Dominic Pinkney's World of Volunteering

Featured

UK Employee Volunteering 2022-23 Report

I am very proud to be launching today the UK Employee Volunteering 2022-23 Report produced by non-for-profit social enterprise Works4U, a specialist in employee volunteering.

It provides genuinely new analysis and revealing insights into employee volunteering from the perspective of employees. Despite corporate volunteering being carried out for decades there is little analysis and data, let alone behind the scenes experiences of how it happens. Until now!

The report (free to download on Works4U’s website) reveals, for example:

25% did not know how much time their employer allowed
94% stated employers should do more to promote volunteering

However, the report also shows that employers are doing much more to organise employee volunteering but they are not keeping up with the demand from their employees.

There has been a perception shift by employees who in the past may have seen the opportunity to volunteer during work as something special and a nice to have, now see it as a business as usual activity and that it is odd or wrong if an employer does not offer it.

Employer Supported Volunteering (ESV), as it is referred to in the voluntary and community sector (VCS), has nowhere near reached its potential and the increase levels in employee volunteering is a positive trend but work needs to be carried out within the VCS to build capacity and skills to harness this. Works4U is trying to achieve this through the national ESV Network it has set up and manages.

The evidence of the report also shows that employers need to promote their employee volunteering programmes more effectively as otherwise they are not reaping the many business benefits of having one. As well as being an effective mechanism to support employee wellbeing and employee engagement, it helps with talent acquisition, talent recruitment and demonstrates to clients, partners, stakeholders, investors, supply chain that your business takes ESG, CSR, social impact and social responsibility very seriously.

Finally, a huge and massive thank you to everyone who helped make this report happen, it is no small thing for a non-profit like Works4U who punches far above its weight. A big thank you to all those who took the time to complete the survey and to promote it to others. The biggest thank you goes to my talented colleague Martyna who designed the report, including some original illustrations.

The UK Employee Volunteering 2022-23 Report can be downloaded here, I hope you find it interesting.

Featured

Is Volunteering Dying?

If this sounds like one of those deliberately provocative ‘clickbait’ headlines, then I’m sorry to have to say this is a real question being asked in the voluntary and community sector. Only this week I got an email from someone struggling to recruit volunteers for an event who told me, ‘volunteering is a dying trait’.

Without volunteers there is no voluntary sector.

This is, of course, the bleeding obvious. It is so obvious, it seems, that it is completely forgotten and taken for granted.

Volunteering is the lifeblood of the voluntary and community sector. From informal gifts of time through helping a neighbour or at a community event through to formal roles such as Trustees, volunteering is ESSENTIAL to the sector functioning.

If volunteering is dying, then the result is the sector is dying. If the sector is dying, then communities are weakened and unsupported increasing demand on public services that are either already at capacity or do not exist as that is what our sector does. Bottom line, if volunteering is dying then everyone should be worried.

All across the UK, towns, cities and rural areas are reporting significant drops in the levels of formal volunteering:

Volunteer Now published their findings on the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on volunteering in Northern Ireland in December 2022 stating, ‘The emphasis and frequency with which volunteer recruitment was raised by interviewees was concerning.’ They also report the negative impact this is having on the mental health of volunteer managers.
Volunteer Scotland has been carrying out some great research into volunteering and how the cost-of-living crisis has impacted Scotland’s volunteer involving organisations (VIOs). Their February 2023 report has some important analysis and I would direct readers to the Key Findings on page 12 of their report.
NCVO, the umbrella body for the voluntary and community sector in England, in December 2022 also reported a lot of its members are having issues and problems recruiting and retaining volunteers.
I co-chair the London Volunteer Centre Network and members across London are reporting issues around volunteer recruitment and retention. The Hammersmith & Fulham Volunteer Intelligence Report (Mar 2023) also highlights that the biggest issue affecting local VIOs is recruiting new volunteers.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of evidence, but hopefully enough to convince that there is a real decline in formal volunteering and that this is causing real problems for charities and the communities they serve.

The cost-of-living crisis is clearly a large contributing factor, but to think volunteering issues will disappear once that has passed is to misunderstand the situation.

