How Important is the Volunteer Experience?

As a newcomer to the not-for-profit sector, I've had a recurring question: "Shouldn't the attraction and retention of volunteers be one of our top concerns?" This first came to mind while working with an education charity that relied heavily on volunteers to deliver their after-school programs.

I was struck by the amount of red tape required for a volunteer to offer their services for free. The natural question in my mind is, "For every volunteer that makes it, how many don't bother?" Despite this issue coming up in my consulting work, it doesn't seem to be as top-of-mind as other issues like scheduling and automation. I feel like I may be missing something obvious here.

Half of Australian charities run entirely on volunteers, I guess because smaller organisations in particular can’t support salaries. Overall, for every staff member in the sector, there are three volunteers. Anecdotally, I hear that charities struggle to recruit and retain volunteers. Demographic shifts, such as the shrinking pool of older volunteers, and changes in work patterns, like the rise of remote employment, have made it harder for people to commit to regular volunteering. The demand for more flexible, short-term projects has increased, pressuring charities to adapt by offering more varied volunteer opportunities.

I know from volunteer-heavy organisations in the sector that volunteer burnout and a lack of recognition are major issues because a small improvement in volunteer retention makes a significant difference in the services they can deliver but also reduces the ongoing overhead of hiring and screening new volunteers. Some of these organisations have streamlined their onboarding processes and built volunteer recognition systems into everything they do. One, in particular, also in the education space, has a super-slick volunteer experience. In my early experience in the sector, however, this has not been a focus for senior operations staff or executives.

I would love some feedback on this from your personal point of view. To that end, here is a quick poll:

Andrew Walker
Technology consulting for charities
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-walker-the-impatient-futurist/

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