Volunteering New Zealand announces the results of its inaugural State of the New Zealand Volunteering Sector survey this week.
This is the first report of its kind in New Zealand, and with responses from 1500 registered charities, insights from this survey are telling. “From our research we can ascertain that recruiting volunteers remains challenging (55% said they had experienced challenges in the last 12 months), but that organisations are having less difficulty retaining volunteers (65% said they were not experiencing such challenges)”, says Scott Miller, Chief Executive of Volunteering New Zealand
“While available time to volunteer is always going to be an issue for the recruitment and retention of volunteers in modern society, the vast majority of organisations are still engaging volunteers to achieve their organisation purposes, and not as a cost-saving measure. This is clearly the sign of a health voluntary sector” says Miller.
Another notable finding from the survey is the relatively low self-assessment of organisations embracing technology (5.0 out of 10). Smaller organisations (with <20 volunteers) in particular are potentially foregoing the various benefits of efficiency and effectiveness technology can enable for the organisation and their volunteers, particularly in the fields of volunteer recruitment and retention.
“Our overall findings suggest that volunteering in New Zealand is in good shape, with an average rating of 6.1 (out of 10), which is consistent with other tests of validity in the sector” says Miller.
New Zealand is internationally competitive as a country of volunteers, but there are certainly areas of volunteering we believe can still be enhanced to ensure our international leadership in this space is unparalleled.
The full State of Volunteering Report is available on the Volunteering New Zealand website: http://www.volunteeringnz.org.nz/state-volunteering/
Volunteering New Zealand (VNZ) is an association of New Zealand organisations that have a commitment to volunteering, such as volunteer centres, national and other organisations. Their mission is to promote, support and advocate for volunteering. www.volunteeringnz.org.nz
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