Volunteering has serious structural and systemic issues which have been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis but will remain, or be worse, once the crisis over:

Trends for volunteers and VIOs moving in opposite directions – this has been happening for a few years and was accelerated by the pandemic. VIOs are increasingly more safeguarding conscious with long on-boarding processes to train and support volunteers to carry out their roles. As a result, they are naturally keen to have volunteers who will commit to giving significant amount of time over a long period. Whereas those interested in volunteering increasingly want to do it on their terms, when it is convenient for them, on an ad hoc basis and as soon as possible. Although VIOs are making some efforts for more flexible volunteer roles, they have a long way to go.
Post-pandemic volunteering is different. As well as the cost-of-living, there are many factors that have impacted volunteering, such as:
(i) Many older people who volunteered in-person have not returned to their volunteer roles;
(ii) Perception that the pandemic is over and so volunteers not needed so much;
(iii) Fatigue and burnout of volunteers who have already given so much of their time;
(iv) Desire to volunteer remotely and/or less inclination for in-person volunteering
Lack of funding to support volunteer programmes – to manage effective volunteer programmes that recruit and retain volunteers well you need good volunteer management resources. The economic squeeze of VIOs over the past 10 or more years has led to a reduction in these resources and, in many cases, managing volunteers is tacked onto existing roles rather than it being a dedicated roles.
Voluntary sector infrastructure funding has reduced in real terms. The Feb 2023 360 Giving report highlights how VCS infrastructure funding, in the last 12 years has reduced, in real terms, compared to the rest of the sector.
Weak national bodies – the national agencies which represent and champion volunteering and volunteer infrastructure do not have the clout and influence to persuade national and local government to invest in this area.
The economic value of both volunteering and the infrastructure needed to keep it prospering and responding to needs is not understood. Obviously, local authorities and funders do understand it has a value, but they do not understand what they receive, in monetary terms, for their investment. Because of this, investment has reduced and, in some areas, has ended (for example, very sad to hear of the closing of Volunteer Centre Swindon)

The Value of Volunteering?
If we can solve the issue of understanding the value of volunteering this will go a long way to help solving the other issues.

There is an often-used quote in our sector by Sherry Anderson, “Volunteers are not paid; not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless.” As much as I love the sentiment behind this, it is also extremely unhelpful as we live in a society where only things with a clear economic value are supported, developed and invested in.

The benefits of volunteering for the individual and communities are, I hope, well known. As well as the actual impact of the volunteering, for individuals, volunteering helps mental health, builds social and professional networks, develops skills and is fun. For communities, people giving a little of their time formally or informally makes them resilient, cohesive and nice places to live. However, the economic value for these benefits is unknown.

Martin Brookes, the CEO of London Plus (which champions charities and community groups in London), highlighted a useful example that illustrates this issue in a short article ‘A better way to value and think about charities’. To summarise, it describes how volunteers from Good Gym stepped in to deliver prescriptions during the pandemic, as the private sector did not want to do this, not only did this volunteering activity not count towards calculating our GDP, it reduces it, whereas when the private sector carries this task out, it increases GDP. It is just one very real example which shows that as well as the value and impact on our society and economy of volunteering is not being measured or counted, when it does happen it can create a negative effect on the financial measures currently used.

Although the article does not mention it, as it was not relevant for the point being made, but it was the infrastructure organisation Voluntary Action Camden who facilitated the connection between the GPs/pharmacies and Good Gym who provided the volunteers. This clearly shows the benefits of infrastructure organisations, but the monetary value of this very important facilitation and brokerage is also unknown.

Therefore, those who work in the sector, whether it local, regional or national infrastructure, need to quickly come up with some measures of value to demonstrate the importance of volunteering. If we do not, then it could lead to decisions being made to stop investing in volunteer infrastructure with the inevitable consequence of having to re-establish it again later which not only costs more in the long run but takes time to do and weakens the whole sector whilst this happens.

What can we actually do?

The reality of volunteering right now in the UK is not good and looks quite bleak given the structural and systemic issues, but we are not in an impossible situation. Understanding what the problems are is definitely part of being able to create a solution.

Waiting for the cost-of-living crisis to end is not the answer. We need to tackle the issue on multiple fronts and we all have a part to play in the solution.

Showing economic value of Volunteering
Even if they are imperfect, we need to start estimating the economic impact of volunteering and volunteer infrastructure. In his article referenced above, Martin Brookes states, ‘The Law Family Commission on Civil Society offers a large number of very practical recommendations about data. They offer the prospect of improving how we measure the value and contribution of people like the runners of GoodGym in Camden.’

Young People
Pro Bono Economics wrote an article in December 2022 asking, ‘Is 2023 set to be the year of the volunteer?’ highlighting that there could be a wave of new volunteers stating, ‘1 in 6 young people, aged 18-34, plan to start volunteering. At the time of writing (March 2023), we are not seeing a lot of this yet and some of the structural issues of volunteering, particularly lack of flexible volunteering, are likely holding this back. However, having said that, one Hammersmith & Fulham VIO reported ‘we need volunteers and have less applications from adults and more from young people.‘ So, as well as making volunteering more flexible we need to make changes so that more younger people can get involved.

