Benefits of Volunteering

Volunteers make great volunteer managers, but their value in these roles isn’t always recognised. This feature article by Tom Freeland explores the benefits that ‘volunteer’ volunteer managers or ‘lead’ volunteers can bring to an organization. He also explores the fears an organization needs to address when adopting this approach, and the joy and challenges of utilizing volunteers as volunteer managers.

The devastating impacts of hurricanes and floodwaters are well known throughout the world, including nearly every region of the United States. In September 2013, a catastrophic amount of flooding besieged Boulder, Colorado, when almost a year’s amount of rain fell in just a few days, killing eight people, stranding thousands, damaging nearly 19,000 homes, and creating miles of impassable roads. 

Despite these conditions, volunteers began showing up. In addition to local residents offering to help, thousands arrived from far-off states to help shelter evacuees, clean out flooded homes and buildings, and dig out debris that littered fields and roads for miles. Boulder quickly recognized that in order to rebuild a resilient city, it would need to leverage all of its resources wisely – including the talents of residents and others who wished to volunteer.

In this e-Volunteerism feature interview, Beth Steinhorn, president of VQ Volunteer Strategies, begins with a first-person account of the city's initial response to the floods. She then conducts an important interview with Aimee Kane, Boulder's Volunteer Program and Project Manager, who discusses why and how the City of Boulder built a culture of community and volunteer engagement in the years since the floodwaters of 2013. 

Managing volunteer programs can be a whirlwind of risk management, policies, and procedures, with mounds of credentialing and more red tape than we’d like to admit. Jumping through hoops can become a necessary skill for volunteers to meet all of the criteria required to donate their time, particularly in large organisations or regulated sectors.  

In this article, author Tracey O’Neill reflects on her own experiences as a volunteer in three organisations where she also managed volunteer services and programs. She explores what these experiences taught her when it comes to ensuring that “my volunteer programs remain relevant and appealing to our community and supporters.” O’Neill’s ideas will challenge you to reflect on ways you can make volunteering more accessible and appealing in your organisation, while working to retain the best volunteers in today’s volunteering climate.

When human beings have new experiences, new synaptic pathways forge in our brains. We become alert to new ideas and we can be guided to new understandings and different behavior.

In this e-Volunteerism feature, Angela Parker – the co-founder of a global agency called Realized Worth that specializes in employee volunteer training, program design, and employee engagement – describes how participants who integrate a few basic concepts into civic engagement and volunteering activities can be guided to challenge assumptions, become alert to new ideas, orient to what those ideas mean for them, and take action toward new behaviors. And when these new behaviors are rooted in inclusivity, equality, compassion, and empathy, Parkers argues that civic engagement and transformative volunteering can result in better employees, better organizations, and better communities.

In this very personal Voices, join a conversation with Agnetta Nyalita as she takes you through her journey as a young African promoting volunteerism in her home in Kenya and across Africa. Nyalita will share stories of the struggles and progress made on the continent, how her quest affected her personal and career development, and how her efforts connect to the global landscape.    

Barwon Health, the largest and most comprehensive regional health services in Australia, concluded several years ago that its 1,000 volunteers were ready and able to improve the health of their community. So in February 2014, the health service implemented a Volunteer Training and Development program that provided volunteers with opportunities to expand their healthcare knowledge, participate more concretely in the health service's mission, and ultimately build an empowered, healthy, and sustainable volunteer base for the future.

In this e-Volunteerism feature, Barwon Health’s Lyn Stack writes that “by investing in our volunteers through health knowledge, we utilise their support to directly improve the health and wellness of our community, while also providing volunteers with opportunities to increase confidence and decrease fear of entering the health sector.”  Stack describes how the program has expanded in two years to include Australia’s first Volunteer Health and Wellness Calendar, a Healthy Living Ambassadors program, and a national public awareness campaign to help volunteers expand their own health awareness to others. “By sharing this program,” Stack writes, “we can empower all volunteer leaders to invest in and reward their volunteers through the power of knowledge.”

Volunteer stress is an important topic. While there are a good number of studies looking at this in terms of implications for the volunteer’s health and well-being, this quarter’s Research to Practice reviews exploratory research that analyzes the issue from an organizational perspective. Gathered from a sample of attendees at the Australian National Volunteering Conference in 2013, the data provides insights into sources and causes of volunteer stress, organizational responses, and desired organizational support.

And there’s good news: according to this exploratory study, a “wide range of volunteer stressors” appear to be “firmly within the purview of organizations to manage and ameliorate.”

This quarter’s Research to Practice reviews an article that presents a way to measure the social returns on investment in volunteer recruiting, training, and management. Called Social Return on Investment, or SROI, it is a type of cost-benefit analysis that compares the present value of social outcomes created by the organization to the value of monetary and in-kind resources (including volunteer contributions) required to generate those outcomes.

As reviewer Laurie Mook explains, funders and government agencies have expressed great interest in the idea of calculating SROIs for organizations. Mook looks specifically at a case study by Italian researchers who apply this process to the volunteer program of a summer camp that offers recreational therapy for children with serious illnesses. The researchers end up with a SROI calculated as a ratio between the total present value of impacts on volunteers as well as on services, and the total costs of inputs required to recruit, train, and manage volunteers. Mook also examines the methodology as a potential tool to focus attention on the socio-economic impact created by organizations, for volunteers themselves, and for society-at-large.