CLICK THE SPONSORS' LOGOS FOR THE LATEST SPECIALS !E THE FUTURE OF QUEENSLAND VOLUNTEERING Home Index Volunteering [Vlt] Vlt in Qld Vlt via Org Vlt Census 2006 Future Vlt Qld References Methodology Acknowledgements Glossary Charts - 4 Figures - 2 Tables - 13 Disclaimer Copyright THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF VOLUNTEERING IN QUEENSLAND Updated report — May 2008
A report commissioned by the Department of Communities
Queensland Government
AUSTRALIA
E THE FUTURE OF QUEENSLAND VOLUNTEERING a Are we all volunteers?
b The future of Queensland volunteering
a Are we all volunteers?
More than one-third of Queensland adults volunteered through an organisation in 2004
and in 2006.
This is a rise from around one quarter (26 per cent) in 1995.
Unfortunately, we do not know the rate of participation in unorganised volunteering over
the course of a year.
Time use surveys provide us with information only about the daily volunteering rate, not the
annual rate.
Unorganised volunteering, directly to friends and neighbours, involves more hours per year
than organised volunteering and involves both those who do unorganised volunteering and
those who do not.
Thus the annual “total” volunteering rate is greater than either the organised rate or the
unorganised rate but less than the sum of the two rates.
If 40 per cent of Queensland adults undertook unorganised volunteering in 2006, but no
organised volunteering, then the total Queensland volunteering rate would be more than
75 per cent.
It could be the case that nearly all adults in Queensland undertook some form of organised
or unorganised volunteering in 2006.
As volunteering survey methodologies improve to recognise both organised and unorganised
volunteering a more accurate and reliable portrait of volunteering will be drawn.
If it could be comprehensively measured, perhaps we would find that nearly everyone is a
volunteer.
The total volunteering rate could approach 100 per cent!
b The future of Queensland volunteering
The Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006 Time Use survey has given a “reality” check on
the extent of both organised and unorganised volunteering across Australia.
These data have just become available in February 2008.
They show that the trends in unorganised volunteering (directly to other households
through support of adults and children) have not continued to rise from the levels found
in the previous time use surveys of 1992 and 1997.
Another reality check on organised volunteering became available in 2007 from the August
2006 Census.
This asked everyone aged 15 years or more "In the last twelve months did the person spend
any time doing voluntary work through an organisation or group?" (Q.51).
Although not as detailed as the Voluntary Work sample surveys, the Census provides statistics
for the first time of the annual organised volunteering rates for all localities and regions
of Australia.
Through questions 49 and 50, the Census also provided some data on two forms of unorganised
volunteering during the two weeks prior to the August 2006 Census.
In Queensland, for volunteering through organisations, we have data for 1995, 2000, 2004 and
2006.
These show that there was a large surge in both the volunteer rate and the hours per volunteer
in the period 2000 to 2004.
Although the volunteer rate remained high there was an apparent decline to lower average hours
in 2006.
What assumptions should be made about these trends?
Will high rates be retained?
Can higher average volunteer hours be achieved in the future?
Or will average hours decline?
Can levels and trends in volunteering in other countries provide a guide to trends in Australia?
Trends in volunteering rates and volunteering time vary from country to country and are difficult
to measure because of changes in survey methodologies, generally infrequent measurement and
sometimes small sample size.
In the United States where surveys were conducted using the same methodology over the six years
from 2002 to 2005 participation rates in organised volunteering were relatively constant at around
28 per cent:
27 per cent in 2002, 29 per cent in 2003, 2004 and 2005, 27 per cent in 2006 and 26 per cent in 2007.
(Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008)
In Canada participation rates in organised volunteering grew from 27 per cent in 1987 to 31 per cent
in 1997 but then were back to 27 per cent in 2000.
However, a new survey in Canada in 2004 using improved methodology from the earlier surveys shows
45 per cent of Canadians 15 years and older volunteered through an organisation in the previous 12
months (Hall, Lasby, Gumulka and Tryon 2006).
This survey also found that 83 per cent of Canadians had engaged in informal (unorganised)
volunteering by helping others directly, without involving an organisation, at least once over the
previous year.
In the United Kingdom volunteering surveys showed formal (organised) volunteering rates were 44 per
cent in 1981, 51 per cent in 1991 and 48 per cent in 1997 (Institute for Volunteering Research 2008).
The same surveys showed informal (unorganised) volunteering rates of 62 per cent in 1981, 76 per
cent in 1991 and 74 per cent in 1997.
The UK surveys related to those 18 years and older.
However, the sample sizes were much smaller than in most other surveys — 1800 in 1981 and just
under 1500 in 1991 and 1997.
Consequently, although the UK participation rates are indicative of higher volunteering rates than
in Australia and the United States they do not give a reliable indication of trends up or down
over time.
In summary, the international evidence indicates that the recent higher levels of organised
volunteering in Australia and in Queensland are not outside the range of volunteering in the
United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
In Australia, the ageing of the population is likely to have effects on volunteering, largely on
the demand for support for adults rather than for children.
This is likely to be met principally by the supply of unorganised volunteering directly from one
household to another.
On the supply side, volunteering by both women and men is very widespread across all ages,
employment status and income levels.
Given these factors, it seems probable that volunteering in Queensland, both indirectly through
organisations and directly from one household to another, will be maintained at something like
current levels.
However, the attitudes of Queensland people, the social relationships between households and the
ways in which the thousands of volunteer organisations in Queensland grow, develop and operate,
will determine what happens to volunteering in Queensland.
The future of Queensland volunteering lies in the hands of its population and institutions.
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