Effective Volunteering

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By Rebecca Rae-Evans

I’m a super fun person. At least two people have told me that during my life. One was my husband. The other was me, in the mirror, giving myself a much needed pep talk.

Like all super fun people do, lately I’ve been thinking about the effectiveness of skills-based volunteering. DM me on Twitter if you’d like me to make an appearance at your party once the lockdown is over.

I work with a lot of social sector clients (and have for a fair few years now), and time and time again I hear the same ask, “please can you help fix our broken website”. 

Now here’s the chain of events that brought them to this point. They needed a new website, because the old one was, well, very old. Remember WAP phones? It was made in those glorious days. Or, maybe it’s their first ever website. They didn’t have much budget. Core costs are the priority, and throwing money into digital channel didn’t seem the best use of budget at the time. This whole thing was new to them. BUT – some good news, Kevin from the finance department had a cousin called Jack who was able to make a website for really cheap. Scratch that, he did it for free because it’s for a good cause, and he had a few spare evenings on the horizon.

Jack underestimated how long this project would take. The charity board didn’t really understand the process anyway (this was all new to them, remember?), so their feedback and amends went on for a WHILE. Poor ol’ Jack is making this thing in his evenings and weekends. It’s rushed. There’s no documentation. And next to nobody in the charity knows how to update it. Every now and then they add something, and it breaks a little bit. No-one can get in touch with Jack.

This is a fairly common story and because of it, for a while, I found the concept of volunteers doing tech work for charities frustrating. Their heart was in the right place, and they saw what looked like a genuine need, but really they just gave the charity a burden that they would need to pay someone, like me, to fix in the future.

However, I’ve also been thinking about those charities who might for one reason or another NEED digital-skilled volunteers. I train charities in digital skills quite a lot. Over the years, they have come to me for social media training (I have a lot of cat gifs ready to go if anyone needs them), digital strategy training, digital transformation training, and everything in between. But no matter how well I design and deliver the training sessions, there will always be those charities who don’t go back to the office and implement what I’ve told them. 

Why might that be?

. . .

I’ve recently been working with CAST on a piece of research for The Catalyst looking at what has helped charities upskill in digital, and a LOT of them are asking for hands-on support. They need someone to go beyond showing them the ropes, they need capacity. 

It’s easy for us to sit back and say, well if they really care about progress, and see the potential for digital, they will find capacity and budget. However, this can be such a massive task in itself. These might be overstretched and underfunded organisations delivering vital frontline services. All of their mental capacity is on keeping the lights on and keeping people supported. What we’re asking of them so often requires real change management, and some time to step back, pause and think. On top of that, they need leadership and expertise in what digital can do. 

And there are ways of offering volunteering that works, and ways that don’t work. We need to avoid being Jack, which we’ll explore below. 

So, for those of us in the design and tech industries, who want to give back something with our skills and knowledge, how can we actually help without getting in the way? 

1. Provide some hands-on support. They might be in a situation where they know what the right solution is. They’ve done the research, they know their audience. They just need the thing built. If so, build them some tech, offer them some actual time to do some hands-on tasks. Maybe help them with research and scoping if you feel like the brief isn’t great. Maybe you have social media expertise. If so, run their twitter account for them, show them what works, and what doesn’t. 

This may well give them the kick start they need and could help them deliver a much needed service. It might lay down a marker internally for them to showcase what digital can potentially do for their organisation. It might give them leverage to allocate budget next year.

Just ensure that the work is done properly, that you’re not jumping to conclusions with an ill-thought out solution. Properly scope out how much time you can offer and that you are able to complete the task at hand. Ensure the charity can run with it when you’ve left. Build something that works for the audience, train people, and leave documentation.

It’s more important to get this stuff right in the social sector because the difference can save lives, rather than just  (if you work in the commercial sector) sell soap. 

Try reading the CAST’s Digital Design Principles or this the Charity Digital Code to understand charity digital needs. 

  • Look at Media Trust’s matching tool.

  • If you’re in Edinburgh, check out Digital for Good. 

  • If you’re in Greater Manchester we’ve launched a Help a Charity initiative. We’re working with Brighton and Edinburgh to share resources and knowledge and we’re all trying to not be Jack by guiding both charities and volunteers.

2. Help the people on the ground upskill. Training courses like those I’ve run are plentiful, but having a friendly person they can call and bounce ideas off, or ask a really specific question is invaluable. Consider being a tech mentor or buddying up with someone in a charity to offer help. Try to get some coaching skills to add to your repertoire, it’s a great way to support people to pick up some of the knowledge along the way. 

3. Become a digital trustee. This might not be easy. You’ll be working with leadership here, and creating change can be hard work. There is rarely a quick fix. But this really is an opportunity where you can make a massive impact and create real change. Be the digital advocate at management level. Help them be more realistic and effective with procurement when it comes to bringing in digital services. Have difficult discussions at management level. Be an ally and advocate for the comms manager who knows what they need but might not have the sway to make change. I really think this is an untapped option. We can continue chipping away at the bottom, but top down is really needed in some instances.

  • Reach volunteering are on a drive to get more digital trustees

  • Come to our Digital Trustees event - hear about what it’s like to be one, why charities need them and tips from Reach Volunteering. We might even be able to match people up on the day with potential vacancies. 

4. Get a job at a charity. Some charities are in the space to move beyond volunteers, but there is a massive lack of digital skills in the sector. It’s often left to the comms team with no previous digital knowledge to pick up everything classed as “tech”. Sometimes it might be a tough task to bring a team along with you, sometimes the pay is lower than the corporate sector, but not always, and working in this sector can be rewarding. If you want to make a difference, charities hold the knowledge about some of our biggest challenges, help them to make an impact.

I was heavily edited on this, my original was much longer (but more boring apparently). I’m doing research into charity needs in this area, I’m understanding what the volunteers get out of it, and what they need to do well, I’m actively iterating on our volunteer project. There’s a lot more to say, there’s a lot more to do. If you want to chat give me a shout. Catch me on Twitter @rebeccawho or over at Reply.

Sacha Wynne