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BIG funds research into volunteering motivation

Finance | Celina Ribeiro | 22 Oct 2008

The Big Lottery Fund is to fund a new research group devoted to volunteering and civic action in a bid to plug the gap in understanding about what makes people volunteer.

BIG announced earlier this week that it will grant £483,773 to a three-year research project examining what factors contribute to people deciding whether to volunteer.

Volunteering England’s Institute of Volunteering will join with the NCVO and Involve in the partnership dubbed 'Pathways through participation: what creates and sustains active citizenship'.

NCVO’s head of research Karl Wilding said: “This research project will address a gap in our knowledge of people’s motivations for community engagement and their preferences over the course of their lives.”

Given the belief shared by the majority of charities surveyed for the State of the Not-for-profit Industry report, released last week at the International Fundraising Congress in Amsterdam, that paid staff numbers will not rise in the next year despite increased demand, now may be a critical time to improve understanding of volunteering.

VSO 20 per cent short of volunteers

International development charity VSO (pictured) this week reported that up to 20 per cent of its volunteering placements could go unfilled this year if it does not see a spike in applications from UK professionals.

“The current economic climate is a real concern for everyone,” said VSO chief executive Mark Goldring.

Richard Wilson, Involve director, added: “Now more than ever it is vital that we understand how citizens and government can work together to foster innovation, empowerment and trust - the foundations of economic renewal.”

Return on investment

The research project has been welcomed by volunteering charity CSV. Dame Elisabeth Hoodless, executive director, said: “It is equally important to shed light on why some volunteers continue to serve for many years and others do not. Is it the nature of the task? The challenge of the opportunity or the friends that they make? Too often potential volunteers are lost to volunteering by one negative experience. The result is a general loss which could probably have been avoided.

“We hope in the future the Big Lottery Fund will consider the overriding need for information about the impact of volunteers’ service. There is growing evidence that people in need especially value the ‘gift relationship’ and that policy-makers need evidence of the return on investment in volunteering.”

Youth volunteering recognised

Separately, young people who have volunteered were celebrated at a parliamentary reception in London on Tuesday 21 October.

Dawn Butler MP, chair of the all-party group on youth affairs, hosted the event for the young participants of vchallenge, which saw young volunteers linked up with 25 MPs of all political parties to volunteer in their local communities.

Conservative support

And, last week, incoming shadow minister for charities Nick Hurd told a meeting of the England Volunteering Development Council and Volunteering England that he wanted to see volunteering become a social norm.

Hurd said he would be keen to collaborate with sector bodies to better understand and determine how best to advance volunteering.

“Volunteering is central to the Conservative vision,” he said.

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