The Road Ahead

Our analysis of the major opportunities and challenges facing the voluntary sector in 2024. Learn more

Volunteering round-up: July 2022

Grab some ice cream and enjoy reading the July volunteering round-up.

Vision for Volunteering – phase two

The Vision for Volunteering launched in May at an in-person event and an online event where we explored the five themes in the Vision. We continue to invite organisations to read about the long-term plan for volunteering and encourage you to make a commitment or two. Plans for phase two are underway and this will focus on movement-building. The Vision is where we can all come together to put volunteers first and refocus volunteering across England, so by 2032 we are doing better than ever before with volunteers at the heart of our efforts.

New Time Well Spent report: Impact of covid on the volunteer experience

We have released a new report in the Time Well Spent series that examines the impact of the pandemic on the volunteering experience, exploring broader changes in volunteer operation, recruitment and motivation, while closely looking at the emotional impact of volunteering during the pandemic. For a summary of findings, read this blog by Rei Kanemura, NCVO’s Research and Insight Manager.

Spirit of 2012: Report on Inclusive Volunteering and Disabled People

Spirit of 2012 have commissioned a report to help organisations better understand the background and needs of disabled people, how to open up positive volunteering opportunities for disabled people and in doing so address harmful stereotypes and disparities. This report is based on research that covers the motivations and experience of disabled volunteers, compares volunteering rates to non-disabled people and identifies the specific barriers that disabled people face. There is a dedicated section on how covid has affected disabled volunteers. 

Join a free action learning set!

We’d love to hear from those of you who currently support or are seeking to support volunteers aged 50+. We are offering free places on an action learning set that will meet online from early September, for a minimum of three months. We are particularly interested in hearing from frontline delivery organisations with an income of less than £1m. We are also keen to hear from volunteering leads who lack opportunities for their own learning and development. This work is supported by the Centre for Ageing Better. Read about how to be an action learner in this blog. We have extended the closing date to 10 August and look forward to hearing from you.

Nominations for Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service is made to UK volunteer groups and is equivalent in status to receiving a Masters of the British Empire (MBE). This year 244 groups received the award. Nominations are now open for 2023. The closing date is 15 September.

Investing in Volunteers achievers

Investing in Volunteers (IiV) is the UK quality standard for good practice in volunteer management. We’re congratulating new IiV England achiever Cornwall Air Ambulance Trust.

The Investing in Volunteers team will be working throughout the summer to assess and award more organisations. If you’re taking a break, they encourage you to consider taking up Investing in Volunteers up as a new challenge when you return. To start your Investing in Volunteers journey, click here.

NCVO online training

Safeguarding essentials in charities

The next date for our online safeguarding essentials in charities course is 9 September, 10.00–15.00.

Good practice in volunteer management

Our popular online good practice in volunteer management course takes place over two half days from 10.00–13.00. You need to attend both days as they’re two parts of one course. It’s so popular that we’re running two courses in October!

First October course

  • Session 1: Tuesday 11
  • Session 2: Thursday 13

Second October course

  • Session 1: Tuesday 25
  • Session 2: Wednesday 26

Volunteers and the law

We’ve refreshed our online training course on volunteers and the law to address issues emerging from the pandemic. We’re offering this half day course 10.00-13.00 on 7 September and on 5 October.

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