Volunteering

I would like to take a voluntary role, but most organisations appear to be stuck in the 1950s and want volunteers to commit to the same time slots every week, which is impractical for people like me who work an irregular shift pattern. And when I retire, I will want to go away more frequently.

We lost volunteers during Covid. Lots haven’t come back because they’ve found other things to fill their time.

Now some hardcore volunteers are cutting down because they’ve taken second jobs to help with COL.

Some aren’t well enough to volunteer.

*Food

My charity pays volunteers expenses. Good, travel, hotels etc.

I have done lots of different types of volunteering in the past & enjoyed the experiences.

I don't currently volunteer because I work a FT shift pattern, so I don't have the same days off each week

I also spend a lot of my spare time helping an elderly relative who does not live locally. Which means being away from my home regularly.

However, I do donate money via my work Give as you earn scheme, where the gift aid is added automatically. I also donate during the year to various other causes & I also sometimes sponsor friends for charity events.

I may do some more volunteering in the future

I volunteer and several of my friends do. I've learned a lot through my volunteering role and had really good online training when I started. Ive also had experiences ( including abroad) that I never would have had otherwise. I've been a lifelong volunteer though in all sorts of situations but enjoy my current role more than most. I'm lucky that I can fit it in around caring responsibilities and part time work.
My friends who don't volunteer have other commitments. Providing family child care, working a second job or they struggle with physical/mental health.
My parents were volunteers and saw it as a vital part living in their community. I think these days a lot of people are burnt out and just want to shut the door and relax at the end of the day

The volunteering I do is highly skilled and requires interviews, training, and prior paid experience in specialist fields. Lots of volunteering roles have specific requirements that mean the majority of the public do not qualify. I don’t know if YABU but my experience is that isn’t not as easy as deciding to volunteer and walking into a role.

I have volunteered alot over the years, it means a great deal to me to try and give some time in this way and make a contribution to the wider community.

I now only volunteer during the summer at specific events at the charity where I am a volunteer. I used to do more, but I now work more hours and can't fit it in on a weekly basis to give a chunk of time.

I would agree with a reality that many volunteers are retired . They are the folk with the time to spare, younger generations are more stretched. Even students work and study usually now.

Volunteering is a great force for good. But we are living through a cost of living crisis. It is hard for many people to afford the time

I used to volunteer as a community driver. I often work from home alone, so enjoyed having a break in my day to interact with people. But I've had to increase my work load in order to cover bills, so just don't have time to anymore

I volunteer as a cat fosterer for my local rescue.

I don’t need the social or work experience aspects of volunteering and it’s something I can do while WFH, as well as something I really enjoy doing.

Your turn now OP - why are you interested and do you volunteer? If not, why not?

I’m in my early 60’s and retired and volunteer at a charity shop on a weekly basis. None of my friends volunteer for the following reasons:-
Some are still working until 66/67 when previously they could have retired at 60.

Some are retired but caring for grandchildren several times a week so want to relax on their days off.

People are living longer so some retired friends are looking after parents/ in-laws in their 80’s and 90’s with severe health needs.

Some people are put off by all of the regulations. To be a volunteer you have to fill in a five page application form, provide two references, complete DBS and carry out prevent training to identify people at risk of being radicalised. Not sure I would be able to spot those people ring a £2.50 T-shirt through the till.

The lucky ones are spending their inheritance going away on numerous holidays!

Lack of time

I use to do a lot of volunteering before I had a child. It started of as regular stuff e.g. helping in a school then became irregular stuff like marshaling at sports events and helping people with certain problems as needed. My DP still volunteers doing irregular stuff due to his working hours not all being office hours, but I can't because when I'm not working I'm looking after a child.

I volunteer because I have the time and I enjoy it. It's my second volunteer role for the same charity, and I previously volunteered for a different charity. I really enjoy what I do, which involves using a fair bit of judgement and intelligence. It is repetitive and a lot of people would find it boring, but I've always been a bit of a nerd, so it's fine by me.

The volunteer experience is a really big thing

Historically I worked for organisation who used volunteering as a way to generate community investment. Eg the volunteers weren't really that helpful in terms of daily tasks but people who volunteered felt part of the charity and were more likely to donate money

Realistically most of the time most organisations don't need unreliable unskilled labour, they need money to hire dependable skilled workers but that's not what people want to hear

Eg. Locally their was a big push to donate items to Ukraine. So people at best spent £20 getting items, or donating items from their house. Volunteers then drove (spending money on petrol) them to a sorting center (which costs money), volunteers then sorted through them, obviously trashed a portion of unsuitable stuff (which has to be paid to be removed), then it was driven by volunteers to Ukraine.

