Key Volunteering Facts and Figures
- 22 million adults are involved in formal volunteering each year
- 90 million hours of formal voluntary work takes place each week
- Six out of ten volunteers say volunteering gives them an opportunity to learn new skills
- Half of all volunteers get involved because they were asked to help
- 90% of the population agree with the notion that a society with volunteers shows a caring society. The above information can be found in the 1997 National Survey of Volunteering – read a summary of the survey
- The economic Value of formal Volunteering has been calculated to be in the region of £40 billion per year
- The total public sector support for volunteering is estimated to be in the region of £400 million per year
- For every £1 volunteer involving organisation spend supporting volunteering they can expect a notional payback of up to 14 times that
- Young people, contrary to popular thinking, do support the idea of volunteering. To successfully involve young people organisations need to recognise their need for flexibility and variety among other things
- Formalisation of volunteering is increasing – 85% of formal volunteer involving organisations have a written volunteer policy or practice and procedures handbook
- Despite more formalised polices 95% of organisations still use word of mouth as their main method of recruiting volunteers
