Peter O'Hara
Voluntary work for charities has become an increasingly popular activity to be offered in the workplace over the last few years, encouraged by the government, and has been shown to give those who carry out the voluntary work lots of satisfaction.
However, is it really a useful and beneficial tool for charities themselves? Does volunteering detract from the fundraising efforts of companies and therefore hamper charities rather than benefit them?
Organising volunteers takes up a lot of charities' time and they often manufacture jobs for people to do because there isn't much work available for unskilled volunteers, not to mention time-consuming administration, CRB checks and so on.
Volunteering has become increasingly popular but it is often at the expense of fundraising, according to Stephen Noble, head of corporate partnerships at Barnardos. "Of course we want people to bond with us and the work we do, and we think volunteering is very valuable in that respect, but if it takes the place of fundraising, that seriously affects the income we have to spend on our long term projects," he says.
"If people want to volunteer, the best way to do that from our point of view, is to take part in voluntary fundraising."
'Volunteering is very important to us'
Community affairs manager for Yorkshire and Clydesdale Banks, Jacqui Atkinson, looks after a large and successful volunteering programme. "Volunteering is very important to us and we take the view that we are providing a service. So to ensure we provide the best service, we work with organisations, like BITC, so that we match the charity's individual needs with the people we provide."
"I think it would be wrong to characterise any volunteering as not useful, it is just not aligned to the charity's needs. We will provide staff with specific technical skills or non-specific skills or for physical tasks," she says. "As a bank we have a lot of skills that would potentially cost charities a great deal to buy-in, like business planning or accountancy but also HR, marketing or public relations. If a charity needs support in an area of skill that we have, we find the right people. This has been very successful, useful for the charities locally and incredibly popular with them."
"Using non-specific skills for volunteering can also be very beneficial, reading partners in schools is a perfect example. Physical work can be great for team building but you have to match this with the right projects and the right charity, which requires some thought and effort to be successful for all parties."
Here at Workplace Giving UK, we have noticed over the past two years a definite trend of companies emphasising volunteering programmes over the promotion of other employee fundraising, including Workplace Giving schemes (aka Payroll Giving/ Give As You Earn).
These scheme are often matched £ for £ by employers, are completely tax efficient and should therefore not be sidelined in favour of volunteering which may in some cases be a box ticking exercise.
That's not to say there isn't a place for skilled volunteers and volunteering, we think there is, but it shouldn't be at the expense of other forms of workplace fundraising, especially those generating a regular, ongoing income stream.
Peter O'Hara is managing director of Workplace Giving UK
From Whitehall Watch
From Bubb's Blog
From Flip Chart Fairy Tales
