Measuring Volunteerability and the Capacity to Volunteer among Non-volunteers: Implications for Social Policy. (AUS)

19/02/2018

Authors: Debbie Haski-Leventhal - Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Lucas C.P.M Meijs – Rotterdam School of Management, Leonie Lockstone-Binny - William Angliss Institute, Kirsten Holmes - Curtin University, Melanie Oppenheimer - Flinders University.

Published: August 2017. 

Background to the research:

The focus of this study is on the capacity to volunteer by non-volunteers as well as by volunteers. 

The article covers the concept and theory of volunteerability (an individual’s ability to overcome related obstacles and volunteer, based on his or her willingness, capability and availability) as a means to gaining a richer understanding of how people can be assisted to overcome barriers to maximize their volunteer potential and thus increase volunteering.  

The article offers specific measures of volunteerability which could be replicated elsewhere to assist in the process of recruitment and retention of volunteers, identifies differences between volunteers and non-volunteers and reveals major obstacles to volunteering and how social policies could be developed to overcome them. 

Objectives:

  1. To develop and test measures of the three components of the concept of volunteerability (willingness, capability and availability) to capture the potential to volunteer.
  2. To identify major barriers to volunteering and explore how social policy could be developed to overcome them.

Methodology:

The project consisted of 3 key stages: 1) literature review, 2) focus groups with current, past and non-volunteers, 3) online survey (1,007 respondents).

Key Outcomes/Findings:

  • Volunteers consistently score higher than non-volunteers on the three components of the volunteerability concept, thus supporting the validity of the theory. Details of the volunteerability measures are included in the Appendix (P21).
  • Whilst all three components are important to increase volunteering, ‘willingness’ was the more pervasive in differentiating between volunteers and non-volunteers and may offer the most leverage for policy development and intervention.
  • The study identifies the main barriers according to the 3 components of the volunteerability concept and links them to potential policy solutions (P18). Examples include:

Willingness:

  • Willingness related barriers can be addressed by creating a larger variety of volunteering roles (e.g. episodic, online volunteering, family volunteering etc). Furthermore, governments could also assist in increasing the willingness to volunteer through recognition awards and commemorations such as volunteering days/weeks.

Capability:

  • In terms of capability a sense of insecurity was seen to be the major barrier, which could be addressed through legislation to protect the health and safety of volunteers. Whilst Australian volunteers are covered by worker health and safety laws a significant minority of volunteers rated their safety whilst volunteering as low, suggesting that some work is required by government to inform volunteers of their rights and for organisations to put these into practice.
  • Other capability barriers could be addressed through training, such as creating training centres for volunteers particularly for more challenging roles. Whilst many organisations already offer training, government could play a role in facilitating this training through the provision of benchmark training materials.
  • Linking volunteer training to the award of recognised qualifications may overcome both capability and willingness barriers by providing a transferable reward, which volunteers can take with them.

Availability:

  • Governments can play a role in addressing availability barriers by supporting volunteer state and national centres which offer people local volunteering opportunities and being involved in changing perceptions of volunteering by raising awareness of the variety of opportunities available nowadays.