The frustrations of volunteering

I have a theory that the reason volunteers are needed and much appreciated is, ironically, exactly the reason why it is often easy to feel very unappreciated as a volunteer.

Why are volunteers needed? Because IT skills are often missed out on by workers in charities; because they want to use IT and their computers better as they need to save time and money but are not sure how; because they cannot afford to buy support and even if they could they would rather use someone that they trusted to talk to them about things that they might not feel they understand.

Why is it easy to feel under appreciated? Sometimes you have to wait a long time for a reply to your email or phone call, in face to face situations you may keep being interrupted, it can be forgotten or not realised that you are putting in many, many hours as their requirements change. And may be some other frustrations that you find?

As a person with IT skills who volunteers with not for profits and who has worked for a charity running a project with people who are homeless I have been lucky to see both sides of the situation.

So this theory? Most small charities and not for profit groups which make up the majority of the organisations asking for iT4C volunteers help are:

• Low on resources - time, money and staff
• Often have a high turnover of staff (especially if they rely on volunteers)
• Work in an environment where funding is sometimes available for specific projects but hard to get for long term support of the organisation
• If they are lucky to have funding from a government pot or national lottery or a trust this is usually for a maximum of 3 years

The result is it can be very difficult to plan and instead staff have to fire-fight and re-prioritise frequently.

Working in the sector can be very exciting, rewarding and challenging but also chaotic, and stressful.

Good working IT can be just what is needed to take some pressure off (to do things better and to do better things) but getting an IT project up and running whilst managing difficult clients and difficult funding situations can be unrealistic or at least very difficult.

We have so many quotes from charities after volunteers have helped them such as 'the new network has saved me at least 2 hours a week and every other Saturday spent battling to keep our computers running' or 'now that our database is working we can concentrate on working with the young people'

And we know you are patient because you are completing 5 or so projects every month between you and giving £500K a year in support in kind to hundreds of charities registered with us.

The Working For a Charity website has more information about working for not-for-profits.

The sector has much to gain from individuals transferring their skills and experience from other backgrounds and charities will always be keen to recruit people who can communicate well, learn quickly, and manage effectively on limited resources.

Many small charities have no paid staff and all the work is undertaken on a voluntary basis by the trustees. Those small organisations which can afford to pay need someone, often part time, who can turn their hand to anything and have both the flexibility and confidence to be spokesperson and decision maker as well organise the admin systems.

Anne Stafford, Deputy Programme Director