Study finds more support is needed for volunteer managers

Volunteering bodies need more power and are not leading effectively, a new report suggests.

Two in three volunteer managers feel they need a more powerful representative body, according to The New Alchemy report, written by research consultancy nfpSynergy.

It also reveals that many of them feel volunteering suffers from inadequate leadership in several key areas.

The report, out today, is based on in-depth interviews and a survey of 500 volunteer managers.

It reveals that 69% agreed that a more powerful representative body is needed and many feel leadership is lacking in certain areas.

Some 28% feel that the representative bodies are very poor or not very good at driving innovation, while a quarter feel the same about the championing of volunteering.

The ones who actually deal with volunteers are feeling inadequately supported

Almost a quarter were also unhappy about the platforms provided for sharing best practice, although 60% thought it was good or excellent

Volunteer managers were much happier with the representation of volunteering to government, with 69% of the opinion that it was good or excellent and just 7% unhappy.

The paper, the sixth in a seven-part series, also asked volunteer managers how they felt about the support they currently received from their own organisation.

Less than half of them were happy with it, while over a quarter thought it could do a “little more”. 18% thought their organisation could do a lot more.

nfpSynergy’s Joe Saxton, said: “The picture emerging from our survey is very mixed, although volunteer managers do love their work. The irony is that many people will recite the fact that they’re a voluntary sector, yet the ones who actually deal with volunteers are feeling inadequately supported.

“It seems there is lots to be done on championing volunteering within the sector and sharing knowledge and best practice.”