Episode #088 – Research on Volunteer Participation What You Need to Know with Helen Tourle
Tobi: Welcome to the Volunteer Nation Podcast, bringing you practical tips and big ideas on how to build, grow, and scale volunteer talent. I’m your host, Tobi Johnson. And if you rely on volunteers to fuel your charity cause membership or movement, I made this podcast just for you.
Welcome everybody to another episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast. I am your host, Tobi Johnson, and I am super pumped, super geeky. We’re talking about data today, and we’re talking about one of my favorite research studies on the planet, and that is the ongoing Time Well Spent study. NCVO does this study, started it in 2019, and we’re going to get into the details of it. They bring in more insight.
And if you want to know anything about the volunteer experience, how you might change how you do business as a leader of volunteers or as a volunteer involving organization, this is series of reports you need to check out.
And today, I have Helen Tourle, who’s going to be able to share with us a little bit more detail about the survey and how it started, but also what the most recent insights are, because we just had a new report drop. Is that right, Helen? Like, I don’t know, a week ago?
Helen: Yes, Volunteer Experience Among the Global Majority, which went live on the 28th of November.
Tobi: So exciting! So, we are just right on the cusp of hearing this! Before we get started, though, I want to talk a little bit about Helen and introduce her a little bit. She is a long-time listener of the Volunteer Nation Podcast. She just told me this. So, I’m geeking out as well. It’s always nice to meet a fan.
We mentioned this report, as I mention so often, because it is one of the most comprehensive research reports out there on volunteer participation and perceptions. And we’re so in for a treat, I should say, because Helen’s going to take us a little bit behind the scenes, but also maybe dish a little bit on the most recent research.
Helen is the Senior Consultant for Volunteering at the National Council for Voluntary Organizations or NCVO. So, you’ll usually hear us talk about – I don’t know if anybody runs around saying National Council for Voluntary Organizations I think mostly the acronym is what folks use.
So, Helen leads the volunteering consultancy work at NCVO. She’s experienced in supporting and developing volunteer programs for charities of all sizes. She also has experience in development and delivery across all aspects of volunteer management. Her background includes time in integrated participation, involving and volunteering teams.
She brings an innovative approach to her consultancy with NCVO. This includes creating diverse and meaningful opportunities for volunteers to shape projects. And it’s nice to know volunteer-to-volunteer (I’m a volunteer), Helen is also an active volunteer herself. She’s a trustee of a special education needs charity and a previous volunteer for NCT, the Wildlife Trust Museum, Sheffield and the National Trust. So, she’s got a lot going on.
So welcome to the podcast, Helen. It’s nice to have you here!
Helen: Thank you so much. I’m so excited to be invited. Yes, I’m very pleased. Thank you.
Tobi: Yeah, she reached out and said, Hey, I heard you talk about us on the pod. So yeah, I’m really excited because now we can link back to this episode every time I mention NCVO and Time Well Spent!
So, tell us a little bit about what yourself, what you do, how did you get into nonprofit work and research?
Helen: So, I think as a long term listener of the podcast, I know, as so many say, I fell into it by accident many years ago when I ended up working in a volunteer, a truly volunteer led charity that provides bereavement support many years ago as a service and development manager, which was a job at the time I absolutely did not deserve and was underqualified for, but I made it work.
So, that’s really how we begin. And then since then I’ve worked in volunteering teams. So, in central functions, in big national charities in the UK and in England, and I joined NCVO as a consultant a year ago.
Tobi: Oh, awesome. Congrats!
Helen: Thanks!
Tobi: So, yeah, fake it until you make it. I know that story well. When I started my nonprofit career, I was like, yes, I know how to do this. And then I was like at nighttime, yes, I’m going to learn how to do this and fast.
Helen: Yes. Did a lot of that. But, well, we are where we are now, so it’s all fine.
Tobi: Hey, it’s the best way to learn is learn by doing. So, why does volunteerism, you’ve made a career of this, why does it mean so much to you? And why do you think it’s important in the world?
Helen: Whilst I fell into the particular job, that particular job, many years ago, I very much grew up in a family of activism and campaigning. My parents used to take me out on protests when I was a child and my mum is very much a serial volunteer in various social justice causes and used to take me along with her to, to lots and lots of things, probably nowadays activities that it wouldn’t be considered appropriate to take a child along to.
But I did them and increasingly as I was a teenager, I was just I was more and more thinking, Oh mom, this is so embarrassing. Why do we have to do this? But I hadn’t actually realized what it had instilled in me as a bit of a serial volunteer myself as an adult. And also, just understanding and recognizing the power of what people can do when you identify something in your local community that’s not good enough or that you want to change, you want to improve.
