Be Collective Blog

Snapshot summary: VCSE Barometer study | Be Collective

Be Collective — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:21:01 GMT

News

Snapshot summary: VCSE Barometer study

The VCSE Barometer is a quarterly survey of at least 50 different Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise Sector (VCSE) organisations and networks in the United Kingdom (UK). It's designed and conducted by Nottingham Trent University’s National VCSE Data and Insights Observatory. The aim of the survey is to provide a high-level view of the UK VCSE landscape for policymakers, practitioners and other stakeholders. The sixth report (Wave 6) was released in May 2024. This report focused on what (if anything) has changed in 12 months (since Wave 3 in May 2023) when it comes to recruiting and retaining volunteers.

We know everyone is super short on time, so, here is a one-page summary of the eleven paged document Present Struggles, Past Origins: Current Challenges in Volunteering Amidst Two Decades of Decline by Post Doctoral Researcher, Dr Ben Evans.

Leading barriers to volunteering include a lack of spare time (due to work and family commitments) and a lack of interest in volunteering (ouch - time to spice up your volunteer advertisements!). The good news is, the number of volunteers is stabilising with less organisations reporting fewer volunteers (don't get too excited, we're at a 20-year low in terms of volunteer numbers).

We're not going to lie, we find it ironic that 61% of organisations indicated they find recruiting volunteers difficult. More, a whopping 84% of organisations surveyed indicate that their dominant method for recruiting volunteers is word of mouth.

The real kicker is .. one in five individuals claim they have never been asked to volunteer (FYI, this is a worldwide nugget of feedback). Not drawing too long a bow here - but perhaps word of mouth isn't stretching far enough. As Gethyn Williams, volunteering strategy and non-profit expert said, this could "lead only to the involvement of more people like us, to the detriment of increased volunteer diversity".

If you want access to new pools of volunteers, adopting more diverse channels of communication is crucial. Try adopting the channel your target audience uses (then another target audience and channel and repeat). Case in point: here in Australia, our VIOs are tasked with increasing engagement with their First Nations people, newly arrived migrants, people with disability, vulnerable women, unemployed and young people. To do this, many of VIOs have adopted innovative and collaborative ways to connect with these groups (online and offline).

The report indicated one in three VIOs find it difficult to retain volunteers (little has changed in 12 months). The main reason for the revolving door of volunteers is due to changes in their personal life (such as an increase in family or work commitments). This in turn creates greater reliance on a smaller number of volunteers who are more likely to burn out or feel the commitment is too large (both also cited in respondent feedback).

Another lightbulb moment is the fact many VIOs use training and development to retain volunteers. Think about it - asking time poor volunteers to invest more time in training and development. SURELY there must be another way. What about capturing skills development WHILE volunteering? (Hello, Social CV).

Finally, Gethyn Williams highlighted four recommendations:
< Tailor recruitment / retention strategies for each volunteer segment
< Integrate flexible and virtual volunteering
< Highlight volunteer benefits your VIO offers in your volunteering ads
< Keep diversity and inclusion in mind

Some comments:
< Try advertising on social media to reach younger audiences and consider partnering strategically with relevant sector, corporate or support organisations.
< Are you making it easy for everyone to participate? Virtual volunteering alleviates pressure for the time poor, physically impaired and even people living remotely to contribute to your organisation.
< Volunteers won't know about the benefits your VIO offers to them if you don't tell them up front. Your volunteer recruitment advert is a great place to promote this ... and also if your role is open to people wishing to complete it remotely.
< Diverse recruitment methods will lead to a more diverse group of volunteers - and that's when the magic happens! Think beyond the methods of word of mouth, social media and the noticeboard at the local supermarket.

