Volunteers’ Week: how can charities get the most out of new young volunteers?

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For Volunteers’ Week, Elliot Bidgood writes about how COVID-19 has changed volunteering & why it is vital charities make the most of new younger volunteers.

Today marks the start of Volunteers’ Week (June 1st-June 7th) 2021, where we recognise the contribution millions of people make across the UK. The stories we get to hear are always inspiring, but never more so given the events of the past year.

Pre-pandemic, the Community Life Survey reported just over a fifth of people volunteered regularly in a ‘formal’ role, but they skewed older. They included 23% of 16-24 year olds, 31% of 65-74s and 29% of “economically inactive” people (chiefly pensioners). But the onset of COVID has brought about a shift in the profile of the average volunteer.

Last month the Covid-19 Voluntary Sector Impact Barometer – a project by the NCVO and two universities – published the seventh wave of their survey, including fascinating figures on volunteering shifts. 36% of charities and social enterprises surveyed had experienced a net decline in the number of people volunteering with them, while 24% reported an overall increase. This seems linked to demographics. 31% had seen fewer over 50s staying involved, as these volunteers will tend to have been higher risk for COVID or among Britain’s 2.1m shielders.

Further, 92% of organisations reported moving services online, with volunteer roles shifting to remote working in 39%. (In my case, when I began shielding due to a long-term health condition, I switched from public-facing work in centres and stockrooms of my local foodbank. Instead, I began helping issue e-vouchers for recipients and update the charity’s database from afar). 26% of charities specifically sought volunteers with skill sets to facilitate this digital shift, but there is still a clear issue here when it comes to utilising older volunteers. Though some remained involved in their charities through services such as telephone befriending, older people are more likely to be digitally as well as physically excluded. This has represented a double-hit of isolation from the volunteering roles they previously cherished, and has made it more important for charities to make the best of the newly active volunteer cohort.

There was cause for optimism in the Barometer findings. New volunteers were often younger and more diverse. They brought “digital, marketing or other organisational skills that the VCSE organisations lacked”, or connections to public bodies or businesses that could form the basis for fresh partnerships. As many of these volunteers will have come into the orbit of charities due to furlough or unemployment, however, the question is how charities can retain this recent influx as things gradually return to ‘normal’.

First, charities and social enterprises should recruit trustees from among their volunteers, particularly the younger cohort. This embeds them, their experiences and their relationships with other volunteers in the governance of the organisation, making sure that they are heard. It also valuable experience for them, personally and professionally. Charity boards in the UK do skew older (the average trustee is 61 years old), and some organisations continue to recycle the same old excuses for this. But there is widespread recognition in the sector that this needs to change, to ensure that charities can reflect the needs and experiences of the whole of the society they serve. The Young Trustees Movement works to help more under 30s become trustees, advertising vacancies and providing training.

Second, they can think about creating a Volunteer Forum as part of their governance structure. This is particularly useful for national charities, where a token voice on the board won’t be a substitute for the experiences and contributions of thousands. This why MacMillan Cancer Support has a national group of 125 volunteer representatives, drawn from nine regional forums, while the Migraine Trust describes its Forum as a “resource pool and critical friend”. At a more smaller scale volunteer engagement can perhaps be more informal, but dedicated meetings and spaces for them to speak up will nevertheless be valuable.

Third, continue to make the most of their digital skills. As restrictions ease, charities will be continuing to explore the mix between online and face-to-face. Certain users of charity services have come to prefer remote support, and charities have innovated on fundraising in the absence of community events. Young volunteers have been part of this story of innovation. Last year in Hackney, a ‘Digital Buddies’ programme began pairing 16-18 year olds with older people for example, making the most of their knowledge to bridge divides. Where new ways of working are to be retained, these volunteers can be part of the answer.

Lastly, there is ample evidence on the scale of UK volunteering as an input, its notional economic value and individual benefits to volunteers themselves. But we could still do with more research on exactly how these new volunteers contribute to service improvements and social outcomes, especially post-pandemic. This should include stories from the mouths of the people they help, and use of resources like the NCVO  Volunteer Impact Assessment Toolkit. It would give civil society the chance to tell the full story about the difference volunteers are making - to partners, donors and funders, but most of all to the volunteers themselves.

Elliot Bidgood works as communications manager for the Eastside Primetimers Foundation.