And actually, the best way to do that is to go out and improve it yourself. And so that was. And I didn’t realize quite how built into my character that was until I got married and my husband was just like, why do you always have to do? Why are you volunteering again? Why have you taken on another volunteer role? Oh, I don’t really know another way of being.
I saw a problem, so I wanted to go and help solve it. So yes, a very ingrained and genuine belief in the power of people to make change in their local communities, remote communities, community that means something to them.
Tobi: Yeah, absolutely. I’m one of those legacy folk too, although I didn’t realize it ‘til way later. Both my grandmothers were very active volunteers and philanthropists. But in very small ways.
My mom’s mom was not a woman of means. I mean, she really lived on her Social Security, which is basically her government pension when she was retired and she didn’t really work actually. She raised 10 kids and 20 some grandkids and 20 some grandkids, a large extended family.
And I found out after she passed that she had taken her pension money and bought a piano for her church. So, you know, giving, and every year she used to bake. This is lots of cookies for the Sea Scouts, which is like scouts, but you’re in a boat in the Pacific Northwest. People do stuff on boats a lot. So, she would make cookies. And I remember going into her kitchen and just seeing like mounds of cookies. And I’m thinking this woman is 95 years old and she’s still making cookies!
My other grandmother was a retired nurse and she used to run the reception desk at the local military hospital. And she would talk about the people she worked with as a volunteer.
And I think it does get ingrained in us, this idea of service as a way of life as something that we just do. And I spent my whole career working in nonprofits and could never go into corporate because I just couldn’t see the purpose there. I could only see the purpose in nonprofit. So, I think it does, whether we realize it or not, as a child it really does start to seep into us.
And thank goodness because there’s so many people making change around the world. So, tell us a little bit about – for folks who aren’t in the UK or haven’t seen the research yet – what’s the organization, how has it started? What’s its primary mission and focus?
Helen: NCVO or the National Council for Voluntary Organizations, which as you say, no one calls it, it is always NCVO. So we are the membership body, any organization that involves volunteers. In England specifically, that encompasses charities, voluntary organizations, community groups, as well as organizations in the private and the public sector as well that might involve volunteers in their work. We are specifically focused on England.
There are sister agencies in Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland within the UK. Our work, obviously we don’t, NCVO doesn’t limit its membership to organizations that are just based in England, obviously lots of organizations do cover all four of the UK nations and have an international reach as well. And many of those are our members too.
And as a membership body, NCVO offers help, guidance, support, training, consultancy, and research services to any organization that works with volunteers. We celebrated our centenary in 2019.
Tobi: Wow!
Helen: And we have over 17,000 member organizations.
Tobi: Wow! So awesome1
So, tell us about the Time Well Spent study. I remember hearing about it first primary, like it was the year before the pandemic (I think it’s always like AP and BP before pandemic and after pandemic.) And this was right on the cusp of the pandemic I remember the first report came out.
Tell us a little bit about how it started. What was that big first push? Let’s just start with that and then we’ll get into the different areas of study since that first report and talk a little bit more about why we call it Time Well Spent. But let’s first start with that 2019 study.
Helen: Yeah, absolutely. Yes, you’re absolutely right. The first report in the Time Well Spent series came out in 2019 and was the result of a national survey that had been run over 2018.
So, the original rationale behind it, and remains the rationale, this was a recognition that volunteering is such an amazing way for people to give to their communities. And to give time and in return for that time, our responsibility is the responsibility of organizations, charitable organizations, make sure that we’re providing quality volunteer experiences and ensuring that those volunteers are getting out of that experience, out of the giving of time, what they want to.
For lots of reasons, because it’s the right thing to do, because they’re more likely to recommend other people volunteer at a later date, because they’re more likely to continue their volunteering if they find it truly enjoyable and fulfilling for themselves.
So as a sector, NCVO, was very aware that we need to continually learn and improve what that volunteer experience looks like and the NCVO had a real pivotal role in carrying out that research, assimilating it and providing that evidence and insight to organizations in Great Britain and further afield for what makes, to yeah, really provide those valuable insights for what makes a good volunteer experience.
Tobi: The report is really robust. One of the reasons I’m a fan is just the, you, I think it was about 10, 000 respondents to the study, which significantly, that’s a valid sample size, I’d say.
Helen: Yes, maybe 10,000 adults. In that original 2019 report. So those who were current volunteers and also those who didn’t currently volunteer.
Tobi: Let’s talk before we get into the other reports because I want to touch on this because I just noted it just now. I’m sure when you started this research it wasn’t called the Time Well Spent study. My understanding when I read the report, it made me feel like that title for the research came after once you realized what was the main takeaway. Is that a correct understanding of the research?
