Sustainable VolunteeringVoluntary Norfolk

Volunteering Trends

Current Trends• Overall levels of volunteering are stable

• Today’s data shows that rates of volunteering have not changed:

• 38% of people reported they had formally volunteered at least once a year in 2017-18.

• One in five (22%) of people reported they volunteered once a month, a figure that remains unchanged from last year

• People aged 25-34 years old are the least likely to formally volunteer, only 15% volunteering once a month.

• The highest rates of volunteering can be found among the 65-74 year olds, with 29% volunteering once a month and 42% at least once a year.

• Despite previous increases in volunteering rates among young people (16-24 year olds), the new data shows that in 2017/18 levels of formal volunteering at least once a year are similar to overall rates for the whole population and only slightly higher for regular involvement (24% vs 22% overall).

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Current Trends

• Volunteering rates are higher in rural and less deprived areas

• People living in more deprived areas are less likely to volunteer formally.

• In 2017/18, 15% volunteered regularly in the most deprived areas of England compared with 29% in the least deprived.

• There is also a divide between rural and urban areas: 29% of people living in rural areas volunteer formally on a monthly basis versus 21% of people in urban areas.

• These trends are unchanged from last year.

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Why do people volunteer?• ‘Wanting to do good’ remains the most important reason to volunteer

• In 2017/18, improving things and helping others remains the most common reason why people get involved:• 46% of people say that is why they volunteer.

• About a third (31%) of people said they gave time because the cause was important to them.

• Having spare time is an important reason for people to get involved (25%) but also a barrier to involvement• One in two people (51%) said that work commitments are a barrier to volunteering

• More than one third (37%) said they do other things in their spare time – up from 35% in 2016/17.

Routes into Volunteering• People who volunteer at least once a year for a club or organisation

most often found their volunteering opportunity through someone else already involved in that group or organisation (48%).• Other common routes to volunteering were being a service user of the group

or organisation (23%), • Through school, college or university (22%).

• 10% of people find out about volunteering opportunities online, reporting they found their roles on the internet or organisational websites.

• Finding out from local events and sources is somewhat more common (between 2% and 9%). UK Civil Society Almanac May 2018

Which roles are most popular?• 57% of the people who volunteer formally do so with a sports club or

group, making them the most popular organisations.

• Fundraising and running events are the most popular volunteering activities of formal volunteers, with 44% organising or helping to run an event or activity and 40% being involved in raising money.

• Nearly one in three of those who volunteered formally in the past year carried out activities to get others involved.

• Giving advice is the most common form of giving unpaid help to others, with 42% of people who gave unpaid help in the last year doing so.

• Campaigning (7%) and representing (11%) are under the least popular activities of formal volunteers.

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Why do people stop volunteering?• By far the most commonly cited reason for people to stop volunteering:

• Lack of time due to changing home or work circumstances (51%)• 14% of respondents also mentioned the more specific issue of it taking up too much time• Almost a quarter (24%) of people said that they only got involved in a one-off event or

activity.

• Other reasons for people to stop their involvement included moving away from the area (12%) and health problems or old age (11%).

• Results of a 2014 Volunteer Managers Survey (500 participated) • Notable dips in the 35-44 year olds (raising families) and in the 75+ group.

• Reasons to volunteer, huge increase in improving CVs, 81%, and developing new and existing skills, 72% / 53%.

• Younger volunteers wanted new skills, older volunteers were looking for giving something back, friendship and company.

Future trends• By 2033 25% of the population will be aged 65+.

• The Commission on the Voluntary Sector and Ageing was set up in 2013 to look specifically at this problem and in their March 2015 report they said that the voluntary sector isn’t ready for this opportunity. They estimate that the value of volunteering by older people in the UK is expected to be worth more than £15bn by 2020, £5bn more than it was worth in 2010.

• Zero hours contracts and the ‘gig’ economy can make it difficult to commit to regular volunteering. Similarly short term tenancies (private landlords) see tenants not becoming involved in their communities and voluntary activities. (Colin Rochester, Trends in Volunteering 2018).

Future trends

• The rise of the single person household

• New ways of volunteering – less time driven and more ‘cause’ focussed. People seeking more experiences and rewards, Dutch organisations now refer to this as the ‘revolving door’ approach.

• A 2014 survey of Volunteer Managers said that 80% working on the front line agreed that volunteers are now more aware of what they want from their experience. There’s no need to abandon all traditional volunteering roles but there needs to be some creativity and flexibility applied.

Future trends• Personalisation is not incorporating every whim but understanding each

volunteer is an individual, working together to get the best from their talents.

• There are benefits of stating a beginning, middle and end to a volunteer role, so they feel clear to what they are signing up for and it doesn’t feel like a lifelong commitment. This doesn’t stop a long ongoing commitment but could help maintain enthusiasm with a variety of tasks.

• Possibly building in goals and milestones to give a sense of purpose and making it an activity between volunteer and supervisor. Would you enjoy a job where tasks were arbitrarily assigned and professional objectives dictated without any feedback?

Future trends

• Baby Boomers are the children of the 1960’s. They are highly capable, strong-minded individuals and how they work with you is determined by them as well as you. They challenge the traditional volunteer model. Nationally, some 14 million people – 22 per cent of the population – are classed as baby boomers in North Norfolk it’s 29.71 per cent, The Telegraph 2014.

• Generations X 1966-76 often characterised by high levels of scepticism. They’re the squeezed middle generation with high demands on their time.

• Generation Y 1977-1994 incredibly sophisticated technology wise and immune to most traditional marketing pitches. (Trends in Volunteering, Rochester 2018).

Future trends

• Kristen Stephenson, Volunteer Development Manager at NCVO

• “Many charities failed to take into account the fact that people’s engagement was an ongoing journey that depended on what else was happening in their lives.”

• "It might mean we might need to change our mentality a bit from one that recruits volunteers to do a very specific role that we define, to one where we enable people to give their time and talent”

• “So it might be that we are seen as volunteer enablers rather than volunteer managers in the future."

Future trends

• Voluntary Norfolk - Volunteer Passport

• Sustainability can include:

Target your recruitment, one size does not fit all

Engage and involve volunteers don’t ‘use’ them

How do you involve your current volunteers?

Find out about your volunteer’s motivations and how they change

Does the role need to be bite-sized?

When they leave make it a positive experience

The Volunteer Portal

• Last year we invested in a new online volunteering portal, Volunteer Connect, in the first year we know that: • 372 opportunities listed by 296 VCSE orgs

• 1,138 volunteers registered and 896 registered in the Volunteer Bank

• 1,323 expressions of interest to volunteer

• We get 1,500 unique visitors to the portal every month

• A key element of the investment was the database that sits behind it – this means we can monitor trends and identify gaps