Coronavirus (COVID-19) volunteering - third sector perspectives: survey report

Preface and acknowledgements

This research was undertaken in partnership with Volunteer Scotland and the Mobilising UK Voluntary Action (MVA) research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The MVA project aims to build evidence about the volunteering response across the UK during COVID-19. Volunteer Scotland leads the MVA research in Scotland, and the results of this survey will form a core part of the MVA evidence base for Scotland.

This report represents the outputs of a year-long partnership between the Scottish Government and Volunteer Scotland. The aims of the survey were: to understand more about the volunteering response in Scotland during the pandemic and what we can learn from this; and to understand the situation, outlook and support needs for volunteering in Scotland in 2022 and beyond.

Core tasks were shared across both organisations. Questionnaire design and survey distribution were shared responsibilities; the majority of the quantitative and qualitative analysis was undertaken by Volunteer Scotland; the Scottish Government was responsible for development of this report. The lead MVA academic team at Northumbria University provided their support to both the Scottish Government and Volunteer Scotland throughout the study, including for the mid-project briefing – 'The Road to Recovery Expo'.

Scottish Government and Volunteer Scotland would like to thank all of the organisations that completed this survey. We are very grateful for the detailed responses provided.

Representatives of a number of local authorities, Third Sector Interfaces, and third sector organisations gave invaluable input to the survey questions. In particular we would like to thank Paul Wilson and Sarah Latto who gave detailed input to this project in their role as members of the Advisory Panel for the MVA research.

Scottish Government would like to thank Volunteer Scotland and the Mobilising Voluntary Action team for their support and collaboration in developing this project. Particular thanks are due to the team at Volunteer Scotland who have contributed considerable time to the survey design, analysis and reporting.

The project partners are grateful to all the organisations that make volunteering in Scotland possible. Finally, we would like to thank everyone across Scotland who has volunteered their time to support Scotland's communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.