Helen: Yes, absolutely. And the original research identified eight characteristics of a quality volunteer experience, which were in the main report are then grouped together or able to be categorized together under this heading Time Well Spent. Oh gosh, I believe the phrase Time Well Spent was a quote from a respondent to the survey, and that was where the title came from and where that designation came from.
Tobi: Yeah, it’s interesting because before that, this is why I think this study in some ways is really instrumental and very watershed moment in a way. In that, before that, there had been, in the US, there had been a study on volunteer retention and volunteer management practices which was by the late Jeff Brudney and Mark Hager. It was funded by UPS, I think, but it was a while ago.
And it was one of the first studies that said – Gang, I’m not sure it’s about all of our volunteer paperwork. Paperwork isn’t what moves people. There’s something else that we need to think about when we’re engaging and deepening volunteer commitment and engagement.
And this study with Time Well Spent, the reason I found it really interesting was, Gang, basically people don’t want their time wasted, which is a no brainer. But we never in volunteer world, we didn’t really have that kind of parlance.
We were always, can we streamline our application? Can we, you know, it was really focusing on the HR aspects versus the human aspects of experience. And I think it really contributed to starting and furthering that conversation around experience of human beings in a leisure activity or a serious leisure activity that they need to make. They need to feel that it’s meaningful. They need to feel like it’s their time isn’t wasted.
So, there were some really great takeaways from that first study, but that’s what I think it really there was a shift in me in thinking about, You know what gang? We got to stop with the paperwork and start with the people, you know? I think it’s more about the experience unless you can make a beautiful volunteer handbook. You can spend – and believe me, I teach on this, right? I teach on how to create a great volunteer handbook – but you could, if you had strong relationships between people on your team, your handbook could be not that great. And those people would still come back and contribute their time. So, I find it interesting.
It’s not that we don’t have to have risk management. It’s not that we don’t have to have processes, but the key takeaway for volunteers was don’t waste my time. And some of you are not very organized. I remember reading that volunteers really felt like things were not organized. When you think of the 2019 study, what are some of your favorite takeaways from that first round of research?
Helen: The eight characteristics are most definitely what I tend to refer back to in the work that I do now in training and consultancy for other organizations. And those remain universal and evergreen. I can, I will go into those. I think that’s really interesting though, what you’ve said about a streamlined recruitment process or a nice shiny volunteer handbook.
And no, we shouldn’t start with those things. But those things are still beneficial, but it’s about why are they beneficial? Why are they beneficial to people, the people who are the recipient of them? And it’s exactly what you said, which is because people want it to be easy to access. They don’t want to feel overburdened by excessive admin or bureaucracy.
Those things, having a streamlined recruitment process is good. In and of itself, because it’s tidy and because it’s compliant, those things are important. It’s good because it makes people feel that it’s easy to access. It makes them feel welcome. It makes them feel that they can sign up and get going with the thing that they want to do to make an impact.
So yeah, so you are also absolutely right that you could have no volunteer handbook, but a really positive relationship and experience from your volunteer manager and that would still achieve the same. Achieving those outcomes is about those outcomes for the people rather than starting with the process that sits behind it.
Tobi: I think it’s really about, in the end, emotions, if people are having it if whatever you’re doing. For example, we had a volunteer handbook and, back in the day my last job where I was director of a statewide program, I said, you know what? We’re going to update this volunteer handbook and I’m actually going to I want to put some volunteer quotes in the handbook. I’d like our current volunteers to give advice to our new volunteers in a couple of sentences, and let’s put it throughout the handbook.
And that was to give (and I didn’t know what I was doing), but at the time I didn’t identify it as creating an emotional experience, an experience of connection, an experience of belonging, an experience of, Oh, there’s people like me here. Oh, I don’t have to know everything reassurance. So, I think the question always with paperwork is how is it impacting the volunteer emotionally? Which is never asked hardly ever.
It’s more, are we complying with the processes that we need to comply with? So interesting stuff, but let’s also talk about the subsequent reports, and then we’ll start diving into the current reports. What other subsequent reports were taken on and was that the plan?
Do you know if that was the plan at the beginning? Or was it, you know what we need to know more, because I remember a report came out in the middle of the pandemic and I was brilliant. This is good to know, right? We all need to know this right now.
Helen: The specific titles and subject matter of the subsequent reports have been very, very iterative and identified over time. On a very cynical, practical level, there was a certain amount of funding for the research series, so it was always intended to carry on to an extent, but exactly, exactly what the subject matter was a little more up for grabs. And then, yes, and then obviously we are continuing five years down the line, nearly five years down the line from the original report now.
