The Big Society: hug a supermodel and save the planet?

In my early twenties, I had the pleasure of dressing up as a rhino for a fundraising event.  My reward? Small talk and a hug from the supermodel, Helena Christenson.  I was volunteering at the time with a small charity dedicated to raising funds for conservation projects around the world.  Given this experience, you can see why I have always been a fan of volunteering.

Today is the start of national volunteering week in what has been dubbed by the UN as the international year of volunteering.  Tomorrow, I am speaking at an event at the Hay Literary Festival on the Big Society and volunteering.  I am sure that folk will want to explore the following question: as the State gets smaller (through economic necessity and political preference), can and should we expect more people to step up and do more to deliver the things that society wants and needs?

The RSPB, like many NGOs, is rooted in volunteering.  Last year nearly 17,000 people contributed collectively just under a million hours of their time.  This is equivalent to an extra 536 full time staff working for the RSPB.  These brilliant people have helped us to manage our nature reserves, support bird surveys and raise money for us.  But there are more people out there prepared to make a difference.  More than 600,000 people gave up an hour of their time last January to record the birds they saw in their garden as part of Big Garden Bird Watch and nearly 750,000 of our members have now supported at least one of our campaigns.

So the RSPB believes that people can and do make a difference through gifts of their time.  But, on its own, this will never be enough to save the planet.  We and our supporters will never (if only!) be able to get our hands on some the levers of that drive change.  We cannot change policy, we cannot legislate and we are limited in our ability to raise funds to provide incentives.  Yes, in these uncertain times, we can and should step up to do more, but we need the State (even if it is considerably smaller) to remain active – to be prepared to intervene and do the things that only governments can do. 

This may seem out of step with current tide of political thinking, but it was Rt Hon John Gummer who inspired this approach.  And, sad though it is, simply hugging a supermodel to raise funds for rhino conservation will never be enough to save the rhino.