The Rising Costs of Living
In the year to March 2022, we saw a rise in domestic gas prices, which increased by 28%. As well as this, other costs of living and general rates of inflation have surged by 5.5% in the 12 months to January, up from 5.4% in December, increasing the squeeze on household budgets. Due to this, there has been a change in who can volunteer and how often.
The rising cost of living is now starting to have an impact on volunteering. The volunteers who never claimed expenses are now claiming at least for travel, and if they can’t claim, unfortunately, they are quietly walking away. This is evident in the recent BBC story about volunteers in Stratford Upon Thames who are now reluctant to do the journey.
At vHelp, we are constantly processing volunteer expenses and we are seeing an increase in mileage claims since the hike in the fuel prices. This may be worrying for charities, but we believe the value your volunteers bring is much higher than the cost of expenses.
The Price of Fuel
The fuel price increase particularly impacts volunteers supporting charities in rural areas where the only way to get by is to drive and most journeys are more than 10 miles. Those volunteers are often pensioners who take joy in their regular weekly volunteering, they are reliable and consistent sources of support for the charity.
Our research shows that there are still 8% of charities that don’t pay volunteer expenses. We often hear the quote “our volunteers don’t claim expenses” which sadly implies they have one demographic of volunteers, the affluent middle class. But that’s not the only problem, charities with a complicated expense claiming process, where reimbursement takes a long time, puts volunteers off too.
The Importance of Reimbursing Your Volunteer’s Expenses
The thing about volunteers is they are not employees; they don’t make demands so if we don’t talk about a sensitive topic like the reimbursement of expenses they won’t. The consequence is the risk of losing them and starting the volunteer recruitment process all over again.
If your charity wants to retain and attract engaged volunteers then it’s important to talk about expenses, especially if you aspire for a diverse pool of volunteers.
vHelp provides a full volunteer expense solution where the volunteers can claim via the web or mobile apps, once approved by the charity the volunteer is reimbursed within 24 hours.