UX RESEARCH
Understanding Canada's Growing Volunteer Shortage
ROLE
UX Researcher
EXPERTISE
UX Research
YEAR
2023
Project Description
This was a personal project inspired by a CBC article to understand the root cause of the volunteer shortage and brainstorm potential solutions. I was thankful to recruit two friends with ties to industry to help throughout the process.
Timeline
This project took place slowly over a period of four months.
Background
The CBC article cited a study which found 65% of non-profit organizations were struggling to find volunteers. Of these organizations, 35% had to reduce offerings or cut services altogether with a number of volunteer coordinators saying the situation will only get worse.
Process
This details the step by step approach I took when doing this project.
Survey the Population
We wanted to understand what motivated people to volunteer and what barriers existed preventing them from doing so. To get results we created a survey using SurveyMonkey and posted it around our cities (Kitchener & London).
Interviews
We reached out to Volunteer Coordinators to understand their challenges in managing and recruiting volunteers. They all agreed the study in the article felt accurate. We learned most coordinators use a program called Better Impact to manage volunteers but were having difficulty getting volunteers to use their app for training, communication, and scheduling.
Competitive Analysis
We wanted to understand what was going on in Better Impact which resulted in such a disconnect between volunteers and coordinators. Upon investigation it became clear that, while Better Impact offered a robust set of features, it was extremely clunky and difficult to use.
Key Findings
74%
of non-volunteers cited time restraints as a barrier
70%
of non-volunteers don't know where to find opportunities
65%
of non-volunteers had nobody to volunteer with
73%
of volunteers would use an app for volunteering
69%
of volunteers found opportunities through NPOs
A few things became clear after reviewing the results from the survey and interviews. First, convenience and knowledge was a major barrier for non-volunteers. There was also a desire for some social elements in volunteering. People wanted to have someone they know with them while volunteering. We also learned of a disconnect between volunteers and coordinators. Volunteers said they would use an app, however according to coordinators, when presented with one they did not use it.
Next Steps
With our results we brainstormed solutions but unfortunately ran into some barriers.
Ideate
With our preliminary research complete we began brainstorming solutions around two key questions:
How can we improve the process non-profit organizations use to coordinate volunteer activity?
How can we increase awareness, convenience, and motivation among non-volunteers to encourage them to volunteer more?
More Resources Needed
As we brainstormed we realized how large the problem was. Every solution we thought of including a replacement for Better Impact, pilot projects to run with specific NPO's, or even a simple volunteer posting board required immense time and resources we did not have. When reaching out to NPO's it was clear they too were lacking the resources needed.
Reflection
I think we were successful used UX research methodology to understand the issue at hand, however we were disappointed we did not have the resources at our disposal to action any solutions.
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