The rise of virtual volunteering

A few weeks ago we wrote about trends in volunteering based on the findings of the latest annual Community Life Survey. We highlighted a worrying decline in the proportion of the population who volunteer regularly. The 2023 NCVO Time Well Spent report also highlights concerns around falling levels of volunteer satisfaction and continued challenges around equity, diversity and inclusion in volunteering.

All these publications emphasise that volunteer motivations remain unchanged; people want to make a difference in their community. They also identify key practical barriers to volunteering, particularly time poverty due to work and family pressures.

An interesting finding in Time Well Spent is the continued rise of virtual volunteering. Volunteering online or on the telephone is now the third most common “place” for people to volunteer and almost a third of people who volunteer, do so virtually at least some of the time. The rising trend was accelerated, unsurprisingly, by the necessities of lockdown restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic. Satisfaction levels for virtual volunteering are broadly the same as for other forms of volunteering.

What is virtual volunteering?

In a nutshell, it is volunteering where the volunteer completes their tasks in whole or in part online or over the telephone. It is sometimes also called online volunteering, cyber service or tele-volunteering (amongst many other names).

It is increasingly used by charities and other organisations to increase the number of volunteers by allowing more flexibility for volunteers in terms of time, location and duration of volunteering opportunities. Virtual volunteering can usually be done in any location and often at times of the day or week that fit around the volunteer’s work and personal life.

Virtual volunteering need not be confined to “back office” functions such as data management, social media engagement, virtual assistant work, professional/clinical supervision or even Trusteeship. There are more and more opportunities for online or telephone mentoring, tutoring, counselling, advice giving and much more, where the volunteer gets to work directly with beneficiaries to deliver online or telephone-based services (such as helplines). With the rise of digital fundraising, more virtual volunteers are needed to help manage those activities.

Virtual volunteering can be particularly attractive for people who might not feel confident to volunteer in person (or even safe, e.g. if they need to travel at night), as well as those who need more flexibility for other reasons. It can help improve diversity and inclusion by attracting people from different backgrounds, particularly younger people, those with busy jobs or family commitments or people who are simply shy or prefer online working.

Like all volunteers, virtual volunteers need training and support and thought needs to be given to how that can also be provided virtually (e.g. webinars, self-serve online training, virtual peer groups and networks, online supervision meetings etc.).

Done well, virtual volunteering can help build a larger and more diverse community of support for a charity as well as augmenting the human resources available to run the charity and deliver its services. It can also bring environmental benefits (and cost savings) from reduced travel and use of premises.

Our challenge to you, therefore, is to think seriously about what volunteers could do for your charity online or by telephone. Since the pandemic most people are much more confident using video conferencing and many more services are delivered (or at least available) online or by phone. How can you use your learning from the pandemic to offer more virtual volunteering opportunities? If you do offer more virtual volunteering opportunities, think carefully about how will you ensure that virtual volunteers feel part of your community, supported and valued?

If you would like to know more about the services we offer or to discuss your needs further please contact us at julian@almondtreeconsulting.co.uk.