Volunteering Truth 

For nonprofits volunteering is often viewed as a cornerstone in which the rest of the organization is built. However, to most people there tends to be a great deal of dysfunction in dealing with and having a large group of volunteers. Board members for most nonprofits are non-paid and serve as volunteers. The word volunteer itself according to Webster means a person who voluntarily offers himself or herself for service or undertaking. If you are a paid staff person in an organization understanding what role exactly a volunteer should or should not take is often difficult at best to discern. Every organization is different and every need is unique.

In my experience as a consultant I have seen nonprofit organizations view volunteers in two very different ways. Nonprofits in general either want and freely accept volunteers or are clueless and have no idea why they would want to have a group of volunteers. For the latter a volunteer is someone that is more of an annoyance because the job at hand does not really match with the hours and the limited time commitment a person is willing to give. At one time in history the words “community service” were seen in a positive light. Now unfortunately the term is used more in referring to people involved in the court system and are made to volunteer as part of their sentence to “give back” to society by giving time!

Ironic isn’t it?

Another void often missed in dealing with volunteers it what it actually costs! In the
for-profit world larger companies know to the penny what it costs them to train an employee. Yet in the nonprofit arena what it truly costs to screen, place and train a volunteer is ignored. On the surface it is very easy to be overly critical of an agency who shuns volunteers and often broad statements are made that to be a successful nonprofit you MUST have a large number volunteers in your organization. But is this really truth or fiction?   

To understand the real role volunteers have in America we need to look at the hard data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts an annual study on the volunteer rates in the U.S. The most recent report was released in January 23, 2009 and looked at volunteer rates in 2008. (1)

At first glance the numbers seem huge pegging the number of people that volunteer in the US at 61.8 million people which is actually down from 64.5 million people in 2004. However, looking at the entire population as a whole in the country you are looking at only 26.4%. So this means 73.6% of Americans do not volunteer! Which begs the question, why? There are obviously a myriad of reasons and for now I ’d rather leave those facts for others and look at the current facts:

Nonprofits in the United States are surviving with only 26.4% of the population actually volunteering!

Ok, now you know that only 26.4% of the population volunteers, what does that really mean in terms of time actually spent on an annual basis? According to the report Volunteers of both sexes spent a median of 52 hours on volunteer activities during the period from September 2007 to September 2008. Median annual hours spent on volunteer activities ranged from a high of 96 hours for volunteers age 65 and over to a low of 40 hours for those 16 to 19 or 25 to 34 years old.  The 20- to 24-year-old group showed the largest over-the-year change in median hours volunteered, increasing by 7 hours to a median of 48 hours.

Lastly, in the nonprofit arena a great deal of time and energy is focused on trying to attain the “perfect nonprofit board”. Part of the perfection in many individual’s mind is making sure that the nonprofit board represents the community you serve. In doing this demographic information is reviewed with a focus specifically looking at race and sex. When we look at volunteering by race we in the year that ended in September 2008, whites continued to volunteer at a higher rate (27.9 percent) than did blacks (19.1 percent) and Asians (18.7 percent). Among Hispanics or Latinos, 14.4 percent volunteered in 2008, up from 13.5 percent in the year ending September 2007.

The volunteer rates of men, 23.2 percent, and women, 29.4 percent, were about the same in the year ending September 2008 as in the prior year.  Women volunteered at a higher rate than did men across all age groups, educational levels, and other major demographic characteristics, as in previous years. 

Persons age 35 to 44 continued to be the most likely to volunteer (31.3 percent), while persons in their early twenties were the least likely (18.6 percent).  The only age group with a significant change over the year was 16- to 19-year-olds.  The volunteer rate of this group rose 1.4 percentage points in the year ending September 2008, essentially offsetting the 1.9 percentage point decrease that occurred in the prior year.

Lastly, many national nonprofits i.e. United Way and the Red Cross to name a few, as well as large for profit corporations are spending millions of dollars for the sake of striving to be more diverse in their workforce and/or volunteer base. I honestly think these efforts are, for the most part, very sincere in an effort to be a mirror of the communities they serve and to be seen as inclusive. However, the number of 501c3 nonprofits in the United States totaled over one million! So, looking at the above facts you can clearly see that the pool of volunteers to pick from is relatively small.

Now you know the truth! 

Sources:
(1) The Bureau of Labor Statistics issues an annual study on volunteer rates in the U.S. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm

The following is a list of additional resources:

Conducting Interviews

Components of a Screening Process

Reference Checking Hiring Do's and Don'ts

Are Written Employment Policies Always a Good Idea?

Managing Volunteer Programs -by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD
http://www.managementhelp.org/staffing/outsrcng/volnteer/volnteer.htm

Volunteer Match is the nonprofit, online service that helps interested volunteers get involved with community service organizations throughout the United States. Volunteers enter their ZIP code on the VolunteerMatch web site to quickly find local volunteer opportunities matching individual interests and schedules. This simple, effective service has already generated hundreds of thousands of volunteer referrals nationwide.

Futures Program is a world-class software system designed to recruit and manage volunteers at the elementary, middle and high school levels. It is a platform which links a volunteer core together for an entire school district, encouraging cooperative community efforts and ultimately benefiting the students of user schools.

board netUSA  is the unique website revolutionizing the way nonprofit boards and new leaders find each other. If you're an individual interested in board service or a nonprofit looking for a new board member ... you've come to the right place. 

Network for Good is a nonprofit organization dedicated to using the Web to help people get more involved in their communities - from volunteering and donating money, to speaking out on issues you care about.