If this quick summary has piqued your interest, you can read the 11 page summary by Dr Ben Evans here: https://www.ntu.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/2391840/VCSE-barometer-wave-6-report-may-2024.pdf

How volunteering drives employee engagement | Be Collective

Be Collective — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:21:01 GMT

Blog

How volunteering drives employee engagement

The challenges of employee wellbeing and engagement

In today’s tight hiring market, it’s vital to focus on employee wellbeing and engagement so you can stand out as an employer of choice and attract the best talent. Wellbeing is a significant component of employee engagement. When employees experience good levels of wellbeing, they are more engaged. In turn, employees with healthy levels of engagement are more likely to stay onboard and spread favourable views about your organisation through their networks. Potential hires then learn about your commitment to employee wellbeing via these networks and are more likely to apply for and accept a role with your organisation.

However, it can be tough to create and maintain a culture that fosters good levels of employee wellbeing and healthy levels of engagement. Too often, the challenges of today’s fast-paced work environment can lead to employee burnout. Employees may experience low wellbeing and consequently low engagement. They may also report overly high levels of engagement, due to factors like unsustainably high workloads, and in turn experience low levels of wellbeing. Leaders therefore need to have strategies and initiatives in place that promote employee wellbeing and healthy levels of engagement. One such strategy is having a corporate volunteering program.

Trends in corporate volunteering

Corporate volunteering leave
Corporate volunteering leave is becoming widespread. Did you know that global coalition of multibillion-dollar firms Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose reported that 66% of its member firms offered paid volunteering leave in 2019? That’s an increase of 10 percentage points on the 2016 figure!

Corporate volunteering leave is an attractive employee benefit, driving recruitment, employer of choice ratings, staff engagement and retention.

Impact reporting
Now more than ever, companies need to ensure good ROI with activities that meet CSR goals. And as the old saying goes, ‘what gets measured, gets managed’. It’s therefore essential to have a comprehensive way to capture, report and measure the performance of your volunteering program. When you have real-time verified engagement and impact reporting, you can be proactive and focus your efforts on where and how you want to make a difference.

Storytelling
It’s not enough to run a volunteering program and measure the results if no one else hears about the outcomes. Don’t let all that good work go unacknowledged! When you show your team that they’re part of an organisation making a positive social impact, you’re supporting employee wellbeing. What’s more, by publicly sharing stories about your contributions you’re strengthening your relationships with charity partners, government, the education sector and the wider community.

How skills-based volunteering benefits employee wellbeing and engagement

What is skills-based volunteering
Skills-based volunteering takes place when the employee makes use of their specialised skills and expertise through voluntary work. This is in contrast with other types of volunteering where the volunteer may participate in activities which do not require pre-existing specialised skills.

While skills-based volunteering can be in-person, it’s more common for it to take place on a remote basis. Remote volunteering enables employees to use their skills and expertise anytime, anywhere to help good causes all around the world. Through making contributions in a flexible way, employees can have a positive social impact.

Charities and community groups provide critical support, but budget constraints can impede them from hiring the experts they need to deliver initiatives and campaigns most effectively. That’s where skills-based volunteering can make a real impact. It bridges the gap between talent at your organisation and the needs of charities, NGOs and community groups.

Examples
As the skills humans possess are multitude, so too are the potential types of skills-based volunteering. Some examples include:

IT professionals conducting an audit of IT technologies in use at a charity

Marketing managers advising community sports teams on how to choose what social media platforms to use

Lawyers providing pro bono advice to those in need within the community

Leaders and other senior executives serving on the boards of charities and NGOs

Translators and interpreters delivering pro bono services to people in need

Management consultants giving strategic advice to local charities

How skills-based volunteering helps your organisation overcome these challenges

Skills-based volunteering helps employees feel like they’re contributing to something of value, rather than volunteering that may not make the best of use of their expertise and professional experience. When employees volunteer their skills to a cause they believe in, their mental health can benefit. Research shows that people who volunteer see a boost to their mental health versus people who don’t volunteer.

Moreover, skills-based volunteering can bring together employees from different teams in ways that may not happen in the course of their normal work. Consequently, skills-based volunteering can create strong interpersonal bonds and networks between employees. Many employees really value these bonds and the feeling of connection that comes from being part of a community. In fact, research finds employers can leverage employee social connections to drive workplace wellbeing.