The man power cost and actual cost will far exceed its use in Ukraine. If you consider that money would have gone a lot farther if everyone donated a £10 and local resources were used (which also invests in the economy)

It's much easier to get people to give time, and things then money.

I volunteer with parkrun. I do it because I enjoy volunteering at it and because I enjoy running it - as it’s operated entirely by volunteers then I think it’s helpful for regular runners to volunteer every now and again. And that suits me too, as it’s not a regular commitment - I can sign up as and when to volunteer and mix it with running. As everyone’s in it together there’s no issue with being ‘treated like staff’ it’s a great example of volunteering in action!

I volunteer for three different organisations and work full time as well.

would love too but they all want at least 2 references and I just do not have them

I do, but not on a strict rota, I volunteer at our local foodbank (which is also a soup kitchen and friendship centre for those who are isolated), we also do things line help apply for benefits, man and a van to move furniture etc.

I also volunteer with khalsa aid, while most things are abroad, we also support communities in the UK. Sometimes this is simple things such as providing food and drink, this may be to care homes, the homeless, or sometimes people at events, so things like the viewing of the queens coffin, people camping out for the coronation etc.

I used to do a lot then stopped during the pandemic and never got back into it. Having said that, I did register online this winter to help out in warm hubs/food banks but no one contacted me, even though I already have dbs reg.

I am a volunteer with a Good Neighbour project.

It takes an hour or so a week to visit a housebound person in their home. I have become quite good friends with the person I visit. He is not much older than me. We have a natter, he makes a cup of tea, I take some cake. Makes a huge difference to someone who has no family and only one close friend.

I think you need to recognise there is a cost to volunteering for some, travel costs and food. I had an ex member of staff retire who would have continued if we paid her petrol (very specialist knowledge) and my bosses said no. False economy.

I find a lot of volunteers don’t want to be staff, they don’t want to be pressured to be there at certain times and do certain jobs. They often are there to socialise as well. Sticking them as a FOH job on their own doesn’t do that. Also if the sun is shining then they want to go somewhere else or if it’s raining stay indoors. They don’t want all the boring jobs.

A local museum tried to staff with volunteers and then treat them like staff, giving them set shifts and criticising them if they were off sick. It failed .

I had a volunteer quit because she was told off for chatting to another volunteer and was upset about it. It was department policy to have volunteers but so many managers then treated them as paid staff and didn’t understand why it didn’t work.

I think it's because of the ask of volunteers is rightly bigger these days
I volunteer in an animal rescue type environment

Historically volunteers will just wander in and out, and people somewhat expect to do that still. We frequently turn away half hearted volunteer attempts and people get really angry about it

For example people don't want to commit to regular days (which is understandable in a climate inwhich people work) but we need that in order to invest in training someone up. It's incredibly hard if we have no idea how many people might volunteer in a given week, we can't then figure out staffing, many places might need dbs, you to do mandatory training eg safeguarding. We can't invest that in someone that maybe comes once a month, maybe.

The people with the most time these days are kids, which just aren't appropriate in a lot of roles.

Lots of people expect that their 14 year old can come to a kennel on a random Tuesday and walk dogs. Most of our dogs aren't appropriate for a 14 year old even if the insurance wasn't insane

We've had people turn up to volunteer with no prior arrangement and bringing their kids with them.

Theres also a better understanding these days that sometimes paid staff, or consistent staff are better. For example people might randomly volunteer to teach in Africa, but now it's better understood that its disruptive to kids learning to have untrained people who possibly don't speak the language come for a week and it would be more effective to pay an actual teacher rather than someone fundraising to fly themselves out. Gone are the days where you could wander into an orphanage to volunteer like that

In my side of things (wildlife) there is a lot of skill involved and frankly people have to invest a lot of time to get there. For example hand rearing birds, the syringe feeding is hard and delicate, you can't speak to them etc. So most of our volunteers that are only coming once a month end up doing unskilled work, that frankly is less rewarding.
People tend to want to spend time with the animals, but really it's stuff like cleaning out, admin and washing up that need doing, but people don't want to do that.

My mum used to volunteer with wildlife, and she was allowed with no training to take stuff home to handrear in a completely inappropriate environment. She also wasn't working at the time, so she volunteered at a school with no dbs etc

I work for a charity for older people and the numbers of volunteers we have has fallen a lot which has really impacted the services we can offer. I think one of the issues is that a lot of the volunteers were elderly anyway and can't carry on, there are good numbers of paid job vacancies so people don't need to do volunteering. I can't do it myself as I work full time and totally exhausted by the weekend but will help with the odd charity event linked to the charity I work for.

I recently gave up volunteering for schools as they became so flaky - wanting x,y,z and then when the time came didn't need it any more , had planned something else

10 years ago this never happened