4. Two things…
The 2020 ambition:
Volunteers in every aspect of our work
All staff confident and capable of working with volunteers
The 2012 KPI target:
64% volunteers strongly recommend volunteering with the
National Trust
5. Three strands of work:
1. Capability and confidence of our volunteer managers
2. Fit for purpose supporting systems and processes
3. Developing new ways for people to get involved as
volunteers
6. 20%
New offers
New offers
40%
Systems New offers
& Systems
Processes &
Processes
Systems
&
Processes
40%
Capability Capability Capability
& & &
Confidence Confidence Confidence
Years 1 - 3 Years 4 - 6 Years 7 - 9
7. The KPI
The 2012 KPI target:
64% volunteers strongly recommend
volunteering with the National Trust
8. Drivers of the KPI
To raise the KPI we need to…
1. Be organised
2. Communicate effectively
3. Ensure volunteers feel valued
4. Make the most of peoples skills
5. Show clear leadership and direction
9. Our session today
• 21st Century Volunteering
– How volunteering is changing and what organisations
need to do to respond
• Creating a vision for volunteering at your
property
– Benefits aand costs associated with involving
volunteers
• Action planning
• Getting support as you move forward
• Final Q&A
11. Levels of formal volunteering
are static
Proportion of people volunteering formally
50
40
30
%
20
10
0
2001 2003 2005 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11
Year
At least once a month At least once a year
12. Why people volunteer (%)
70 I wanted to improve
things/help people
60
Cause was important
50 to me
I had spare time
40
30 Meet people/make
friends
20 Use my skills
10
Learn new skills
0
Source: Citizenship Survey 2008-09
13. What prevents people volunteering
(%)
60 Work commitments
50
Looking after
40 children/home
30 Have other things to
do with my spare
20 time
Haven't hear about
10 opportunities
0 Don't know groups
that need help
Source: Citizenship Survey 2008-09
14. Legal
Key elements:
•Volunteer agreements
•Expectations vs. obligations
•Expenses and ‘if contracts’
•National Minimum Wage
•Interns
16. Age structure of the UK
1,200 Thousands
population
2010
2015
1,000 2020
800
600
400
200
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85
Source: nfpSynergy - Population Projections/National
Statistics/nVision Base: UK ; 21774: The New Demographic
Landscape
17. Choice
• TV channels
– When I was a child there
were three in the UK
• Drinks
– Used to be tea or coffee
• Supermarkets
– Much wider choice of food
than 20 years ago
– Now sell financial products,
clothes, furniture, legal
advice
21. A one slide summary
• The world has changed quite significantly
in the last decade (& will do even more in
future) but:
– Levels of volunteering haven’t
– The ways organisations involve volunteers
haven’t changed much either (and are largely
process driven)
22. National Trust vision for
volunteering
The 2020 ambition:
Volunteers in every aspect of our work
All staff confident and capable of working
with volunteers
23. National Trust vision for
volunteering
Efficient A flexible offer Build capacity
A wider A dynamic offer
range of
activities
A more diverse
range of
Build capability people
Consistent
Shaping our work, not 80% volunteer
just delivering it recommendation
A better quality experience
24. The challenge we face
• Disconnect (growing?) between
what people want from
volunteering and what
organisations are offering
• The need to embrace different
approaches to getting and
keeping volunteers
• We’re competing with anything
people can spend their spare
time doing
25. Bridging The Gap
Part 3
What are the gaps and what can
we do about them?
26. Bridging the gap
• What people are
looking for in
volunteering
• How organisations
are engaging
volunteers
• Actions to ‘bridge the
gap’
Source: Bridging The Gap (2011)
27. What did they find?
• The legacy of the
uber volunteers
• Potential of past
volunteers
• Gaps & why they exist
• How we can respond
28. The legacy of the uber volunteers
• 31% of the adult
population
provide almost
90% of
volunteer hours
• 8% of the adult
population
provide almost
half the
volunteer hours
Source: Mohan, J – What do volunteering statistics tell
us about the prospects for the Big Society? (2010)
29. Potential of past volunteers
• UK data
– 1 in 5 people had
volunteered but
weren’t now
– Changes in personal
circumstances the
main reason
– 54% of non-volunteers
would like to volunteer
• Your property?
Source: Helping Out (2007)
32. Why these gaps?
• Motivations, availabilities and interests
change during our lives
• Volunteering is a two-way relationship
• Skills transfer and development is
important
• Time is our most valuable resource
• In other words, today’s volunteers are
different!