Increased Awareness of Need of Volunteering
When people think there is a real need or crisis, they step up to volunteer. This has been proven. Right now, in general terms, no one really knows that there is a real need for volunteers.

Although many volunteer infrastructure organisations do very well with social media and communications, none of them have a loud enough voice for this current situation. These organisations need help from others with bigger voices such as local authorities, national bodies and the government to significantly raise the profile of the ask for volunteer support. For example, a national promotion but locally delivered would be very impactful. However, these need to be coordinated between national and local bodies to be effective as the poorly thought through Big Help Out has shown.

Local authorities can play a stronger role in amplifying the messages of volunteer infrastructure organisations and if they can work together on dedicated campaigns it can reach more people who could volunteer.

Conclusion

Volunteering is not dying, far from it, but it is injured. The need for effective healthcare, i.e. local and national volunteer infrastructure, has never been stronger.

Featured

Participaction – The new name for volunteering

I have been in denial. No, I am not doing a bad joke about a river in Egypt, but referring to my coming around to the notion that the word ‘volunteer’ is not as cool and sexy as it used to be. The concept of giving time to help others is still very much cool, it’s just that the word volunteer is not so much.

This is hard for me to accept. I am a passionate and determined proponent of volunteering and firmly believe and can demonstrate that volunteers, every day, change the world to make our communities better places. How can the notion of someone giving just a little bit of their busy lives to help someone else not be seen as amazing or cool?

The problem is that volunteering actually covers a vast range of activities but is often used to refer to something far more narrow, namely formal volunteering, i.e. a formal defined in detail volunteer role within a charity, usually involving the volunteer committing time regularly on an ongoing basis. The reality is that volunteering covers all giving of time, including informal volunteering such as being a good neighbour or baby-sitting for a friend, micro-volunteering such as Be My Eyes or ad hoc volunteering.

Although any giving of time is volunteering the core work of Volunteer Centres is focused on formal volunteering, acting as a much needed volunteer recruitment service for the thousands of great charities that desperately need the involvement of volunteers to support their service to the community. However, I strongly believe that Volunteer Centres should not be constrained by such a narrow field of work and that they can and should work to promote and develop all forms of volunteering.

In the last couple of years the word ‘participation’ has become more popular. There is a significant strengthening trend and desire to create a more participatory culture within communities where people feel they should and can be the part of a solution to a problem rather than simply writing a letter of complaint for their local authority to deal with. To help make communities more resilient and cohesive, there needs to be tools as well as a culture to enable people, organisations and businesses to work together to tackle priority social issues.

Although this type of participation or social action is, technically, very much volunteering it is not really seen as such by those who are doing it. I know of a couple of people who would actually hate and object to being described as someone who volunteers but they often give their time informally, which is still volunteering but they will not hear of it. Those in a street who campaign and fundraise to improve the environment and air quality in their area would probably not consider themselves volunteers, but yet they are.

So, instead do we say they are participating? The word participation is by itself too vague to be used. It’s not enough to say someone is participating, it needs to be stronger and suggest something positive, that it creates action leading to a change.

Put that all together and we have Participaction. Admittedly, the word looks better than it sounds, but it encapsulates exactly what is desired from volunteering today. Participaction covers both informal and formal volunteering that delivers positive action through a person participating in their local community. I am not suggesting abandoning the term ‘volunteering’ but sometimes new terms help focus motivations through aligning with current trends.

So Participaction is still volunteering but it’s framing it in a way that reflects the way people want to volunteer today. Whether it’s formal or informal, volunteering today needs to take a participaction approach to get high levels of engagement and support.

Businesses: 12 DOs and DON’Ts of Volunteering in the Community

With the rise in levels of employee volunteering, long may it continue, we are seeing marked differences between those who do it well and those who do it … hmm, less well.

Any business who gives its employees time to support their local community or other charity cause is alright in my book, but this sector of work and activity is now, at last, developing to be more impactful and sophisticated so to meet the aims of the business, the community and the employee volunteer together.

There are many businesses who do great and ever improving work and community initiatives, the ones we tend to hear about, but there are also many other businesses who only need to make a few adjustments in their approach and practice to achieve much better results and impact.

