Northern Museums Volunteer Pass Scheme

The Northern Museum Volunteer Pass Scheme is one of the largest schemes in England. Also known as the “Pink Pass” this scheme is open to all accredited museums, or those who have received official recognition of working towards accreditation, in the North West, North East and Yorkshire and Humberside region.

The Museum Volunteer Pass scheme is a mutually beneficial partnership between participating museums and entitles volunteers to gain various benefits such as free entry and/or additional benefits to other participating museums in the North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humberside regions.  A leaflet is produced annually listing all participating museums and the benefits at each institution.

To be eligible to participate in the scheme museums must be able to offer a benefit to volunteer pass holders visiting from other museums. This may include:

  • free entry to the museum
  • 10% discount in the shop and/or cafe
  • free tea and/or coffee.

These benefits may be extended to include one guest accompanying the volunteer pass holder.

Once accepted into the scheme, museums will be issued with named Institutional Passes, which they can loan out to their volunteers, and also Individual Passes. The passes are issued in April each year and are valid for two years from the date of issue. The Institutional Pass is equivalent to 10 volunteers. The Individual Pass is not transferable.

The Volunteer Pass Scheme is primarily viewed as a valuable CPD tool and museums manage the scheme in a variety of different ways. The passes can be used for CPD and/or training as well as a reward and incentive for volunteers. As individual passes are not transferable, we recommend that the passes are accessible only to your active volunteer base.  If museums require any additional passes we would encourage the use of the institutional pass in the first instance.

As Museum Development needs to measure the uptake of this scheme, participating museums are asked to monitor the usage of the passes within their visitors.

If you have any queries about the Volunteer Pass Scheme please contact Gillian Waters.

To browse the 2022/23 brochure please click here.

Information about applying to the scheme can be downloaded here.