Appreciation for our volunteers is profound from everyone at TCV, our partners and supporters, and anyone who has witnessed these dedicated individuals hard at work removing brambles, maintaining paths or picking up litter.
The impact of what they do is far-reaching: biodiversity improves, local spaces are greener and more accessible, communities are more cohesive, and levels of skills, health and wellbeing in individuals all increase.
The value of volunteering with TCV
Now we have a value for this impact. Taking into account the environmental outputs and the associated outcomes for nature and society, TCV volunteers are estimated to have a natural and social value of £128,500,000, cumulative over 30 years.
Comparing this to TCV’s expenditure, this represents a return on investment of 14.5 (based on 2022/23 financial information).
So if you’re an individual donor or corporate partner who supports us, this means for every £1 you give, you’re giving back £14.50 to nature and society.
Your impact
What does this mean? It means, for example, you support our volunteers to plant one of the 1.2 million trees, pick items to fill the 15,000 bags of litter, or protect part of 13.8 kilometres of waterways planted, picked and protected every year.
Because of these actions, you support our volunteers to remove 311 tonnes of air pollution, clear 66 hectares of invasive species, and encourage 185,000 visits to green spaces, enhancing the wellbeing of those people who visit.
See all of statistics here.
It is these huge numbers that tell us the natural and social value of TCV volunteers.
They are millions of pounds worth of value, but it’s also the every-day value experienced by an older person who feels safe to use their local park because of a cleared path.
The school children who walk under a woodland canopy for the first time learn about the importance of plants and wildlife.
The cleaner air breathed by people across the UK, the homes for wildlife, and the increased biodiversity of waterways: TCV volunteers have an incredible impact on the green spaces around us and the communities who use them.
Want to know more?
To see a full overview of the statistics see here.
Watch out for a more in depth look at each of the outputs of TCV volunteers in the coming months on TCV’s social media channels: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.
If you’d like to turn your £1 into £14.50 worth of environmental and social impacts, donate here.
How we understand our impact
In 2023, TCV worked with external sustainability consultants to better understand the positive impact of our volunteers. The environmental outputs, such as number of trees planted and bags of litter removed, were recorded throughout the year.
Relevant natural and social outcomes, such as carbon sequestration and enhanced well-being from recreational visits to nature, and the associated physical and monetised metrics were considered for each of TCV’s outputs.
Overall, this resulted in £128.5m cumulative 30-year monetised benefits, producing a return on investment of 14.5, based on 2022’s annual expenditure, for every pound spent at TCV.
Read more about the impact of TCV Volunteers
Keep up to date with the latest news and activities from The Conservation Volunteers by signing up to receive our Greenzine newsletter.