By boosting employee wellbeing and supporting healthy levels of engagement through skills-based volunteering, you’re strengthening your employer brand and putting your organisation in a strong position to attract the best talent.

How Be Collective enhances your corporate volunteering program

Boost participant numbers
Engaging more staff to use their volunteer leave and to volunteer more frequently relies on a number of key requirements. Be Collective understands this and that’s why we’ve built the functionality into our platform.

Knowing the impact employees have made in the community
Be Collective includes rich data analytics that allow you to capture, track and report the social impact of volunteering activity. Individuals and organisations can use our Social Impact Reporting and Social CVs to share the impact with others.

Aligning volunteer activities to organisational social pillars
Be Collective enables organisations to find, identify and partner with volunteer organisations by cause area across an interconnected digital ecosystem. In this way, organisations can provide concierged volunteer opportunities that support their strategic social pillars.

Quick and easy volunteer identification, matching and management
Be Collective is a digital management and engagement platform that automates volunteer program administration. It helps connect volunteers to community opportunities with streamlined processes and tools that encourage participation and bring rigour and accountability – but not admin and overheads – to volunteer management.

Why use multi factor authentication as a volunteer? | Be Collective

Be Collective — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:21:01 GMT

Blog

Why use multi factor authentication as a volunteer?

Given charities, not-for-profits and community groups exist to 'do good' in the world, providing support to our most vulnerable, they should be exempt from malicious vector attacks.

Unfortunately, they’re not. We've seen a data breach within a respected Australian charity in 2022 and another in the United Kingdom in 2023. So, what can we do to protect ourselves as organisations and as individuals who volunteer?

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is an easy to deploy security measure that requires two or more ways to prove your identity when accessing your online accounts or profiles. It's generally regarded as an additional layer of protection. That's why most banks offer (and recommend) MFA as part of internet banking.

MFA is offered in many forms. Options can include a random pin, secret question, physical token, authenticator app, email - right through to biometrics or fingerprint. We have kept our MFA super easy, acknowledging how much IT literacy varies widely across our metropolitan, suburban, rural and remote communities throughout the world.

In addition to your user name and password, Be Collective offers an MFA option which connects to your mobile phone. You can opt to have a unique verification code generated each time you log into Be Collective and have it sent to you via SMS. The code is then entered as part of your log-in to confirm your identity.

While we recommend all users activate MFA for their Be Collective account, we have left the decision up to you. MFA is voluntary option, not a mandatory requirement. More information on how to enable (or disable/update) your MFA on Be Collective.

The skinny on Be Collective Product Plans

Be Collective — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:21:01 GMT

Blog

The skinny on Be Collective Product Plans

At Be Collective, we, believe in mobilising goodwill and amplifying social impact. This is why we offer free access to our volunteer recruitment, management and engagement platform.

Be Collective is free for anyone to use. Be Collective Standard Plan provides a generous suite of (as the name suggests) standard volunteer management tools. Users can post opportunities, build a volunteer pool, schedule and roster volunteers, and connect with other groups on Be Collective through partnerships and endorsements. Happy days.

In addition to our Standard Plan, we also offer additional features which are available to subscribers of our Be Collective Plus and Be Collective Pro plans.

So .. what is the difference between the three Be Collective product plans?

We're glad you asked!

Be Collective Standard has been designed for smaller-sized groups, which only require access to our standard suite of tools. With our Standard plan, you can post opportunities, build a volunteer pool through group membership, schedule and roster your volunteers, and connect with other groups on Be Collective through partnerships & endorsements.

Be Collective Plus offers a range of additional features to better manage volunteer programs at an entry price. With our Plus plan, you can also add up to four administrators to your group, manage documents and member data, access advanced reports, bulk upload your members and so much more.

Be Collective Pro offers full functionality, customisation, innovative engagement and evidence-based reporting. With our Pro plan, you can add unlimited administrators to your group, create custom fields for your member data, access advanced reports and data exports, and unlimited access to all other Be Collective features. Oh, you also gain direct access to our super friendly and knowledgeable team of Community Development Managers. Also, ask about website integration for an improved user experience. Interested? Reach out via the website.

