Volunteering in Scottish

Charities

Kathleen Doyle

kathleen.doyle@vds.org.uk

Volunteer Scotland: February 2013

The Charity Survey 2012: An Overview

• What? The first research of its kind in Scotland; a representative survey of charities exploring volunteering.

• Who? Charities delivering services and operating at local authority level or in local communities.

• When? The survey was carried out between December 2011 and February 2012; 592 out of possible 1000 responded (59% response rate).

• Why? Results will inform strategic policy debates and will help improve the services available to support volunteering.

Why is the Charity Survey 2012 important?

• The landscape in which charities (and third sector generally) operate has been changing rapidly:

• Economic - low or negative growth and public sector cuts –where charities are doing more with less.

• Policy – reform of public services and increasing demand for charities to provide public services.

• Legislative - proposed Community Empowerment Bill to encourage local people to do things for themselves, in part by transferring ownership of public-sector assets to local communities.

• Economic, policy and legislative changes assume that local people and charities can do more; but is this a sound assumption?

Summary

Volunteers are key to driving and sustaining all local charitable activity

•

45% of all local

charities were supported

by volunteers.

55% of all local

charities were supported

and run entirely by

volunteers. That is, they had

no paid staff

Summary

Levels of volunteering remained stable for

most charities...

...but larger charities and charities with

paid staff were more likely to report a

decline in the number of people

approaching to volunteer

Summary

Demand for volunteers was high

61%

of charities aspired to

involve more

volunteers...

...but this aspiration was

not something that

many charities thought

would happen

Summary

The majority of charities said their volunteers

did generic activities; larger charities were more

likely to have more defined roles for their

volunteers

Word of mouth was the most popular method

used to involve volunteers; it’s also thought to

be the most effective method to find suitable

volunteers

THE RESULTS

Volunteers are key in

driving and sustaining

local charitable activity

Over half of all

charities are run and

supported entirely by

volunteers. That is,

there is no paid staff.

Most of these were small

charities, with 80% having

less than £25,000 turnover

a year.

These charities tend to rely

on membership (39%) or

fundraising (35%) as their

main source of income, and

less on local authority

funding (7%).

These charities were more

likely to be based in rural

areas; two thirds of

charities in rural areas had

no paid staff, compared to

50% in urban areas

55%

45%

No paid staff Paid staff

There was little change in levels of volunteering in

charities: over two thirds of charities said the number of

volunteers they involved had stayed the same as the year before

Similarly, the proportion of people volunteering

in Scotland has held steady for the last 5

years (Scottish Household Survey,

2012)

18%

69%

13%

Number of volunteers involved has...

Decreased No change Increase

The majority of charities (72%) reported that the

number of people approaching the organisation to

volunteer had stayed the same, in comparison to

the previous year

Over 7 in 10 charities reported that the number of people approaching their organisation to volunteer had stayed the same as the year before

21%

72%

7%

Number of people approaching to volunteer has…

Decrease No Change Increase

But, some local charities were more likely than others to report a decrease...

Largercharities were more likely to report a decline

in the number of people approaching the

organisation to volunteer

29%of larger charities,

compared to

14%of small charities

14%

28%

81%

63%

5%

9%

No paid staff

Paid staff

Decrease No change Increase

Almost 3 in 10 charities with

paid staff reported a decrease

Charities with paid staff were also more likely to

report a decline in the number of people approaching

the organisation to volunteer...

While 14% of charities with

no paid staff reported a

decrease

Demand for

volunteers was

high among all

charities

Decrease No change Increase

39% NO CHANGE 61% INCREASE

More than 6 in 10

charities would like

to see an increase

in the number of

volunteers involved

But....

...charities were not

optimistic about this

actually happening

6% 68 % No change 26% Increase

Decrease No change Increase

Only 26% of

charities think

they will involve

more volunteers

in the next year

Why? Well we asked charities about the volunteer challenges they felt they would face in the next year...

48%said ‘finding suitable

volunteers’ would also be a

challenge

51%said ‘keeping suitable

volunteers involved with us’

would be a challenge, and...

Other survey research

also suggests that

recruiting volunteers is

an important issue

When considering all the issues facing

charities in Scotland today, including funding

or running costs, recruitment and sustaining

membership levels...

Source: External Stakeholder Research (2011) OSCR

...one third of all charities felt that

recruitment of volunteers was the

most or second most important issue

they faced.

Some charities also felt they would experience

challenges in attracting Board Members in the next year

22% of all charities felt

‘attracting new Board

Members’ would be a

challenge

19%of all charities felt

‘attracting new Board

Members with the right

skills’ would be a challenge

Larger charities and charities

with paid staff were more likely

to report this:

One third of charities with

paid staff, compared to 12%

with no paid staff; and

27% of larger charities,

compared to 14% of small

charities

8%

27%Funding cuts affecting support for

volunteering

Above £25k Below £25k

27% of larger charities felt

that funding cuts would

affect support for

volunteering, in comparison

to 8% of small charities

Larger charities were also more

likely to identify supporting

volunteers as a key challenge

in the coming year.

For example...

Supporting could mean many

things like advising,

mentoring, listening to

volunteers

What did all charities say their volunteers do?

