Everything you need to know about volunteers and volunteering

Volunteering is the backbone of the charity sector. It provides tons of essential benefits for volunteers, allowing them to gain new skills, find new friends, improve confidence, and give back.

 

Volunteering is essential for charities, too. Volunteering allows charities to carry out their important mission, ensure they meet the needs of service users, keep day-to-day operations ticking along, raise money and awareness, and broadly support their community.

 

But volunteering can be a tricky business, for both volunteer and charity. The below article helps everyone to navigate volunteering, providing best practice advice to make the process smooth and efficient. We will explore, among other things, the best ways to recruit and manage volunteers, the importance of volunteer management systems, how volunteers can get involved, and much more.

 

We also compile some of the best resources, including websites that provide great volunteering opportunities. So, without further ado, let’s start with a basic definition.

 

Skip to: The definition of volunteering

Skip to: The benefits of volunteering for charities

Skip to: The benefits of volunteering for volunteers

Skip to: How charities can recruit volunteers

Skip to: What is volunteer management?

Skip to: The importance of volunteer management systems

Skip to: How volunteers can find volunteering opportunities

Skip to: A list of incredible volunteering resources

 

 

The definition of volunteering

 

Volunteering is the act of spending unpaid time performing tasks that benefit others. Volunteering is well-established in the UK and across the world, with many charities and non-profit organisations relying on the work of volunteers to meet the needs of users and the demands of their communities.

 

Charities depend on volunteers for various tasks, ranging from picking up litter to intensive coding, from conservation efforts through to providing legal advice. Below are some of the most common tasks that volunteers perform across the world:

• Fundraising tasks from tin rattles to throwing events
• Trustee responsibilities, including consultation
• Campaigning and raising awareness
• Providing guides and tours of heritage sites
• Conservation and preservation efforts
• Providing care for vulnerable people
• Offering administrative support to charities

The above is a non-exhaustive list. It’s unlikely that an exhaustive list exists. In essence, volunteering can include just about anything and everything, as long as it benefits other people.

 

Volunteering can be either informal or formal. Informal volunteering exists outside of an organisation and may include helping neighbours, tidying up your local area, perhaps even driving someone to an appointment. The present article is concerned with formal volunteering, which exists in an organisation, usually with an element of recruitment and management.

 

 

The benefits of volunteering for charities

 

According to the latest NCVO Almanac, in 2020-21, half of UK adults volunteered time to help others at least once in the previous year. The report found that 16.3m people in the UK had formally volunteered. That shows that volunteering in the UK remains profoundly popular.

 

Volunteering is essential. It brings huge benefits to charities and the charity sector more broadly. Below we explore some of the most prominent benefits, starting with arguably the most important.

 

 

Volunteers reduce costs

 

Charities can use volunteers to reduce operating costs. Volunteering is often difficult to quantify, as the jobs are often ad hoc and dependent on immediate needs. But, simply put, charities are seldom able to afford full-time employees to complete the tasks.

 

Volunteers are more flexible than full-time employees, usually able to work a few hours at a time and often during moments when full-time staff go on holiday: particularly during Christmas, for example, which can be a difficult time for service users.

 

 

Volunteers improve service delivery

 

Some charities would be unable to offer services without the support of volunteers. Service delivery can prove costly and difficult, often challenging on the people providing the services, and thus it often feels like volunteers make the impossible possible.

 

Volunteers also improve service delivery. They offer unique skills that enhance the service, often coming up with ways to streamline processes, boost efficiency, and innovate. Volunteers ensure service delivery continues, but they also consolidate the long-term viability of the service.

 

 

Volunteers provide additional skills

 

Related to the above, volunteers often possess specialist skills that support not only service delivery, but plenty of other elements of charity life. In-house staff may struggle with coding, for example, and the charity cannot afford to hire someone to complete the task. Volunteers are able to fill such gaps, providing their practical expertise to complete tasks that would otherwise remain unfinished.

 

And it isn’t simply practical skills. Volunteers can provide psychological awareness that benefit users, or legal expertise to support charities. Volunteers can tackle any task, not simply fundraising and service delivery, and charities are increasingly relying on volunteers for projects that require specialist skills.

 

 

Volunteers increase reach

 

Volunteers allow charities to reach more people. They extend the geographical reach of many charities, simply by living in different areas, and fundraising efforts from volunteers often allow charities to reach new people.

