Sports volunteers are the backbone of any successful sporting event and organisation. They donate their time without expecting anything in return. This is admirable, but it’s important to ensure that these volunteers are not left out of pocket, particularly as the cost of living is impacting all of us.
In this blog post, we will discuss the importance of paying volunteers’ expenses in relation to their future engagement and commitment.
The nature of sport volunteers is that people do it out of pure passion, they want to see and be seen, be part of the community and at times enjoy being a spectator in the front row whilst helping.
However, given the current circumstances; the joy they experience whilst volunteering may not be enough to sustain their engagement. We mustn’t forget these wonderful volunteers still have life challenges to deal with.
Here are some considerations to why your sports organisation must consider reimbursing volunteers’ expenses in order to retain your volunteers
Cost of Living and the Impact on Volunteers
Most sport volunteers are expected to pay for their own expenses when they travel to support events. With the current rise in the cost of living, paying for transport and a lunch out may become a luxury for some of those volunteers.
We’ve seen a shift in the third sector in ensuring volunteers are reimbursed quickly since the cost-of-living crises kicked off, and this is helping those organisations retain their volunteers.
If you don’t pay volunteers’ expenses, you will start seeing your volunteers quietly disappear because people are reluctant to ask to be reimbursed for expenses, especially if it goes against the organisation’s culture
Paying volunteers’ expenses swiftly is the first step towards retaining your volunteers and ensuring continuous engagement.
Diversity and Inclusion
Most of the sport organisations we speak to say they don’t pay expenses because their volunteers don’t need to claim! This assumption creates a culture that excludes those volunteers from less affluent backgrounds. When you ask those organisations about the demographic of their volunteers, you will find they are mostly white, middle-aged and affluent.
If you want to change this and get a wider pool of cultures and backgrounds; you need to consider paying volunteers’ expenses. We recently wrote a whole blog about how paying volunteer expenses is important for inclusion.
Sports volunteers help build strong communities. We encourage you to talk to your organization about reimbursing volunteers’ expenses if you are a sports volunteer. And if you are a sports organisation, we urge you to consider changing your policy on this important issue.