To learn more about the features included in our plans, please see the Help Centre articles linked below:

What features do Be Collective Plans include?

Getting started with Be Collective Standard

Getting started with Be Collective Plus

Getting started with Be Collective Pro

A little reciprocity goes a long way | Be Collective

Be Collective — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:21:01 GMT

Blog

A little reciprocity goes a long way

I learnt the word 'reciprocity' from a colleague recently. (One needs to say it slowly in order to refrain from tripping over the word). It refers to the act of exchanging something for mutual benefit.

Without doubt, volunteering is a selfless activity. It is usually done without any expectation of something in return. After all, it is generally recognised that volunteering helps people build connections and provides all the 'good feels' (builds self esteem, self worth, improves mental and physical health).

That said. We are living in a post pandemic era with a fundamental change (read: reduction) in volunteer numbers. What can we do to encourage and retain new cohorts of volunteers?

One element of this (because there are many) might be how can the selfless reciprocity between volunteer involving organisations (VIOs) and volunteers be improved?

Reciprocity all depends upon understanding your volunteers (and the volunteers you're trying to recruit). Knowing your volunteer demographics is crucial. For example, younger people may volunteer to build or deepen skills and build professional networks. In contrast, more senior volunteers enjoy sharing their knowledge, enjoy the sense of belonging while also giving back to the community.

Are you recognising volunteers once a year when Volunteer Week rolls around? Or are you recognising them in-the-moment, when they reach milestones - or any other metric your organisation feels appropriate. A simple verbal thank you is often powerful enough. Never underestimate the effect a tangible (but oh-so-easy to create and send) certificate of appreciation can have on a volunteer.

For the younger generation who may still be studying, or new migrants looking for local experience, even a mum returning to the workforce - helping create pathways to employment can be important. Everyone on Be Collective automatically builds a social record which can be exported as a Social CV. If you’re a volunteer reading this – check yours out!

Volunteer Managers can strengthen the social CV by routinely completing testimonials for volunteers. Think about articulating the value a volunteer brings to a role - not just the skills they possess (mentoring, accounting, driving, social media etc) but also how they complete tasks (empathy, kindness, resilience, problem solving etc). What we’re talking about is how volunteer management software can help build a culture of engaging with volunteers and demonstrating how much they're valued as well.

Our Social Credits capability offers VIOs even more scope to create compelling programs which can not only make volunteers pay attention to hard-to-fill roles - but offer reciprocity.

What we're talking about here is flipping the value of volunteering. We want to help VIOs (and volunteers) to change the nature of volunteer conversations. Understand what make your volunteers tick. If you’re a volunteer, share your motivations with your volunteer manager. Let's make volunteering even more beneficial to both parties.

Webinar re-cap: The value of your volunteers | Be Collective

Be Collective — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:21:01 GMT

Blog

Webinar re-cap: The value of your volunteers

Jenni Giblin, Director, Funding HQ teamed with Kelly Vogel, Stakeholder Development Manager, Be Collective to host a funding focused webinar. They discussed how the role of volunteers in a fundraising context is often under-represented and how to articulate their value to build compelling funding stories. If you have the time, watch the recording above. Otherwise, we've summarised some key points below.

First up who's who? Funding HQ provides an online fundraising capability program. Jenni's team helps organisations big and small across NZ (and beyond) be more successful with fundraising. Be Collective offers cloud-based volunteer management software, helping volunteer involving organisations not only recruit and engage volunteers but also connect with corporates, councils, education institutions and sport groups.

Jenni's three hot tips to lift your fundraising game (particularly with a shrinking pool of traditional funding sources and an increasing amount of worthy competition):

One: how do you tell your story? Ensure it resonates with your audience and demonstrates impact within the community. Make it compelling!
Two: ensure you have diversified funding plan. Think beyond lotteries, Gaming Trust and Government (funds shrinking in the past 6 months). Also look into corporates (regular workplace giving) and philanthropic organisations.
Three: look after your partners once they are onboard.

