Improving the way we communicate, and the language we use to enhance volunteering experiences for the global majority.

Takeaways from the NCVO Time Well Spent 2023: Volunteering Among the Global Community launch event.  

By Lorna Gough. Communications Officer at CCVS. 

Time Well Spentⁱ is NCVO’s research programme focusing on volunteers and their experience. The 2019 reportⁱⁱ showed that the experiences of global majority volunteers needed to be explored more deeply. Time Well Spent 2023ⁱⁱⁱ is the first in a new series of reports.  

I attended the event in a comms capacity, with an interest in how we can all improve communication, and the language we use in our comms, to ensure we are being fully inclusive. Although this webinar focused on volunteering experiences, the improvements we can make apply to all areas of our work. 

The report found that global majority volunteers are less positive about their volunteering experience than volunteers overall.  

What can we do to improve that?  

The first thing I learned is to consider adopting and using the term ‘global majority.’ This term describes all ethnic groups, except white British or other white backgrounds, including white minorities. Global majority is a shortened version of ‘people of the global majority.’ NCVO have been reviewing their language and the words they use around race^iv, replacing terms previously used, such as BAME, which are outdated. You may feel global majority as a term is not yet used widely enough to be recognised, but this should not be an excuse to do nothing.  

At the very least have conversations as an organisation and decide what you can do to improve the words and terms you do use, and take action. You could talk to local organisations who work with global majority people to find out what terms they use in their work.  

We spoke to Ila Chandavarkar from Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum (CECF) who are a charity working in the field of Race Equality. They are a leading organisation within the voluntary sector in Cambridge, in working with Black and Minoritised Ethnic individuals and groups. They bring expertise in anti-discrimination work and specialisation in asylum and refugee welfare matters. They also give special social, cultural, moral, and practical support to groups and develop projects where needed.  

Ila told us that: 

“Language constantly changes and recently there has been a great deal of discussion about the right term to use for communities other than white British. At CECF, we recognise that the reason for an umbrella term is to acknowledge that certain communities are more exposed to race discrimination and race hate crime, rather than treating these communities as homogenous. We choose to use the term BME for Black and Minoritised Ethnic Communities, in agreement with the Law Society description “Minoritised ethnic’ (or the similar term ‘racially minoritised’).. recognises that individuals have been minoritised through social processes of power and domination rather than just existing in distinct statistical minorities.” The term has been accepted by some organisations within the sector such as Voice4Change England.” 

As the NCVO event used the term global majority, we will continue to use that term throughout this article to avoid confusion.  

People who identify as global majority population make up 85% of the world’s population and it’s really important that we get the language around this right.  

There are many barriers faced by people wanting to volunteer, particularly from the global majority population, and if we don’t get the language right in the first place, we are potentially losing out on dedicated and skilled volunteers.  

Points to consider to reduce barriers to volunteering: 

• Recruitment – when promoting volunteer opportunities, be clear with your language about the role. Clearly state that you welcome anyone who meets your basic criteria, but also consider explicitly stating that global majority volunteers are welcome. This will ensure everyone feels confident that there are no barriers to them joining you as a volunteer. If you’re not clear, you risk putting people off.  
• Be clear and transparent about the role so people know what is expected of them.  
• The term ‘voluntary work’ is incorrect when advertising voluntary roles and can be off putting. A volunteer provides services voluntarily, and a voluntary worker usually works under a contract.  

• Consider how you can encourage and welcome refugees or asylum seekers, and others who may be new to the country. Paul Harvey, Head of Volunteering at Voluntary Action Sheffield, (an organisation who have worked with refugees and asylum seekers for over 20 years) urged us to change our perspective and stop thinking of these groups as ‘People in Need’ but as people with assets. We need to remember that refugees and asylum seekers had full lives before they had to leave their countries. They are often highly skilled and experienced and can be a huge benefit to organisations. It’s good to show people they are needed. 
• Recruitment process – references – life circumstances mean these are not available to many – consider whether they are actually needed. What do they actually prove?   
• Volunteer structure – think how to word volunteer role descriptions to demonstrate that you recognise volunteers may only be temporary. There can be a high turnover of volunteers, and rather than that trying to encourage longer term volunteers only, think how you can benefit from all help you are offered. 
• Expenses – how you communicate that you actively encourage volunteers to claim expenses is vital, as it’s one of the biggest barriers to volunteering. High numbers of volunteers don’t know that they can claim and feel embarrassed about doing so.                                               

Make sure that all volunteers know that claiming expenses is usual, expected and encouraged and make it a straightforward process. Remove the stigma. At every opportunity, be proactive and ask your volunteers if they have received their expenses, make it a normal friendly conversation. If they wish to decline claiming, that is their choice, but it should not be seen as a badge of honour not to claim. If everyone is encouraged to claim, people can choose to donate back discreetly, and can even gift aid if appropriate.  Baris Varli from the Muslim Charities Forum reminded us that it can actually help an organisation demonstrate their true operational costs if they factor in volunteer expenses.                                                       

Many volunteers simply cannot afford the financial burden of volunteering if expenses are not reimbursed. Work out if there is a way to pay travel costs up front, so that volunteers do not have the stress of working out how to fund getting to your venue. Make sure your volunteers know they are worth more than their bus fare. Communicate clearly so that everyone knows where they stand and so that awkward conversations are avoided. 

• Avoid assumptions – assumptions made by organisations are another big barrier to volunteering. Karris Morris-Brown from Black Cultural Archives suggested improving the way you use data to make volunteering a better experience. If you’re going to run volunteer surveys, or exit interviews, act on the information you collect. People should feel comfortable voicing concerns or sharing ideas and feel confident that they will be taken seriously. Don’t just collect data for the sake of it. Make it meaningful. Use it to improve volunteer experiences. As Karris says – Live the values you proclaim to hold. 
• Representation – do your best to ensure your Trustee board and your management team are representative of the communities that people live in. Ensure you communicate that you welcome Trustee applications from global majority people. If a person from the global majority is interested in volunteering and they discover that everyone else in the organisation is from a white background, they’re not going to feel comfortable going back. Not fitting in is a bigger barrier to global majority volunteers than concerns about a lack of skills and experience.  

We can all do our bit to continue to improve the experience of volunteers generally, and we all need to work a little bit harder to make volunteering for the global majority population an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. Thinking about the language we use, and how we communicate, is a good place to start.