Organisations that depend on volunteers - can they survive?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

I was thinking about this in relation to Girl Guides. I've no experience there but a long-time leader was saying on another thread that she simply couldn't get any mothers to volunteer to train as leaders, or even to help out on trips etc. Hence the need to accept men as volunteers in what used to be a single-sex organisation, but even then there are just not enough volunteers to meet demand from parents, so there are long waiting lists and units closing because a leader leaves and can't be replaced.

I don't imagine this is unusual. I've always had reservations about volunteers doing a substantial amount of work for nothing. It creates problems with requiring them to train and keep up to date, with saying no to people who aren't suitable, with firing those who behave badly or are incompetent, and there are plenty of ignorant and selfish people about who don't grasp that volunteers are there out of goodwill and treat them badly (as they probably would paid staff, but at least the paid staff have the salary and some employment rights).

My own volunteer experience was mostly a long time ago when my children were little and then at primary school. I was a SAHM and I helped out with NCT, a local toddler group, PTA things, reading in school and (biggest commitment) as a school governor. Even then, 20+ years ago, it was a huge struggle to get anyone to volunteer. Not surprising, as most other parents were juggling work, running the home and childcare, and some had other caring responsibilities as well.

It must be a lot worse now, with most families routinely having both parents working. Retirement ages have gone up, so the pool of healthy, active older people looking for worthwhile ways to fill their time must be declining, and a lot of them will be helping with childcare or caring for older relatives anyway.

Is it a model that's had its day?

I have done a lot of voluntary work mainly as a committe secretary and writing funding applications though I did do some front of house volunteering.

The last post I had was working as a cook for a food project. The age of the majority of volunteers was 70 plus apart from a few early retirees in their fifties and sixties, Plus sometimes their children or dc would come along to help as one offs. My DS had to do voluntary work for his DofE.

Apart from your valid points about people working for more years and less SAHP situations and caring responsibilities there is also the ethos of volunteering. I have met plenty of people who just would not want to work for nothing.

Religious organisations still do a lot of charity work but religion is out of fashion. Whether people did it because they felt obliged as it’s a route in to whatever heaven or afterlife is part of that religion or wanted to genuinely help is by the by. The food project I worked for is run by my local parish church. It fed approx 100 people once a week and signposted them to other services and gave out food parcels. The congregation has diminished over the two decades I have been involved with the church.

I agree with you OP. It is a problem that is getting worse, for all the reasons you give.

I volunteer (have been a school governor in the past, currently trustee for a youth choir) but only because I work part time (0.7 FTE). If I worked full time I simply wouldn't have the time.

I work for a volunteer organisation and I volunteer in 2 voluntary organisations including the Scouts.

For all of time voluntary organisations are in a perpetual cycle of needing to recruit volunteers because:

• Volunteers move on, get older, find other interests - natural attrition
• if you want to expand services then you need more volunteers to do it

The pandemic has lead to an increase in volunteer attrition although many (Scouts for example) are finding that volunteers are returning and others are seeking new volunteer opportunities. My own Scout Group has increased our adult volunteers by nearly 50% recently.

Organisations that will continue to be successful in recruiting and retaining volunteers are those which offer modern flexible volunteering opportunities to suit lifestyles of today and those which give back to volunteers - recognising that there needs to be something in it for volunteers and that it should be fulfilling and enjoyable.

So I believe that survival for many is completely achieveable

You need to ingrain this into children from an early age. My kids all volunteer as do most of their friends. They are youth leaders, help out at food banks, fundraise - all sorts. Some of that comes from their families where it’s intrinsic and much from the school where giving back and volunteering is as part of the ethos as is maths and Emilia

English not Emilia

This is an interesting topic. I am currently applying for a role within a charity where part of my role would be securing volunteers to move the retail business forward and bring it up to date. My concern is I will not be able to get any. I have volunteered at school and sports for ds, but the success of this role would be down to securing regular volunteers really. Lots to think about.

