Background
During National Volunteer Week 17 – 23 May 2021, Volunteering Queensland released the inaugural State of Volunteering in Queensland 2021 Report. It is a benchmark report that provides detail on the scope of volunteering in Queensland, its costs and its benefits to the community. The data collected from surveys of volunteer-involving organisations and individuals allows for detailed analysis of many facets of the volunteering landscape, including motivations, barriers, challenges, successes and potential actions to enhance volunteering in the future.
Methodology
A review has been conducted of the report, as well as further analysis of survey data, to uncover key issues, potential actions to support the sector and topics for future research. To identify potential links between behaviours and outcomes, answers to pairs of relevant questions in the survey were analysed. Trends were noted where enough people responded to both questions (400 – 600 responses) and associations were prominent. To maintain a valid sample size, responses for the question “What are the top three things your organisation needs to better support your volunteer workforce? – Priority 1/2/3” were grouped into eight broader categories, rather than the 15 categories identified in The State of Volunteering in Queensland 2021 Report (page 36). Some statistics may appear to vary as a result.
Key issues overview
Additional and expanded findings have been clustered around several key themes:
- Recruitment and retention
- Training
- Other forms of volunteering (remote, intermittent and informal)
- Barriers to volunteering and red tapeFunding
- Further research
Advocacy plan overview
The findings described above identify several actions that would help address the needs of volunteers and volunteer-involving organisations, working to enhance volunteering outcomes and the sector as a whole.
These include actions that may be undertaken by Volunteering Queensland independently, as well as opportunities for collaboration and advocacy. Actions have been provided in detail at the end of this document.
Contact
This document was prepared by Zac Reimers, Policy and Advocacy Lead, in consultation with other Volunteering Queensland staff, board and key stakeholders.
Rikki Anderson, Senior Manager – Services rikki.anderson@volunteeringqld.org.au
Zac Reimers, Policy and Advocacy Lead zac.reimers@volunteeringqld.org.au