So, the subsequent reports that have come out, there was one that came out January 2020, which looked specifically at the experience of public sector volunteers compared to civil society volunteers. So, in the UK context, that’s primarily volunteers in hospitals and healthcare settings, in schools, in the emergency services, and in libraries and local councils, and those sorts of settings. There was that report.
There was an extraordinary report around the experience of volunteering within COVID. Then there has been, oh, there was one with a very, quite a broad ED& I focus earlier on, and then that has. It’s pulled through and informed the most recent report which came out in November which looked specifically at volunteer experiences among the global majority because that was identified through the earlier work that, and the earlier research with this very broad brush ED&I focus, it was identified that there was a need to really delve into that particular experience of the global majority in more detail. And that was what was done earlier this year. And good work.
Tobi: Absolutely. I think in our Time + Talent Podcast, we interviewed, I don’t think I know my other podcast with Jennifer Bennett at VolunteerMatch. We interviewed Helen Trimble and she had done early research around microaggression and experience of folks in diversity, equity, and inclusion, or you, as you say, EDI.
Yes. So, I definitely want to dive into this. Survey in more detail, but before we get there, tell us how you got, what was the methodology here or what has the methodology evolved or is it merely sending through your partner organizations a survey, having them distribute it to volunteers, asking them to send it back, that kind of thing, the main survey.
Helen: So the 2019, and then in addition to the most recent report on the experience of the global majority, we also ran a full rerun of the original survey earlier this year as well. That was published in June, so there’s, we’ve been churning out the reports at the moment.
So those two main big surveys, 2019 and 2023, that was a survey that was run through an agency called YouGov, which is a public sector surveying agency in the UK or research agency in the UK. So, the survey was hosted by them, and they recruited a sample to answer that, to be nationally representative according to key demographics.
And that survey was live for, each time was live for about a fortnight at a time. When we brought in the global majority, Um, as a particular area of interest, that was done via a boost sample of 1,000 respondents who were identified to be from the global majority.
So in addition to going to YouGov as part of the brief to them as the survey provider and saying we would like it to be a statistically representative sample of the UK demographic, we additionally want you to find and recruit this boost sample that particularly has this identity to respond to the survey, as well.
And then there were various follow up activities, as well, with a small number of the respondents from that boost sample who had self-selected to be involved in interviews and additional work.
Tobi: So, there’s a little bit of mixed methods going on with the most recent. If you’re doing both surveying and then interviews, that’s awesome.
Helen: Yes. Yeah. And the surveys themselves, and then the questions that were developed to be asked as follow up were put together by stakeholders from those particular groups, expert researchers, of course, within NCBO and from YouGov and also those working in volunteering and volunteer management as well. Yes. Just to make sure we had a Relevant set of questions to explore the experience in a variety of ways.
Tobi: So let’s dive into that a little bit. First of all, let’s talk about the term global majority.” How did you all arrive at that and why are you using that term? I know when we’re working in diversity, equity, and inclusion, there are so much, there’s just a lot of evolving terminology.
I know when we do our Volunteer Management Progress Report, we’ve asked for a volunteer manager demographics for several years. This year – the report has been released; I’m just about to start promoting it – we didn’t ask because we’re asking about infrastructure now, not about individuals, but I always get complaints in the open-ended comments in the last question. Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Folks always take issue with some way that we ask a question. We can’t, it’s very difficult to serve all communities, especially globally, but even locally because things are evolving. Some folks like things a certain way. Some folks prefer things a different way.
So it is, it’s a challenging type of research to pull off on many as for many reasons, this is only one of them. So, tell us about this idea of the global majority. I think that’s a new concept, at least to us in the States.
Helen: Most definitely. So, there’s a whole, there is quite a lengthy article and explanation on the NCVO website about exactly why that particular term was decided to be used, and where that originated, where we got that, or where we were given that term and that terminology from.
We, so in NCVO we had received, and I know others, other contacts in various networks had objected to the term or had given unfavorable feedback around the term BAME to describe those who are from a non-white background. And so, we were looking for more positive and inclusive language to describe these particular identities of people.
So, the global majority refers to anyone who is not of, who is not white British or from another white background. So, what we would previously or otherwise have referred to as Black, Asian and mixed or ethnic minority, or BAME, for those who are outside the UK.
Tobi: So, what are some of the key findings from that report? What did you learn? I haven’t even had a chance to take a look at it. Honestly, I would love to hear your sort of highlights for what we need to be on the lookout for. I cannot wait to dive into it in more detail.