Just getting agreement and organising a particular date for staff to volunteer can be a huge undertaking, something the voluntary and charity sector often don’t appreciate, but here are a few general DOs and DON’Ts to help maximise the impact of the effort your business is making:

DON’T do super large team volunteer events (e.g. 200-300 volunteers) without the expectation that the options available and its impact will likely be very limited. Some would say DON’T EVER do such large volunteer events. A business should always be clear about its own objectives for participating, but an activity must come from a genuine community need to have an impact.

Therefore, DO consider splitting your group into teams that can meet a real community need.

DON’T expect to carry out a team volunteer event without some sort of budget. Businesses should never pay to volunteer, but like any event there is a lot of time spent in organising the situation to enable people to volunteer as well as the cost of materials and equipment that will likely be needed. If a business were to organise it themselves, which some businesses do, then they have to spend money on staff time which is more expensive than using a broker or working directly with the charity itself. Brokers and charities need to recover their costs of carrying out this work, as they have staff to pay too. It is occasionally possible for businesses to carry out such work without a charge, but in these cases this will be because the cost is being paid for by someone else (funded project, charity donations etc.).

So, DO have a budget for your employee volunteering as you recognise that the voluntary and charity sector also has costs to recover. If you don’t have a budget, that is okay, but you need to accept what you will be able to do is going to be very limited. The statement by the national Employer Supported Volunteering Network is helpful:

‘Companies or individuals should not have to pay to volunteer, however, where time and resources are needed to enable this volunteering to happen, charities and voluntary organisations should charge for this work to recover their costs.’

You can download the full national ESV Network statement explaining why business need a budget for volunteering events here.

A response to government departments and public sector organisations who say they cannot spend money on volunteering? If you spend money on other events such as training, team-building and staff development, then you should be able to spend money on volunteering events? You can develop your staff and do good at the same time.

DON’T back out or ‘postpone’ at the last minute. Volunteering will never be the business’s top priority and there will always be events and situations where other things take precedence, but once you commit to a date and a project you should stick to it unless it is a true business critical emergency. Backing out will damage your business’s reputation and credibility within the community.

When you DO commit to an event, consider a back-up plan for what to do if an important work situation arises. For example, are there other staff that can cover or should a few members of the team not participate to deal with anything that comes in?

DON’T forget the experience of the volunteer. An employee volunteer will (and very much does!) question what impact they are actually making by carrying out this work? The cause of the charity can be worthy and the importance of team-building is needed, but if the volunteer is not having a great experience then it can have a damaging effect.

So, DO put the experience of the volunteer at the forefront when considering possible projects and evaluate their experiences afterwards. This is where employer supported volunteering (ESV) brokers are so helpful to businesses, as they can source different community project options to meet your needs.

DON’T just think about team volunteering. For the last few years it has been ‘en vogue’ to criticise and sneer at team volunteering and I’ve heard people say “What actual good can a bunch of accountants do painting a community hall?”. Well, they can do a lot and achieve something that otherwise could not happen! I have seen this first hand many times. As long as there is a real need for the team of volunteers and the project is well managed with volunteers briefed and supervised you can achieve great results.

However, DO consider Skills-Based Volunteering options where volunteers can use their professional skills in a new context and environment. When carried out properly, although be prepared that it does require some work and support, it can achieve the greatest impact of all employee volunteering. Some skills-based volunteering can be carried out in teams (e.g. employability workshops), but there is also a huge scope for individuals and very small groups to support voluntary and charity sector organisations in a wide and ever-growing range of activities as well as the possibility of mentoring individuals.

DON’T think you know it all (as none of us do). I’ve seen employee volunteering schemes start up and then shut down, for varying reasons, but one commonality is that the company had decided on an approach without proper consultation with experts in the voluntary and charity sector. As a result they set up seemingly logical and sensible programmes and then seemed confused when they didn’t work? Simply because they didn’t understand how this sector operates.

So DO listen to and ask experts in the field and continuously monitor and adapt your programme to ensure your business, the charity and the volunteer are all being considered. Using ESV brokers and consultants to help test and evaluate your schemes will help ensure a successful employee volunteering programme.

So, if your business does all the DOs then you are on the right track and doing things the right way. However, if your business is doing some of the DON’Ts, then don’t despair, you can easily correct this and be able to achieve more impactful results.

Works4U Wins International Award for Leading Employee Volunteering in UK

Dominic Pinkney and Martyna Bielecka from Works4U celebrate winning Wealth & Finance International Management Consulting Award 2023

I’m quite cynical about awards and believe, mostly, they are BS. However, they can be glorious and helpful BS.

