Micro-volunteering has been growing in popularity over the last few years and is revolutionising the way charities like the British Heart Foundation (BHF) engage with their volunteers.
Increasing numbers of volunteers are opting for ad hoc shifts, which allows the flexibility of volunteering without signing up for anything long-term.
This marks a break away from the traditional weekly volunteer patterns, as people instead choose to drop in for an hour or two whenever they have some free time.
Gen Z and volunteering
BHF recently surveyed 3,068 of our retail volunteers and we found that, across all age groups, volunteers are opting for irregular, flexible hours over formal shift patterns.
But this is particularly true among younger volunteers, with 73% of 16- to 18-year-olds volunteering for up to five hours per week.
The demographic of our volunteers in general is also shifting. The average age of a BHF retail volunteer is now 30, compared to 50 years old before the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, over half (53%) of the volunteers we recruited last year were between the ages of 16 and 24.
With the demographic of volunteers changing, charities need to make sure they are catering for younger audiences who are looking for more flexibility.
Offering flexibility
Volunteering should be simple, fit around other commitments, and be as accessible to all. This is something we are trying to achieve by rolling out taster volunteer sessions this summer, making it easy for volunteers to sign up online and try it out without any formal sign up or commitment.
Our taster sessions give people the opportunity to volunteer for an hour or two over the summer without any ongoing commitment. This can be done in their own home from their sofa, or in a local charity shop.
Nearly half (46%) of our volunteers aged 16 to 24 say that volunteering has improved their mental health.
One of our volunteers in our Bristol shop, Ameena, is studying marketing at university. She told us that she can get quite anxious during exam periods, and it helps her to go out and go somewhere friendly for a couple of hours. If she has some spare time, she simply posts in the team group chat and volunteers.
Making the most of volunteers’ skills
We encourage our volunteers to bring their own skills to the time they spend in the shop and aim to create a rich tapestry of experience and skills, whether it’s someone with a passion for preloved helping to sort our stock, an art student helping to design window displays or an engineer helping to function test our electricals.
Anastacia, a college student who volunteers in our Hemel Hempstead shop, loves to use her creative eye to decorate the chalk boards outside the shop for events like Halloween, Christmas and Pride. She even creates sunglasses and jewellery, which are sold in the shop.
For others, volunteering is about meeting people and connecting with others. Seven out of 10 of our volunteers say that meeting people is the most important thing they get out of volunteering.
Another of our volunteers, Joe, drops in to our Bristol vintage shop to volunteer flexibly when he has some free time. As a student, Joe likes to volunteer to break out of the student bubble and engage in the local area. He told us that he chooses to be front of house so that he can chat to the team and customers.
Charities should make space for volunteers to focus on their own skills and passions, whether that involves hunting for vintage items, using artistic skills, or simply connecting with new people.
Our teams benefit from having extra help, even if it is just for half an hour, and more people volunteering means more diversity and fresh ideas. Volunteers are the lifeblood of our charity, and every hour makes a difference to help us fund our lifesaving work.
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