Importance of Volunteering: The Cake Analogy

When describing the importance and, in particular, the perception of the importance of volunteering, my cake analogy has become quite popular. Well, everyone loves cake don’t they?

Volunteering is most commonly seen by wider society and decision-makers as a ‘nice to have’, like the icing on the cake of society. People will always say positive things about volunteering and that it should be celebrated but they often do not recognise just how important volunteering is.

By referring to volunteering as the icing on the cake it means people think of volunteering as something that makes society nicer but if you take it away you still have a good cake, i.e. a functioning society. The reality is, however, that if everyone who volunteers, whether formally or informally, stops volunteering tomorrow our society would fall apart very quickly.

Volunteering is not just about charities, volunteering is key in so many other areas of our society:

Health and care
Housing
Sports
Arts and culture
Education
Emergency response/Community resilience
Law and justice
Community groups, clubs & events
Faith/religion
Defence/military
Politics

Therefore, volunteering is not the icing on the cake of society, it is a key and essential ingredient of the cake itself.