health check

Volunteering in Edinburgh: Health Check

For several years Volunteer Edinburgh has regularly surveyed volunteer involving organisations (VIOs) to better understand their experience of enagaging volunteers, and to assess the general health of volunteering across the city. We usually carry out this survey every two years. However, there was a longer gap between the 2019 and 2024 surveys due to the impact and aftermath of the Covid 19 pandemic. Our next local survey will happen during 2026.

Alongside our local research, we also use data from the Scottish Household Survey (SHS), which is conducted annually. By combining these datasets, we are able to build a richer picture of volunteering in Edinburgh, drawing on both local experiences and national trends.

How Healthy is Volunteering in Edinburgh?

The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) provides a valuable long-term indicator of volunteering participation in Edinburgh.

In 2024, the formal volunteering rate in Edinburgh was 28%. As has historically been the case, this was higher than the Scottish average. Looking across the past decade, the average volunteering rate in the city has been 29%.

One notable exception was 2022, when the rate fell sharply to 19% — the first time Edinburgh’s volunteering rate dropped below the national average. The reasons for this decline are unclear. It may reflect a temporary survey sample anomaly, or it could point to wider post-pandemic impacts on civic participation and community engagement.

Encouragingly, the 2023 and 2024 results suggest that volunteering participation in Edinburgh is recovering and continuing to increase.

Another important indicator of the health of volunteering is the number of opportunities available to potential volunteers.

Comparing 2021/22 with 2024/25, the average number of volunteering opportunities advertised through Volunteer Edinburgh increased from 405 to 535. During the same period, visits to our website also rose from 123,000 to 131,000 per year. Together, these trends suggest that volunteering opportunities in Edinburgh remain strong, and that interest in volunteering continues to grow.

The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) also highlights the difference between formal and informal volunteering. Its findings suggest that, in 2024, 48% of adults participated in some form of volunteering — whether formal, informal, or a combination of both.

Who Actually Does the Volunteering?

There is a long-standing stereotype that volunteers are typically middle-aged or older women, highly educated, and from more affluent backgrounds. When Volunteer Edinburgh carried out a street survey of non-volunteers, this perception was widely reflected in people’s responses. But how accurate is this stereotype today?

Gender: Historically, women have been more likely than men to volunteer in Edinburgh, and according to the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) the gap widened further in 2024.

However, the picture is more nuanced than the traditional stereotype suggests. While we cannot track the gender of people who find volunteering opportunities directly through the Volunteer Edinburgh website, we can look at those who visit our office to enquire about volunteering. Interestingly, 56% of all drop-in enquiries come from men, compared with 44% from women.

Of course, making an enquiry does not necessarily lead to someone becoming an active volunteer. Nevertheless, these figures clearly demonstrate that men are interested in volunteering and actively exploring opportunities to get involved.

Age: Volunteering in Edinburgh spans all age groups — from young people through to older adults. Over the past decade, data shows that 16–34 year olds are just as likely to volunteer as those aged 60 and over. In fact, in 2024, more young people were volunteering than older people.

For those under 18, however, opportunities are more limited, despite strong recognition among young people of the personal benefits of volunteering. This highlights a clear opportunity for volunteer-involving organisations to open up more roles to younger people and better harness their enthusiasm, energy, and skills.

In the 2024 Edinburgh survey, 57% of volunteer-involving organisations (VIOs) reported a minimum age requirement of 18, while 30% set the minimum age at 16. The main reasons given were the nature or requirements of volunteer roles (60%), followed by insurance considerations (11%).

While not all barriers can be easily removed, increasing access for younger volunteers would significantly expand the pool of potential volunteers across the city.

Income: One of the most persistent challenges in volunteering participation is linked to income. Over the past 20 years, research has consistently shown a clear pattern: the higher your income, the more likely you are to volunteer.

Interestingly, those in middle income groups are often the least likely to volunteer compared with both lower and higher income groups.

While the pressures of daily life associated with financial insecurity may help explain lower participation among some lower-income groups, there is no single cause. What is clear is that barriers to volunteering are unevenly distributed.

This highlights an important challenge for all volunteer-involving organisations: to consider how volunteering opportunities are designed and promoted, and how access can be widened across all income groups. Without this focus, a significant pool of skills, energy, and experience risks remaining untapped.

Although the gap is still too wide, Edinburgh does fair a little better than the Scottish Average in narrowing this participation gap.

Volunteers and the Time they Donate.

In 2024 the average volunteer donated 4.4 hours per week, up slight from 2019.