34. How can we respond?
• Re-think how we involve people to achieve our
mission
• Focus more on what needs doing than on how
and when it is done
• Be flexible and provide greater choice
• Be well organised but not too bureaucratic
• Provide opportunities for online engagement
• Build meaningful relationships with volunteers
Source: Bridging The Gap (2011)
35. “Improving participation opportunities requires
starting where people are and taking account of
their concerns and interests, providing a range
of opportunities and levels of involvement so
people can feel comfortable with taking part and
using the personal approach to invite and
welcome people in.”
Pathways Through Participation
36. Discussion
• What has struck you • What actions could be
most from this taken at your property
session and why? to ‘bridge the gap’?
• How do you see • How can you support
these trends and your volunteer
issues impacting on manager to
volunteering with the implement these
Trust and specifically actions?
your property? • What support do you
need?
37. Useful reading/resources
• 21st Century Volunteer – nfpSynergy
• Bridging the Gap – Volunteer
Canada
• Participation: trends, facts and
figures – NCVO
• Helping Out: National Survey of
Volunteering and Charitable Giving
– Institute for Volunteering Research
• Pathways Through Participation –
NCVO, Involve and Institute for
Volunteering Research
42. Creating a vision for volunteering -
key points
• Know why you involve
volunteers
• Be clear on the benefits
they will being
• Understand the costs
Link back to • Resource appropriately
National Trust
volunteering • Monitor and evaluate
vision
43.
44.
45. How to get in touch
Email: rob@robjacksonconsulting.com
Phone: 07557 419 074
Web: www.robjacksonconsulting.com
Twitter: @robjconsulting
Blog: www.robjacksonconsulting.blogspot.com
Hinweis der Redaktion
In the NT the overall numbers continually rising but the number of our 'regular' volunteers (Room Guides, Gardeners etc) that our operating model relies on has been static for many years and is even possibly falling
Start by setting scene/context for this session You all know Exec signed off a ten year ambition for volunteering at the end of 2011 and over the past we have been doing a lot of work sharing that – some of you will have seen presentations where we have talked part of what underpins the ambition is the evidence that there is a massive untapped pool of resources in potential volunteers. Our insight research has shown that 27million people are interested in volunteering for the Trust – if asked / made aware of or if we developed new proposiitions in line with their motivations Similarly within our existing volunteers 41% felt there could be more opportunity to do new things and take on new responsibilities
Crucially the volunteering ambition is not something separate or stand alone – it’s part of how we’ll achieve our overall Trust aim: that everyone feels like a member and by 2020 five million are That’s an ambitious organisational growth strategy and the volunteering ambition is absolutely set in that context: one way of helping us achieve that Trust ambition: we’ll need more people to help us do the work and there is a significant pool of untapped volunteer resource out there in our existing and future volunteers. And equally important involving more volunteers is a key way in which we’ll grow our supporter base – helping those new volunteers feel like members too What the session Rob will run through focusses on is some of the challenges we’ll face in accessing that pool – and we’ll work together today to think about how the Trust responds to those challenges
So – in summary – and you all know this stuff already: The 2020 ambition is summarised in two sentences: Vols involved in every aspect of our work All staff confident and capable of working with vols And in the short term we obviously also have the KPI target: we haven’t met it this year nationally but we’ve made really significant progress and we’ll talk more about the KPI later in this session VR remains a priority KPI next year too So – a long term ambition and short term target
To achieve the strategy – and again, this is stuff you will have seen before – we have three strands of work: Building the capability and confidence of vol managers (paid or unpaid) Investing in the systems and processes that will save those managers time and ensure a better quality experience for vols: systems and processes not as an end in themselves but to enable vol managers and vols Developing new ways for people to get involved – evidence tells us our traditional offer won’t be fit for purpose in future
And – you’ve seen this before too – we’re weighting how we focus our time on those three strands of work over the ten years of the ambition Up front investment in getting the basics right – and I know this was reflected in the 121 sessions you had with Jennie and Benita and then moving to focus more on developing new ways to get involved And that’s why the KPI matters: the KPI is a good measure of whether we’re getting the basics right – it’s an effective way of tracking our progress in the first of these three phases So… what does all of that mean for today? A few things: As strategic leaders you need to have a greater understanding of the long term challenges facing volunteering so you can support your teams to develop an appropriate plan for volunteering at your property. This session isn’t about the nuts and bolts of vol management as we recognise you rarely do that personally, it’s much more about the big picture, longer term challenges that you as strategic leaders need to be able to respond to With both systems and processes and the capability work we know that if all we do is create vol managers and systems that support the way we do volunteering now we will have failed – we need to do both of those things in a way that means we’re fit for the future and this session is about helping you understand that future and working together on how to respond It’s also about supporting you to provide good support for your local vol managers – one of the key pieces of feedback from the Convestival was that the HoDs and more junior staff who were there felt their P/GMs needed to know more about what’s happening in volunteering in order to be able to set a clear direction. They were asking for your help and these sessions are in part a way of supporting you to provide that help Similarly ADOs asked us to pull these sessions together – and they had a similar one – as there was a recognition that for many senior operational staff the world of volunteering is one they are less familiar with
Target in 2013 is currently 68% Missed the target this year – reached 63% - but great progress: increase of 4% when in all previous years the score has been static or just 1% increase Message is good progress, well done and Thank You, but can’t be complacent when look at target for next year
Indicative timings – subject to change Bridging The Gap = 2 hrs
668,000 people are employed in the voluntary sector. Informal volunteering saw a sharp drop in 2009-10 (-13% for one a year and -5% for once a month) according to the Citizenship survey. We don’t know why and are unlikely to see if this was a blip as the survey has been cut by the coalition government.
