(This is a 2012 news story) photo: sourced
Volunteering Australia has released the full report of the National Survey on Volunteering. The report is the largest survey of volunteering issues conducted annually and aims to identify issues and trends in volunteering in Australia.
Some key findings of the survey include: 68.3% of respondents said their organisation needs more volunteers – particularly high in emergency services and sport/physical recreation More than 90% of respondents said they found their volunteering experience satisfactory The three most important things to continue volunteering were location, matching volunteering opportunities to skills and interests, and the values of the organisation they volunteer with 43.2% said that ‘being accepted as a valuable team member’ was the most important form of recognition to their feeling valued as a volunteer
Volunteering Australia CEO, Cary Pedicini, said that 75% of respondents preferred to volunteer for the same organisation in the future. “Long term volunteers are particularly important for many organisations who invest heavily in training, protecting and supporting their volunteers. Volunteering does not happen without investing in support resources so volunteers who commit long term are helping to ensure that investment is used to the greatest effect for the people who benefit from their generosity.”
“The high level of satisfaction was not surprising as volunteers tend to do their bit for the satisfaction of knowing they are helping others”, Cary said. “The fact that 23% of volunteers said that in the last three months they hadn’t received the recognition that is most important to them suggests we need to work harder to ensure our volunteers are valued.”