Vox Pop: moving away from volunteer reliance

Senior managers at five Australian charities describe how they aim to disrupt the for purpose sector with unique business models, rather than relying on more traditional volunteer workforces. 

With news that the number of people volunteering in Australia is in decline, five senior managers at Australian charities explain how they’re moving away from traditional volunteer-based models with some blue sky thinking. 

Geoffrey Smith, CEO, Australian Spatial Analytics

When it comes to driving change around long-standing issues like low awareness and understanding of people with intellectual disabilities, taking a volunteer-based approach can only take you so far. There also needs to be a recognition of the flaws in the current systems, such as disability employment services and welfare services, to be able to build solutions that don’t repeat errors of the past.

For example, at Australian Spatial Analytics, we’ve seen first-hand the way the current systems are set up to prioritise job placement over career success, particularly for neurodiverse professionals. In response, we developed bespoke employment and training programs that enabled neurodiverse talent to gain new skills within weeks, rather than having to undergo a three or four year tertiary degree. Then, instead of relying on volunteers to help with job placement, we’ve partnered with government agencies and businesses to provide real, award-wage paying work for our neurodiverse workforce, and also encouraged our corporate clients to ‘poach’ our staff so they can continue to learn and grow their careers. If we were relying on volunteers to create these kinds of opportunities, it’s unlikely we’d have been able to scale the business and our impact in the way we have.

Andrea Comastri, founder and executive director, Hotel Etico

The stats around disability unemployment haven’t changed for decades, despite a lot of good will. The industry tends to take a siloed, short-term, and volunteer-led approach to addressing social issues, and we’ve seen that burnout exacerbated by the pandemic and an ongoing labour shortage across multiple industries in Australia have highlighted that this approach cannot continue. Furthermore, we have seen service recipients and community members are now expecting high levels of professional services, which is challenging to achieve through a traditional volunteer workforce.

Volunteering is evolving and should evolve towards skilled volunteering, helping NFPs with specialised skills that they otherwise can’t afford to pay for, and freeing resources up to employ and train skilled frontline staff. But this will require a significant change in mindset across the industry and, unfortunately, this sector isn’t renowned for liking change.

Disruptive, grassroots and high-impact NFPs and social enterprises can alleviate some of the risk associated with change. At Hotel Etico, we started our training program for people with disability at the start of the pandemic, and have already proven that bespoke and collaborative approaches to disability employment actually work. We now need the corporate sector, for-purpose industry, and our new government to be brave enough to collaborate and help scale organisations already delivering tangible change.

See also: Report finds challenges and opportunities for volunteering

Amber Rules, founder and director, Rough Patch

From technology causing us to lead more fast-paced lives and being over-connected, to the pandemic, climate change and a cost of living crisis creating unprecedented levels of uncertainty – I can understand why people are overwhelmed and turning inwards, rather than outwards.

The NFP space has understandably been hit hard by volunteer shortages over the past two years. What it’s really taught us is that we can’t rely on volunteers as a long-term strategy to solve entrenched social issues. One way to navigate this issue is by building self-sustaining organisations that are able to prioritise purpose, without relying solely on donations and volunteers.

At Rough Patch, we operate on a unique business model that offers affordable counselling on a sliding scale. Essentially, we discount our rates (and so do our counsellors) depending on the client’s income. In turn, the organisation provides very low-cost room rentals and wrap-around business services that are usually costly for an individual counsellor in private practice to afford themselves. We also foster a supportive, co-working culture with a community of like-minded therapists. This means we’re able to provide mental health care at a rate that people can afford, whilst creating secure jobs for our counsellors and without relying on volunteers. This kind of model really only works when you cultivate a like-minded community that is brought into the vision of the organisation and prioritises purpose as equal to profit.

Ren Fernando, co-founder, ReLove

During COVID, volunteering opportunities were hugely constrained yet more volunteers were needed than ever. Even more people in the community needed support and at the same time many people were struggling with social isolation. The onus was on NFPs and charities to step up and respond to this increased need; and the saying “it takes a village” had never been more true.

Meaningful collaboration between NFPs and corporates helped to deliver critical services and create better outcomes for those in need. Through volunteering programs, businesses provided skill-sharing and people power to support people across our communities.

At ReLove for example, where we rely almost exclusively on volunteers, our partnerships with corporates, such as Built and Atlassian, were critical in enabling us to support our communities. These symbiotic partnerships allowed us to support people in need to establish and furnish a home and keep providing our service free of charge.

Our model proves that corporations can mobilise their workforce to support NFPs and make a real difference in the community.

Jamila Padhee, CEO, QPASTT (Queensland Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture and Trauma)

Some organisations are leaning on volunteers to address mental health challenges across our community, but for specialist needs like addressing refugee trauma among children and young people, we will see greater impact by upskilling our educators to be able to effectively support students in a trauma-informed way.

Refugee trauma and forced displacement can disrupt the foundations of learning and wellbeing for the thousands of children who arrive in Australia as refugees or people seeking asylum each year, and increase their risk of poor educational outcomes and mental health difficulties. But children can learn, grow and flourish with specialist support that focuses on their healing and recovery.

We see educators and school communities asking for more support to understand the impact of refugee trauma and provide safe and responsive school environments.  The more support and early intervention students can get, and the more training and upskilling that educators can acquire, the better the outcomes will be for students and our education system as a whole.