Giving Compass' Take:

• Verified Volunteers teamed up with VolunteerMatch to gather insight on how volunteers felt about various topics in the industry including volunteer habits and preferences. 

• How can reporting on volunteer behavior and perspective help strengthen the industry? Where can donors help?

• Read more about how to volunteer to make meaningful change. 

Each year, we report on the volunteer and nonprofit industry, asking the people who run volunteer programs about their operations and the challenges they face — particularly in regard to volunteer onboarding and background checks. This year, we turned our focus to volunteers themselves, offering the people who give their time an opportunity to share their perspective.

Alongside partner, VolunteerMatch, we conducted a survey in the fall of last year and more than 7,000 volunteers shared their thoughts on a wide range of topics. Most respondents were female and over 35 years old, living throughout the U.S. in mostly suburban areas.

We asked volunteers about their volunteering habits and preferences and gave them a chance to voice their opinions about why they volunteer. We found that people choose to volunteer for a variety of reasons, most commonly to contribute to a cause or to help improve their community. We also found that the motivation for volunteering isn’t always selfless – many volunteer to pursue a hobby or career, or even just to socialize with peers. But some have much deeper reasons.

We also noticed a number of trends that, together, paint a picture of today’s volunteer.

  • 89% of respondents agreed that they care about more than one cause
  • 84% volunteer at least a few times a year
  • 83% are at least somewhat more willing to donate to an organization where they volunteer
  • 80% give 2 to 5 hours of their time when volunteering
  • 78% say that understanding their impact keeps them engaged
  • 75% volunteer at one or more organizations per year

Verified Volunteers and our partners have begun building an online volunteer community; we took the opportunity to hear what volunteers themselves would want most in the new community. They most commonly selected:

  • Volunteer opportunity search
  • Ability to be recruited by organizations with opportunities
  • Networking with contacts at nonprofits/organizations
  • Networking with like-minded volunteers
  • Access to online courses related to volunteering
  • Ability to track volunteer hours

Read the full article about volunteer industry insights at Verified Volunteers.