Few sporting and cultural events can operate successfully without the support of volunteers. More than 2,000 volunteers contribute to London’s Carnaval Del Pueblo, for example, while the capital’s Pride organisation includes 80 year-round voluntary positions in areas ranging from event management to marketing and communications.
People volunteer for these roles for many reasons: to be part of the event, to support their community or to contribute to its wider social or environmental objectives. For many public funders of events, however, the most important driver of volunteering is very often its ability to help people gain skills that will raise their aspirations, improve their employability and improve their long-term career prospects. In response, many events now run specific training programmes for their volunteers.
What to measure
At a basic level, you can use the following measures to assess the scale of opportunity an event provides for people to gain skills and experience through volunteering:
- Number of people volunteering during the event (ASOIF reference SO-V1.1)
- Number of volunteers from the host area (e.g. city, region and/or country)
- Average number of volunteering hours per person (ASOIF reference SO-V2.2)
- Number of volunteer hours delivered in host area (i.e. the number of volunteers x average number of hours contributed per volunteer)
- Number of young people (16-25-year-olds) from the host area engaged on work placements and/or internship programmes
Other aspects of volunteering can also be assessed according to the event’s objectives. These include:
- Number of volunteers from targeted groups, such as those with a disability or on low income (ASOIF reference SO-V2.1)
- Economic value of the time contributed by volunteers to the event
- Percentage of volunteers satisfied with their experiences, perceived benefits gained and likelihood of volunteering again in the future
The OECD considers these impacts to contribute towards the UN SDGs Reduced Inequalities (Target 10.2) and Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (Goal 16).
Volunteering and skills impact: How to measure it
Although the extent to which volunteers gain long-term benefits such as career progression through volunteering at an event requires a level of longitudinal study that is beyond the scope of most organisers, there are other ways in which you can evaluate shorter-term impacts. For example:
- The economic value of volunteering can be calculated by multiplying the total of volunteer hours by the Office for National Statistics’ average hourly wage rate
- Volunteers can be surveyed to understand their experience, the benefits they feel it gave them and their willingness to help again in future