Measurement

From a fundraising perspective, when community groups talk to funding organisations, it's often predominantly a fund-based discussion (funds needed and funds available). Funding organisations are also interested in volunteering capacity, impact and how it's measured.

Many organisations find it challenging to talk about their volunteer hours, culture, aspirations, motivations and skill set. This can be attributed to feeling stretched, burnt out, or lacking the time to capture this. This is where setting up intentional frameworks (such as Be Collective) to capture and measure these data points can help. Being intentional means measuring from the start of a project, not a year later, scrambling to recall effort and hours, especially when people have moved on from their role.

Volunteer contributions are part of your organisation's story. Make sure volunteers are measured and identified in any funding application. Strengthen these discussions with "we have $50K in the bank and 150 hours per month contributed by our volunteers, which means we can save costs on social media marketing, to focus on other areas of need within our organisation". It's an opportunity to demonstrate buy-in from the community and that you know the value of your volunteers.

Diversify your search

The trends we're seeing in volunteering (especially post-COVID) is a shift away from long term commitments to roles (even organisations). We're seeing more sporadic, episodic, project-focused volunteering. Volunteer demographics are also changing. New Zealand's (as with most countries) current volunteer population is ageing and contracting. How are we preparing for the next generation and their preferences? The time to start thinking about what tomorrow's volunteer workforce looks like is now. Are you considering how you appeal to this future workforce?

Kelly indicated a recent New Zealand Government report indicated 50 percent of New Zealanders volunteer, but 14 percent of them perform half of all the recorded volunteer hours (which, understandably is perpetuating burn out). If you're continually reaching for the same people - maybe it's time to think laterally. Diversify how you attract and retain new volunteers. Tap into new pools of volunteers. If you want a young cohort of volunteers, consider recruiting online (well, they search for jobs, order food, find dates and share videos that way!). If you need specific skills - maybe tap into corporates (see below). Reconsider the roles you're offering - can bigger roles be diced and sliced? Extract social media activity from the admin role. What tasks can be completed remotely? Expand your reach (we can't help it … Be Collective can help with that too).

Corporates

If your organisation has a funding relationship with a corporate, don't forget to explore how they can help your programs beyond funding. Does their Corporate & Social Responsibility (CSR) program extend to employee supported volunteering? If not, why not? What in-house skills do they have? How can those skills help your programs?

Jenni mentioned how a Foundation she works with secured the help of a logistics company. To them, they were simply helping ship packages to France. To the Foundation, it meant completing the project on time and on budget. Measuring and recognising their contribution is crucial - make them feel essential to project. Most corporates have a management team and a board to report back to. Ensure you're making those reports easy for them. Another example was a corporate which contributed funding but also access to its employees to fill much needed mentoring roles.

Giving skills, building skills and reciprocity

Many people within the community feel the pressure of a competitive jobs market. Whether your volunteers are (hello new pools) young adults, new migrants, return-to-work mums or a corporate worker wanting a career change - volunteering is great way to build experience.

In any volunteering role, there is a need for (and giving of) skills. Capturing this exchange helps volunteers articulate their value. Kelly talked about how skills are central to volunteering through Be Collective. Volunteers can track their journey in a social record, see the skills they're building and collect testimonials from volunteer managers. The social record can be exported as a formatted Social CV - ideal for job applications and/or performance reviews.

The concept of skills matching is important. Kelly indicated she's seeing communities now preparing for how they respond to future natural disasters. Communities have shown how they come together after an event - often before Governments do or can. Disaster affected communities are now using strategic frameworks to capture, track and build skills required for better preparation.

That's a wrap!

Don't forget the key takeaways to successful funding (and volunteering): build a compelling story, diversify your approach and look after your people. If something isn't working, try something new to keep your organisation sustainable. And, it's a no brainer - look after your volunteers.

Best practice: volunteer opportunity builder how-to | Be Collective

Be Collective — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:21:01 GMT

Blog

Best practice: volunteer opportunity builder how-to

Our five-step opportunity builder helps even the most inexperienced volunteer manager create an informative (and compelling) volunteer role advertisement.