 

Volunteers are often local, meaning that they live in the community they want to help. They will often become your greatest advocates, telling everyone about your cause, bringing more volunteers in to help and ensuring that your charity can help more people.

 

 

Volunteers diversify ideas

 

Volunteers bring new ideas, new opinions, and new ways of working to charities. Many charities, particularly smaller charities, can feel pressed on time and resources, which leads to a form of stagnation. Charities focus on the day-to-day providing of services, with little room for innovation.

 

Volunteers bring fresh perspectives. They help charities to adapt, stay relevant, and keep up with the latest developments. In short, volunteers can help charities improve broadly by introducing new ideas.

 

 

The benefits of volunteering for volunteers

 

There are plenty of benefits to becoming a volunteer. It is important that charities champion those benefits in the act of recruitment. One issue facing the voluntary sector is that many would-be volunteers are unaware of the extent of the benefits. So shout them out.

 

Below we explore some of the most common benefits to volunteers.

 

 

Volunteering to gain new skills

 

Volunteering gives you the opportunity to learn and develop. Volunteers should pick charities that help them gain the skills they need to achieve more in life, whether that’s academic achievement, starting a new career, or developing in your career. Some volunteers may simply want to improve their social skills, or improve knowledge of certain issues, which is equally important.

 

 

Volunteering to build you career

 

Relating to the above, volunteering can specifically improve your experience, allowing you to demonstrate value to potential employers. That’s particularly important in a job market that is growing increasingly competitive. Employers often find that volunteering separates candidates from a crowd, demonstrating a sense of moral responsibility and care for other people.

 

And, as above, volunteering often allows you to practice skills that are helpful in the workplace. Not simply practical skills, but soft skills such as decision-making, communication, time management, teamwork, problem-solving, resourcefulness, planning, and so on.

 

 

Volunteering to make new friends

 

Volunteering provides a meaningful experience that you share with others. Socialising is an essential element of the voluntary sector, allowing people to find new friends and forge new relationships. It often involves a local element, and a common cause, which are two essential elements of bonding.

 

The social aspect is an element that charities do not champion enough. But it’s such a vital part of the process, providing positive change not only to service users but to the volunteers themselves.

 

 

Volunteering to give back

 

According to Volunteering Research Hub analysis, a greater proportion of volunteers overall are motivated by a sense of community and willingness to protect neighbours and their community.

 

Perhaps the greatest benefit is the life-enhancing support volunteers provide to others. Volunteering means becoming a positive force in the world, improving your own life and the lives of other people who could often really use your help.

 

Volunteering means you’re improving your community, supporting friends and strangers, and just broadly making the world a better place.

 

 

Volunteering to improve mental and physical wellbeing

 

According to the Royal Voluntary Service, more than 80% of volunteers say they’ve improved their mental health and sense of wellbeing. A 2008 study from the London School of Economics found that the more people volunteered, the happier they became.

 

In addition, a 2013 study from UnitedHealth Group and the Optum Institute revealed that, of more than 3,300 adults, 76% said volunteering made them feel physically healthier. And, recent research from Carnegie Mellon University found that adults over 50 who volunteered regularly were less likely to develop high blood pressure compared to non-volunteers, highlighting just one physical benefit.

 

Volunteering improves mental and physical health. The reasons are obvious. Volunteering helps people to stay active, physically or mentally, and provides opportunities to make friends. And, importantly, it allows you to support meaningful causes, giving back to people in need, which boosts self-esteem and self-worth, allowing people to feel they’ve made a positive impact on the world.

 

 

How charities can recruit volunteers

 

According to the Community Life Survey covering the year 2020/21, those over 16 years old who volunteered at least once a month for a formal organisation fell to 17% from 23% in 2019/20, and those who volunteered at least once a year decreased to 30% from 37%.

 

Volunteering has declined slightly in recent years. One reason for that decline is a lack of clarity around recruitment, the failure of charities to find the right volunteers. So below we look at some of the ways charities can improve recruitment processes.

 

 

Dedicate a role to recruitment

 

The first point depends on the right resources. Charities should, if possible, dedicate a role to volunteer management, ensuring at least one person is solely responsible for recruiting and managing volunteers. One option for smaller charities is to use volunteers for that role, essentially tasking a volunteer with project management skills to recruit other volunteers.

 

The role should look after onboarding and management, too. If possible, the role should use a volunteer management system (more on that later) and streamline the volunteering process. One of the biggest deterrents for would-be volunteers is complexity. Too much paperwork, too much admin, too much effort outside supporting the charity will make volunteering seem less appealing.