Cause association is strong with National Trust volunteers – links to brand. Cause association often about place more than organisation. 40% of National Trust volunteers say they would like to Trust utilise their skills better. Skills audits can help with this but a big spreadsheet is not the only answer. Relationship building is also really important .
Tom McKee’s reasons people stop volunteering Number 7: No flexibility in volunteer opportunities or scheduling Number 6: Too much wasted time in useless or unproductive meetings Number 5: Lack of communication Number 4: Lack of professionalism Number 3: The feeling that the volunteer is not really making a difference Number 2: No feedback from leadership about how the volunteer is doing Number 1 reason: The volunteer manager who doesn't know how to lead DISCUSSION – WHAT IS THE IMPLICATION FOR National Trust?
Volunteer Rights Inquiry – volunteer management has become all about what volunteers can’t do not what volunteers can do
Wally Harbert film Forecast based on the Government Actuary's Department principal projection Between 2010 and 2015 there will arrive an extra 731,000 people in the 66-71 age bracket – an increase of 22% on current levels – presents an enormous opportunity or challenge. Similar opportunities will exist for brands serving the late middle-age market ( an extra 935,000 48-59 year olds projected over the same timeframe ); more young adults ( an extra 1,053,000 23-36 year olds ) and more under-12s (an extra 517,000 – so long as current fertility rates hold - also indicate the changing shape of the demographic opportunity. Age brackets which will see a decrease include teenagers and youths ( 547,000 fewer 12-22 year olds ) and those in early middle age ( 855,000 fewer 37-46 year olds ). >>>>> Increasing number of volunteers will have held powerful roles in business and industry and therefore it can be quite intimidating for less experienced (often younger) managers. It is important that culturally and individual we learn to Trust ourselves to work with higher skilled / more experienced people.
We may have choice but perception is that we don’t have a variety of offers for potential vols,.
ANIMATED
In 2010, 30.1 million adults in the UK (60 per cent) accessed the Internet every day or almost every day. This is nearly double the estimate in 2006 of 16.5 million. Social networking was also a popular Internet activity in 2010, with 43 per cent of Internet users posting messages to social networking sites or chat sites, blogs etc. Social networking is not limited to young adults, with 31 per cent of Internet users aged 45 to 54 having used the Internet to post messages, while 28 per cent uploaded content.
ME – Discussion – Is this our ‘Burning Platform’ or not? This is where we should relate the theory you have introduced back to our Vision for Volunteering
2020 vision Volunteers involved in every aspect of our work All staff confident and capable of working with vols
Published earlier this year, Bridging the Gap combines a literature review of volunteering globally with primary research in Canada to help understand: What people are looking for in volunteering How orgs are engaging volunteers What steps we can take to ‘bridge the gap’ The research specifically looked at four groups – Young people, employer supported volunteers, families, baby boomers. We will look at the more general findings. I will build on these with my own reflections and some UK data.
Four areas we will focus on today
We’ve always known the if you want something done you ask a busy person. We’ve known that this trend has been increasing – between the 1991 and 1997 National Survey’s of Volunteering there was an increase in the number of hours given but a decrease in the number of people volunteering. We also know from successive citizenship surveys that levels of formal volunteering have not changed much in the last ten years. So we, like Canada, are very reliant on a small number of people for the volunteering currently undertaken. Given the traditional volunteer is older (i.e. civics generation) we are already seeing a decline in their levels of volunteering due to age, ill health and death. We need to do something about this rather than replying on those we’ve always relied on.
