Volunteering – 6 points you need to think about

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Introduction

A lot has been written about Volunteering over the past few months as we have seen the results of the Community Life Survey published in February and now we have seen NCVO release their update to the Time Well Spent survey last carried out in 2019. Report here 

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.

This local knowledge has been echoed at the national level and we have the Vision for Volunteering in England and Scotland has their Volunteering Action Plan both these are about how we can get more people to volunteer more time, and this has to be about the opportunities matching the volunteers as well as persuading more people to volunteer.

What others are saying

Lot’s have been written about some of the above that will give you more information and background on what is happening.

What are our key points

We have pulled out some of the key points and given them a local slant.

1. The pain you are feeling is real.

We have heard from many local groups that volunteer recruitment, and retention is an issue, and this is reflected in the findings we have from our research (full report to come soon). But a sneak peek shows that 73% of respondents have issues recruiting volunteers, 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 impacts the group who are fewer in number whilst being asked to help more frequently.”

The Community Life Survey results show that volunteering levels have decreased since records began.

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

2. It really is about local.

The Time Well Spent results show that people want to volunteer locally. Again we are seeing this locally.

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

3. 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!

4. 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, all volunteers should be ‘made’ to claim even if they don’t need or want to so that it does not seem as a stigma to claim expenses. If paid people 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 can volunteer as possible.

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

5. Volunteering is a whole organisation issue.

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 work.

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 have to see fundamental changes in the near future.

The Time Well Spent report was clear about the importance of flexibility in how volunteers are used.

6. Volunteering is unequal

This has many facets, and we need to start to unpack and address them and to cover all the issues we will write a separate blog. But for now, we know that local people volunteer less in Fenland as fewer organisations offer opportunities. We have to find ways to ensure that the opportunity to volunteer is there for everyone interested and that there are various 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 various backgrounds. – This figure has fallen from 73% in 2019.

NCVO plan 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.

We can help

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

  1. We are developing a website allowing volunteers and organisations to register and find one another across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
  2. We can offer training and support on aspects of managing volunteers, check out the website to find out what is coming up from CCVS or from Hunts Forum
  3. Join our Volunteer Managers Network and meet others who manage volunteers. This group meets quarterly to discuss different issues and to share their experience. More info from the Support Cambridgeshire website

Conclusions

We have to be happy that volunteers are giving some positive responses – 92% 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 things will improve again when the crisis ends. We have to find ways to get more people to volunteer, look at how we embed volunteering as the ‘normal’ thing to do, and wake up to the fact that more than half the problem is us in the voluntary sector.

 

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