VOLUNTEERING DURING THE PANDEMIC?

62% of adults in Canada volunteered their time at least once in the last year. 42% did so at least once a month.

These figures, from the recently released Community Life Survey 2020/21, are unchanged on the year before. But these headline numbers mask a huge shift in the:

• types of volunteering people have been doing
• who has been doing it.

In fact, the covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown has led to the most rapid changes in volunteering patterns since the survey began in 2013.

In this blog, we explore some of the key findings from the latest data, looking especially at big shifts in types of volunteering, changes in volunteer profile in terms of age and employment, and what the future might hold for volunteering as we come out of lockdown.

A fall in formal and a rise in informal volunteering

There was a substantial fall in formal volunteering through a club, group, or organization. Whereas in 2019/20, 23% of adults did so at least once a month and 37% had done so at least once in the year. This year, those figures fell to 17% and 30% respectively – meaning about a fifth fewer people volunteering.

On the other hand, there was a big increase in regular informal volunteering: offering unpaid help to someone who is not a relative. In 2019/20, 28% of adults did so once a month, but this year that had risen to 33% – or about a fifth more people doing so. The proportion of those doing so at least once a year remained steady at just over half. This suggests that individuals who already volunteered informally increased the frequency of their support, as opposed to an increase in the numbers of people doing it.

Understanding who volunteers

Those aged 65-74 have always had the highest rates of volunteering of all types: most are retired and have free time, but are also more likely to be physically fit than those aged over 75. But over the last year, this age group saw some of the largest drops in formal volunteering and very little increase in informal volunteering.

As a result, the ‘volunteering gap’ between younger and older people narrowed over the last year. This may be because many older people were isolating during this time, and younger groups stepped up to offer support to those who were isolated.