Growing Up Giving: A call for evidence – vInspired response
April 2013
1. About vInspired
vInspired is a national charity, dedicated to providing opportunities for young people to do good
things. Our programmes and online services help young people to recognise and reach their true
potential, whilst supporting great causes through volunteering and social action. Since we started
in 2006 we’ve delivered more than one million volunteering opportunities for young people across
the country.
As youth unemployment levels remain at persistently high, now more than ever we are dedicated
to helping young people build new skills, confidence and experience, whilst doing things they
enjoy, care about, and can feel proud of.
2. Summary
vInspired welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the first part of the Growing Giving Inquiry. We
know that early engagement in giving makes people more likely to give as they grow older. The
focus of this response is giving time, based on our organisational expertise.
We recommend that:
 Giving is integrated into schools activity through Physical, Health and Social Education
(PSHE), Citizenship, reformed post 16 education, careers and employability and enterprise;
 Volunteering and work experience with local charities become the norm for school pupils;
 The benefits of giving to young people’s personal, social and skills development are clearly
communicated and promoted to young people, education institutions and employers;
 Charities engage young people in recruitment strategies for trustees as one way of diversifying
trustee boards. Charities position trusteeships as a progression opportunity for young people
that already engage in their in volunteering and fundraising activity;
 Charities offer young people options for giving in way that fit with their lives and adapt as they
grow older when their priorities, commitments and the availability of time and money change;
 Giving adapts to capitalise on young people’s use of mobiles to text and access the internet.
 Everyday actions such as downloading music provide an opportunity to give - where a share of
profit can go to charity.
3. Responses
How can we ensure that primary and secondary education instil the value of charity in
young people?
School provides the first experience of charitable giving for many young people. As such it is vital
that the experience is positive and fulfilling and delivers value to the community, charities and for
students themselves.
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Instilling the value of charity needs to be integrated into core school activity as there are so many
pressures on the school timetable. The value of charity should be included in the Physical Health
and Social Education (PHSE) curriculum. Students should be taught the role charities play in wider
society through volunteering or service learning. Volunteering and service learning give young
people the opportunity to build relationships with local residents and contributes to personal and
social development. It should therefore be enshrined in the curriculum as part of a well-rounded
education. Students should also be encouraged to complete a placement at a charity as work
experience where this will support ore help to shape their career ambitions.
Participating in national charitable events such as Red Nose Day is an excellent way of instilling
the value of charity in young people, however more needs to be done throughout the rest of the
year. Schools could choose a local, regional or national charity to support throughout the year.
Creating partnerships with charities will allow students to see the impact of their giving first hand,
which will greatly instil the importance of charity and giving in the future.
vInspired is extending its reach to promote and enable volunteering at a younger age. vInspired
schools aims to engage students with the huge range of benefits volunteering and social action
offers and reward them for their time. A web-based platform connects students with school
approved volunteering opportunities, the vInspired awards recognise students’ volunteering and
toolkits and promotional materials to make it easy for teachers to implement and promote.
vInspired Schools has the flexibility to adapt to suit their specific school needs.
vInspired Schools delivers against education criteria and enhancement programmes including
Citizenship, PSHE, ICT, the CAS element of International Baccalaureate, Careers and
Employability, and Enterprise.
How can we ensure that higher and further education provide opportunities for young
people to continue to be involved with charities?
It is essential to provide educational establishments with clear links between encouraging young
people to engage with charities, helping young people to reach their own objectives and enhancing
a positive image for their establishment. For example it may be beneficial to talk directly about the
competencies, self-esteem, soft skills and industry knowledge that charity involvement will provide
students.
Volunteering and giving can be integrated into the student experience as part of FE enhancement
activity. Research carried out through the vInspired students project showed that students who
receive support for their volunteering from their university are more satisfied with the experience of
volunteering and derive greater personal development than those that volunteer independently.1
There were media reports last year that the Government was considering integrating voluntary
work into reformed A Levels, a proposal we support.2 UCAS points for completion of National
Citizens Service and other volunteering activity provide an incentive for young people applying to
go to university and for FE providers to encourage student involvement in giving. The vInspired
awards which recognise the hours, skills development and community impact of volunteering are
endorsed by UCAS as a way of demonstrating skills and achievements.
1
Bursting the Bubble: Students, Volunteering and the Community, Brewis, Russell and Holdsworth, National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement and IVR (2010)
2
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19977062
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How can we encourage more young people to become charity trustees?
Young people are more likely to become charity trustees if they are already engaged with a charity,
therefore charities should promote trusteeship as a progression route for young people that already
volunteer, campaign or fundraise for them. It is important that young trustees have some relevant
skills and experience rather than being chosen only to represent their peers.
Young people with specific professional skills can also be targeted. For example graduates
programmes in marketing, accounting, business planning and law could be utilised by charities.
The majority of trustees are recruited through existing networks which precludes young people that
are not in those networks from being aware of the opportunities available to them. Many roles are
not advertised so there is a lack of information about trustee vacancies and what they involve.
Charities need to market roles to young people where they are at e.g. in education institutions,
make sure the communication material they use is youth friendly, and emphasis the benefits of
trusteeship such as skills development. It may be useful for charities to involve their existing young
participants and beneficiaries in their recruitment strategy and process.
