Volunteer sector looking shaky post-lockdown
A staffing and financial crisis may be developing among volunteer groups and charities, but it may not fully hit them until they reapply for grants or public funding next year.
A survey by Volunteering NZ of its members showed nearly 78 per cent of responding groups said they had seen numbers decline because of the lockdown.
Forty two per cent had had to completely shut down all of their operations during lockdown, and a third were only able to resume at alert level 1.
Nearly a quarter said they would not return to normal operations until there were no more restrictions.
A bigger, national survey of more than 1000 volunteering groups, NGOs and charities was done over May and June and is due out next month.
Volunteering New Zealand chief executive Michelle Kitney expected it would cast much more light on the state of the sector, but over the coming months, she predicted many groups would be focussed on recruitment.
‘‘The volunteer sector relies heavily on older volunteers and we’re hopeful that they will return to volunteering in level 1,’’ Kitney said.
Thanks to a looming economic downtown, volunteer groups and charities face a much tougher task vying for donations in the coming months.
St John Ambulance announced this week that it would cut 100 jobs to help make up a $30 million deficit.
And in March, Outward Bound voiced fears about its survival without income during lockdown as it fended off a $500,000 deficit.
Rochelle Stewart-Allen, head of Hui E! Community Aotearoa, said the broader survey was done because the contribution of the community and volunteer sector had been ‘‘invisible over this lockdown, in a lot of ways’’.
‘‘I think for now people are picking back up but I think once people start to apply for new funding ... I think we’ll see the impact of that happening next year.’’
Bellyful, a charity which provides meals for families with young children who need support, expects most of its volunteers to return, but donations may be another story.
Although it has only four part-time employees, the charity is anticipating a 30 per cent downturn in income this financial year. ‘‘Which is proving really challenging, as the need is still there,’’ chief executive Charlotte Delahunty said.
She said many charities had lost sponsors ahead of lockdown, and had been unable to hold their normal fundraising events.
Lawyer Steven Moe, who has coauthored a report on how community groups can survive, said there were 115,000 NGOs in the country, and 130,000 people working full time for charities.
As some funders reevaluated their giving priorities, Moe predicted more ‘‘desperate’’ fundraising competition could arise between not-for-profits and charities without significant buffers.
Part of his advice to charities and volunteer groups was to take a fresh look at the original purpose they were set up for.
‘‘We often see organisations who are surprised when reading the actual purpose to realise how far mission drift has led them.’’
Monica Briggs, acting chief executive of the Centre for Social Impact, said not-for-profits and charities would be pivoting in all sorts of ways.
‘‘Different ways of working, different programmatic responses, use of technology, different ways of fundraising, all of that.’’