Report finds challenges and opportunities for volunteering

A new report from Volunteering Australia is part of the evidence base that will inform the creation of Australia’s new volunteering strategy.

Progress continues on the development of Australia’s National Strategy for Volunteering, with a new report revealing key insights from the sector.

Volunteering Australia, which authored the report, spoke to 400 stakeholders between April and June to hear their thoughts on volunteering in Australia.

The report notes there was “rarely consensus” on the challenges and opportunities available to the sector, highlighting the “the diversity of the ways volunteering takes place”.

The report identifies 12 key insights:

• Volunteering has an identity crisis 
• Volunteering is a workforce issue 
• Volunteering is an incubator for inclusion 
• The profession of volunteer management is invisible 
• Volunteering is a catalyst for systemic change 
• Expectations of the volunteering ecosystem are becoming untenable 
• The ecosystem needs stronger leadership 
• Strategic investment is a prerequisite for sustainability 
• The ecosystem needs fit-for-purpose regulation 
• Volunteering is a wide spectrum of activities 
• We need to re-focus on the volunteer experience 
• Research needs to underpin volunteering policy and practice

Challenges for volunteering

The report paints a picture of a sector that has been hit hard, but that is ready to take advantage of new opportunities.

One of the key insights from the report is that volunteering has a low profile, rarely recognised or noted in debates on issues like workforce challenges. 

Indeed, volunteering’s role in supplementing the paid workforce is often not recognised, the report notes, and there is an “enduring tension between volunteering and paid work”.

According to the report, some people consider what they do to be “helping” rather than volunteering, and different understandings exist around what volunteering is or has to be, especially in the context of Australia’s diverse and multicultural communities. Lack of visibility of volunteering can exacerbate other issues like resourcing and investment in capacity building.

The report notes that this diversity in the concept of volunteering “is a strength”, but is often not recognised in policy – something that will need to be taken into account as the strategy is developed.

But in some cases, greater diversity is needed. Some of the volunteers surveyed said “volunteering is rarely intersectional”, creating barriers to participation for some groups including people with disability.

Volunteer managers told Volunteering Australia that while the job was rewarding, they often felt “under-recognised, under-valued, and under-resourced” due to a lack of recognition, career development and networking opportunities. The National Strategy for Volunteering could reposition volunteer management and coordination as a critical part of the volunteering ecosystem, the report notes.

Likewise, while demands on volunteers have increased over time, support and funding doesn’t always keep pace, resulting in strain on the volunteer workforce. The report states that “strong, purposeful, and collaborative leadership” is needed “at every level” of the volunteering sector as it navigates the post-COVID future, with this need highlighted by the pandemic. 

And leadership should be coupled with strategic internal and external investment in capacity building, connection and funding is needed to help the volunteering ecosystem to grow.

In addition, interviewees criticised the regulation of volunteering, describing it as “inconsistent and duplicative”.

Opportunities abound

The report also underscores the importance of volunteering for developing people’s skills,  bringing communities together and fostering social inclusion. By focusing on local issues, volunteers can “instantly respond to community need” when it arises, the report adds. Being embedded in the community has a number of benefits, including in watching trends within the community as they happen.

Volunteering can also bring about social change and volunteers are proponents of innovation. Better recognition of volunteers as experts in their communities could enable their knowledge to be harnessed for policy, the report notes.

There are many opportunities to improve volunteering, including in areas like digitising background checks, recognising the changing face and definitions of volunteering, and focusing on what the volunteering experience can offer people.

The development of the National Strategy for Volunteering is ongoing, with researchers now connecting with other stakeholders, before a series of workshops in September to test ideas on the future of volunteering in Australia.