How do we ensure young people make a lifetime connection with charity through
volunteering, work placements and social action?
Young people are already more likely to involve themselves in volunteering, civic activity than any
other group in society3. We strongly believe that volunteering must be more accessible at every
stage of life. Young people are more likely to stay engaged if they become involved at an earlier
age - the most important factor in determining whether a young person undertakes any
volunteering at the age of 19 or 20 is that they have been involved in some kind of community work
between the ages of 13 and 15.4
Young people need to be exposed to the issues that charities help to address while showing them
that they have the power to make a change. If young people see the difference they can make
through involvement with charities they are more likely to make a lifetime connection.
Case study – Team v
Over a year Team v leaders deliver three national campaigns at a local level that are
designed to tackle current key issues facing communities. In year 2 the campaigns
tackled youth homelessness, healthy minds and transforming spaces. Each campaign
engages charities that are experts in the issue being tackled, for example the youth
homelessness campaign Shelter provided training to the leaders on homelessness.
For some leaders the knowledge and experience they gained has changed the type of
volunteering they will undertake in the future and many have been inspired to make
social change.
At the end of the programme the majority (64%) reported an increase in understanding
the needs of their community and in understanding the social issues which are
affecting their community.
3
Barriers and facilitators to pro-social behaviour among young people: A review of existing evidence, DfE report;
January 2012
4 Measuring the Impossible? – Deepening our Understanding: A Further Exploration of Youth Volunteering Through
Existing Longitudinal Research Data, NFER, May 2012
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Volunteering is off-putting for some young people but if they’re presented with an issue they feel
passionately about and a way of doing something about it they become more engaged. vInspired
research has highlighted the effectiveness of carefully selected case studies in challenging
misconceptions about the nature of volunteering, demonstrating how volunteering relates to their
specific concerns and local area.5
Where young people become more involved in decision making and shaping the work of a charity,
it is important to create a culture within charities where young people’s opinions and concerns are
valued and acted upon. Otherwise there is a danger that they will become disillusioned with charity
and giving as they grow older.
How are young people engaging with charity in a digital world?
Young people are engaging with charities online through the use of social media, where it is very
easy to take light touch, immediate action such as raising awareness of causes through twitter
hashtags or sharing issues on Facebook. Smartphones allow young people to act immediately
based on an emotional response to an issue or cause.
Immediate interaction offered by the digital world brings challenges to charities in terms of
managing expectations for the pace at which charities can act. For example volunteer involving
organisations may take a while to respond to an initial expression of interest in an opportunity. One
way to address this problem is to keep young people engaged through regular contact via social
media such as Facebook or e-newsletters. vInspired sends regular communications to our
members to keep them informed of new opportunities, competitions to incentivise involvement and
regularly communicates through Twitter and Facebook. By doing this we offer ways for young
people to continue to interact with us and other charities until something comes along that sparks
their interest enough to engage more.
vInspired’s experience is that young people’s digital engagement with charity is adding to rather
than replacing off-line interaction. Last year vInspired launched Do Something UK bringing the US
social phenomenon Do Something to the UK. Using the power of online to inspire offline action, we
encourage large numbers of young people to take small actions which collectively can make a big
difference. The idea is to make giving fun and easy to carry out without ever requiring money, an
adult, or a car. Young people have a very high level of engagement on the Do Something
Facebook page which means that we can better understand what young people will respond to and
constantly interact with them in real time. We can then adapt our campaigns accordingly.
A recent survey of young people that have taken part in our three Do Something campaigns to
date shows that 87% are proud to be part of the Do Something community, which is largely on-line,
and 70% say that being part of Do Something has encouraged them to sign up for volunteering
opportunities.
How can we make sure giving is fit for the digital age?
For young people the phone is a trusted device that offers the ability to take simple actions to
issues and causes that they have an emotional reaction to immediately. Giving needs to take into
5
Young people speak out, vInspired/Ipsos Mori, June 2009
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account the current generation’s use of smartphones to access the internet, use of SMS and their
perceived lack of time.
Charities also need to be able to tap into the moment of emotion that many people feel after
witnessing a charity poster for help, a documentary, a short film or a national or world event. By
giving the audience the opportunity to donate instantly via text or the interactive button on their
remote control, charities can strike while interest is high.
Young people are short on money now but may not be later in life so charities have to find different
ways to engage them in their work throughout their different life stages – at times when they may
be time rich but financially poor or vice versa.
Giving can be weaved into normal activity that young people undertake such as downloading
music. For example vInspired is one of the charity partners for fairsharemusic – an alternative to
iTunes half the profit is donated to charity for every song downloaded.
Digital technology is allowing people to give in new ways. For example vInspired recent launched
Igniter which enables young people to crown-fund for their own community projects. The first 8
projects that were profiled on the site all reached their targets within 11 days. Igniter has provided
young people with a way of fundraising for their own projects from their networks and beyond.
If you have any questions regarding this response, please contact:
Araba Webber
Public Affairs & Policy Manager
vInspired
5th Floor, Dean Bradley House, 52 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 2AF
020 7960 7022
[email protected]
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