1. Volunteering in Scottish
Charities (2012)
Kathleen Doyle
Research into Practice Officer
kathleen.doyle@vds.org.uk

2. The Charity Survey 2012: An Overview
• What? The first research of its kind in Scotland; a
representative survey of charities exploring
volunteering.
• Who? Charities delivering services and operating at
local authority level or in local communities.
• When? The survey was carried out between
December 2011 and February 2012; 592 out of
possible 1000 responded (59% response rate).
• Why? Results will inform strategic policy debates and
will help improve the services available to support
volunteering.

3. Why is the Charity Survey 2012 important?
• The landscape in which charities (and third sector
generally) operate has been changing rapidly:
• Economic - low or negative growth and public sector cuts –
where charities are doing more with less.
• Policy – reform of public services and increasing demand for
charities to provide public services.
• Legislative - proposed Community Empowerment Bill to
encourage local people to do things for themselves, in part
by transferring ownership of public-sector assets to local
communities.
• Economic, policy and legislative changes assume that
local people and charities can do more; but is this a
sound assumption?

4. Summary
Volunteers are key to driving and sustaining all local charitable
activity
55% of all local
charities were supported
and run entirely by
volunteers. That is, they had
no paid staff
45% of all local
charities were supported
by volunteers.

5. Summary
Levels of volunteering remained stable for most
charities...
...but larger charities and charities with paid
staff were more likely to report a decline in the
number of people approaching to volunteer

6. Summary
Demand for volunteers was high
61%
of charities aspired to
involve more
volunteers...
...but this aspiration was
not something that
many charities thought
would happen

7. Summary
The majority of charities said their volunteers
did generic activities; larger charities were more
likely to have more defined roles for their
volunteers
Word of mouth was the most popular method
used to involve volunteers; it’s also thought to
be the most effective method to find suitable
volunteers

8. THE RESULTS

9. Volunteers are key in
driving and sustaining Most of these were small
charities, with 80% having
local charitable activity less than £25,000 turnover
a year.
These charities tend to rely
45% Over half of all on membership (39%) or
charities are run and
fundraising (35%) as their
supported entirely by
volunteers. That is, main source of income, and
there is no paid staff. less on local authority
funding (7%).
These charities were more
55% likely to be based in rural
areas; two thirds of
charities in rural areas had
no paid staff, compared to
50% in urban areas
No paid staff Paid staff

10. There was little change in levels of volunteering in
charities: over two thirds of charities said the number of
volunteers they involved had stayed the same as the
year before
13% Similarly, the proportion
18% of people volunteering
in Scotland has held
steady for the last 5
years (Scottish
Household
Survey, 2012)
69%
Decreased No change Increase

11. Over 7 in 10 charitiescharities (72%) reported that
The majority of reported that the number of people
approaching their organisation to volunteer had stayed the
the number of people approaching the
same as the year before
organisation to volunteer had stayed the
same, in comparison approaching to volunteer
Number of people to the previous year
7%
21% Decrease
No Change
Increase
72%
But, some local charities were more likely than others to report a decrease...

12. Larger
charities were more likely to report a decline
in the number of people approaching the
organisation to volunteer
29% 14%
of larger of small charities
charities, compared to

13. Charities with paid staff were also more likely to
report a decline in the number of people approaching
the organisation to volunteer...
Almost 3 in 10 charities with
paid staff reported a decrease
Paid staff 28 63 9
No paid
14 81 5
staff
Decrease No change Increase
While 14% of charities with
no paid staff reported a
decrease

14. Demand for
volunteers was
high among all More than 6 in 10
charities would like
charities to see an increase
in the number of
volunteers involved
39% NO CHANGE 61% INCREASE
But....

15. ...charities were not
optimistic about this
actually happening Only 26% of
charities think
they will involve
more volunteers
Decrease No change Increase in the next year
6 68 26
Why? Well we asked charities about the volunteer
challenges they felt they would face in the next year...

16. 51%
said ‘keeping suitable
volunteers involved with us’
would be a challenge, and...
48% Other survey
research also
suggests that
said ‘finding suitable recruiting volunteers
volunteers’ would also be a is an important issue
challenge

17. When considering all the issues facing
charities in Scotland today, including funding
or running costs, recruitment and sustaining
membership levels...
...one third of all charities felt that
recruitment of volunteers was the
most or second most important issue
they faced.
Source: External Stakeholder Research (2011) OSCR

18. Some charities also felt they would experience
challenges in attracting Board Members in the next year
22% Larger charities and charities
of all charities felt with paid staff were more likely
‘attracting new Board to report this:
Members’ would be a
 One third of charities with
challenge
paid staff, compared to 12%
with no paid staff; and
19%  27% of larger
charities, compared to 14% of
small charities
of all charities felt
‘attracting new Board
Members with the right
skills’ would be a challenge

19. Larger charities were also more Supporting could mean many
things like
likely to identify supporting advising, mentoring, listening
volunteers as a key challenge to volunteers
in the coming year.
For example...
Funding cuts affecting 27
support for
volunteering 8
27% of larger charities felt
that funding cuts would
Above £25k Below £25k affect support for
volunteering, in comparison
to 8% of small charities