I run Works4U, a not-for-profit social enterprise specialising in employee volunteering, and we were invited to apply for the Wealth & Finance International Management Consulting Awards 2023. Normally it would have been a quick delete of such an email, but we have been working so hard at Works4U this past year to expand our field of work from delivery of impactful corporate volunteering to actually trying to lead and develop employee volunteering across the UK.

So, I decided I would take the time to apply and explain the work we have done with very little resources:

(i) Set up and run a national ESV network for voluntary and community sector organisations to share experiences, information and produce useful tools and resources. These help to not just sustain these services across the UK but also to develop good practice of how they are carried out.

(ii) Produce national research and analysis. We carried out a UK survey of employers and will release findings next month and last month we published the ‘Monetary value of charity trustees‘ report which highlights the importance of this essential volunteer role and will encourage business employees to consider it.

(iii) Produce resources for businesses to develop employee volunteering. Earlier in the year we produced and published the ‘9 Expert Tips for Developing an Employee Volunteering Programme‘. This is a free guide for businesses to help them avoid the common mistakes and pitfall.

(iv) Introduce two brand new quality standards. One has been launched, Lead Volunteering Organisations(LVO) which is a quality standard aimed at volunteer infrastructure organisations. The second which will launch soon, is the world’s first quality standard for employee volunteering, called Employee Volunteering Accreditation (EVA), which will enable businesses to have an independent stamp of approval to show off to their staff, potential staff, clients, investors, suppliers, partners and stakeholders that they a good business who do good things.

As I wrote the application, I realised that we actually had done and were still doing a lot! Week to week you tend to notice more the lack of progress you make rather than the actual progress achieved, so it was almost cathartic to stop and write about all that we had done.

Then I completely forgot about the award application.

Then we won! Then we celebrated.

Works4U winners at Wealth & Finance International Management Consulting Awards 2023. Best Business Support Volunteering Non-Profit Organisation 2023 - UK

As I wrote the media release I had the same feeling of being super proud of the work we have done, as a small team with little resources and time, to progress as far as we have. The award may not mean much to anyone else and I suspect they may have invented a category just for us, but I will take it as it is recognition for all we have done this past year.

So, I still think awards are BS, but they can be good BS.

I want also to say a huge and special thank you to my colleague Martyna who has worked so hard this year to achieve what we have done.

Martyna Bielecka and Dominic Pinkney from Works4U celebrate with their winners trophy from Wealth & Finance International Management Consulting Awards 2023

Community CVS the First Volunteer Infrastructure Organisation to Obtain the Lead Volunteering Organisation (LVO) Quality Standard

Presentation of the LVO Award to Kate Lee and the fantastic team at Community CVS

It was a proud moment for me to present, this week, the very first recipient of the new quality standard, Lead Volunteering Organisation (LVO), to the very deserving Community CVS who serve the area of Blackburn and Darwen.

The LVO is a new quality standard for modern volunteer infrastructure organisations who want to demonstrate to funders, stakeholders, partners and beneficiaries the important role they place in leading volunteering in the area they operate. It has been created by not-for-profit Works4U who are also launching a quality standard for businesses, Employee Volunteering Accreditation (EVA ).

As someone who manages two volunteer infrastructure organisations in London, I have been frustrated for many years that there has not been a quality standard that meets all my needs. I want a quality standard that:

would genuinely impress funders and I could show it off to partners and beneficiaries
was exclusive for my area, meaning no other organisation than mine could hold it
would allow me to adopt whatever brand I chose for my organisation
was affordable and value for money
was flexible, recognising that there is not one single model of what volunteer infrastructure is
had robust assessment processes but was not too onerous a task to carry out
would be supported by an organisation who genuinely wants to see my and other volunteer infrastructure organisations be successful and recognised for the great work they do with little resources

Well, this now exists with Lead Volunteering Organisation (LVO). This is what I wanted for my organisations and so it seems many others do as well. Quite a few organisations are going the assessment and moderation process at the moment, but the first to complete and achieve the award is Community CVS.

Community CVS, set up in 1986, exists to promote, develop and support voluntary and community action in the Borough of Blackburn with Darwen and across Lancashire. It is committed to delivering its services to organisations and residents to the highest of standards and to help demonstrate that it applied to be assessed for LVO to clearly show its role in leading and developing volunteering.