From the organisation's perspective: these advertisements outline how your organisation supports people in the community. It also defines what task a volunteer will perform for the organisation, the skills they need and what a volunteer will gain from participating.

From the volunteer's perspective: these advertisements help volunteers understand what's expected and to determine if the role is right for them. That's why we also prompt you to add further information to help a volunteer search for their dream role. We have specific search capability for:
• Skills
• Causes
• Suitable for
• Location

Adding skills, causes and 'suitable for' criteria to your volunteer opportunity advertisement a potential volunteer search more accurately for roles of interest.

Best practice is NOT to add a laundry list of tags - only select between one and five. This is not only based on effective searches, but also best practice for data compilation in reporting.

Causes

We have a list of 25 different causes which a volunteer manager can select from when creating a volunteer opportunity advertisement. While you won't see the causes you select on your advertisement, there are two important reasons why the correct (and finite number of) causes should be included.

This information feeds into the volunteer opportunities search function on Be Collective to help prospective volunteers find a role which aligns to their unique causes of interest. So, whether it's lived experience, a cause they're passionate about or aligned to their area of study - it's important to ensure you keep the cause list relevant. Don't just take our word for it, ask your volunteers!

While the causes you select don't appear in your advertisement, they will feed into your social impact reporting. As per above, it's important to keep the inclusions on this report relevant to maintain integrity. After all, your social impact report is a useful tool for demonstrating the value of your organisation, particularly when asking for funding.

Experience gained

Listing accurate ‘experience gained’ to your advertisement not only helps with the search criteria, it also appears in the volunteer's social record and social CV once they have completed a role. Experience gained is important to cite particularly for volunteers seeking pathways to employment or further study through volunteering.

Example: one organisation recently listed all the experience gained below in an advertisement for a Volunteer Recruitment Assistant role:

Skills acquired: Business Planning, Community Development, Customer Service, Employment Law, Event Design & Planning, Executive Administration, General Administration, Human Resources Information Systems, Human Resources Legal Compliance, Human Resources Recruitment, Human Resources Training & Development, Marketing & Communications, Office Reception, Public Relations.

Here is the list again with what we consider appropriate for a role at this level:

Skills acquired: Community Development, Customer Service, General Administration, Human Resources Training & Development, Marketing & Communications,

We currently have 181 skills available for you to select from while building a volunteer role advertisement. These have grown organically over time, some used more than others. We plan to make some improvements to this list like grouping together skill types. Stay tuned!

Suitable for

We have 15 'suitable for' categories you can select from to indicate your organisation has taken specific actions to make an environment and/or volunteer role suitable for a volunteer's specific needs. Always consider the most relevant criteria for your volunteer role - because someone is really depending upon on (sometimes emotionally or physically for) your organisation to get this right.

Refer to this article in the Help Centre for clarity on what each category means: https://support.becollective.com/portal/kb?text=Suitable%20for&entity=articles&id=275

Image credit: Gerd Altmann, Freiburg/Deutschland.

Volunteering: lean into what ignites you | Be Collective

Be Collective — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:21:01 GMT

Blog

Volunteering: lean into what ignites you

Our Director of Stakeholder & Community Development shares her observations on finding a volunteer experience aligned to either your skills and/or passion.

My first volunteering experience (not including the Brownies and Girl Guides) involved cleaning the premises of a respected charity which helps families in need. My second volunteering experience involved moving merchandise around a warehouse in preparation for a Christmas event hosted by a children's charity. While I knew both experiences were helping these wonderful charities, they left me feeling uninspired about volunteering on a regular basis.

It finally dawned on me, thanks to my career, I have plenty of skills which charities need. Maybe I could leverage and offer those skills to charities instead of manual labour? Guess what? I was right. Now I can find plenty of short-term writing or social media roles that allow me to volunteer around full time work. I love the flexibility of contributing in a meaningfully way, when I can. What’s more, thanks to the digital age, I can volunteer remotely for all sorts of wonderful organisations from regional community groups in outback Australia to animal rescue centres in my own municipality.