 

 

Find volunteers

 

Lots of people want to volunteer, given the chance. They’d likely agree to volunteer, or sign up to volunteer, if only the opportunities were clearly signposted and clearly made available. So it’s essential that charities start to better advertise their opportunities.

 

Here are some places where charities can advertise or post volunteering opportunities:

• Businesses: Approach businesses within your community, or outside of your community for bigger charities, to see if they’re interested in participating. Many businesses offer staff volunteer days, so suggesting your charity can lead to hours, even days, of support from the employees of a business
• Clubs and groups: Clubs in local communities are great resources for finding volunteers. Think of Rotary Clubs, Book Clubs, Bridge Clubs, Football Clubs, and any others that might have free time. Many of these clubs will take up the opportunity to volunteer if the opportunity is easily presented
• Universities: Lots of students want to offer their time to charities, but do not find easy opportunities. You can send the information to the university, perhaps asking them to include in comms or emails, perhaps even putting the opportunities on their intranet or bulletin boards
• Websites: There are hundreds of websites dedicated to volunteers. These are often the same websites that people looking for volunteer opportunities will visit, so they essentially function to pair appropriate parties together (check out our list of websites for volunteering below)
• Your website: Posting volunteering opportunities on your website will draw attention from people already interested in your cause. You can post the opportunities on social media too
• Social media: Social media platforms provide ample opportunities to spread your message, raise awareness, and raise funds. They also give you easy access to an army of would-be volunteers. Post the opportunities on your platforms and give all the necessary information, allowing a quick and easy recruitment process for volunteers to follow
• Word of mouth: Advocates still remain some of the best recruitment tools. Volunteers telling other people about their experience will bring lots of new volunteers on board. That’s why it’s so essential to ensure volunteers are happy, looked after, and constantly developing

 

Offer virtual volunteering opportunities

 

It’s vital to improve your recruitment processes. But it’s also important to consider the opportunities you’re offering. Many charities are stuck trying to offer in-person opportunities, completely neglecting the army of volunteers that are happy (often more happy) to embrace virtual volunteering.

 

There are plenty of benefits to virtual volunteering. It allows people to find time to volunteer around full-time work, as many virtual tasks have flexible deadlines. Many volunteers can volunteer during lunch breaks, if necessary, or even alter working patterns to make space for virtual volunteering.

 

Virtual volunteering also saves the volunteer money, reducing costs on travel, food supplies, and other bits that in-person volunteering demands. It also allows a greater geographical reach, meaning charities can recruit and onboard people from across the country, perhaps even across the world, rather than people working within a sensible distance of the charity.

 

It also provides ample opportunities for volunteers to grow digital skills, from data-entry to graphic design, from social media management to coding. The virtual volunteer can improve their CV and their skills and support people in need, all without leaving their home.

 

 

Explore micro-volunteering

 

Micro-volunteering is something of a novel trend. Micro-volunteering is the process of offering different sorts of volunteering opportunities, including short-term, one-off, and project-based tasks. Micro-volunteering turns community action into a more palatable option, allowing volunteers to support your charity in the midst of the other demands of the modern world.

 

Micro-volunteering is empowering. It gives volunteers the chance to pick and choose where they can be most helpful. It allows volunteers to perform tasks on their own terms, at their own pace, whenever they have a chance. It does not make stringent requirements that can cause volunteers stress.

 

The benefits of micro-volunteering are huge. Micro-volunteering allows volunteers to opt for tasks that really use their skillset. It benefits charities as it allows them to complete projects without having to go through rigorous onboarding processes. That might include cleaning up a local area, perhaps door-to-door or street fundraising, perhaps supporting a local event.  

 

Micro-volunteering is particularly good for smaller tasks. But it’s important to be aware of drawbacks. One is safeguarding. Micro-volunteering naturally involves a shorter and less scrupulous onboarding process, so should not be used for any tasks that require effective safeguarding.

 

Another issue surrounds complexity. Micro-volunteering should be used to complete simple tasks, ones that require minimal instructions, not complex tasks that require days of training.

 

 

Prioritise flexibility

 

With all the above, flexibility is essential. Whether that means flexibility of tasks, as seen with the shift to virtual volunteering, or flexibility of time, as seen with micro-volunteering, charities need to be open to adapting. The best way to recruit is to meet the needs and desires of volunteers.

