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Time to better involve young volunteers.

Many charities built their volunteering involvement around the baby boomer and Gen X age groups. They were often described as the civic core and the way in which most volunteers still give their time is based on our assumptions about these generations. This is manifest in the roles we design, the way we communicate, the agency and flexibility we give, how we market volunteering, and the language we use - even how we think about what volunteering is.

We know that, many elder volunteers have significant grandparent duties or are supporting their own parents or partners. Time has become more and more scarce, and it is harder to attract and retain such volunteers. We must attract a wider diversity of volunteers / participants.

So, we've known for some time that we need to get better at engaging younger volunteers in our activities. The good news is that a recent study by the British Heart Foundation and Censuswide found that Gen Z are more likely to volunteer than any other age group. 94% said they would consider volunteering compared to 74% of baby boomers. So why are we not investing more heavily to engage this latent force for good in our causes?

The response of many charities amounts to advertising volunteering activity designed for one generation to younger volunteers. We have to accept that successful engagement of new audiences requires us to rethink our offering.

We know that younger generations are more digitally native, we know they often value greater flexibility, and may be more likely to browse causes and organisations. We also know that many young people respond well to activism. Such understanding and more must be at the heart of our volunteering and participation visions?

We have to change our out-moded approaches to accommodate this source of brilliant volunteers. The onus is on us to adapt, NOT on the volunteer to adapt to us. To be clear, I am not saying exclude elder generations, simply that we need to adapt our approach to be inclusive of all.

Time for Impact can help you modernise your strategies, plans and volunteer experiences for younger audiences. Success at this would be a major competitive advantage. So, please contact Time for Impoact, Volunteering Consultants to discuss how we can help.

BHF link - https://lnkd.in/eCp8cYRk

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