I'm a leader in girl guiding and there's no shortage of leaders in my district. I live in a large city though so maybe it's dependent on area?

Just on the scout topic talking about this. IMO most people I know could volunteer to do something - most people I know don’t. It’s not because they don’t have time it’s because they choose not to. It’s symptomatic of so much more wrong with society sadly. Without volunteers so many people would lose so much - let’s hope you’re wrong.

It seems bound up for me with the move to offer unpaid or very low paid internships and work experience placements. Why don't organisations work on the basis that if somebody's working for you they need to be paid a living wage? You're not going to get a diverse and representative workforce otherwise.

When I was a school governor, I saw the inner workings of three schools. Two were good and well-run community schools, but in both cases the governors were also mostly current or former parents. They lacked objectivity and they didn't necessarily have the skills and experience that were needed. The other school was voluntary aided and had a long-standing constitutional connection with a university, a local church and a City of London livery company, who all had to appoint governors. They were almost all able, very committed and had no pre-existing connection with the school, so were very objective, and it made a huge difference to the way the governing body worked and its effectiveness.

Most schools couldn't access people like that. And yet governing bodies have enormous power and control large budgets.

Yes they can survive, I have known many last years. But younger people seem less likely to volunteer. And it is often the busiest people who volunteer.

My Girl Guiding team is very stable because we're flexible with each other. Most of us have young families so we need a big team to cover child ratios and other life issues, but because we make it flexible, we have enough leaders to balance ours and the girls' needs and we retain them well.

I liked getting involved in school life (often got me out of long dreary lunchtimes loitering outside ), then got into the DoE award. Had a brief dally with GG on a gap year then came to it a few years later on making friends with another leader. She made it sound really fun and suckered me in . Being a SAHM, I help with the DCs' school, and I've also got sucked into a couple of their activities. Long term I'd drop the school and one activity, but would keep up one sport for my own interest and GG.

There is definitely a mentality where people who volunteer tend to do a lot. There are also a lot of people unwilling to show any interest even if you can accomodate their barriers (e.g. young children). It's pretty galling when a parent insists that they couldn't possibly help for a night because they have a young child when you and your young children were out of the house by 8am off to childcare/ work, pick children up en-route to activity, loiter in the car as it wasn't worth going home and end up getting home a good 12 hours after leaving the house that morning, every week (then having more work to do after dinner/ bedtime). Obviously some children are less adaptable than others, but there is a mass mindset issue over people willing to pool in a little and share the load. There is also the corelation between the most appreciative parents often being most willing to support, and the most entitled least willing (and thinking that the £100 per year covers the staffing wages of their childcare voluntary activity).

The voluntary sector is important for social accessibility. Cheap activities like Guiding benefit many thousands of children/ communities that can't afford professional activities. Volunteering gives experience and opportunities. It fills gaps on CVs and allows people in predjudiced positions (e.g. disabilities) to prove themselves or find purpose around their logistical difficulties (e.g. fatigue conditions that make formal, paid employment difficult)

If you paid volunteers many children would not be able to access extra curricular activities.

Football, rugby, athletics, scouts, guides, band, even clubs where the leader gets paid like gym, swimming or martial arts usually has a wide volunteer support network.

And you are not wrong, often organisations require their own training so despite being trained through your occupation you often have to repeat things.

I’m a long term volunteer in a skilled role and have done various volunteer roles over the years, around child care responsibilities

In my experience volunteers tend to be either SAHM who don’t need to work for money and/or people who have been able to retire fairly early. Inevitably that means they (we!) come from a similar socio-economic pool which might be considered to be a disadvantage

There is definitely a mentality where people who volunteer tend to do a lot. There are also a lot of people unwilling to show any interest even if you can accomodate their barriers

This is true IME.
I volunteer with Scouts and it is commonplace for people to have been volunteering for 20, 30, 40 years or more. Very often in several different roles. It is also very common for others to sign up (recruiting in the first place isn't usually an issue) and then drift away very early on in their volunteering. We really do have quite a diverse population sign up so it is difficult to know why those that stay, stay and those that leave, leave.

