5 ways to increase the impact of volunteering

People volunteering their time for charitable causes is an amazing thing. We’re all busy, so for someone to give up some of their week to help others is a big deal. It’s important for the entire sector to ask how we can make the most of it.

To do that, we need to understand volunteering better.

NPC has been working to develop a deeper understanding of the current volunteering landscape in England through research with Basis Social and London Economics for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The research has been recently published by DCMS as three reports, each mapping out a different area of volunteering.

The research is about better understanding the current volunteering system. It does that by connecting the views of different groups of people in the system. The research doesn’t make specific recommendations for next steps or suggest particular policies.

But personally, I think the research’s findings highlight a few ways that we can increase the impact of volunteering. Here are my five personal takeaways from the findings on making the most of volunteering:

• Start with the individual volunteer’s experience
• Prioritise locally-led and community-led approaches
• Build a shared agenda around improving Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)
• Create a shared strategy for digital volunteering tools
• Ensure a diverse range of stakeholders are brought into existing conversations

Start with the individual volunteer’s experience

One of the three reports compares different place’s ‘enabling environments’ – comparing volunteers’ experiences in England to those in Scotland, Wales, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland. We heard from multiple countries how important it was to design the system with the individual volunteer in mind, particularly to sustain long-term volunteering.

In England, the Vision for Volunteering is written from the volunteer’s perspective for this reason. Similarly Australia’s National Strategy for Volunteering has a key pillar called ‘Focusing on the Volunteer’s Experience’.

We heard again and again that top-down programmes with pre-determined aims were less likely to lead to a positive experience for volunteers than national programmes with room for local adaptation. For example, the Big Help Out enabled volunteers to choose how and where they provided help during the King’s Coronation weekend and attracted around six million volunteers.

Prioritise locally-led and community-led approaches

Why do people volunteer? For many people, their motivation is often wanting to make a difference to their community and the place they live. Acknowledging this, and prioritising this, is important if we want volunteers to have a better experience – and volunteer again.

This is a global trend. The UN Volunteers’ Global Trends in Volunteering Infrastructure report found that volunteering infrastructure is being increasingly seen as a vehicle to increase local citizen engagement which in turn, leads to greater community development. Australia’s Volunteering Strategy highlights the importance of community-led solutions and devolved decision-making, particularly in the context of disaster response and recovery, such as responding to bushfires.

Other research by NPC has shown that civil society is weakest in the poorest parts of Britain – and the gap has grown in recent years. Social Investment or Charity Action Zones could encourage greater charitable activity, giving and volunteering within deprived parts of the UK.

Build a shared agenda around improving Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)

One of the aims of this research was to identify effective practices in Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in volunteering, and improve knowledge about them.

We found that people really wanted to create a shared agenda on EDI. What does this mean? Establishing common goals, like those defined in the Vision for Volunteering’s section on equity and inclusion.

One of the key reasons for this was to build trust. In particular, stakeholders wanted reassurance that Government and funders do not see ‘under-represented’ non-volunteers as just a source of extra capacity for service delivery. Many people from under represented groups face multiple disadvantages, are not simply a resource to be drawn on.

In particular, they may not taking part in formal volunteering partly because they are providing informal support and care in their communities.

Similarly, if they are able to volunteer under-represented groups felt it was important that there was a relational element to the experience. That volunteering would be something they’d benefit from and wouldn’t just be seen as ‘free labour’.

Beyond this, improving EDI requires commitment and investment from senior leadership within organisations. Our research found some actions that are already yielding positive results: designing more inclusive recruitment practices, tailored training when onboarding new volunteers, and actively using volunteer feedback to make improvements.

Create a shared strategy for digital volunteering tools

Digital tools for volunteering have been a growing feature of the sector in recent years. When Covid hit, they were used more widely than ever before.

The potential is huge. But the current digital marketplace is fragmented, with limited interoperability between tools.

We spoke to experts, providers of digital tools, and organisations with volunteers about this issue. They all wanted the same things – a better integrated and simpler system. But there was disagreement about how to get there. For example, the tension between wanting to make the market simpler and not closing the market to new products, companies, and tools to enter.

People wanted to see a conversation between everyone – including big tech – to help create a shared vision and strategy.

Ensure a diverse range of stakeholders are brought into existing conversations

Across our research, we heard stories of promising innovations that are improving the volunteering landscape.

It’s important to convene all the key stakeholders in volunteering and give them the space to voice their perspective. This can help us understand the current volunteering space better. In turn, that can help us improve it.

But to do that, the conversation needs to include everyone. We heard that these conversations were still missing important people. ‘Big tech’ platforms and digital providers. People who support charities, but worry about volunteering being used to replace public services.

Volunteers are such a precious resource – it’s important to connect people’s opinions to shape a clear understanding of volunteering in England.

We hope that these reports can be part of bringing more people into the conversation.