Kate Lee, Volunteering Manager from Community CVS stated, ‘We are proud to have obtained the new LVO quality standard for developing and leading volunteering in Blackburn with Darwen. We have over 20 years of experience and knowledge of supporting volunteering, and this award provides assurance of our ability to mobilise volunteers, connect people to where they are most needed in their neighbourhood, support new groups to get everything they need in place to involve volunteers, and improve the quality of the volunteering experience for all in Blackburn with Darwen.’

Community CVS CEO Garth Hodgkinson said, ‘Achieving the LVO Quality Mark demonstrates the quality of our work in leading and developing volunteering in the borough. It shines a spotlight on our knowledge and connection with the voluntary and community sector in Blackburn with Darwen and our key role in connecting people together, to communities working together to tackle adversity, and on our development of strong partnerships with Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, NHS and other key strategic partners. Community CVS will continue to deliver high quality services to help grow resilient communities and enable them to thrive– something we need now more than ever.’

LtoR: Cllr Julie Gunn (Deputy Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council), Dominic Pinkney (Me), Kate Lee (Volunteering Manager for Community CVS), Garth Hodgkinson (CEO, Community CVS)

Cllr Julie Gunn, Deputy Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said, ‘In Blackburn with Darwen, we are incredibly lucky to have a wealth of people who give their time freely as volunteers to help others. The role of Community CVS is vital in connecting volunteers to the right opportunities to truly make a difference. I am pleased and proud that Community CVS has been recognised in this way. I’m delighted especially that Community CVS being the first organisation nationally to gain the LVO Award puts the borough on the map as a place where volunteering truly matters and thrives.’

Works4U’s recent report ‘Monetary Value of Charity Trustees‘ shows that the economic value of all volunteering is £324 billion, far higher than has been previously considered. This means the role of volunteer infrastructure organisations to lead and develop volunteering in the area they operate is far more important than has been realised before. It is hoped that the LVO Quality Standard will help volunteer infrastructure organisations demonstrate their important role to decision makers.

To find out more about LVO you can can download the overview from the Works4U website or view here.

The Story behind the Game-changing report on the Monetary Value of Trustees

So… I’ve written a report. But I didn’t mean to.

What I set myself as a 15 minutes task ended up being a 58 page report (don’t worry, there are lots of images) and I have not dared to calculate how much of my spare time this took.

I run two volunteer centre charities and so have more than enough to do without giving myself extra work. Also, is the world crying out for yet another report? Nevertheless, I realised this was something important and that it was an opportunity to scream out what so many in the voluntary sector know and feel but in terms that people outside the sector can understand and relate to.

The 15 minutes task I set myself was to go online and find a formula so I could calculate the monetary value of trustees in the London Boroughs I work in (Hammersmith & Fulham and Camden). I could use this data to help promote just how important and valuable this under-appreciated volunteer role is. A quick look around my blog and you will see I am strong advocate that trustee is one of the best volunteer roles there is.

All I needed was the wage rate of an accepted comparator job role and find out the number of charities in each borough. That shouldn’t be too hard should it? National organisations in our sector or government or others must have looked at this and established a formula to use?

Nope.

This was taking more than 15 minutes and I was getting frustrated. In terms of actual calculations the best I could find was a 2017 ‘Taken on Trust: awareness and effectiveness of charity trustees in England and Wales‘ report produced by Charity Commission and partners. When I say this was the best I could find. It was the only thing I could find.

This used average national wage as a comparator. I was disappointed. This felt like a cop out. It felt like it was chosen just because there is reliable and regularly updated data for this measure and that it is a conservative ‘safe’ comparator that no one will accuse of being an over-estimation. However, as well as being a comparator that massively under-estimates the value of trustees it is not a valid one as the average national wage has absolutely nothing to do with the actual role of being a trustee? The two are not related.

Other research, dating more than ten years ago, referenced using ‘Senior Manager’ as an acceptable comparator?! What??? Could this be more vague? Senior Manager in what sort of organisation? Which sector? How senior is senior? This felt very weak, as if it was chosen to show that the trustee role has more importance than the average job, that it has responsibilities, but it is so vague how do you pick which actual Senior Manager role to use? Also, most importantly, a Senior Manager does not have the same level of responsibilities as a charity trustee. A Senior Manager is not legally responsible for the organisation they are a Senior Manager for.

The 15 minutes I set for myself for this task had ended hours ago.

I wasn’t going to let this lie. This sort of data and calculations should exist and if it didn’t, then I was going to have to create it myself.