 

So focus on flexibility. Ask potential volunteers about how they’d like to volunteer and find ways to accommodate. Remember that volunteers give their time without pay, so it’s essential that charities work hard to ensure their experience is a positive one.

 

 

What is volunteer management?

 

Volunteer management is an all-encompassing term for recruiting volunteers, tracking volunteers, communicating and engaging with volunteers, and much more. Volunteer management is anything that involves interaction between an organisation and volunteers.

 

Effective volunteer management has myriad benefits. It allows charities to improve their relationships with volunteers, streamline internal and external processes, improve overall return on investment, and make the full use of the skills and services that volunteers provide.

 

Volunteer management also allows charities to think long-term, building a more strategic and positive relationship with individual volunteers. Positive relationships improve retention rates, as volunteers are always more willing to return to charities they enjoy working with.

 

Effective volunteer management is essential to improving processes and operations. And volunteer management systems offer an easy route to streamlining that process.

 

 

The importance of volunteer management system

 

According to the Non-profit Experience Index from Salesforce.org, 73% of volunteers felt they received clear communication on what they needed to do before volunteering and 78% said that the experience of volunteering made them feel the organisation was well run. The report broadly demonstrated that charities had a good record keeping their volunteers informed and happy.

 

Volunteer management systems are essential for keeping volunteers happy. A volunteer management system is a tool that helps effective volunteer management. The systems support the recruitment of volunteers, communicate and co-ordinate with volunteers, work out a schedule for volunteers, and much more.

 

Volunteer management systems provide one centralised place for streamlining processes. Various organisations use the systems, including schools, hospitals, museums, and so on. But the systems are particularly used in the charity sector, where managing volunteers is vital.

 

Each volunteer management system offers different functionalities, often aimed at organisations of different sizes and usually at varying costs. But common features include:

• Communication in one centralised place
• Functions that match jobs to skills
• Calendar and schedule management
• Easy-to-access volunteer profiles
• Self-service portals for volunteers
• Features to support compliance

As you’ll see below, many of the options on the market offer much more advanced features, all of which can improve volunteer management. But every volunteer management system should offer some version of the above features, albeit in different forms.

 

 

The benefits of volunteer management systems

 

Each volunteer management system will provide different benefits to different organisations, often depending on differing objectives. But organisations can still expect some broad benefits, especially if they are currently using pen and paper. Some of the benefits include:

• Improves processes and operations
• Ensures volunteer information in one centralised place
• Ensures all communication in one centralised place
• Helps compliance with data protection and other regulations
• Improves retention rates of volunteers
• Harnesses the best skills of volunteers
• Promotes effective scheduling and calendar management

To reap the benefits, however, organisations need to ensure they are using the right system. Before exploring the myriad options, it’s important that organisations establish some goals.

 

 

How volunteer management systems can help

 

The volunteer management system can help you meet your goals, regardless of its simplicity or complexity. Below we take a look at some of the areas where volunteer management systems improve the processes of organisations.

 

 

Recruitment

 

Recruitment is the first step in volunteer management. Organisations need to recruit the right number of volunteers that they can effectively manage and ensure that those volunteers possess the right skills for the job at hand. That’s harder than it sounds.

 

Volunteer management systems can help you create profiles that will attract the right skills and talents, create pages that can attract more volunteers, and keep all previous information in one centralised place to continually attract the right volunteers.

 

In addition to the above, the scheduling features of a volunteer management system will help to improve and streamline the selection process. That means that charities are not simply onboarding the right people, but they are onboarding the right people for the right time.

 

 

Communication

 

After recruiting volunteers, charities need to engage with them in a way that feels welcoming, informative, and meaningful. Communication is key. One issue that organisations commonly face is the sheer number of channels with which they communicate with volunteers.

 

Some volunteers e-mail, others phone, others use WhatsApp, while others use social media chats. Volunteer management systems ensure communication is centralised.

 

Systems can incorporate many of the above channels – SMS, e-mail, etc. – and transfer the information to the centralised platform. In addition, some volunteer management systems allow users to automate communications, which can free up time for employees.

 

 

Engagement

 

Organisations need to engage with volunteers. That means going beyond communication. That means finding out their primary skills and talents. That means ensuring the tasks they perform make the most of those talents. That also means engaging with their schedules.

 

Volunteer management systems allow charities to match skills. The system will help organisations to effectively engage with volunteers who have the necessary talents to perform the tasks at hand. Matching volunteers with appropriate tasks is mutually beneficial, allowing charities to improve productivity while ensuring the volunteer is not taken for granted.