Helen: Oh my goodness, there is so much in there. Sit down for the afternoon and get into it. I think the main findings from this particular report are certain differences between the experience of the global majority and volunteers more generally, or from the whole sample of volunteers who were asked in the main survey.
What has also really struck me is how much we all have in common, and that a lot of those characteristics of what makes a positive volunteer experience are universal and are felt by people from all demographic backgrounds. And that volunteers from the wider sample, including those from the global majority, all report a high level of satisfaction with their volunteering.
So, whilst we absolutely, there’s definitely things that were picked out that are areas we can improve and develop and areas that we should be really mindful of as organizations that work involving volunteers, there’s actually loads to be positive about. We can always do better, but it shouldn’t be a source of anxiety or feeling that there’s a huge, huge levels of dissatisfaction out there. And I think that’s really important to say early on.
So, the other things that stood out in terms of differences and areas for development for those who work with volunteers. In terms of the experience of the global majority, there’s a few, this is a bit you’re going to have to edit because now I’ve got to scroll and find, there’s so much, I don’t know them all off by heart.
Tobi: No, pick a couple. We’re going to link to the study in the show notes and yeah, I remember when I read Helen Trimble’s study. And we, I interviewed she and one of the volunteers and it was a qualitative study. So, she did some interviews with both volunteers who were from the majority and volunteers who were not from the majority.
And there was some heartbreak to it for me because I was hearing from volunteers reading from her study and then hearing when we did our interview. And again, I’ll link to that interview in the show notes, but that volunteers of color felt a responsibility for supporting and caring for other volunteers of color.
There was definitely an added level of responsibility they felt in their volunteering. And the other key takeaway I took from that study was that people did experience micro-aggressions. And that just broke my heart because it’s look, we’re in volunteer world. It’s naive of me to think that those types of things wouldn’t happen in a volunteering environment. We’re not in a medically sealed vacuum-packed environment where bad things don’t happen.
But I think it’s also true, and in that study was also true that people felt very satisfied with their volunteer wanted to continue to volunteer. It wasn’t enough to have them stop volunteering. There was, it was a bittersweet type of research result.
What about for you all? Let’s talk about a few more takeaways from this research on the global majority as volunteers.
Helen: Yeah, certainly, because they do, because volunteers, including volunteers from the global majority, do want to continue. And so it’s not enough to put them off, but we have a responsibility as organizations to make sure that they’re having those positive experiences and not taking that for granted.
So, some of the key things that stood out for me was some differences within the sample. So, volunteers from the global majority who are disabled, volunteers from within the global majority who are younger, and also volunteers who volunteer in public sector organizations as opposed to charitable organizations, are more likely to report lower levels of satisfaction than other volunteers from within the global majority, and also volunteers overall.
So, I think there’s something quite interesting there, particularly in considering disabled volunteers from the global majority about intersectionality and where people are encountering multiple barriers or multiple prejudices against them in their volunteering and being mindful of that, certainly, and not putting people, recognizing people’s multiple identities and all the challenges and barriers that might bring them to volunteering.
I think, as you said in that, as we started to pick up in that Helen Timbrell report, or that she describes in such detail in that report, certainly volunteers from within the global majority have less positive experiences of organizational culture, so are less likely to agree that there’s a culture of respect and trust, are less likely to raise an issue with the organization if it was needed, and are more likely to report that there’s that they see tension and conflict between people within an organization, and I wonder how much that sort of rings true with that, those instances of microaggressions, of feeling, maybe feeling the pressure, to represent others that, that look like them.
Global majority volunteers are twice as likely to feel excluded or feeling, feelings of exclusion, less likely to feel like they belong in an organization than volunteers overall. And again, that is more stark with those volunteers with an intersectional identity as well. So, volunteers. from within the global majority and also from a lower socio-economic background and also volunteers, as we said, from the global majority and also disabled as well.
What’s going on there in terms of organizations underlying culture, ways of, means of communicating, means of engagement, how they make people feel in terms of connection, belonging. I trust being here, I trust the people around me. That’s quite subtle, but obviously subtle too. I think within an organization, but obviously felt starkly by some of the respondents here. Most definitely.
Tobi: Yeah. I think people aren’t going to tell you because sometimes it’s a feeling, right? And first of all people are not just going to step out there and say, Hey, I don’t feel like I belong because perhaps in the past they’ve tried that it hasn’t worked well.
We had a recent, I don’t know if you listened yet to my interview with Advita Patel who’s in Manchester Consultancy called CommsRebel.
Helen: Oh, I’m about halfway through it. Yes.
