How is the third sector tackling the volunteer shortage?

New research has revealed that volunteering has fallen to a historic low in England post-Covid.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) surveyed 7,000 adults for its Time Well Spent report and found that those raising money or taking part in sponsored events was down from 11% to 6% since 2018. Meanwhile, the Charities Aid Foundation's UK Giving report found there were 1.6 million fewer people volunteering compared to five years ago.

The decline is also evident from the government’s latest annual Community Life survey.

The survey found that in 2021/22, around seven million people volunteered for a charity or local group at least once a month, down from 11 million in 2019/20.

The figures mark the lowest ever participation recorded by the survey, which has been running for a decade.

What’s caused the decrease?

The pandemic is a major factor. People who were lifelong volunteers broke their habit during the pandemic and haven’t gone back to it.

Since the end of lockdown, enthusiasm among volunteers – particularly professionals – has plummeted, while the cost-of-living crisis has made it harder for people on lower incomes to help.

Some of the drop off can also be attributed to spending cuts on voluntary infrastructure.

Impact

Charities are suffering as a result. For example, the Scouts has 90,000 young people on their waiting list, but they’re struggling to recruit volunteers to run the groups.

Meanwhile, the Charity Retail Association, (which represents charity shops), said its volunteer numbers have dropped from 230,000 to 186,000 since the pandemic.

Some charities are being forced to pause operations due to the double whammy of the recruitment crisis and volunteer shortage.

How is the volunteer shortage being addressed?

Over the past year-18 months, various initiatives have been developed by voluntary sector organisations and the government to address the problem:

Vision for Volunteering

Last December, the government committed to investing £600,000 into Vision for Volunteering - a ten-year strategic plan to create a better future for volunteering.

Led by a coalition of voluntary organisations including NAVCA, NCVO, Volunteering Matters, and the Association of Volunteer Managers, the Vision for Volunteering launched in May 2022.

More than 350 people from over 300 organisations - both big and small - contributed to its first phase in a year-long engagement exercise.

Five key areas were identified from the exercise, in which volunteering needs to evolve over the next decade:

• Awareness and appreciation

• Power

• Equity and inclusion

• Collaboration

• Experimentation

You can read more about the five themes here.

The next phase of the project will focus on turning the vision into reality.

Over the next 18 months, a newly established Vision for Volunteering team will engage with partners and stakeholders to raise awareness of the Vision, build a community to champion the Vision, share stories of positive change, collect evidence, and share learnings.

The ultimate aim of the Vision is to see volunteering ingrained in our national psyche, and to be accessible and welcoming to everyone everywhere, so the benefits of volunteering are equally distributed.

The Big Help Out

To inspire people to start volunteering, the Scouts, the Royal Voluntary Service and the Together Coalition, teamed up to organise the Big Help Out on Monday 8 May.

Promoted as a National Day of Volunteering, the aim of the initiative was to bring communities together and create a lasting volunteering legacy from the Coronation weekend.

Over 30,000 charities seized the opportunity to issue a call for support, and an estimated 6.5 million people answered.

Following the event, 7.81 million people said they’re more likely to volunteer after taking part.

While the public response is encouraging, as Matt Hyde, chief executive of the Scouts, pointed out: “we don’t want this to stop just because the coronation is over. It cannot be a one-off. We need to build on today’s momentum to keep inspiring the next generation of volunteers.”

The organisers are planning to make the Big Help Out an annual event, and they’ll be drawing on its success to promote volunteering during Volunteers’ Week, which is taking place from 1-7 June.

Final Word

The voluntary sector contributes around £20bn to the UK's economy each year. Given how important volunteering is to our social fabric, re-engaging lapsed volunteers and attracting new ones needs to be high on the third sector (and the Government’s) agenda.

Charities can play their part by reviewing and re-working their volunteer strategies to make their proposition more appealing and addressing the areas of focus outlined in the Vision for Volunteering strategy.

Looking for a talented fundraiser to focus on volunteer engagement? We can help. Call us on 020 3750 3111 or email info@bamboofundraising.co.uk for an informal chat.