Definitions of Volunteer

With the advent of more and larger data sets, research on volunteering is transitioning from pontificating to proving hypothesis about volunteering characteristics. The RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the University of Texas publishes the Investigator, a series of information briefs designed to bridge the gap between practitioners and researchers in volunteerism, and to encourage researchers to do more in the field of volunteerism.

The first issue,“Data Sets on Volunteerism: A Research Primer,” previewed in e-Volunteerism before being made available to the public, summarized existing data sets and provided examples of the analyses that can be generated from them. One of the data sets described was the Current Population Survey Supplements. The second issue of the Investigator, “Volunteering by States,” uses this data set to report volunteering rates and characteristics of volunteers by each State in the United States.

e-Volunteerism unveils the second issue of the Investigator (giving readers the chance to provide feedback prior to the public presentation) with comments explaining the process. Learn more about the characteristics of volunteers on a state-by-state basis in the US, and how to use such studies to assist your volunteer program. Non-American readers will find the concepts useful as well and have the opportunity to identify similar studies in their countries.

In 1980, VOLUNTEER: The National Center for Citizen Involvement (predecessor of the Points of Light Foundation) published Exploring Volunteer Space: The Recruiting of a Nation, by Ivan H. Scheier. As has been the case so often with Ivan’s writing, the book was way ahead of its time and unfortunately is now largely unknown. It is a joy to be able to use this “Voices from the Past” feature section of e-Volunteerism to reintroduce new readers to the very-much-still-relevant pages of Exploring Volunteer Space. In the Introduction, Ivan says:

The further cultivation of volunteering is the theme of this book; intensifying, energizing, and expanding it, working out from today’s career leadership of volunteering. The core is the director, coordinator or administrator of volunteer programs, plus resource people and organizations at local, state and national levels. These leaders number an estimated 70,000-80,000 people in the United States today…Without this leadership, there would be no significant volunteer movement for anyone to analyze here. Nevertheless, this leadership seems thin on the line, because the volunteer helping army is far larger than we suppose, and visible leadership, however, talented, shrinks drastically in relation.

In the excerpt presented here, we share Ivan’s thoughts on “Thick and Thin Leadership” – “Practical Issues in Career Effectiveness.” Over time, we’ll revisit Exploring Volunteer Space and give our readers more excerpts. And, since Ivan is Consulting Editor for this journal (/team/scheier.php), we may even hear from him directly in response.

World Leisure, an international organization devoted to the scientific study and promotion of leisure, has as part of its structure several commissions devoted to matters consistent with this mission. One of these – the Volunteerism Commission – was founded to organize and encourage research in all countries on all aspects of volunteering that relate to leisure and, to the extent they are deemed useful there, to disseminate to the applied sector the world over relevant research findings in this area. The socio-economic context of leisure and volunteering is explored and a case made for viewing volunteering as leisure activity. The structure and programs of the Volunteerism Commission are then examined. A selected bibliography of theory and research in this area is presented as part of the reference list.

The field of volunteerism spends inordinate amounts of time arguing the finer points of just what is and what is not volunteering. Most readers are familiar with a range of concepts that strive to ‘define’ volunteering. Such concepts include volunteering being conducted

• without coercion,
• without monetary reward, and
• for the benefit of the community.

However, a much more fundamental question was posed recently on both the OzVPM (Australasia) and UKVPMs (United Kingdom) newsgroups, causing quite a reaction, and prompting us to share the thoughts of respondents with you all through this Keyboard Roundtable forum.

The question was, quite simply: ‘Is volunteering work or leisure?’

With the generous permission of the participants, we have compiled some of the key postings in this debate and hope e-Volunteerism readers will join in.