Insights
Changes in volunteering have accelerated as a result of the pandemic. Charity Digital looks to the future of volunteering in a post-COVID-19 world.
In 2021, The Third Sector reported that a total of 12.4 million people volunteered their time for charities in 2020, compared with eight to nine million annually pre-COVID-19.
But now, we’re two years on, two years into a global pandemic. So, how has the culture of volunteering changed? And what does it look like for the future?
Across the globe, the pandemic has proven that remote working works.
More than 90% of voluntary organisations moved operations online during the pandemic. And
the number of volunteer roles being carried out remotely increased in 39% of organisations. Many saw brand new volunteers, from all walks of life, join their ranks.
Thanks to programs like Zoom, WhatsApp, and Dropbox, professionals including graphic and web designers, copy writers, photographers, lawyers, engineers, and social media gurus, are able to donate their time and specialist skills to their chosen charities remotely.
Not to mention, digital volunteering is more time efficient, accessible, and inclusive than traditional face-to-face volunteering. Indeed, the 2020 Respond, Recover, and Reset survey found that charities that embraced digital volunteering saw an increase in new volunteers from a diverse range of age, gender, ethnicity, and cultural backgrounds.
Conversely, in the same survey, 36% of charities said they had experienced a decline in the number of volunteer workers during the pandemic. This was largely due to social distancing and the number of vulnerable volunteers needing to shield.
The loneliness, frustration, and boredom, caused by various lockdowns and periods of isolation mean that a return to face-to-face volunteering will be more important than ever. As most charities know, the benefits are numerous, from improving confidence, to mental and physical wellbeing.
A Guardian article predicts the return to in-person volunteering, stating: “The reward [from face-to-face volunteering] comes not from witnessing results, but from being in the moment, forming a group and feeling the liveliness move from one person to another; noticing people really listen to each other, support each other, respectfully critique each other and work together.”
Nevertheless, the return will be careful and cautious. Charities should ensure that risk assessments are carried out to make sure volunteers and staff are not being put at further risk.
There are a number of helpful guidelines and risk-assessment documents available online and on the government website.
In the early days of the pandemic, one in three charities were being forced to cancel services due to lack of digital skills.
A year on, in April 2021, Further Education published an article that claimed 50% of charities admit to accepting volunteers out of obligation. And “only 40% of charities receive skills-based volunteering but 70% need it”.
In two years, a lot has changed, and charities have largely embraced digital service delivery as part of their long term strategy. The move towards more digital and micro-volunteering in particular has highlighted the importance of specialisation and skill-based volunteering.
According to a report from Independent Sector, skills-based volunteering is five times more impactful than traditional volunteering.
In a post-pandemic world, skills-based volunteering presents an opportunity for charities to leverage expert knowledge without having to draw on strapped budgets. And skilled volunteers can also be used to support situations that require temporary staffing to address immediate needs, including crisis response, financial re-forecasting, and technology support.
Moreover, skilled volunteers can provide vital support to charities as they contend with staffing transitions during the Great Resignation.
There are a number of volunteer and recruitment platforms that can be used to match potential skill-based volunteers with a charities specific need, such as Charity Job and The Granny Cloud.
Platforms like Do IT and Reach Volunteering experienced a huge increase in demand over the last two years. Reach recorded a record number of trustee and volunteering opportunities on their site in 2021, and a record number of volunteers signing up in 2020 (10,200, to be exact).
But even before the pandemic, tech was driving volunteer recruitment. And volunteer recruitment platforms will continue to be a predominant resource for charities in a post-pandemic world.
For example, Reach Volunteering is providing a dedicated COVID-19 mentoring service to help charities identify and prioritise their needs through the pandemic and beyond. Whereas Do IT has teamed up with UK Youth to distribute £1.3m of recovery funding to help youth groups become more resilient to the disruption caused by the pandemic.
As charities continue to embrace digital transformation, the nature of online volunteer recruitment platforms means they can be seamlessly integrated with targeted recruitment campaigns.
Read our guidance on the best ways to attract volunteers digitally.
Volunteering will be more vital than ever in the post-pandemic world.
In 2020, UN Volunteers published an article stating volunteering is key to rebuilding the world in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis: ‘Indeed, the United Nations recognises the role of volunteers and seeks to integrate it in the ‘Decade of Action’ to achieve sustainable development goals by 2030.’
Luckily, the evolution of modern volunteer management systems has accelerated over the last few years, allowing charities to plan strategically, and think more long-term for the coming ten years, post-pandemic.
Volunteer management systems can not only improve processes and operations but can help charities harnesses the best skills of their volunteers.
They also enable charities to focus on creating positive relationships with individual volunteers. Thus, improving retention rates, as volunteers are always more likely to return to charities they enjoy working with. (Read more: top tips on how to keep volunteers happy).
Volunteer Management system Better Impact boasts its own database and online training space, allowing charities to create individual profiles and create e-learning modules for volunteers.
Whereas Volgistics (a platform well-suited to small decentralised charities) has multi-site capability, allowing charities to manage groups of volunteers at different sites. Helpforce have put together a useful downloadable guide that tracks some of the top volunteer management systems.
While UN Volunteers and the UN Framework ‘seeks to take action to advance the role of volunteering above and beyond the current model’, online volunteering management systems offer a step in the right direction.
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