20. What did all charities say their volunteers do?
The top 5 activities were:
1: Generally helping out (78%)
2: Helping to organise or run events and activities (74%)
3: Doing whatever is required (61%)
4: Raising money (56%)
5: Committee work (52%)
This also reflects the
top 5 activities
identified by
volunteers in the
Scottish Household
Survey (2012)

21. Larger
17% of larger charities
charities were more likely said their volunteers
to report that their provide ‘direct services
(e.g. meals on
volunteers carried out wheels, doing odd
jobs)’, compared to 5%
more defined activities of smaller charities
For example....
17
5
Above £25k Below £25k

22. Another example of larger charities involving volunteers in
more defined activities is....
34
12
Above £25k Below £25k
One third of larger charities
said their volunteers did
‘visiting, buddying or
befriending’, compared to
12% of small charities
Note: All volunteer activities and differences by annual income can be found in Table ****

23. Few charities said their volunteers were
involved in volunteer management...
18%
of all charities said their volunteers
helped in ‘managing, organising or
coordinating other unpaid helpers’...

24. We asked charities what channels they had
used to attract new volunteers, and ‘word of
mouth’ was by far the most popular...
82% OSCR’s External
of all charities
Stakeholder Survey
used it in the (2011) also suggests that
previous year word of mouth was used
extensively to address
issues of recruiting
volunteers

25. ‘Directly asking people to help’
was also a popular method, with
70%
of charities having used it
to attract new volunteers
in the last year

26. Fewer charities used online Online methods could mean
methods to attract new many things like their own or
others websites, or social
volunteers.... media like facebook and
twitter...
22%
used a website
3%
used social media

27. 19%
of all charities used
Third Sector Interfaces
to attract new
volunteers
But some charities were less likely to use TSIs
than others: charities with no paid staff; small
charities; and rural based charities. For
example...

28. ...10% of charities with no paid staff used
TSIs, compared to 30% of charities with paid staff
No Paid
10%
Staff
Paid Staff 30%

29. ...13% of smaller charities used TSIs to attract new
volunteers, compared to over a quarter of larger
charities
Below £25k 13%
Above £25k 27%
And...

30. ...just over one in ten rural based charities used TSIs to
attract new volunteers, compared to one quarter of
urban based charities
Rural 8%
Urban 24%

31. Which channels did charities think were
most effective in helping to find suitable
volunteers?
42%
said ‘word of mouth’ was
the most effective
channel to find suitable
volunteers
38%
said ‘directly
asking people’

32. Key questions for policy
The survey found that over half of local charities are supported and
run entirely by volunteers.
Is there sufficient support (e.g.
advice, learning, resources, fund
ing) available to these
volunteers?
Are these charities
providing services to meet
unmet local need? And
should they?

33. Key questions for policy
This survey and other evidence suggests that participating in formal
volunteering is not increasing...
Are assumptions of
increased participation
underlying Public Service
Reform and the proposed
Community Empowerment
Bill sound?
Is it likely that people can and
will step forward to volunteer
locally?

34. Key questions for practice
There is very much a traditional, formal approach to volunteer support
and management in Scotland; focusing on recruiting and retaining
volunteers in defined roles...Yet we found:
• Charities aspire to involve more volunteers, but are not optimistic this
will happen - perhaps because they faced challenges in finding and
keeping suitable volunteers; and
• The majority of charities reported their volunteers did generic
activities; with larger charities tending to have more defined roles
Is it time to challenge Should we focus more
this approach to on volunteers’
volunteer motivations and
management? interests first, then take
the opportunity to build
more defined roles?

35. Key questions for practice
We found that word of mouth was the most popular method used to
involve volunteers; and was also thought to be the most effective method
to find suitable volunteers
What can VDS and
others do to support and
improve ‘word of mouth’
as a method to involve
volunteers?
Can online or digital
services help?

36. What next for VDS?
• Learning Services Review: in April 2013, VDS will launch its
new Learning Services for volunteers and volunteer involving
organisations, providing generic and tailored learning
packages in a variety of formats.
• We are currently developing our new VDS Research Strategy
for April 2013 and beyond: VDS will be talking to individuals
and organisations to feed into its development, ensuring its
research is relevant, timely and useful in order to have an
impact on current policy and practice.
• We will develop a new Volunteer Charter in order to recognise
the significant contribution of volunteering towards a
wealthier, healthier, safer and stronger, smarter, and greener
Scotland.

37. Technical Details
• These slides present the top-line results
• Results are based on a paper survey of 592 local charities;
a random stratified sample of 1000 local charities, operating
in up to two local authority areas and undertaking
activities, was selected from the OSCR database
• Sample is representative based on income and location
• Respondents completed the survey between December
2011 and February 2012.
• Where results do not sum to 100%, this may be due to
computer rounding, multiple response, or the exclusion of
don’t know or other categories
• Results are based on all respondents unless otherwise
stated
• Full technical note and all data tables can be found @
www.vds.org.uk

38. References
Jura Consultants. 2011. Scottish Charities 2011. Dundee:
Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator
TNS-BRMB. 2011. External Stakeholder Research 2011.
Dundee: Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator
Scottish Government. 2012. Scotland's People Annual
Report: Results from 2011 Scottish Household Survey.
Edinburgh: Scottish Government.