How can charities overcome a decline in volunteering?

Why has there been a decline in volunteering?

‘The Community Life Survey’ provides key insights into the decline in volunteering and the reasons behind this trend.  

According to the survey, ‘volunteering’ depicts actions that can be broken down into two categories  consisting of: 

• Formal volunteering – Those who have given unpaid help to groups or clubs, such as providing group leadership, administration support, or mentoring.
• Informal volunteering – Those providing unpaid help to individuals who are not a relative, such as babysitting, mobility assistance, and personal shopping.  

However, even when these volunteer types are combined, there has been a significant drop in volunteer participation from 2013/2014 to 2021/2022. This is the case for both monthly and yearly participation: 

• 10% decline in volunteers who participate in at least one volunteer action in a month 
• 15% decline in volunteers who participate in at least one volunteer action in the past 12 months  

This is further supported by the ‘UK Giving Report’ which shares that volunteering has declined over time, falling from 16% in 2018 to 13% in 2022. This represents approximately 1.6 million fewer people volunteering compared to five years ago. 

While a potentially alarming trend for charities looking for volunteers, ‘The Community Life Survey’ does go on to provide the reasons behind this, which can help to develop future strategies.  

The following potential factors are possible scenarios based on the reasons provided in the survey for opting not to participate in volunteer work in 2021/22: 

• Cost of living crisis – 49% of people stated that work commitments are their reason for not participating in volunteering. 
• Prioritising hobbies – 31% claimed that they chose to partake in other activities during their leisure time over volunteering. 
• Lack of awareness of volunteering opportunities – 15% of the survey participants shared that they were unaware of volunteering opportunities. 
• Post-pandemic concerns - 14% of people who took part in the survey stated that their reason for avoiding volunteering was due to either pandemic restrictions or concerns. 

How can charities looking for volunteers overcome a decline in volunteering? 

At face value, these surveys may paint a bleak picture. However, it could be viewed as an opportunity, as these statistics highlight the importance of offering a positive volunteer experience that removes potential obstacles from the potential volunteer journey. 

Where challenges such as those outlined in the previous section arise, it’s crucial to adapt your strategy accordingly to ensure you are able to continue attracting and recruiting volunteers. A solution-focused, best practice approach, supported by user-friendly software, can therefore help to achieve these goals. 

Below, we outline potential steps you can take to improve volunteer engagement and provide some examples of how Assemble’s functionality can be applied to help boost your volunteering. 

Clearly advertise your roles 

As the survey outlines, many people simply aren’t aware of volunteering opportunities, most likely due to a lack of visibility. Charities looking for volunteers should therefore prioritise investing in digital, with a dedicated webpage that clearly lists your organisation’s current opportunities and provides a home to both promote and gain insights into how your recruitment strategy is working.  

Visibility isn’t enough however, as you should ensure these advertised roles are visually appealing, while providing an insight into the benefits of the respective role and key information such as your charity’s background, the impact volunteers can bring, desired volunteer skills, shift durations, and locations.  

With this crucial information presented in an engaging format, it provides a great first step in gaining your intended audience’s attention, allowing them to make an informed decision as to whether the role(s) align with their interests and availability. 

Invest in volunteer recruitment software 

Assemble integrates as a customisable microsite within your website, enabling you to create a  recruitment page that seamlessly fits with your organisation’s branding. Within Assemble, use templates to generate opportunities with a consistent format, while clearly outlining all of the key details such as the benefits in applying, potential shift hours, and the role’s location.  

Key benefits therefore include: 

• Easy to generate recruitment adverts – no coding or IT team required 
• Shareable hyperlink to each opportunity 
• Track activity and performance of opportunities via Assemble analytics 
• Remain up to date and ensure that you only advertise in line with recruitment needs 

The combination of relevant information in an accessible format and tracking and reporting capabilities will not only provide a home to attract new volunteers, but will inform you of any barriers or blockages to recruiting volunteers along the way. 

Find out more about creating an engaging volunteer opportunity  

Streamline the application process 

As a significant number of people actively opt for other hobbies during their leisure time, following the previous point, ensuring that your roles are both clearly advertised and easily shared can assist in engaging prospective volunteers.  

