Support Cambridgeshire

Your country, your voice, our support

Become a member Contact us Sign up to our Newsletter

Support Cambridgeshire

Your country, your voice, our support

You are here:

by

Volunteering – 6 points you need to think about

Mark Freeman, CEO

Published on: August 1, 2024

A lot has been written about volunteering over the past few months, but we know that the big question in the voluntary sector is, how can we get more people to volunteer?

What has been written?

We have seen the results of the Community Life Survey published in February and now NCVO has released this year’s report on the Time Well Spent survey.

Findings from this research have been echoed at the national level through the Vision for Volunteering in England and Scotland’s Volunteering Action Plan.

For those of us working in the voluntary sector, these reports do not make great reading, but at the same time, they are not really telling us much that we didn’t already know.

If we want to get more people into volunteering, opportunities must match what people are looking for and we, as a sector, need to get better at assuring people that volunteering is for all.

This blog sets out 6 key points you need to think about when trying to answer this big question, with our own views and take on the situation, added in.

The pain you are feeling is real

We have heard from many local groups that volunteer recruitment and retention is an issue.

This is reflected in the findings from our research (full report to come soon). But a sneak peek shows that 73% of respondents have issues recruiting volunteers, which is slightly up from 2019. One comment included:

People who have returned to work post-pandemic are time-poor, reducing the amount of time they are able to spend volunteering or caring for their elderly relatives. This has an impact on the group who are fewer in number whilst being asked to help more frequently.

Supporting this is the Community Life Survey results, which show volunteering levels at the lowest rate since records began.

The issues are not impacting all organisations the same way but there is no doubt that who and how people volunteer has been impacted by the pandemic.

It really is about local

The time well-spent results show that people want to volunteer at a local level. Again, we are seeing this locally.

We have to ensure that the local focus is recognised by funders and policymakers at all levels. Big national schemes actually make things worse in many ways, so we need less involvement in expanding the volunteer schemes from RVS, and less Big Volunteering things, and more local support and support for local campaigns.

We have to be aware of the reasons that people don’t volunteer

A lot of the Time Well Spent survey looks at why volunteers might not continue or why non-volunteers don’t volunteer. We ignore these findings at our peril!

What do you mean you don’t pay expenses?

So only 55% of volunteers say that they will have expenses reimbursed. This has to change, and more importantly, it should be mandatory for all volunteers to claim even if they don’t need or want to, so that it is not seen as a stigma to claim expenses.

If those who are paid don’t want them, they can donate them back to the organisation (and add gift aid if they are eligible).

Organisations should also ensure that the definition of what expenses they offer is as wide as possible so that as many people are enabled to volunteer as possible.

Money is a barrier to volunteering and organisations need to do all they can to remove the barrier and ensure that claiming expenses is visibly seen as the norm. 

Volunteering is a whole organisation issue

This means that senior leaders in larger organisations and trustees need to engage with this.

I am sure that none of the findings in these surveys will be news to those who work closely to recruit and retain volunteers. I am also sure that many of those in these roles recognise that we as a sector need to offer something different to attract new volunteers. But too often we hear that those in charge do not see this as a priority, or that they are not able to see how new ways of working would make a difference.

If the decision-makers in organisations don’t change their views and ensure that volunteering becomes fit for purpose, they will see their volunteers leaving and new ones failing to sign on. Given how vital volunteers are to many charities we must see real changes in the near future.

The time well-spent report was clear about the importance of flexibility in how volunteers are used, and this is one example of how a new approach to volunteer opportunities could attract new helpers and keep volunteers involved, who may otherwise leave due to unmanageable time commitments.

Volunteering is unequal

This has many facets, and we need to start to unpack and address them. To cover all the issues we will write a separate blog. But for now, we know that locally fewer people are able to volunteer in Fenland as there are fewer organisations offering opportunities.

We must find ways to ensure that the opportunity to volunteer is there for everyone interested and that there are a variety of opportunities to let people pursue their passion. 

We also see from the Time Well Spent Survey that Satisfaction continues to be lower among volunteers who are…

  • Younger vs older
  • Public sector vs civil society organisations
  • Disabled vs non-disabled
  • Volunteers from ethnic minority communities vs white

And that 67% of recent volunteers agree those volunteering alongside them come from a wide range of backgrounds. – This figure has fallen from 73% in 2019.

NCVO plans to release a more detailed report looking at who volunteers but we need to find ways to attract people regardless of their age, race, where they live, or background. Not addressing these issues means that a wealth of possible talent is being lost to the sector.

Conclusions

We have to feel happy that volunteers are giving some positive responses – 92% are very or fairly satisfied with their volunteering. This is true for traditional in-person volunteering and for those doing remote volunteering. But this has dropped from 96% in 2019.

We can’t simply hope that things will be better again when the current crisis ends. We need to find ways to get more people to volunteer, we must look at how we embed volunteering as the ‘normal’ thing to do, and we must wake up to the fact that more than half the problem is us in the voluntary sector.

We can help

The Support Cambridgeshire partners can help you look at volunteering within your organisations and help you connect with others who may be able to help or share good practices.

  • We are developing a website that will allow volunteers and organisations to register and find one another across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
  • We can offer training and support on aspects of managing volunteers, and find out what is coming up from CCVS or from Hunts Forum.

Want to read more?

There are lots of great reads that have informed this blog and given more background on this topic.

We recommend:

Back to top