Volunteers are choosing to give their time. Are we treating them like customers?
Volunteers are often described as a resource: people who give their time and skills to support an organisation or cause. Yet they are also making a choice about how to spend their time and, often, their money. A number of volunteering programmes now require a financial contribution towards the experience, helping to cover delivery costs, organisational overheads or wider charitable work. Whatever the arrangement, participants are making an investment and have expectations of what they will gain in return.
Volunteers are not customers in the conventional sense, but the principles of understanding expectations, delivering on promises and creating a worthwhile experience are highly relevant. Organisations that want people to contribute effectively, return, recommend their work and support their purpose need to consider participation from the participant's perspective. The value must work in both directions.
Participation develops capability
A volunteer's immediate contribution is only part of the value. As people become familiar with an organisation and its objectives, they acquire skills, confidence and independence. This can improve the quality and efficiency of delivery, while reducing the need for repeated instruction and support.
EHRA (Elephant-Human Relations Aid), a Namibian organisation working to reduce human-elephant conflict, provides a practical example. Volunteers help construct stone walls around farm water infrastructure, protecting vital resources from elephant damage. Two weeks is the minimum commitment, but many participants stay for a month or six weeks. That additional time allows them to develop their skills, understand the work more fully and follow construction through to completion. The difference is between helping with a task and understanding the process and seeing a substantial piece of work finished.
The skills are transferable. At Inversnaid, similar wall-building principles inform the construction of log circles, using traditional round-stacking methods such as the Norwegian round stack, vedbod or Holz Hausen. Participation can therefore develop practical capability with applications well beyond the original project.
2. Continuity builds value
Recruiting, inducting and supporting volunteers takes time and resources. When people return, that initial investment becomes more productive. Familiarity with the organisation, its people and its work allows knowledge and practical experience to accumulate rather than having to be rebuilt each time.
Returning participants can bring consistency, maintain project momentum and support newer volunteers. For smaller organisations with limited resources, this continuity can be particularly valuable. It is not simply a matter of retaining people to fill places; people return when they feel valued, enjoy the work and believe their contribution matters.
Retention should not, however, be the only measure of success. People move on, taking their skills and experience into other organisations and projects. Developing people builds capacity beyond the immediate needs of one organisation.
3. Participants can become advocates
A worthwhile experience can turn participants into advocates. They may recommend an organisation, share its work through personal and professional networks, contribute specialist expertise or become involved in fundraising and other forms of support.
This can extend an organisation's reach considerably. Volunteers bring networks, professional connections and, in some cases, significant online audiences. Their recommendations and testimonials can strengthen credibility, attract new participants and supporters, and create opportunities for fundraising and partnerships.
For smaller organisations, charities and purpose-led businesses, this can be an important contribution to profile and reputation, particularly where marketing and recruitment budgets are limited. Advocacy is not something organisations can simply request. It is earned through an experience that people value enough to share. Poor experiences can travel just as readily, with potentially damaging consequences.
4. The value extends beyond the organisation
Participation can also develop confidence, workplace skills and practical experience. Working with others, adapting to unfamiliar conditions, solving problems and taking responsibility can help people recognise and demonstrate their capabilities. One participant described how volunteering had made her feel more positive about applying for jobs. It does not guarantee employment or formal qualifications, but it can help people identify strengths they might otherwise overlook.
There is a wider benefit too. Skills and knowledge developed through nature restoration can be applied in other communities and projects. The original organisation may not retain the participant, but the wider sector gains from that development.
A positive association with an organisation can endure beyond the volunteering itself and may, in time, influence future donations, ongoing support or legacy gifts.
Designing participation around people
These benefits are not independent of one another. The quality of the participant experience influences the contribution people can make, their likelihood of returning, their willingness to recommend the organisation and the support they may offer in future. It is therefore a factor in organisational performance, not simply an operational consideration.
Getting that experience right starts before someone arrives. Recruitment information must set out the work, conditions and expectations honestly. Subsequent communication should establish participants' experience, skills and needs, clarify practical arrangements and explain what equipment and clothing they will require. On arrival, expectations and working practices need to be reinforced. Cultural differences, language barriers and contrasting assumptions about communication and work should be anticipated rather than left to chance.
Trust also matters, particularly where participation involves significant travel, expense or a commitment to an unfamiliar environment. Access to previous or current participants can provide reassurance and a first-hand perspective before someone makes that commitment. Clear information and open communication help establish confidence in the organisation and the experience it is offering.
Understanding participants' motivations and capabilities allows opportunities to be shaped around both individual interests and project requirements. Good participation also gives people a sense of agency: the opportunity to contribute ideas, exercise judgement and take ownership of their part in the work. That does not mean promising everyone exactly what they want. Meaningful work can be demanding, unfamiliar and challenging, whether that's tackling practical conservation tasks, encountering the Inversnaid midges or doing battle with the Rhododendrons. It means being clear about what participation involves, providing appropriate support and ensuring people can see the value of their contribution.
Nor should volunteering be used as a substitute for professional expertise or organisational capacity. It should complement the work and skills an organisation needs to deliver its purpose.
Ultimately, volunteers are not simply a source of additional labour. They are people choosing to invest in an organisation's purpose. That investment can generate value through capability, continuity, advocacy and support that extends well beyond the original activity.
The question for organisations is not simply how to attract more volunteers. It is whether they are creating an experience that makes people want to contribute, return, recommend and remain connected to their purpose.
