Employee Volunteering – Is it Working for Charities? 2018 (UK)
19/03/2019
Author: Natalie Tucker
Published by: Three Hands (www.threehands.co.uk)
This study looks at changes in the employee volunteering landscape through surveying 181 charities from across the UK.
This study recommends:
- businesses take time to listen and learn from charity partners,
- both charities and businesses to challenge your perceptions or culture of employee volunteering,
- stick to what you’re good at,
- focus on impact not inputs, and
- manage
Key findings from this study state that there is a gap between the need and provision of employee volunteers with 18% less volunteers available than what is required.
51% of the charities stated ongoing engagement with the business sector as the main motivation for engaging employee volunteers.
Many charities highlighted some of the downsides to employee volunteering such as the discrepancy between the type of volunteering charities want and what the businesses are offering them. The kind of support charities most want is in fundraising, and shared business skills, whereas the support they are most offered is one off unskilled team projects. Many charities also feel that the businesses put their own needs first and the cost to charities of managing employee volunteers can be significant.
The report concludes there is a real and growing need for employee volunteering to enable charities to continue delivering important work in an increasingly difficult environment. It recommends that the focus of such partnerships should be on the impact that the volunteering can have on the charity, rather than the activities which volunteers wish to do is the starting point for successful partnerships.
Full report here.