“naïveté, that fabulous quality that keeps you from knowing just how unsuited you are for what you are about to do.”
Steve Martin

My research continued at length and finally I found a reasonable and authentic comparator for the volunteer charity trustee role. I just needed then to find out how many charities were in a particular local authority area. The Charity Commission provide data on this but they told me it is imprecise.

I now realised why this area had not been tackled much before … it was difficult. However, I was determined and as long as I was open about my assumptions and calculations then authentic results could be obtained. All calculations in this area are imprecise and estimates, but as long as that is recognised when analysing and making conclusions then it is perfectly valid.

Carrying out this research not only led to an authentic calculation of the monetary value of trustees, but it also enabled, through extrapolating the results, an indicative value calculation of all volunteering. Even accounting for margins of error, volunteering is clearly of more value and importance than had been given credit previously. If government were aware that volunteering is just as important as all manufacturing, what would it do differently?

I was also aware that I might have massive bias. I run two volunteer centre charities and it could easily be seen that I am trying to inflate the importance of volunteering for the benefit of my own organisations. This was not and is not my agenda, I just wanted to spend 15 minutes to find an acceptable formula to show how important trustees are through a monetary value that people outside my sector can relate to.

To help combat any bias, I sent the first iteration of my report to over 30 people across the private, public and community sectors. These kind, wonderful and expert people gave up their time and came back to me with their comments, suggestions and challenges. These were extremely helpful and their comments helped to refine the formulas and assumptions used. Therefore, I think I can legitimately say I have been pro-active to counter any bias I might have in producing this report.

The results of the calculations carried out surprised me so they may surprise you too. This led me to add a page, ‘But the numbers are too big?’ so that readers can rationalise and understand why the numbers are as large as they are. It is also noted in the report that I calculate the monetary value, as in the financial equivalent job role, and not the full economic value which will be much higher as it includes the add on multiplier effect of the volunteering itself which can benefit the person and the wider community.

This report is presented by Works4U, a small not-for-profit social enterprise that punches far above its weight in the world of employee volunteering. It does not have a Comms team or a PR agency to support it. Any help you can to like, comment and share the report so it can reach as many people as possible will be greatly appreciated. By sharing it there is also the tiny possibility you might change the perception of decision-makers about the importance of volunteering.

I hope you enjoy the report:

‘Monetary Value of Trustees 2023‘ This links to a page on the Works4U website where you can view or download the report.

9 Expert Tips for Developing an Employee Volunteering Programme

Employee volunteering experts Works4U have produced a free guide for businesses to help them establish and develop successful impactful volunteering programmes within their organisation.

Not-for-profit social enterprise Works4U was founded in 2009 and they have helped hundreds of businesses with their corporate volunteering programmes. If you are looking to develop your employee volunteering programme and want to learn from the experience of others, then this simple and practical guide will help you be successful and avoid common mistakes.

The guide of expert tips is a must for anyone involved in an employee volunteering programme. Works4U’s recommendations will help save you money, better engage your staff and develop your business.

An effective employee volunteering programme will help you demonstrate your CSR and ESG credentials as well as many other business benefits.

Here is a sneak preview of the guide that gives details of 9 expert tips to help employee volunteering professionals:

1. Culture first, technology second – The number one reason that employee volunteering programmes get limited traction or fail completely is due to a technology first or technology led solution.

2. Walk before you can run – The second most common reason employee volunteering programmes struggle to get off the ground, is when companies get too ambitious in the early development.

3. Quality over quantity – With employee volunteering programmes, measuring volunteer hours is vanity, volunteering culture is sanity and impact is king.

4. Engaging with community organisations – An area that often causes issues for companies is engaging with charities and community groups.

5. Recognition of volunteers – It is standard volunteer management best practice to recognise the work and contribution of volunteers. However, many businesses fail to do this.

6. Don’t forget the business reasons for having an employee volunteering programme – If a business is implementing an employee volunteering programme as a ‘tick box exercise’ or views it as a ‘nice to have’ then its success and impact will be limited. Employees will realise pretty quickly if a business does not really have its heart in such activity.

7. The right personnel – many organisations fall down in this area as either they have not recognised their strengths and weaknesses or their set up is not right.

8. Keeping volunteering voluntary – Another area that companies fall foul of is to make participating in volunteering events mandatory or obligatory.

9. Don’t deviate – Even if you know all the good practice in delivering successful employee volunteering programmes, sometimes it can be difficult to resist the influences and pressures from both within and external to the business that may cause your programme to falter.

To download a copy of the full FREE guide, go to Works4U’s webpage.

