Volunteer survey/2017–18/Report

Introduction: Wikimedia UK 2017–18 Volunteer Survey

The volunteer survey opened on 26th January 2018 and closed on 20th February. It was sent to 264 email addresses, of which 33 people took the survey.

Methodology

Wikimedia UK's contact database was used to produce a list of people who have volunteered with the charity between 1st January 2016 and 31st December 2017. They were asked about their volunteering experience in 2017. The response rate was somewhat low, 12.51% compared to previous surveys carried out by Wikimedia UK, the member survey 2012 (22% response rate) and 2013 (24%), the 2015 volunteer survey (19%) and the 2016 volunteer survey (31%).

Key findings

The numbers in brackets preceding statements refer to the survey question number as indicated in the main report.

• (1) 91% of people surveyed volunteered for WMUK in 2017. Of these, 56% volunteered once a year, 22% volunteered at least once a month and 13% volunteered once a week, in total, 35% was highly active.
• (2) The median number of volunteer hours was 15, which is a slight decrease from 2016, indicating the tendency towards less volunteering hour per individual. 75% of respondents reported volunteering 20 hours or less while the highest reported hours this year was. The total number of 1,645 volunteer hours reported is comparable with last year’s results, with an average of 57, and a mode of 20 hours in the sample. There is a roughly 20% increase in the mean and mode of the hours compared to previous year, indicating a higher number of committed individuals than last year who dedicated large amounts of volunteering hours to WMUK.
• (3) 84.38% of people said they were likely to continue volunteering with WMUK.
• (4) 81.25% of people felt there were suitable volunteer opportunities available in 2017. This is a significant positive result compared to previous years, which shows that the charity managed to match the volunteering opportunities with the skills and interests of volunteers. Comments to further improve this area arrived concerning the organising the activities on a wider geographical scale and with even more diversity.
• (5) 81.25% of respondents answered that they were likely to recommend volunteering with Wikimedia UK to others. This proportion is a return to the 2015 level following a decrease in 2016. Only one person would not recommend WMUK to others, and 5 of the respondents were neutral concerning this the question. There is a significant decrease in volunteers who would not recommend WMUK or who are neutral on the matter as compared to 2016.
• (6) 86.21% of people said that overall they enjoyed volunteering for WMUK. The volunteer community's satisfaction in 2017 is only very slightly behind last year's results across almost all of the factors in this question and is still much more positive than it was in 2015. Volunteers felt the most supported by the staff since 2015, 75.83% felt appreciated by WMUK, and they felt that the range of volunteer roles offered was satisfying (44.83%) or neutral (41.38%) to them.
• (7) Compared to previous years, overall satisfaction with WMUK provided training has improved. Volunteers felt that the training they received was enough (55%), was of good quality (70%) and appropriate to their roles (67%). 81% agreed that volunteering with WMUK gave them the chance to learn new skills and expand their knowledge. This is a significant increase compared to previous years. The only area which saw a small decrease was whether volunteers felt that volunteering with WMUK improved their employment prospects. It must be also noted, that we also received a relatively high percentage of neutral answers (25-33%) in four out of the seven factors, which should be further explored with volunteers when possible.
• (8) What volunteers enjoyed most was networking, community building, and a sense of contribution to some greater purpose in 2017.
• (9) Key themes for improvement were more kick-off support, communication, providing more volunteering opportunities and sorting out sensitive community issues.
• (10) We received some positive comments, and one flippant extra comment from respondents reflecting on their general experiences with WMUK.
• (11) Of those who declared their gender (11 respondents), 27% of respondents are female and 73% male. This is the same result as the previous year's.

Recommendations

• Continue efforts to improve communication with and amongst the volunteer community, provide opportunities for volunteers to distribute their knowledge, works and achievements within the volunteer community.
• Better integrate the online communication tools advertising WMUK activities (Wikimedia UK, Meetups, EN Wikipedia, Twitter, Eventbrite, etc), so volunteers don't miss events and have the opportunity to help each other.
• Improve volunteer survey response rates.
• Put more efforts into helping volunteers to get started, particularly in organizing Wiki events, editathons.
• Continue with the induction efforts to support new volunteers.
• Continue to provide project grants to enable volunteers to initiate events, courses, and contests.
• Continue to offer training opportunities to volunteers that equip them with new skills and extend their knowledge base.
• Provide opportunities to hold more events outside London whether there is interest from volunteers and partners, generate collaborative community experience through volunteering.
• Improve the variety of volunteering roles and increase the volunteering experience's potential to improve employment prospects.
• Put more effort into acknowledging the efforts of volunteers, improve the quality of interactions with volunteers.
• More consideration/sensitivity in the organisation of events, paying more attention to gender balance issues, improve the ratio of female and male leading volunteers who organize events or provide training sessions, match leading volunteers better with the theme of a given Wiki event (e.g. female volunteers to be involved in events that aim at empowering women).

Footnotes

Full Report.