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.
Energize, Inc. is
an international training, consulting and publishing firm
specializing in volunteerism since 1977. It is the largest
Web site in the world designed for leaders of
volunteer efforts, with over 1200 free pages of volunteer
management information, including an online library,
volunteer-related quotations and recognition ideas, links to
worldwide professional organizations, a bookstore with over
80 titles, and a monthly Hot Topic essay from president,
Susan J. Ellis. Energize provides online training in
volunteer management through its EveryoneReady®
program. Sign up for the free monthly Update and receive
tips and quotes directly to your in-box.
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.
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