Works4U are able to offer this highly valuable guide for free as part of their social mission to lead the development of impactful employee volunteering in the UK. Works4U are also launching the world’s first employee volunteering quality standard (EVA): https://www.evaqualitystandard.com/

Just a few days left – WIN £200 for a charity or community group of your choice

There are only a few days left to win £200 for a charity or community group of your choice.

As promoted by Smiley News, all you need to do is complete the very quick and easy anonymous survey about employee volunteering from not-for-profit social enterprise Works4U:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/5R8ZBC3

Works4U is an employee volunteering specialist and the survey will help put a spotlight and focus on this underrated activity and help it to develop and be even more impactful.

So, for less than 5mins of your time, you can win some money for a charity or community group you care about AND help develop the impact of volunteering.

Eligibility:
– You need to work in the UK (any type of organisation in any sector)
– Your organisation employees 5 or more people

2022-23 UK Employee Volunteering Survey

Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/5R8ZBC3

There is a big contrast in the significant level of employee volunteering activity in the UK compared to the small amount of data, analysis and research on this topic. It is actually quite surprising.

Employee volunteering specialist, not-for-profit Works4U, is addressing this large gap by launching a dedicated employee volunteering survey that will provide, perhaps for the first time, real analysis on the employee volunteering experience. Works4U will release the results of the survey in 2023 and its aim is to this annually to provide regular up-to-date analysis on employee volunteering.

Works4U will be able to report back on aspects of employee volunteering we do not currently have any proper data about. For example, on average, how much time off is given by employers to carry out employee volunteering? Does this vary by the size of organisation? How is the employee volunteering organised? How much impact did the employee volunteers think their volunteering had?

This data and analysis will give great insight into how businesses carry out employee volunteering and whether they are maximising the potential of its impact for their organisation, their employees and for the community.

It is clear to see in 2022 that businesses take far more seriously their social responsibility compared to ten years ago. Terminology in this area moving from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to social or community impact with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) being most prevalent amongst larger corporations. Whatever the terminology is used, employee volunteering and how it is carried out is an important part of this work.

The survey is open to anyone working for any type of organisation (private, public or voluntary sector) where there are 5 or more employees.

You can view, complete or share the survey using this link:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/5R8ZBC3

Lead Volunteering Organisation (LVO) Quality Standard is Live!

Lead Volunteering Organisation (LVO) Quality Standard from Works4U

I am proud and pleased to say the brand new Quality Standard called Lead Volunteering Organisation (LVO) is now live!

Designed by a volunteer infrastructure organisation for volunteer infrastructure organisations. To explain in other words, I have selfishly created a Quality Standard that I want for my volunteer infrastructure organisations and so it will probably be beneficial for others too.

NCVO’s announcement last year that it was no longer delivering quality standards and would be handing over VCQA to another organisation has led to many volunteer infrastructure organisations thinking about quality standards for the first time in a few years.

“What Quality Standard is right for my organisation?”

“Do I even need a Quality Standard?”

“What about the costs and time to do it?”

“If I don’t do it, will a rival organisation do it?”

The reason the Lead Volunteering Organisation (LVO) Quality Standard works for my organisations is that it is an accreditation that not only independently assesses my organisation as the lead volunteering organisation for my area, but will actually help me raise the organisation’s profile with funders, partners, stakeholders and beneficiaries. It is both straight forward to carry out and inexpensive.

It is also, by definition, exclusive so I can be assured that no other organisation will be able to get it. Only organisations that can truly demonstrate they are the lead volunteering organisation will be able to provide the necessary evidence to meet the standard.

The LVO Quality Standard has 5 main areas:

Acting as Lead Volunteer Agency for Area
Connecting People to Volunteering Opportunities
Promoting & Championing Volunteering
Supporting Volunteer Managers and Developing Good Practice
Emergency Volunteering

Through researching volunteer infrastructure organisations across the country it became crystal clear very quickly that a “one-size-fits-all’ prescriptive approach to evidence for LVO would not work. Depending on funding, the voluntary sector environment, local authorities, organisational ethos and models of practice, volunteer infrastructure can look quite different across England. Therefore, LVO takes a flexible but robust approach to providing evidence to meet the 5 areas of the standard.

To help organisations understand more about LVO to assess if it is right for their organisation, two information webinars with Q&A have been set up. The first was on 27th July which generated lots of positive discussion and the second one is online on Thurs Sept 8th at 11am. If you would like to attend, please click this link to register on Eventbrite:

If you want to know more but cannot attend or wait for the webinar, please contact me: dominic@works-4u.com