One of my team members felt the same about volunteering. Only, for him, it wasn't so much about 'what' he was doing but 'who' he was volunteering for. When he stumbled upon the facilities, events and resources The Pride Centre in St Kilda (Australia) offers the LGBTQI+ community, his interest piqued. He likens walking into The Pride Centre to a religious experience. He is so energised by the people and programs - he's more than happy to welcome visitors at reception or pull beers behind the bar at rooftop events. For him, it’s about belonging and participating in what the Centre means to him and to the Community.

Volunteering is all about finding your tribe or doing something you enjoy. If you experience resistance to lending a hand within YOUR community - perhaps ask yourself, 'what's going to make my heart sing?' and go find it on Be Collective!

Volunteer applications from overseas | Be Collective

Be Collective — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:21:01 GMT

Blog

Volunteer applications from overseas

A number of groups on the platform have indicated they’re receiving volunteer applications from individuals who reside outside the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

We understand this new interest in volunteering may be a result of the United Kingdom Government's Charity Worker visa (Temporary Work).

To some groups, this UK visa presents an opportunity to expand your pool of volunteers and skills to help your cause. For others, it’s a distraction and takes up valuable administration time. Some of our clients on Be Collective have indicated they do not have the financial or human resources to support volunteers wanting this visa or the time required to organise it. If this is true for your group, we have a suggestion which may help reduce the number of applications until this interest subsides (or until the UK Government changes the visa).

Consider adding the following to your group description and volunteer role advertisements: "We are unable to accept volunteer applications from non-residents or those outside the country seeking visas".

Feel free to send us your feedback and/or to provide us with updates via our Support Centre: https://support.becollective.com/

Further reading about the UK Government’s Charity Worker visa:

Visa info: https://www.gov.uk/temporary-worker-charity-worker-visa
Eligibility: https://www.gov.uk/temporary-worker-charity-worker-visa/eligibility

Virtually more (volunteers) | Be Collective

Be Collective — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:21:01 GMT

Blog

Virtually more (volunteers)

Let’s discuss virtual volunteering. It’s not a panacea for the recent nose-dive in volunteer numbers many VIOs (Volunteer Involving Organisations) are experiencing across the globe since COVID. It can help VIOs find as-yet-untapped, skilled volunteers.

We’re talking volunteering tasks which are completed, partially or completely, remotely. So, in addition to using our most excellent partnerships and endorsements functionality on Be Collective, we think virtual volunteering can help you widen your volunteer pool.

Let’s start with: in-person volunteering will always be crucial to help form connections and provide assistance. That said, virtual volunteering certainly has a place in your tool kit to find skills and support that may be otherwise unavailable in your local area. It can connect you to people you would not have reached through physical proximity. Sometimes, virtual volunteering is treated like a little wall flower – loved but overlooked at the dance. So, we've compiled a few reasons why you might consider adding it as an option (where appropriate) within your volunteer opportunities.

First: widen your pool (and skill) of volunteers. Some volunteering roles (mentoring, social media, fundraising, website audits, writing) can be done anywhere. As we always say, 'hire the best person for the job' so why wouldn't you consider someone on the other side of the country if they offer the right skills? Finding a role hard to fill? Why not give a virtual candidate a go?

Second: we're all about inclusion and accessibility. Some volunteers may be deterred from volunteering for personal (and valid) reasons - whether it be physical, psychological, cultural - just to name a few. Let's not make access a hurdle and embrace goodwill on offer. Let’s make the decision to participate easy, welcoming and safe. Who knows? You may benefit from broader experiences and thinking!

Third: improve the volunteer experience. It can be rather convenient to allocate a couple of hours each week to volunteer. Turn up the convenience factor if a volunteer doesn't need to travel. A lack of travel time may result in greater willingness to participate in programs for longer periods of time (hello cost savings too!).

There are plenty more reasons - but we won't bore you with too many. Give virtual volunteering a go. It might just help you find more volunteers with different perspectives, deeper skills and for longer!