Tasmania Faces Volunteer Shortage: Report
30 November 2010 at 4:11 pm
More than 75% of Not for Profit organisations in Tasmania say they need more volunteers in order to continue meeting their community needs, according to a new report.
Launched by the Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett, the State of Volunteering Report: Tasmania 2010 found there is a demonstrated need for more volunteers in the Tasmanian community.
The report found that although volunteer numbers are generally being maintained or are increasing, nearly one third of Tasmanian organisations increased their number of volunteer roles in the previous two years and about the same proportion of organisations anticipate an increase in the number of volunteer roles of the next two years.
More than three quarters of organisations say that they require more volunteers in order to continue meeting their needs.
The report says that in order to meet the demand for more volunteers, strategies for actively and effectively promoting volunteering and increasing the volunteering-rate in the Tasmanian community are needed.
Over half of those people surveyed who have never volunteered said that they ‘don’t know what volunteering options are available’, and only one in five believe that there are a lot of volunteer opportunities in their local community.
The report says this finding shows the importance of education and awareness-raising around volunteer participation.
According to the report, the findings demonstrate that organisations need to invest in and develop their volunteer management capacity. This report clearly shows that having a manager of volunteers does make a difference as to whether volunteers are supported by systematic and accountable volunteer management.
Despite 90% of organisations providing training for volunteers, only 58% of organisations surveyed provided training for volunteer managers.
The report was based upon state-wide surveys and focus groups, undertaken between January and June 2010. Current and non-current volunteers were surveyed, as well as organisations.
- 1538 people completed the Current Volunteers Survey
- 523 people completed the Non-Current Volunteers Survey
- 335 people completed the Organisations Survey
