Do volunteers have a role in climate action? Our research this week suggested a need for 100,000 skilled volunteers to support environmental charities and social enterprises. One question sent to me is whether all this work should be paid for, which is a good question, at least in theory. If charities had the money to do all they needed, say from philanthropy, they wouldn’t necessarily look for volunteers. And equally, if the problems didn’t exist, charities wouldn’t be needed and wouldn’t need to raise money. If we had magic wands, these would be resolved and just because we don’t doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t press the case for them to happen. One of the prompts for our work was research by the funder Garfield Weston Foundation, which showed how many environmental charities were not getting the funding they needed. Having said all that, Pilotlight has supported 1,000 charities working on poverty over time, using our social enterprise business model, and we see that skilled volunteering can be of huge help in being more effective and reaching more people. It doesn’t always work but the overall impact data and the testimonies are outstanding. And here is one key truth, which is that more money alone doesn’t make an organisation more impactful. Of course, if they can generate more income, then charities have more scope to pay for the support services that they require. Larger charities are better able to employ people with specialist skills, whereas it is an old adage that leaders of smaller charities have to be Jack or Jill ‘of all trades’, turning their attention to managing staff and volunteers, running operations, analysing data, building relationships and fundraising. The acute lack of training for leaders at the smaller end of the charity sector is therefore of particular concern, because it is extremely hard to be good at all these different tasks. Even so, money only runs so far, and it is a strength of the charity model that volunteers can bring expertise that a charity may not be able to pay for. This i think is where skilled volunteering has a valued role to play – where people give their time and expertise to the public good rather than, or in addition to their money. The challenge of sustainability can’t be solved through individual action, whether paid or unpaid. But if we are to see systems change, we will require concerted action at all levels, individual, collective, national and multilateral. Where do you think voluntary action fits in all this?
100,000 skilled “climate volunteers” are needed to support the UK’s environmental charities. Pilotlight recently conducted a survey to understand the support needs of organisations working on climate and environmental sustainability and some of our findings revealed that: one in two smaller charities working in the environment sector have no operational plan for the year. And two out of three environmental charities are actively looking for professional support from skilled volunteers. – but most do not know where to turn to for this. This is the driving force behind our goal to build a new capacity building programme. We amplify the impact charities, business and individuals can bring by facilitating pro bono skilled volunteering. Employees use their expertise to help charities access the specialist skills they need but do not necessarily have the budget for. If you run a business and are interested in a new practical pro bono programme of support we are launching find out more about our offer to business here: https://buff.ly/3Q7FuxB Read our new report and find out how you can help today: https://buff.ly/3Q7ptrv #100kClimateVolunteers
