Volunteering — the new reality

“We have seen that priorities are changing: prior to Covid-19, we had over 600 volunteers, much of whom we lost during the pandemic, and since the height of it, we have slowly crept back up to around the 90 mark. Still worlds away from our previous 600!”

Volunteerism in the 21st century is transforming significantly, shifting the volunteering landscape and people’s perspectives on giving their time. It started before the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, and has been accelerated by it. You are not alone if you see fewer volunteers, a “lower commitment” and a change in interests, focus and priorities.

Over the last few years, Martin J Cowling (who co-authored this article) and I have been working with clients (both together and in our work) to help organisations see what these changes mean for them…changes we are seeing right across the world.

Here in the UK, we have access to so much valuable data about volunteering that we actually have a good perspective on what’s happening. Two such resources are:

1. The Community Life Survey (CLS). This is a large Westminster Government study that provides valuable trend data on how many people volunteer, why some people give time and some don’t. The CLS is England-only, as volunteering is a devolved responsibility across the UK. Nonetheless, it is a helpful, up-to-date, long-term data set.
   
2. Time Well Spent (TWS). Published in 2019 and 2023, TWS looked at a large sample of volunteers across England, Wales, and Scotland to explore their feelings about their volunteering experience. The two main studies were published either side of the Covid-19 lockdowns and give fascinating insights into how perspectives on volunteering have changed.
   

To dig deeper into these reports and get an overview of what they say, we recommend reading the following articles:

• Community Life Survey 2021-22: Beyond The Headlines
• Why I’m not losing sleep over national volunteering data
  

In the work we do to help Volunteer Engagement Professional understand the changes in volunteering, we often point to the following important areas.

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The Volunteering Landscape has Shifted

Government Austerity

Reduced public financing has put charities under additional pressure to accomplish more with fewer resources. Volunteer contributions are now even more essential to bridging the gaps left by financial reductions as a result. Yet, all too often, there is little or no funding for volunteer management.

Appropriation of “Volunteering”

Governments, corporations, and institutions have appropriated the term to include activities that could be traditionally considered national service, employee community services, paid work, or punishments. This blurring of lines between volunteering and other activities has raised questions about the nature of volunteering.

Technology — Divide & Challenge

While technology has created new volunteering opportunities, it has also presented challenges. The digital divide means only some have equal access to online volunteering opportunities, creating disparities in engagement. Additionally, the rise of remote and virtual volunteering has implications for organisations.

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Today’s Potential Volunteers

Evaluating Everything

The 21st-century individual is more discerning, evaluating organisations based on their impact and transparency. People want to know that their voluntary efforts are making a difference, and they are increasingly drawn to organisations that can demonstrate their impact through data and examples.

Feeling Overwhelmed by Issues

Today’s public faces many pressing global issues, from conflicts to climate change, to social inequality, to name just three. While this heightened awareness can motivate individuals to volunteer, it can also leave them feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenges. When asking people to volunteer, we are competing in a sea of issues.

Doing More Online and More Locally

The digital age has made it easier for people to connect with products, causes, and events across the globe. Simultaneously, people are increasingly focused on their local communities, wanting to be involved closer to home.

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Volunteering and Community

Older People Reviewing Priorities

Older individuals are reviewing their priorities as people live longer and healthier lives. Many are no longer choosing to devote time to volunteering, meaning their valuable time. skills and experience are being lost to organisations. This demographic shift highlights the need for volunteer engagement that caters to older adults’ preferences and lifestyles — the baby boomers are not the same as their parents!

Younger People Wanting Impact

Conversely, younger generations are entering the volunteering landscape with a desire for meaningful impact. They are drawn to causes that align with their values and are more likely to engage in short-term, high-impact projects. If they do not see this impact, they won’t commit. Organisations must adapt their volunteer opportunities and communication strategies to engage younger volunteers effectively.

Time Is a Major Focus

Volunteers of all ages seek opportunities that offer flexibility and convenience in a world where time is a precious commodity. Micro-volunteering and episodic volunteering, which allow individuals to contribute in small, time-limited increments, are rising. Organisations accommodating these preferences are more likely to attract and retain volunteers.

Institutional Cynicism

Institutional cynicism has grown recently, with some individuals questioning the effectiveness and ethics of traditional charity models. To overcome this skepticism, organisations must be transparent, accountable, and able to demonstrate their impact.

Frictionless volunteering

Most of the volunteering we saw during the Covid-19 lockdowns was informal, mutual aid style activity that was self-organised. Typically, this was easy to access with little or no bureaucracy. Often the whole recruitment process involved a simple ‘yes’ in response to a WhatsApp message. We call it frictionless volunteering.

As the pandemic faded, however, many Volunteer Involving Organisations have reinstated the before-times approach to volunteering, with lengthy administrative processes before anyone can start volunteering. The forms and paperwork are back!

Whilst they are necessary in some circumstances, such as regulated environments (think Health and Social Care), more often they are an organisational comfort blanket to try to avoid any risk in volunteer engagement.

And they aren’t helping. The Time Well Spent report found that volunteers are now more likely to think their volunteering is becoming too much like paid work (up from 19% in 2018 to 26% in 2022).

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Conclusion

To survive, volunteering has to completely transform.

We need to closely integrate volunteering into community, governmental and charity strategies.

We have to change the way we see the community contributing to our organisations

We have to change the structure, timing, focus, impact, and outcome of volunteer roles, the language we use, how we market, how we recruit, how we train and how we lead & manage volunteers.

How can we streamline our systems and processes to make them more frictionless for potential volunteers?

How do we balance people’s expectations of frictionless volunteering with our requirements around safeguarding etc.?

We need a renewed effort to provide quality volunteer experiences for all.

We need to make significant changes to halt and reverse the decline in formal volunteering that is happening around the world.

These are essential questions and priorities for Volunteer Engagement Professionals and volunteer-involving organisations.

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