Charities should work more collaboratively with each other to enable volunteers to move more easily between different organisations, a new report urges.
The British Heart Foundation paper, From Goodwill to Great Impact: Maximising the Benefits of Volunteering, calls for the government and wider charity sector to break down barriers around volunteering.
It says people are increasingly looking for time-limited, more informal types of volunteering, which “presents organisations with more diverse skills and views within their volunteering teams but also highlights a need to support volunteers in moving between organisations more easily”.
It says: “Charities and other voluntary organisations should work collaboratively to build relationships with organisations supported by volunteers in similar roles.
”They should develop systems to enable volunteers to move more easily between organisations working in similar areas, such as charity retail.”
The report, which is based on surveys conducted in 2022 and was published today, says Covid-19 brought “significant and rapid changes to the volunteering landscape”.
It warns that, in the wake of the pandemic, “the sector is facing a challenge to recruit and retain volunteers”.
It says: “At the BHF, in June 2022 we were still 20 per cent down on volunteer hours compared to pre-pandemic. This is a trend that has been seen across the sector.”
The report says volunteers are increasingly from younger age groups than before the pandemic, with 53 per cent of new volunteers in the first quarter of 2023 being aged between 16 and 24, compared with 42 per cent for the same period in 2020.
The BHF, which has 23,000 volunteers across its retail, events and fundraising operations, said the proportion of its new recruits aged 45 to 64 fell from 22 per cent to just 13 per cent over the same period.
The report also calls for an improvement in data around the value of the charity sector and volunteering and wants to see better information captured about government-supported volunteers.
It says volunteering should play a more prominent role in social prescribing, where health professionals refer patients to support in the community to improve their health and wellbeing.
The charity found 92 per cent of volunteer respondents agreed that volunteering had improved their mental health and 80 per cent said it had improved their physical health.
Linda Fenn, head of volunteering at the BHF, said: “We know there are still things outside of our direct control that could make the volunteer experience better.
“But we hope this report, and the recommendations we have made, contribute towards making sure our volunteers both today and of the future have an incredible experience while helping a fantastic cause.”