I do think (particularly among Churches) that there are far fewer volunteers. Partly through the fact fewer people attend Church but then also, as a pp said, there are far fewer families with the luxury of a SAHP, and also people retire later. Then, since degrees have become ten a penny, you then find there is much more of a need to people to go on and do further study at a time when they might, historically have had more time to commit to volunteering. Working, and studying and parenting is pretty full on.
I do think a lot of people are put off by the paperwork and regulation and responsibility too.

In my experience volunteers tend to be either SAHM who don’t need to work for money and/or people who have been able to retire fairly early

This isn't my experience at all - perhaps it depends on which sector we volunteer in. I'm a volunteer in the scout association, out of around 25 volunteers, none are retired, and only one has a part time job. The rest work full time, some have two jobs. I personally have a job which means some weeks I work 60-70 hours (although some weeks, I work much more sensible hours).

There is definitely a mentality where people who volunteer tend to do a lot. There are also a lot of people unwilling to show any interest even if you can accomodate their barriers

I agree with this. There's nothing wrong with people not volunteering if they don't want to. But I wish they wouldn't say they don't have time/have small children etc, then go and have a coffee and chat to their friends in the coffee shop across the road while we entertain their children ! Or tell us that they're having a wonderful spa weekend while we tramp round a muddy field with their kids on camp!

Remember that just because people don't volunteer for your organisation doesn't mean they don't volunteer at all. I rarely volunteered with my son's cubs and scouts, but I was a school governor for 8 years. I rarely do a non-run volunteer role with parkrun, but I am an athletics timekeeper and routinely give up several days each summer to volunteer at track events. Last weekend I helped at a local cross-country.

I think volunteering can be made more difficult than it needs to be. For example, England Athletics needs more officials to help at events but it simply does not run enough courses (and it charges for them, Wales Athletics does not). If it really wants to expand the pool of volunteers it needs to run more courses and make them free or cheaper.

Of course there are people who are just lazy.

I am involved in a number of community groups and charities. Overall people who are retired are more likely to volunteer. In our charity everyone is working full-time and volunteering on top. Most have kids.

@ColinTheKoala I totally agree - a lot of people volunteer in other aspects of their life and we shouldn’t forget that (speaking as a parkrun volunteer co-ordinator!)!
It is a shame that volunteering isn’t always seen as a positive - I enjoy volunteering (I do three separate volunteer roles) & see it as a privilege that I work PT so can fit volunteering in, but others have no desire to do it whatsoever and I’m not always sure why.

I volunteer with the girl guides and we have a waiting list of volunteers in our area so I guess it depends where you are.

sorry to say I think that it's partly because people have taken advantage so much

and a lot of volunteers themselves don't have boundaries

I volunteered before lockdown; the places I volunteered are no longer running, so a lot of services won't be happening. The chap who co-ordinated it now has his time full as his mum has dementia. No one wants to take over.

But also, I have come across organisations who have the funding to supply travel costs, refreshments costs, and choose not to. For a long time, I thought they were relying on young people trying to get references and/or work experience. Perhaps with the Great Resignation etc this is less of a thing - tbh I'd see that as a positive.

I think a lot of big charities really take the mick so if they have to start paying people rather than using volunteers, so much the better IMHO.

I don't know anything about volunteering with children but I imagine increasing bureaucracy might be an issue.

oh, something else that put me off a request I had post lockdown was lack of privacy

all communication went via a WhatsApp group. I don't give my phone number to strangers. When I asked if I could be exempted from that, they said no. So they only want volunteers who are happy to do that, they can't complain about lack of interest (which apparently they are complaining about!)

I stopped volunteering because of the poor organisation and being totally taken for granted.

I'd turn up just to be told there was no one to accompany me that day (insurance requirement) but no one would bother to let me know in advance which would have saved me a journey and a wasted afternoon.

After a year of this happening repeatedly I stopped. The organisation is desperate for volunteers but nothing changes and they give 0 support to those they have.