 

In addition, volunteer management systems allow feedback from volunteers, which allows the organisation to improve internal processes and better engage with volunteers.

 

 

Tracking

 

Tracking numbers, hours, skills, recruitment, and attrition rates can be time-consuming when organisations do not have in-built reporting. Volunteer management systems often have tracking functionalities that help your keep abreast of all your volunteer activities.

 

That’s important for organisations, as it frees up time and resources and makes feedback much easier. But tracking is also important for the volunteer. Tracking helps volunteers understand what has been achieved and the difference that they have made.

 

Volunteer management systems track volunteer efforts in one centralised place. They can generate reports that show patterns, illustrate the time spent on various projects, show improvements, broadly demonstrate impact, and much more.

 

Reports help volunteers quantify impact, which can be a massive incentive for them to continue volunteering. Tracking and reporting encourage long-term relationships, allowing the volunteer to feel useful to the community and valued by the charity.

 

 

Recognition

 

Tracking and reporting are especially important in terms of recognition. Organisations need to practice acknowledgment, ensuring volunteers do not feel forgotten or underappreciated.

 

Perhaps organisations could send out a simple thank-you note to volunteers, or perhaps they want to throw an entire event dedicated to the hard work of their volunteers.

 

Either way, volunteer management systems can help. Some systems, including ones mentioned below, offer functionalities that promote volunteer recognition, such as thank you messages and online badges recognising hard work that appear on the system.

 

 

The top volunteer management systems

 

There are plenty of other options on the market, all of which offer myriad functionalities that may suit your charity more than the above options. Some additional research at this stage will prove hugely beneficial further down the line, but some of the more well-known and popular systems are as follows:

• Volunteero
• Volgistics
• TeamKinetic
• Assemble
• Better Impact
• Optimy
• Rosterfy
• Blerter
• InitLive
• SignUpGenius

For more information on volunteer management systems, along with a price comparison, check out our complete guide to volunteer management systems.

 

 

Websites to help volunteers find opportunities

 

The best place to actively find volunteer opportunities near you is the Internet. There are plenty of sites that showcase both in-person and virtual volunteer opportunities. Here is a non-exhaustive list, which contains loads of options for finding the perfect volunteer opportunities:

• VolunteerMatch
• Engage
• JustServe
• Encore
• DoingGoodTogether
• Globe Aware
• Idealist
• Do It
• Do Something
• Global Volunteers

The above are just some places that can help you to find volunteering opportunities. There are loads more websites, many of which provide specialist volunteering opportunities. The essential point is to find the best.

 

 

A list of resources to help charities and volunteers

 

Volunteering is a huge industry, requiring effort from people across the country. But, as the above shows, volunteering is not always simple. There are lots that you need to consider.

 

Thankfully, loads of charities, sector bodies, and other organisations have provided information that aims to make the process of volunteering more seamless. Below we list a few of the essentials:

• Volunteering Matters is dedicated to helping people volunteer and find volunteers, but it also provides loads of guidance on safety, recruitment, impact, and so much more
• Re-engage has developed loads of resources to support volunteering activities, ranging from posters and leaflets to volunteer handbooks, safeguarding policies, and general guidance
• The NAVCA regularly share sector-specific research and knowledge on volunteering, drawn from their own data and analysis, that of their members or from other relevant sources
• Community Impact Bucks has curated a number of free resources that will inform and educate charities on how to develop a comprehensive volunteering programme
• Voluntary Centre Services has loads of great downloads, templates, and resources that are perfect for community groups and charities
• The CIPD offers a range of ways for professionals to drive change in society, with support on improving confidence, strategic thinking, mentoring Programmes, and much more
• Community Southward is an umbrella body that provides tons of information on volunteering, including building inclusive spaces, best practice guidance, and tips for recognition
• Volunteers’ Week offer tons of free resources and templates to help improve your Volunteers’ Week events, including comms and logo packs, promotion support, and so on
• The UK government has put together brief information and guidance to help volunteers find opportunities in their local communities

The above is not an exhaustive list. There are lots of charities that have bespoke guidance for volunteers, largely because of specific requirements. It’s important to distinguish between the requirements of certain volunteers – carers, for example, have very different roles from fundraisers.

 

Each volunteering opportunity is different – and charities and volunteers themselves should adopt different approaches. The key is to plan, ensure you’re always ahead.