Having dedicated my career to working within the volunteer space at a senior level, I wanted to share a few of the tips I gave at CharityConnect’s Connections Volunteer Coordinator event. I've highlighted three main areas that will explain the volunteer trends, and how you can develop a volunteer strategy that works for your organisation.

One thing to remember when looking at falling volunteer numbers is that context is key. Ask what’s going on around you, what’s going on for volunteers themselves? You need to think about how you can engage people in ways that are meaningful to them, not just to maximise your volunteer rate. Craft a volunteering offer that considers what people are telling you they want and find the sweet spot between that and what your service users/ beneficiaries need. 

Develop and deliver an inspiring proposition for volunteers that is: impactful, realistic, and relevant. You should begin to ask the following questions: what’s stopping them from getting involved? What might interest them in getting involved in the future? Try to be mindful of where your volunteers are, what they are doing and what motivates them.

You need to talk to people who aren’t your volunteers at the moment, not just your existing volunteers!

Taking the time to talk with your internal audience is as important as looking outward. Look at what they can tell you about what is and isn’t going well within your organisation. This will give you an idea of the elements you can tweak to your volunteering structure/strategy.

Having a volunteering model that has the infrastructure to engage with your volunteers is very important. At British Red Cross, we regularly do volunteer surveys which creates a structured way to engage our volunteers in those meaningful conversations about the future of the organisation. 

These things aren’t the be-all and end-all, but you need to know this to ensure your volunteering model stands the test of time, is sustainable and also gives you credibility in your area of expertise. 

As with most charities, COVID was a unique experience that we all had to deal with in ways that made sense to each charity.  With British Red Cross, the response was significant. As a global Movement, we supported1 in 30 people who were impacted by COVID. We worked everywhere from food deliveries to medications and ensuring people were able to safely get home from the hospital. British Red Cross kept its operations going, and we ensured that we could be there for those that truly needed us.  

Looking back, between 2019/2020, we saw an interesting peak in the volunteer numbers—this is because many people were finding new and creative ways to volunteer within their local community. However, to then look at the volunteer numbers between 2021/2022, these figures demonstrate the lowest volunteer rate to date. (Community Life Survey, 2021/22).

Despite trends in volunteering, our volunteer numbers have held up, which shows that people still want to support us. Yes, the trends may be worrying and concerning, but goodwill and the desire for people to give their time is still there. So to proceed, you need to look at how you harness and capture that. Always keep in mind that there was a time before your organisation existed and on the whole, most volunteer involving organisations, no matter how large, were started by volunteers, regardless of the volunteering trends at the time!

If you would like access to the resources I have used within my talk, please DM Ocean, and she will happily forward this along.