By far the most common reason for stopping volunteering was time, and particularly a lack of time due to changing home or work circumstances, identified by 41% of respondents. Time was also one of the key reasons identified for stopping volunteering in the 1997 National Survey of Volunteering. The second, third and fourth most commonly identified reasons for stopping volunteering in the current study were, respectively: because the activity was no longer relevant health problems or old age moving away from the area The data re non-volunteers wanting to volunteers is all non-volunteers (ex-volunteers and never volunteered) not just past volunteers. Do you know why your past volunteers stopped? Can you contact them to find out if & why they might support you again? >>>>> Point about we may have 67k volunteers but with 4m members there are opportunities to engage with far more who are already supporting the org in other ways
People want group activities but there are few on offer People come with skills but don’t always want to use them We have clearly defined roles but volunteers want to shape their own roles We want long-term volunteers but people want shorter term, flexible ways to engage We focus on our needs but volunteers have their own goals “ A desire to make and/or embed social connections, meet new people and combat isolation or loneliness led many people to get involved in a collective activity. The human desire to be with others in a joint endeavour, and the strength and quality of the relationships between fellow participants that grow through belonging to a group, came through vividly in our research .” Pathways Through Participation As the management of volunteering has become more formalised, especially with the development of more HR like approaches to volunteer management, so role descriptions etc. have become more commonplace. But Bridging The Gap found that people wanted to shape their roles around their own skills, experience and interests. As we’ve seen, we’re still reliant on the tradition, busy person uber-volunteer. But people want more short term, episodic, even micro opportunities to engage. “ Almost everyone we spoke to had experienced some degree of fluctuation in the levels of intensity and frequency of their involvement, depending on what was happening in their lives. Participation was characterised by ebbs and flows, starts and stops, a mix of one-offs, short- and long-term commitments…” Pathways Through Participation Marketing of volunteer programmes stands out in that it is almost always based on what we need not how the potential volunteer will benefit. Room guides?
Volunteered together Diverse range of skills but activity = clean up Self-determined roles One off task to make a tangible difference Driven by a sense of responsibility for their own community Asking how we engage these people in long term volunteering is not the right question. We need to ask how we adapt our offer to meet them half way.
“ Any attempt to encourage participation must take into account the differing and multiple motivations people have for becoming and staying involved” Pathways Through Participation Far more socially acceptable that volunteering is about giving and getting – probably always has been of course. Yet most organisations have an inflexible, take it or leave it approach to volunteering – these opportunities at these times etc. People want volunteering to enable them to learn new skills & share their experience with others. Yet we still have large numbers of unskilled volunteering opportunities and roles where we don’t trust volunteers to go about the work in their own way. Time is increasingly precious as we all live more complex and pressured lives. People have to be convinced that they aren’t going to waste their time volunteering with you and that they will make a difference. “ A good quality participation experience was the single most important reason interviewees gave to explain their sustained participation ” and “ people participated in order to specifically achieve something ” Pathways Through Participation Today’s volunteers are different from the duty driven legions of traditional volunteers More mobile – migration etc. Tech savvy Multiple interests and roles Lead complex and busy lives Want two-way relationships Accept change and a variety of choice Like volunteering in groups Like to use their skills and learn new ones
The Beijing vs London analogy We need to focus less on creating lots of uniform volunteering that is tightly controlled and orderly and efficient Instead be open to volunteering being more diverse, slightly chaotic, more fun and creative.
Link strongly with what National Trust know about drivers for their volunteering KPI (80% recommendation): Be organised Communicate Work as a team and show appreciation Make the most of peoples skills Show clear direction and leadership
Second discussion point – think about your experience as a volunteer as well as your experience of working in the sector.
Unsalaried credibility Sphere of influence Luxury of focus Free to criticise Experiment Extend the budget Highlight issues around measuring these – not always easy but important, impact on volunteer, organisation and community.
Ask what kinds of costs are associated with working with volunteers? Capture these on flipchart.
Rate each possible action between 1 & 5 for importance 1 = high importance, 5 = low importance Estimate the amount of time required to complete each action Re-order High priority & little time at the top Low priority and lots of time at the bottom Share with a colleague and hold each other to account!
