> What doesn’t have anywhere near the same impact for the charity is a group of randos showing up for an afternoon
Yes, I totally agree. It's the long term commitment that makes volunteers useful. Rando newbies need monitoring and don't know how much they don't know about the real problems. So can only be given a narrow range of tasks. They can't be trusted with tools that are dangerous or tasks that have expensive failure modes.
Yes, these are the ones that you start to invest time in.
Coming back to the organisation I volunteer for, the majority of the volunteers are already 'members' (e.g. they have purchased annual season tickets, etc). A few will drop out after a few weeks, typically when they realise that the work can be physically demanding and in all weathers. But once people demonstrate reliability and earn trust, then they usually get the chance to do more interesting things.
This view doesn't take account of the massive range of skills required to deliver actual services (conservation, relief, etc), which would be cripplingly expensive to deliver through paid / contracted staff.
Concrete example: I've been volunteering at a raptor conservancy trust in the UK for two years. The advantages of volunteers is that the Trust gets a pool of enthusiastic people who can be tasked on a wide range of tasks on a very flexible basis. Actual volunteer tasks (I have done about half of these) include
* engagement with the public (crowd control, explaining what is going on, etc)
* animal husbandry (cleaning, water bowls, etc)
* construction (e.g. new aviary builds)
* infrastructure maintenance and repair (aviaries, fences, benches, signage, etc)
* equipment maintenance and repair (lawn mowers, power tools, etc)
* grounds work (gardening, weed control, etc)
* photo-library management / social media editing
* IT support
* conservation surveys (e.g. species surveys / transects)
* nest box deployment
And many more. The volunteers' free time allows the Trust's paid permanent staff to concentrate on their core competencies: looking after birds of prey and supporting global breeding projects and anti-poacher activities. The Trust is often able to match volunteer duties to the individual volunteers who enjoy them most / have a demonstrated aptitude - e.g. a retired guy who enjoys pottering with machines one day a week can maintain a small fleet of lawn mowers, strimmers, ATVs, pressure washers, etc, without the Trust incurring a regular maintenance contract. People with DIY carpentry skills can put up signs, make nest boxes, fix seats, etc.
Volunteer support has also been essential during the pandemic, when the Trust's revenue was slashed as a result of lockdowns.