Tobi: Yeah. She’s fantastic. I interviewed her in Portugal. We were traveling for a mastermind we’re part of together. She was talking about her experience as a volunteer from the global majority in her field. She’s in human resources and she works on inclusive cultures.
So, her takeaways when I was talking with her about her work, I said, you know what? I think we need to interview you and talk about building an inclusive culture. And so, we had a long conversation about that. She was the first she’s the president elect for her professional association. The first not only woman of color, first person of color in 75 years of the organization’s existence.
And so, we talked a lot about her feelings of responsibility for the work. I think she’s doing a fantastic job already as a volunteer and part of that organization. I think she’s going to do fantastic as the president. But even the lens she’s bringing and the focus she’s bringing in is really interesting. It’s interesting when to talk to a volunteer who’s taken the leap of really being the first to be that person that’s breaking whatever glass ceiling or whatever we call it.
But when you think about what you learn from the global majority research. What do you think are some key takeaways when we think about volunteer participation, especially now, I think it’s very difficult for folks “post-COVID.”
We’re not, I don’t think we’re ever going to be “post COVID.” What I’m hearing around the world is that organizations are really struggling to build back to pre-pandemic levels of volunteer participation. The depth of engagement, the just being able to recruit enough people to support the organization’s goals.
It’s just feels like a lot of organizations are struggling and we can improve in all kinds of areas. But I think this is a fantastic area to start in terms of people are happy and they’re volunteering. As you said early on, not only are they going to continue to volunteer, they’re going to talk about it with others.
And when we focus specifically on helping people who aren’t in the majority feel more comfortable, feel more included, feel like they belong, feel like they own results, own the organization’s results as a team, feel like part of the team, that’s also a way of diversifying our volunteer cores as well. And I think a lot of organizations are trying to do that on top of just recruiting enough volunteers.
So that was a long way to do this section of conversation, but let’s talk about implications and takeaways. What should organizations you do consulting with organizations, what are some key takeaways and things that volunteer involving organizations should be thinking about if they want to boost volunteer participation, boost retention, boost their recruitment results.
Obviously, the volunteer experience is so important to this. And for so many reasons, what are things that maybe top line, maybe three big things that you think people should be thinking about?
Helen: Yeah, absolutely. So flexibility has come through really strongly in all of the Time Well Spent reports.
It is particularly, particularly meaningful for those in the global majority, have really stated how much they value a flexibility in how they give time, the times of day, or the amount of time they’re able to give, rather than that feeling that they’re signing up to something that’s going to be a really fixed commitment.
So that comes through from the sample of volunteers overall, and then also particularly strongly from global majority volunteers. So, there’s something that volunteers, that organizations can do in that to really critically review their volunteer activities and roles and really think how could this be broken up or chunked up into tasks that could be delivered in a really, not an ad hoc way, but in a flexible way rather than the role as a whole and it must happen in this particular way.
How can it be broken up and conceived in a task? As individual tasks and I think organizations sometimes need to cast quite a critical eye over their roles and really get into that in some detail about what are the need to happens that need to happen at a specific time in a specific place and actually what is up for grabs.
And similarly, I think being really mindful of remote or hybrid volunteering. In this and certainly not thinking of that as a lesser or a poor relation to in person volunteering remote or hybrid volunteering isn’t going anywhere. It hasn’t declined since the pandemic. Obviously, we’ve seen we have, of course, seen in person activities returning, but the popularity of remote volunteering is certainly not going anywhere.
And what we found in Time Well Spent is that. Those who volunteer remotely report similar levels of satisfaction from those who volunteer in person. It’s not something where people are having a lesser experience or not feeling that sense of connection or support from their organization if it’s set up in the right way.
So, considering how can you use technology and remote, remote activities to build in some of that flexibility, I think are really big things that the organization should consider.
Tobi: Yeah, I think even team-based volunteering as we do that where I volunteer remotely during the growing season because I’m a master gardener. We focus on educating the community around horticultural practices that make sense that are evidence based so that people get a lot of joy out of their garden and keep gardening.
So, we do a Facebook live every Saturday morning and it’s super – I’m a busy professional – It’s super convenient to me and I love doing it. So, I have high satisfaction. But we have a team so that never do you have to be there every Saturday if something comes up or you’re traveling or whatever, we have a team that and we have a spreadsheet. We organize it. Who’s going to be this week? Who’s going to be this? So, we’re fitting in each other, covering each other’s spots. So, the work gets done, but it also gets done in a flexible way.
I really am a super big fan of team-based volunteering and giving a team a responsibility for, okay, this is your responsibility. You as a team can figure out how you’re going to make it happen and you’re going to figure out how to make sure that each level of task or responsibility area gets covered on whatever weekly, monthly, daily, whatever basis.
