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Let's Talk Productivity: A Volunteering Perspective


We often overlook the concept of productivity in the world of volunteering. It's understandable; our focus is on making a positive impact, not on maximising efficiency. Sometimes even, the concept of productivity feels counter-productive to building enjoyable and empowering volunteer experiences. However, is it important to address the question: "How can we make volunteering more productive and cost-effective?"


What Does Productivity Mean for Volunteers?

Productivity, at its core, is the ratio of input to output. In the context of volunteering, we want to ensure that the time, money, and resources invested yield the maximum social and strategic value. While quantifying the inputs (e.g., volunteer hours, staff time) is relatively straightforward, measuring the outputs and outcomes is more complex.


The Challenge of Measuring Impact

Unlike traditional work, where outcomes are often tangible (e.g., products, services), the impact of volunteering is often intangible and long-term. We can measure the number of hours volunteered, but it's harder to quantify the impact on social cohesion, education, or mental health. Surely, our measures of productivity should focus on the latter not the former?


Balancing Productivity and Volunteer Experience

It's crucial to recognise that volunteers are not just labour. They are individuals seeking meaningful experiences, empowerment, and connection. While efficiency is important, we must prioritise creating positive and fulfilling volunteer experiences. This often involves flexibility, remote volunteering, and shorter commitments, which may not always align with traditional productivity metrics.


The Long-Term Perspective

To truly assess the productivity of volunteering, we need to adopt a long-term perspective. We need to develop ongoing means to monitor the long term outcomes on society and measure these up against the investments in time, training and support to harness the power of volunteering.


Championing the Value of Volunteering

As volunteering professionals, we must advocate for the strategic value of volunteering. This involves building strong evidence cases, using data to demonstrate impact, and highlighting the cost-effectiveness of volunteer missions.


By embracing a balanced approach to capturing the value that volunteering brings to our organisations and the communities and causes we serve, we can demonstrate to funders and supporters alike that volunteering not only delivers enrmous value for money, but that an investment in volunteering is time and money very well spent indeed.


Time for Impact can help you build these evidence cases and champion the strategic value of volunteering. Please do gey in touch and together we can boost investment in volunteering.


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