Evaluation/Program Assessment

In this e-Volunteerism feature, author Jill Jukes from the March of Dimes Canada’s Western Region argues that it’s time to update how organizations plan and prepare for volunteer involvement. Taking a close look at what she calls the traditional “Volunteer Engagement Cycle,” Jukes outlines why the current sequence of planning, recruitment, intake/onboard/screening, placement, training and supervision, recognition and retention, and evaluation does not always reflect current trends and realities. The remedy? Jukes proposes an entirely new Volunteer Engagement Cycle, one that that she calls Version 2.0. “This isn’t a monumental change to the traditional cycle,” Jukes writes, but one that renames and reimagines how organizations plan and prepare for volunteer engagement. Is it better? Will it work? Has Jukes merely proposed new words for the same things? In the end, Jukes asks you to decide.

What does it mean to move beyond volunteers as a “program” and, instead, embrace engagement as a strategy to fulfill your mission? The shift starts by understanding the benefits of developing a strategic plan for volunteer engagement. In this article, writer Beth Steinhorn highlights some of the research behind volunteer engagement strategies and shares a step-by-step process for developing a volunteer engagement strategic plan. She traces how one regional humane society developed such a plan and, as a result, is now lightening its staff’s heavy workload, bringing more skills into the organization, gaining more advocates, increasing resources, and ultimately helping more animals. 

 

In this quarter’s Research to Practice, Laurie Mook reviews a study by Mark A. Hager and Jeffrey L. Brudney testing whether or not the “adoption of ‘best practices’ (such as interviewing volunteers, matching them to assignments, supervising volunteer activities, and recognizing their contributions to organizations) are associated with program outcomes of recruitment ease, retention of volunteers, and the net benefits that volunteers bring to organizational operations” (2015, 235). The data arise from telephone interviews with volunteer administrators or executive directors in a nationally representative survey of 1,361 organizations in the U.S. Their findings may cause you to rethink (or reinforce!) your approach to volunteer management.

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. 

Andrew G. Haldane, Chief Economist, Bank of England, recently stated that “whether seen from an economic or social perspective, volunteering is big business, with annual turnover well into three-figure billions.” And in his recent lecture to the Society of Business Economists in London, Haldane also pointed out that volunteering “is a well-hidden jewel, whose social worth is rarely the subject of a public valuation.”

In this special feature, e-Volunteerism presents an edited excerpt of Haldane’s lecture, which provides what Haldane describes as “a valuation, however imperfect” to help understand the social value of volunteering and exactly why this economist thinks it is so important. “If the value of volunteering remains largely out of sight, it is likely also to remain out of mind,” Haldane predicted. “The potential economic and societal benefits from volunteering then risk remaining un-tapped. Yet with a nudge, that volunteer army could swell further.”

Because Haldane is an internationally recognized economist, his presentation carries considerable influence and importance for the volunteer community. Haldane’s lecture includes a description of the fascinating volunteer service called Pro Bono Economics that he helped establish in the UK, which will be of great interest to all e-Volunteerism readers.