I even had a volunteer team when I was. Working in volunteer management that we lost the local sponsoring organization for a while we were looking for a new organization. The volunteers still wanted to work with the clients that we’re working with. They were doing counseling online around healthcare access.
And so, we had a joint voicemail and each of them took a day of the week. And they just said, look, I’ll draw down any voice messages of that week. I’ll call contact those clients and talk with them. And they managed it. Pretty much. I met with them once a month and they could ask me questions and get in touch, call me, email me, whatever. And they were so well trained and so committed to the work that I basically saw them once a month when I came out to the area to train them and update them.
And for the most part, they were like, no, we’re good. We’ve got it covered. So when people are well trained, I think that’s the other thing are given the flexibility, given the level of trust, and have the level of commitment to the end result, you really don’t need to do a lot of micro-management. If those things are in place, it’s not always a given that those things are in place, but.
Helen: Yeah. Once you’ve got that, one, one leads to the other, doesn’t it? You give people the flexibility and say, okay, here’s your team. Here’s the team of volunteers. Here’s a WhatsApp group or an online schedule or whatever. Have the flexibility and the responsibility to organize yourselves.
And that begets a better experience, but some organizations are there culturally and ready, and that’s already ingrained in their way of working to give volunteers or enable volunteers to have that level of responsibility. And for other organizations, that’s a bigger leap, most definitely. But yes, certainly benefits to doing so if you’re in that place.
Tobi: Yeah, I think we really have to think about the currency of time volunteers are spending. And they’ve got a budget for the amount of time that they can spend. I feel like time because there’s so much distraction, the world feels faster. The world feels more chaotic. And when the world feels more chaotic, that takes more brain space to manage.
I think people are also a little bit exhausted from three years of global trauma, that bouncing back from that is difficult for folks so that that limits their time as well. So, I think we have to think about.
We think about donors and the donor experience. You’re writing a check, you’re putting your credit card, you’re paying, you’re contributing every month or a one-off. And we think about the return on investment for donors. And it’s so interesting because anytime anybody we’re having our public, there’s so many, there’s a lot of fundraising going on in the US right now.
And the public TV stations get gifts every time. Write a check, you get a gift, you get this lovely throw or this coffee mug or whatever. And the gift that we give volunteers is an exceptional experience. That’s what they’re “buying” with their time. That’s what they’re investing in and the result, that the change in the community that they set out to make and they can make a bigger change in the community because they’re partnering with other volunteers and they’re partnering with an organization that can help them with infrastructure, knowledge, et cetera, and connection to the community so that they can, their investment pays off.
And so, I think we have to really start to think about because we’ve heard this. Now year after year after year about flexibility is important about the experience is important about the results are important that we have to take this contribution of time as Seriously as the contribution of money, maybe not maybe even more so, you know
Helen: Anyone who’s been in a training session with me I say very similar things so much which is it’s very well established in fundraising and donations and supporter journeys or donor journeys, isn’t it? That we would consider this and also that we would think about the specific needs of different audiences, different demographics that may be able to give to our charity financially in different ways, different amounts, different times of year, some one-off, some regular.
It’s very well established in fundraising, that sort of way of thinking and conceiving. the relationship that an individual will have with our organization. And we’re not as good at applying the same principles to volunteers in a volunteering journey. I think we increasingly are and I think that’s far, I think that’s what research like Time Well Spent is telling us, but I think as a conversation it’s far more immature than we have in fundraising as a discipline, certainly.
Tobi: And the acknowledgement that donors are volunteers and volunteers are donors. I’m there even now today, organizations don’t have a central database of supporters, right? Volunteers, advocates, donors, anybody who’s a champion for your cause. The central database makes the most sense and that’s still, we’re not there yet in most organizations.
So folks have no idea what, where the connection is and not that volunteering. And I always like to say this as a caveat, not that volunteering is a strategy for fundraising, but it’s a lovely, it’s a lovely benefit. Right?
But I think we do need to start to think about those connections. Between how are, and to what extent are people you’re only seeing that one piece, whether you’re a development professional, you’re seeing that the donations from that one individual, the volunteer management professional, you’re only seeing that limited view, scope of view of how that person is contributing to your organization.
So, we all have these sorts of limited scopes on what we’re seeing of that person, not to mention. The “talker uppers,” my husband calls people, he says, Oh yeah, there’s the talker uppers, the people that every time they’re out at a barbecue or they’re out at a cocktail party or they’re out with their family, they’re saying, what are you up to lately? Oh, I’m volunteering or I just contributed. Or have you heard of this organization? They’re so amazing. Look what they’re doing.