However, once you do gain their attention, it’s crucial that you don’t lose these prospects at the first hurdle. A sensible approach would be to review the application process, ensuring that it is relevant to the role you’re recruiting for. For this to be possible, it would require an accessible system that can swiftly collect the prospective volunteer’s details.  

This avoids a complicated application experience that alienates a demographic of people who are likely to look elsewhere at the first obstacle they encounter. 

Implement accessible application forms 

At Assemble, we remove the barriers surrounding volunteer applications by offering a simplified application process. Consisting of an embedded, brand-friendly form on your website - customised to each role if you choose - it can be accessed via desktop or mobile.  

Our process avoids importing data to a separate system when creating the volunteer record, allowing the data to move seamlessly from the respective application form. This can avoid complicating the volunteer journey, as there is no requirement to share these details more than once.  

From here, the applicant can complete the recruitment process at their leisure, while having full vision of the status of their application. Once an applicant applies for a role, they are gently encouraged - by automated communications - to continue in their volunteer journey, completing any vetting until processed for onboarding.  

These automated workflows help reduce potential drop-offs and ensure that applicants who would otherwise have failed to complete their applications, successfully get over the line. 

Discover more about how to increase volunteer applications 

Allow volunteering to fit busy lifestyles 

With people seemingly having less spare time, it’s more likely for them to volunteer around a schedule that suits their lifestyle. If you don’t already do so, appealing options to interest prospective volunteers can include: 

• Micro-volunteering roles - Where the volunteer is able to engage with short-term, low commitment opportunities that won’t take up as much of their time  
• Remote volunteer roles – Whereby volunteers are able to engage with their roles such as telephone befriending or taking on a local ambassador role 

While potential volunteers can be capable of working set hours, it’s beneficial to provide them with the flexibility to choose their own roles, shifts and tasks in accordance with their availability and preferences. Taking this approach can therefore make your voluntary roles more appealing as it allows the respective volunteer to commit to roles or shifts that they are confident of fulfilling. 

Empower your volunteers with self-serve functionality   

Assemble empowers volunteers to log in, pick up tasks, discover the latest news, opportunities, events, and shifts, with the ability to take control of their participation. For example, a volunteer can see where you have gaps in your rota and choose to volunteer more to help out when required. 

Volunteers also have the ability to complete onboarding tasks, upskill by accessing training materials or complete expenses. All of this can be done around a person's existing commitments for a more flexible approach that suits their lifestyle. 

Find out more about self-serve functionality 

Engage and nurture your volunteers 

In addition to encouraging people to get involved with voluntary work, it’s equally as important to ensure that you retain current volunteers. Communication is always key, so consistent engagement and general recognition of your volunteers is crucial to a high retention rate.  

Providing feedback, news updates, or just a simple ‘hi’ can be the difference between maintaining a volunteer’s interest as opposed to them feeling neglected. 

Communicate within a central location 

Assemble consists of a secure, central hub where volunteers can interact with their peers and respective managers, while also gaining access to a selection of resources. Within this centralised location, volunteers can remain informed, building their understanding of your organisation’s aims and objectives. 

Assemble allows you to successfully interact with your volunteers by: 

• Building a library of shareable resources and content 
• Assigning (or making available) relevant tasks in relation to their role 
• Directly communicating via email, SMS, internal messaging and forums 
• Rewarding hard work with virtual trophies, badges, and certificates 

By ensuring that your volunteers are clear about their role through regular communication, while meeting their motivations and gaining recognition for this, it substantially increases the likelihood of long-term volunteer retention and positive referrals. 

Find out more about how to keep volunteers engaged 

Avoid a decline in volunteering 

Charities looking for volunteers should undoubtedly take the statistics provided by these surveys seriously. However, while it highlights a potentially challenging period for the Not For Profit sector regarding a decline in volunteering, it provides crucial insight into how your organisation can become increasingly appealing with a well-executed strategy. 

Why not implement volunteer-centric software to help support you and your volunteers? Assemble was built by volunteering development professionals and our insightful team are happy to support your journey and outline what can influence the costs.