The Volunteer Perspective - Part 2
The Volunteer Perspective – dig deeper with me!
I have a huge spreadsheet for crunching numbers and tracking our org’s story. It’s one that causes my colleagues and board to release a dramatic sigh when I open and say “I just have to show you something” … most often accompanied with heavy eyerolls. So follow along with my best Dwight Schrute impression …
We cannot support the narrative that “Canada has seen a dramatic decline in volunteers” because the data provided by volunteers year over year does not say/show/exhibit that behaviour.
Fact: Volunteers applying to volunteer increased 18.114% from 2021 to 2022.
We can support the narrative that organizations are struggling with demand and volunteer engagement is feeling that.
Fact: Organizations seeking volunteers decreased 22.852% from 2021 to 2022.
What is our best guess as to why there are capacity struggles on the organization side? Probably a familiar nonprofit story of “do more with less”. We actually see a lot of information out there answering that question right now. Most of our friends point to the need for increased funding to the sector.
We just think, with the data from volunteers in mind, that it’s not helpful to the volunteer movement and all Canadians to suggest our neighbours aren’t ready and willing to show up for one another. (see previous post for volunteer trends)
You may wonder why we have a different story to tell?
- That’s because we have centered the volunteer in the VolunteerConnector
- That’s because we intentionally built a digital platform from the ground up to have access to volunteer data as well as the organizational perspective
- That’s because in sector starved for data, we have millions of data points telling a different story!
Happy to connect to dig deeper with anyone interested in telling the story of the volunteer!
#nonprofit #engagement #canada #impact #connections #belonging #volunteering