There’s all of that social capital being leveraged as ambassadorship, right, that we don’t know as well. And we, I think there’s plenty of evidence that shows that when people have positive volunteer participation experiences, they’re going to be more likely to talk about it. We know that with word-of-mouth marketing, it’s interesting to think about that as well. There’s the scene and the unseen in terms of volunteer contributions.
Helen: Most definitely, more likely to stay and more likely to talk about it and recommend others to come along with them the next time, most definitely.
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Yeah. This has been a fantastic conversation. We could go on and on.
Helen: We could!
Tobi: I’m going to encourage everybody to check out the current report. The most recently we’ll link to both or we’ll link to all and we have contacts for Helen. So, if you’re interested in following up with additional questions or want to learn more, I’ll link to the Helen Timbrel and Haji Singh interview on the t Time and Talent Podcast. You can listen to that.
There’s also a few other on the Volunteer Nation Podcast episodes where we’ve talked with others on volunteer research. So, if you want to get your volunteer researching geek on you can go through the show notes and click on those links.
And then before we wrap up also just want to quickly mention that our Volunteer Management Progress Report survey is now live. So, if you go to volpro.net/volunteer-management-progress-report, actually just go to volpro.net. Go to the top of the page and there’s a research link. Just click on that, and we’d love it.
If you’re a leader of volunteers, we love to have you participate in the study. We will release the results in late January, early February. If you do participate, we actually will invite you to a Sneak Peek webinar. You’ll hear the data first. So that’s fun. And this is our ninth year. Can you believe that? Are you familiar with this study, Helen?
Helen: Yes.
Tobi: Yeah. We are in our ninth gang, our ninth freaking year. I will say anyway, that’s just an aside.
Helen, how can people get in touch with you? What’s your favorite way for folks to get in touch with you? And is there anything else folks should be? Hearing about our staying in touch around and NCVO news and happenings. Anything that aside from the recent research that’s been released, we’re definitely going to promote that in the show notes. But is there anything else?
Helen: Yeah, most definitely. So, if you’re interested in getting in touch with me and finding out a little bit more about the kind of things I do, you can follow me on LinkedIn or on X. My surname is spelled TOURLE. I am the only Helen Tourle on most social media sites. You can find me quite easily.
And in terms of following NCVO, if you are in the UK, do consider joining NCVO as a member. Membership is free for organizations with an annual income of under ₤30,000, and that’s the best way to keep in touch with all NCVO events, trainings, research as well, and everything else that we have going on. You can also, whether you’re an NCVO member organization or not, you can also sign up for NCVO email updates, particularly around volunteering.
I produce and send out the volunteering roundup once a month, which is free, lands in your inbox once a month. So that’s volunteering news events, training, interesting thoughts from across the sector, curated by myself every month. So, I think that will be in the links with this particular podcast as well, if you want to sign up for that.
Tobi: Fantastic. This has been great. I’m looking forward to hearing more. The next time another research study is dropped, I will be following. I’m looking forward to reading the study in more detail, the most recent one. Let me ask you one more question before we wrap up. What are you most excited about in the year ahead?
Helen: So, little way ahead in the year, but this June or June 2024 is the 40th anniversary of Volunteers Week. And I’m very excited for this. It’s a big moment in the volunteering world, in Great Britain, also internationally. We are, this year, So NCVO is partly responsible for Volunteers Week in the UK, along with the other members of the UK nations, and we are, planning is underway already for what the 40th anniversary of Volunteers Week is going to look like, which is really exciting.
And we are also bringing in this year, The Big Help Out, which is our national day of volunteering around for the first time in 2023, as part of the coronation weekend, the coronation of King Charles is coming back for 2024. And it is going to sit within Volunteers Week itself. First week, 7th of June, mark your calendars. So, I’m very excited to see, see what happens there. Definitely.
Tobi: Fantastic. So, gang keep in touch, get in touch with Helen and get on her mailing list if you can, because I’m sure you can learn a thing or two and get some new insights, fresh insights. And gang, as usual, thank you so much for listening to the Volunteer Nation Podcast and for being an audience member, we really do appreciate each and every one of you.
It’s been an honor and a pleasure to. Open discipline podcast. I love doing that. I have a wonderful podcast coming out next month. It’s my new tech. I’m going to show you how to use a podcast, trust me on that. I mean every step of the way, you get helped. So take care, everybody. We’ll see you next time.
Next time, same time, same place on the Volunteer Nation. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe, rate, and review so we can reach people like you who want to improve the impact of their good cause. For more tips and notes from the show, check us out at tobijohnson.com. We’ll see you next week for another installment of Volunteer Nation.