The average number of hours donated to organisations by all their volunteers increased significantly to 10,325 hours a year in 2024.  That’s the equivalent of 5.7 full time posts and demonstrates clearly the vital operational contribution that volunteers make. If we use Edinburgh average hourly pay rate (£19.85) it is a financial equivalency contribution of over £204,000 per organisation.

Although individual volunteers appear to be donating slightly more time and the average number of hours donated overall increased in 2024, there was also an increase in the number of organisations who need more volunteers (71%). Tracked over time the need for more volunteers is escalating. This may be indicative of the pressure organisations are under to continue to deliver services with fewer resources and the increasing demand that many organisations report facing. With participation rates broadly static and the increase in the number of hours donated by those who do volunteer, this is further evidence that if we are to meet the need for volunteers then we need to dramatically increase overall participation rates from all segments of the community.

Volunteer Recruitment Methods

When ranking their top three volunteer recruitment methods the majority of organisations report that word of mouth continues to be a primary source of volunteers with Volunteer Edinburgh and Social Media appearing most commonly in the top three methods.

Excluding word of mouth, Volunteer Edinburgh is ranked 1st or 2nd most successful recruitment tool for 50% of all organisations and for 54% of local/community organisations.

Volunteer Involvement Insights

Staff time and capacity to recruit and manage volunteers emerged as a leading issue from our survey (average score: 4.04). Volunteer flexibility and availability is also a major concern, receiving the highest average score (4.25). Organisations also report challenges around having the right skills to effectively involve volunteers (3.67) and concerns about volunteers’ capacity and ability are also evident (3.33).

Biggest Challenges for the Year Ahead

The sector is primarily concerned with managing volunteers effectively, scaling capacity, and attracting new volunteers. Yet only 53% of organisations surveyed had a member of staff specifically responsible for recruiting and managing volunteers.

What would help?

Organisations see recruitment, support systems, community engagement, and training as the most impactful ways to strengthen volunteer involvement.

Key Opportunities for Volunteer Growth

Motivations of Volunteers

The reported motivations for people volunteering are broadly the same as previous years; “Contributing to the community/society” remains the most popular motivation with an increase in “desire to tackle a specific issue” (up from 24% in 2017) and a decrease in “Improving their employability prospects” (24% in 2017) and “Improving health and well-being” (7% in 2017).

Under-Represented Demographics

We asked organisations to identify which demographic groups were under-represented within their volunteer cohorts.

Comparing responses from 2019 and 2024 shows that most groups remain under-represented, with some areas seeing a marked increase. In particular, under-representation of minority ethnic communities rose significantly from 66% to 79% of organisations reporting this as an issue. Under-representation of people from less affluent backgrounds also increased, from 45% to 54%.

The only area showing improvement was gender balance. The proportion of organisations reporting under-representation of male volunteers fell from 39% in 2019 to 21% in 2024.

The increase in organisations reporting under-representation of volunteers from minority ethnic backgrounds sits in stark contrast to Edinburgh’s changing population over the same period. Between 2019 and 2024, Edinburgh’s minority ethnic communities experienced significant growth and increasing diversity, continuing a long-term trend towards a more multicultural city. Data from the 2022 Census (published in 2024) and recent City of Edinburgh Council reports show that minority ethnic groups now make up a substantially larger share of the city’s population than in previous decades.

Despite this, volunteering does not yet fully reflect the diversity of the city. There is still work to do — collectively and across the sector — to make volunteering more accessible, inclusive, and attractive to all communities, in the broadest sense of diversity.

Overall, volunteering in Edinburgh remains in a relatively healthy position: participation is consistently above the Scottish average and broadly stable. However, this picture sits alongside clear challenges, including underrepresentation, ongoing recruitment needs, and increasing pressures on organisations and volunteer managers.

At the same time, reduced public sector funding and increasingly competitive fundraising environments are placing additional strain on organisations. Combined with rising demand for services, this creates a challenging operating context.

Meeting these demands will require organisations not only to adapt their volunteering models, but also to strengthen their ability to engage groups that are currently underrepresented. This makes effective volunteer management more important than ever. Volunteer management is a distinct professional skill set, and it requires sustained recognition and investment.

Volunteer Edinburgh is here to help where we can. As well as our core service advertising of volunteer roles, and the advice and guideance that comes with that, we have a range of low cost training courses for volunteer managers, a free peer support network for volunteer managers as well as being here to advise and support on any volunteer management issue. We also have tools such as volunteerwiki and our new innovative AI tool avie, which can help with a wide range of volunteer management essentials.

Volunteering evolves and changes with society so it will be interesting to see if VE’s own survey in 2026 and the SHS2025 results when published change any of the picture of volunteering in Edinburgh.