Group is a good place to start if you want to meet like-minded people.
The Donkey Sanctuary, Sidmouth
Just outside Sidmouth, about thirty minutes east of Exeter, The Donkey Sanctuary is one of the largest equine charities in the world. Founded in 1969, it's open to the public 365 days a year with free admission and parking. But beyond the visiting experience, they have a genuine need for volunteers.
Roles range from hands-on work with donkeys to welcoming visitors and conservation work. Volunteers receive comprehensive induction and training, including donkey awareness and welfare courses. You'll need to be over eighteen, and positions are advertised on their website as they become available.
How to help: Visit thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/support-us/get-involved/volunteer to see current opportunities.
Devon Air Ambulance
Devon Air Ambulance is a charity-funded service that relies entirely on public support. They call their volunteer collective "Base Crew" — anyone who volunteers in their sixteen charity shops across Devon, helps at events, or lends skills behind the scenes. They also have a "Base Crew Flex" option for people who want to help without a fixed rota, and a young volunteers programme for under-eighteens.
In 2026, they're running the Devon Heli Hike, their biggest fundraising event — a great way to get involved if you prefer active participation.
How to help: Visit daat.org/support-us/volunteer-with-us to find opportunities near you.
Most of these organisations run on tight budgets. Even if you can't volunteer, a small regular donation makes a bigger difference than you might think. A few pounds a month, set up as a standing order, provides reliable income that charities can actually plan around.
Why Getting Involved Changes Everything
There's a well-documented link between charity work and personal wellbeing. Research shows that 77% of volunteers report improved mental health, and volunteers are significantly less likely to report feeling lonely than non-volunteers. The UK Government's 2025 research valued volunteer wellbeing at £673 per volunteer per year.
But the numbers don't capture what it actually feels like. When you show up regularly for something bigger than yourself — feeding people, clearing paths, sorting donated clothes, welcoming a refugee family — you stop thinking about your own problems for a while. You meet people you'd never meet otherwise. You develop a sense of belonging that goes beyond social media and group chats. You become part of the infrastructure of your city.
Exeter is a city with a strong volunteer culture, and these organisations are its backbone. If you've been thinking about getting involved, pick one that speaks to you and reach out. Most of them will reply within a day or two. The hardest part is the first email.
For a practical guide on how to start volunteering and what to expect, read our companion piece on how to volunteer in Exeter. And if you'd like to hear from real volunteers about how it changed their lives, our volunteering stories feature is full of honest, inspiring accounts.
Community doesn't happen by accident — it's built by people who show up. Whether you give an hour a week at St Petrock's, sort food at Exeter Food Action, or simply sit with an older neighbour through Age UK, you're weaving yourself into the fabric of this city. For those new to Exeter, volunteering is also one of the fastest routes to feeling like you belong. And for a broader look at the groups and clubs that bring Exeter's social life together, explore our social clubs guide and our list of community gardens and allotments — another brilliant way to connect with people over something tangible and growing.