i-volunteer survey results

i-volunteer surveyed members and visitors between July and September 2011. From a membership of 3,000 we had 491 responses - a fantastic result and massive thanks to everyone that took part! A quick summary of what we found is below.

i-volunteer’s volunteer members are younger: Half are under 40 compared to the average age of volunteers in the UK is 45-54. Two-thirds are women, just under half are unemployed and nine out of ten use Facebook.

5% of members visit i-volunteer every day, 20% visit a few times a week, 30% several times a month and 35% visit once a month or less frequently.

Half of the non-member visitors came to find opportunities to volunteer. They also wanted to read news and information and one quarter looked through our groups. One third found us via a search engine, another third through a referral.

i-volunteer members are volunteers, professionals and organisations. Professional members work mainly in the charity sector (68%) but 10% come from the public sector. Half work locally, a quarter nationally, one-fifth regionally and 3% work internationally. They primarily like i-volunteer because they can run groups, share their experiences, write blogs and network with colleagues. They would use it more if we added chat, private profiles, a marketplace and a list of consultants along with rankings.

Nearly 20 per cent of member organisations have successfully recruited volunteers through i-volunteer. The same percentage of volunteer members have started volunteering through us too (and another 34% are actively looking for opportunities). But member organisations tell us that they would use i-volunteer more to recruit if we had better ways for them to manage and track participation in their opportunities and events. They would like better ways to link i-volunteer into their own website and others, such as do-it.org.uk, and a rewards and rating system for volunteers.

Two-thirds of all our users think the site is easy to use and most professional and organisation members would be willing to pay for premium services so long as the basic functionality can stay free. Half of our users would like a mobile-enabled version or app.

The results will be used to help us develop i-volunteer over the coming years. The first big development will be a brand refresh to www.ivo.org along with a new look and some new features, due out in December 2011.

Congratulations to the winners of the prize draw, Jo Dixon (@RescueHelpersUnite) who scooped the first prize of £50 Amazon vouchers, Si Braybrooke (@TheReUsePartnership) scooped one of the £25 second prizes. A further second prize winner decided to remain anonymous.