DCMS: Promoting Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in volunteering
New research looking at what organisations are doing to make volunteering more equitable and inclusive – and what can be done to help them
“One of the key things is trying to make sure that inclusion is built in, rather than bolted on, so that it's a starting point for how people are thinking about their opportunities, the organisation as a whole and what they're trying to do.”
Improving the equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) of volunteering in England is a ministerial and departmental priority for the Department of Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). It’s also a key theme of the Vision for Volunteering (2022), a ten-year collaborative project that sets out a view of what volunteering needs to look like by 2032.
To inform their thinking, DCMS commissioned Basis Social, working with NPC (New Philanthropy Capital), to conduct research into the effectiveness of different interventions and practices in EDI. The work aims to identify what types of interventions Government and wider stakeholders should champion and support others in the sector to implement.
It involved a desk review of academic and grey literature, alongside deep dives into specific organisations and their approaches to EDI. This was followed by 29 online in-depth qualitative interviews with 19 VIOs and 10 expert stakeholders across the voluntary sector. We made sure to speak to organisations of different shapes and sizes, to understand what small as well as large organisations think and do about improving EDI, along with those led by minority or minoritised communities.
The core message coming back from participants was simple: volunteering should be a positive experience that reflects the diversity of our communities, where everyone feels valued, respected, and able to contribute meaningfully. We learned that success depends on understanding the local community and making it genuinely easy for everyone to join and feel comfortable taking part. Some of the ways in which VIOs are effectively doing this include:
Designing more inclusive recruitment practices - e.g. redesigning job roles, raising awareness of opportunities, and working to better understand and engage different groups.
Taking measures to increase accessibility and offer tailored training when onboarding new volunteers.
Actively listening to volunteers' ideas for how to make things better - adopting more systematic processes for gathering feedback was helping VIOs actively use this information to improve their offer and increase retention.
Doing these things well is not always easy. VIOs face challenges like limited financial resources, staffing constraints, and uncertainty about how to meaningfully welcome people from different backgrounds. A key recommendation is that sector-wide collaboration, alongside Government, would be useful for addressing some of these challenges and facilitating greater EDI in volunteering.
To find out more, you can read our full report here.
This study forms part of a wider two-year programme of research Basis Social has been running for DCMS. Through this work programme we have been delivering a range of mixed method research projects, designed to fill knowledge gaps and provide evidence to support the development of future programmes, funding streams and strategy, together with more impactful interventions in the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector.
You can read more about some of our other work in this space – just click on the links below:
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