Presentation given by Lucy Hogg and Karen Osborne, Voluntary Norfolk, at the 2018 Annual Norfolk Voluntary, Community, Social Enterprise Sector conference

1. Sustainable Volunteering
Voluntary Norfolk

2. Volunteering Trends

3. Current Trends
• Overall levels of volunteering are stable
• Today’s data shows that rates of volunteering have not changed:
• 38% of people reported they had formally volunteered at least once a year in 2017-
18.
• One in five (22%) of people reported they volunteered once a month, a figure that
remains unchanged from last year
• People aged 25-34 years old are the least likely to formally volunteer, only 15%
volunteering once a month.
• The highest rates of volunteering can be found among the 65-74 year olds, with 29%
volunteering once a month and 42% at least once a year.
• Despite previous increases in volunteering rates among young people (16-24 year
olds), the new data shows that in 2017/18 levels of formal volunteering at least once
a year are similar to overall rates for the whole population and only slightly higher
for regular involvement (24% vs 22% overall).

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Local Picture - Volunteering by Age
# Volunteers

5. Current Trends
• Volunteering rates are higher in rural and less deprived areas
• People living in more deprived areas are less likely to volunteer
formally.
• In 2017/18, 15% volunteered regularly in the most deprived areas of
England compared with 29% in the least deprived.
• There is also a divide between rural and urban areas: 29% of people
living in rural areas volunteer formally on a monthly basis versus 21%
of people in urban areas.
• These trends are unchanged from last year.

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Local picture - Volunteering by Postal Area
90

7. Why do people volunteer?
• ‘Wanting to do good’ remains the most important reason to volunteer
• In 2017/18, improving things and helping others remains the most
common reason why people get involved:
• 46% of people say that is why they volunteer.
• About a third (31%) of people said they gave time because the cause was important
to them.
• Having spare time is an important reason for people to get involved (25%)
but also a barrier to involvement
• One in two people (51%) said that work commitments are a barrier to volunteering
• More than one third (37%) said they do other things in their spare time – up from
35% in 2016/17.

8. Routes into Volunteering
• People who volunteer at least once a year for a club or organisation
most often found their volunteering opportunity through someone
else already involved in that group or organisation (48%).
• Other common routes to volunteering were being a service user of the group
or organisation (23%),
• Through school, college or university (22%).
• 10% of people find out about volunteering opportunities online,
reporting they found their roles on the internet or organisational
websites.
• Finding out from local events and sources is somewhat more common
(between 2% and 9%). UK Civil Society Almanac May 2018

9. Which roles are most popular?
• 57% of the people who volunteer formally do so with a sports club or
group, making them the most popular organisations.
• Fundraising and running events are the most popular volunteering
activities of formal volunteers, with 44% organising or helping to run an
event or activity and 40% being involved in raising money.
• Nearly one in three of those who volunteered formally in the past year
carried out activities to get others involved.
• Giving advice is the most common form of giving unpaid help to others,
with 42% of people who gave unpaid help in the last year doing so.
• Campaigning (7%) and representing (11%) are under the least popular
activities of formal volunteers.

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Local Picture - Activities Gap Analysis
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Local Picture - Interests Gap Analysis
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12. Why do people stop volunteering?
• By far the most commonly cited reason for people to stop volunteering:
• Lack of time due to changing home or work circumstances (51%)
• 14% of respondents also mentioned the more specific issue of it taking up too much time
• Almost a quarter (24%) of people said that they only got involved in a one-off event or
activity.
• Other reasons for people to stop their involvement included moving away from
the area (12%) and health problems or old age (11%).
• Results of a 2014 Volunteer Managers Survey (500 participated)
• Notable dips in the 35-44 year olds (raising families) and in the 75+ group.
• Reasons to volunteer, huge increase in improving CVs, 81%, and developing new
and existing skills, 72% / 53%.
• Younger volunteers wanted new skills, older volunteers were looking for giving
something back, friendship and company.

13. Future trends
• By 2033 25% of the population will be aged 65+.
• The Commission on the Voluntary Sector and Ageing was set up in 2013 to
look specifically at this problem and in their March 2015 report they said
that the voluntary sector isn’t ready for this opportunity. They estimate
that the value of volunteering by older people in the UK is expected to be
worth more than £15bn by 2020, £5bn more than it was worth in 2010.
• Zero hours contracts and the ‘gig’ economy can make it difficult to commit
to regular volunteering. Similarly short term tenancies (private landlords)
see tenants not becoming involved in their communities and voluntary
activities. (Colin Rochester, Trends in Volunteering 2018).

14. Future trends
• The rise of the single person household
• New ways of volunteering – less time driven and more ‘cause’
focussed. People seeking more experiences and rewards, Dutch
organisations now refer to this as the ‘revolving door’ approach.
• A 2014 survey of Volunteer Managers said that 80% working on the
front line agreed that volunteers are now more aware of what they
want from their experience. There’s no need to abandon all
traditional volunteering roles but there needs to be some creativity
and flexibility applied.

15. Future trends
• Personalisation is not incorporating every whim but understanding each
volunteer is an individual, working together to get the best from their
talents.
• There are benefits of stating a beginning, middle and end to a volunteer
role, so they feel clear to what they are signing up for and it doesn’t feel
like a lifelong commitment. This doesn’t stop a long ongoing commitment
but could help maintain enthusiasm with a variety of tasks.
• Possibly building in goals and milestones to give a sense of purpose and
making it an activity between volunteer and supervisor. Would you enjoy a
job where tasks were arbitrarily assigned and professional objectives
dictated without any feedback?

16. Future trends
• Baby Boomers are the children of the 1960’s. They are highly capable,
strong-minded individuals and how they work with you is determined by
them as well as you. They challenge the traditional volunteer model.
Nationally, some 14 million people – 22 per cent of the population – are
classed as baby boomers in North Norfolk it’s 29.71 per cent, The Telegraph
2014.
• Generations X 1966-76 often characterised by high levels of scepticism.
They’re the squeezed middle generation with high demands on their time.
• Generation Y 1977-1994 incredibly sophisticated technology wise and
immune to most traditional marketing pitches. (Trends in Volunteering,
Rochester 2018).

17. Future trends
• Kristen Stephenson, Volunteer Development Manager at NCVO
• “Many charities failed to take into account the fact that people’s
engagement was an ongoing journey that depended on what else was
happening in their lives.”
• "It might mean we might need to change our mentality a bit from one
that recruits volunteers to do a very specific role that we define, to
one where we enable people to give their time and talent”
• “So it might be that we are seen as volunteer enablers rather than
volunteer managers in the future."

18. Future trends
• Voluntary Norfolk - Volunteer Passport
• Sustainability can include:
Target your recruitment, one size does not fit all
Engage and involve volunteers don’t ‘use’ them
How do you involve your current volunteers?
Find out about your volunteer’s motivations and how they change
Does the role need to be bite-sized?
When they leave make it a positive experience

19. The Volunteer Portal
• Last year we invested in a new online volunteering portal, Volunteer
Connect, in the first year we know that:
• 372 opportunities listed by 296 VCSE orgs
• 1,138 volunteers registered and 896 registered in the Volunteer Bank
• 1,323 expressions of interest to volunteer
• We get 1,500 unique visitors to the portal every month
• A key element of the investment was the database that sits behind it
– this means we can monitor trends and identify gaps