The top 5 activities were:

1: Generally helping out (78%)

2: Helping to organise or run events and activities (74%)

3: Doing whatever is required (61%)

4: Raising money (56%)

5: Committee work (52%)

This also reflects the

top 5 activities

identified by

volunteers in the

Scottish Household

Survey (2012)

5%

17%

Above £25k Below £25k

17% of larger charities said their volunteers provide ‘direct services (e.g. meals on wheels, doing odd jobs)’, compared to 5% of smaller charities

Larger charities were more likely to report that their volunteers carried out more defined activities

For example....

12%

34%

Above £25k Below £25k

Another example of larger charities involving volunteers in more defined activities is....

One third of larger charities said their volunteers did

‘visiting, buddying or befriending’, compared to

12% of small charities

Note: All volunteer activities and differences by annual income can be found in Table ****

Few charities said their volunteers were

involved in volunteer management...

18%of all charities said their volunteers

helped in ‘managing, organising or

coordinating other unpaid helpers’...

We asked charities what channels they had

used to attract new volunteers, and ‘word of

mouth’ was by far the most popular...

82%

of all charities

used it in the

previous year

OSCR’s External

Stakeholder Survey

(2011) also suggests that

word of mouth was used

extensively to address

issues of recruiting

volunteers

‘Directly asking people to help’

was also a popular method, with

of charities having used it to attract new volunteers in the last year

70%

3% used social media

Fewer charities used online

methods to attract new

volunteers....

22%used a website

Online methods could mean

many things like their own or

others websites, or social

media like facebook and

twitter...

But some charities were less likely to use TSIs

than others: charities with no paid staff; small

charities; and rural based charities. For

example...

19%of all charities used

Third Sector Interfaces

to attract new

volunteers

...10% of charities with no paid staff used TSIs,

compared to 30% of charities with paid staff

10%

30%

No Paid Staff

Paid Staff

...13% of smaller charities used TSIs to attract new

volunteers, compared to over a quarter of larger

charities

And...

13%

27%

Below £25k

Above £25k

...just over one in ten rural based charities used TSIs to

attract new volunteers, compared to one quarter of

urban based charities

24%

8%

Urban

Rural

38% said ‘directly

asking people’

42%said ‘word of mouth’ was

the most effective

channel to find suitable

volunteers

Which channels did charities think were

most effective in helping to find suitable

volunteers?

Key questions for policy

•The survey found that over half of local charities are supported and

run entirely by volunteers.

Are these charities

providing services to meet

unmet local need? And

should they?

Is there sufficient support (e.g. advice, learning, resources, funding) available to these

volunteers?

Key questions for policy

•This survey and other evidence suggests that participating in formal

volunteering is not increasing...

Are assumptions of

increased participation

underlying Public Service

Reform and the proposed

Community Empowerment

Bill sound?

Is it likely that people can and

will step forward to volunteer

locally?

Key questions for practice

•There is very much a traditional, formal approach to volunteer support

and management in Scotland; focusing on recruiting and retaining

volunteers in defined roles...Yet we found:

• Charities aspire to involve more volunteers, but are not optimistic this

will happen - perhaps because they faced challenges in finding and

keeping suitable volunteers; and

• The majority of charities reported their volunteers did generic

activities; with larger charities tending to have more defined roles

Is it time to challenge

this approach to

volunteer

management?

Should we focus more

on volunteers’

motivations and

interests first, then take

the opportunity to build

more defined roles?

Key questions for practice

•We found that word of mouth was the most popular method used to

involve volunteers; and was also thought to be the most effective method

to find suitable volunteers

Can online or digital

services help?

What can VDS and

others do to support and

improve ‘word of mouth’

as a method to involve

volunteers?

• Learning Services Review: in April 2013, VDS will launch its new Learning Services for volunteers and volunteer involving organisations, providing generic and tailored learning packages in a variety of formats.

• We are currently developing our new VDS Research Strategy for April 2013 and beyond: VDS will be talking to individuals and organisations to feed into its development, ensuring its research is relevant, timely and useful in order to have an impact on current policy and practice.

• We will develop a new Volunteer Charter in order to recognise the significant contribution of volunteering towards a wealthier, healthier, safer and stronger, smarter, and greener Scotland.

What next for Volunteer Scotland?

• These slides present the top-line results

• Results are based on a paper survey of 592 local charities;

a random stratified sample of 1000 local charities, operating

in up to two local authority areas and undertaking activities,

was selected from the OSCR database

• Sample is representative based on income and location

• Respondents completed the survey between December

2011 and February 2012.

• Where results do not sum to 100%, this may be due to

computer rounding, multiple response, or the exclusion of

don’t know or other categories

• Results are based on all respondents unless otherwise

stated

• Full technical note and all data tables can be found @

www.vds.org.uk

Technical Details

References

•Jura Consultants. 2011. Scottish Charities 2011. Dundee: Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator

•

•TNS-BRMB. 2011. External Stakeholder Research 2011. Dundee: Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator

•Scottish Government. 2012. Scotland's People Annual Report: Results from 2011 Scottish Household Survey. Edinburgh: Scottish Government.