Everyone’s a winner when volunteering is done well
THE 1916 centenary has caused a great sense of reflection across Ireland. People are taking a step back and thinking about where we are now as a nation and reflecting on the changes we have gone through over the years.
Something that has shaped this country, and will continue to do so in the future, is volunteering. We are one of the best countries in the world at volunteering, ranked number one in Europe and tenth in the world in terms of per capita volunteer hours.
It is no exaggeration to say that Ireland as we know it couldn’t exist without volunteers — imagine the empty sports stadiums, the unmanned helplines for vulnerable people, the empty youth clubs without volunteers.
But the nature of volunteering has changed over the last 100 years, and will change even more in the next 100. And it’s not just the term ‘volunteer’ that means something different now, than it did a 100 years ago.
Firstly, there is a growing interest in skilled volunteering. At the onset of the recession, a lot of people embraced volunteering as a way to develop their skills or gain experience in a new area. This led to a lot of highly skilled individuals giving their time and making a big impact on not-for-profit organisations.
While unemployment is thankfully decreasing each month, skilled volunteering has become very popular, and there is a growing number of individuals who want to undertake this type of volunteering to support local organisations they are passionate about.
When I refer to ‘skilled volunteering’ I am referring to highly skilled professional support, for example advice on business plans, communication strategies and IT.
Secondly, the way people want to volunteer is different: people have less spare time; they are moving more and communities are more transient; and some would argue that we all have shorter attention spans. People want to volunteer, but they want more flexible, short-term roles.
Thirdly, the demand from volunteers is higher than the supply of volunteer roles. On our national database of volunteer opportunities I-VOL, we currently have just under 3,000 volunteer roles looking for almost 29,000 volunteers. But we have over 75,000 people who have registered on the database. There are more volunteers than volunteer roles.
If we want to remain one of the best countries in the world at volunteering, we have to address these three challenges. Organisations that involve and depend on volunteers need to meet the increasing demand for skilled, flexible volunteer roles.
That’s why during National Volunteering Week this year (16-22 May) we are encouraging organisations to think outside the box about how they can engage skilled volunteers.
Here at Volunteer Ireland, we are trying to practice what we preach and engage more skilled volunteers ourselves.
For example, as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programme, Deloitte have an ‘Impact Day’ every year where their employees put their skills to use as volunteers for various charities.
Volunteer Ireland was lucky enough to be selected last year and we spent a full day with 15 Deloitte consultants who advised us on our advocacy, communications and corporate engagement. As a small charity with less than 10 staff we wouldn’t have been able to afford one consultant, let alone 15.
The day we spent with these skilled volunteers was invaluable to our work. And the volunteers themselves got a lot out of it, with one describing it as his favourite day in the company so far.
Skilled volunteering can occur on a smaller scale too. Last year, Volunteer Ireland had a volunteer design a new logo for a project we were working on. It was a short project that needed specific expertise we didn’t have in house. Our volunteer was a graduate looking to develop her portfolio, so it was a perfect fit.
And we’re delighted to be working with our partner for this year’s National Volunteering Week, Salesforce.org, to help engage their senior managers in skilled volunteering.
Later in the year we’ll be organising ‘Genius Days’ and ‘Business Coaching’, matching their skilled employee volunteers with organisations that need help with strategic and business planning.
Any non-profit organisation can benefit hugely from skilled volunteers. But there are a few key things to keep in mind. Most importantly, skilled volunteering should never be used to replace a paid member of staff. For example, if you are looking for a skilled IT volunteer, it should complement rather than replace whatever IT resources you already have in house.
Another challenge to keep in mind is that many charities that could benefit hugely from skilled volunteers, have simply never considered it. Sometimes that’s because the volunteer programme sits as a small ‘nice to have’ programme that’s not at the heart of the organisation.
Getting the board, CEO and senior management involved in thinking about skilled volunteering will help open up new opportunities and ideas.
Or it may be that the organisation doesn’t realise that it’s OK to ask for skilled volunteers: we spoke recently to a charity that has involved two skilled volunteers with great success, but the manager said he felt ‘cheeky’ when originally putting the call out for volunteers. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth.
Another thing to recognise is that one of the biggest things that charities lack is time. A lot of charities are small, with just a few people doing the work of many. Some organisations don’t have the time to even think about how they could benefit from a skilled volunteer, let alone actually going about getting one. We understand this challenge and as a small charity ourselves, we’ve been there. But what might seem like a big time investment at the start will pale in comparison to the long-term rewards.
If you’re concerned about the initial time commitment a good starting point is to contact your local Volunteer Centre. They can help you think through how you might involve volunteers in new ways, assist you in developing a role description and get that up on our database — where thousands of people are looking for new types of volunteer roles.
The potential for charities to benefit from involving skilled volunteers is limitless. However, it will require some thought and even change on the part of charities. Being prepared to make the initial time investment, meeting out of hours and accepting volunteers for short-term projects are all ways to ensure success.
Volunteer Ireland and our network of Volunteer Centres are all small charities ourselves. We understand your challenges and are here to support you. I encourage everyone to seize this great opportunity with both hands and maybe I’ll be writing in another 10 years from a very different perspective.
