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A Note About Terminology
For the purpose of this project and this article, we use the term ‘disbursement’ as a general term referring to any type of financial value provided to volunteers by an organization in the course of their volunteer service, including reimbursement, payment, or non-cash benefits, defined as follows:
In 1984, a very important article about funding volunteer efforts was published in the Spring issue of Voluntary Action Leadership: “The No-Apologies Budget: How to Justify the Financial Support a Volunteer Program Deserves.” Written by Neil Karn, then director of the Virginia Division of Volunteerism, this article was the first strong argument for truly adequate funding of volunteer efforts. Thirty years after it was first published, e-Volunteerism is pleased to re-introduce this seminal article, which remains as powerful today as it was in 1984. The budget line items might look a bit different now, but Karn’s points still resonate in advocating for the support and tools volunteers continue to need in 2014.
In the last quarter century, nonprofits have increasingly been held accountable for the resources that have been entrusted to them. For some organizations, accountability mechanisms have been imposed left, right, and center, as funders and donors seek to monitor the use of the funds they provide. While a reasonable amount of accountability is beneficial all around, too much emphasis on this measure can be stifling and may indeed have exactly the opposite effect of what it intended to promote: efficient and effective use of resources.
While we generally can find information on the financial resources used by nonprofits, public disclosure of the amount and significance of volunteer contributions to those organizations is far less common. In this Research to Practice, Laurie Mook presents the findings of researchers in Australia who set out to determine just how organizations account for volunteer services. The study involved over 400 nonprofit organizations. The researchers systematically reviewed these organizations’ websites and annual reports for any disclosure of volunteer contributions, including their acknowledgement; how they supported mission and the wider community; human resources measures such as the number of volunteers and hours contributed; and policies guiding their involvement.
How well did the organizations do in discharging their accountability for their reliance on and use of volunteer contributions? Too much, too little or just right? As Mook reveals, the results are enlightening.
In March 2011, 10News in San Diego, California, ran a story with the following headline: “Habitat For Humanity Charging Local Volunteers: Group Forcing Local Volunteers To Pay Before Helping Build Homes.” The resulting controversy revealed both facts and opinions about “passing along” the costs of supporting volunteers to the volunteers themselves. This practice occurs more often than many realize, and can include expenses for extra supervision for a group project, background check inquiries, special training, or even membership dues. In this Points of View, Susan J. Ellis and Steve McCurley question whether it’s reasonable to levy fees on volunteers, when the expense of hiring paid staff is seen as a budget item. They analyze all of the issues involved, and offer an unusual proposal from a different perspective.
Established in 1964 and held every year in Western Australia, the Dowerin Field Day is an effort to find ways to prevent the small, wheat belt community of Dowerin from becoming a ghost town and to raise funds for improved community facilities. In an attempt to engender community backing for the project, organizers decided to “pay” each volunteer who contributes time to the event, by way of a cheque presented to a local charity or project chosen by the volunteer. As the Field Day's Web site says, "It was and continues to be a masterstroke in distributing much needed funds to deserving organisations across Western Australia’s wheat belt."
Should volunteers be paid for their time and efforts? Is the method a “masterstroke” to cleverly distribute money to deserving organizations? In this Keyboard Roundtable, leading commentators Susan J. Ellis, Steve McCurley, Jayne Cravens, Martin J. Cowling, Andy Fryar, Linda Graff and Betty Stallings debate the pros and cons of this and other alternate economy projects, which translate the hours contributed by volunteers into real cash.
This is a landmark article, in that it tackles a critical subject rarely presented in depth: what it takes to raise money to support volunteers and the infrastructure of a volunteer program. As the title says, noted trainer and author Betty Stallings covers both the attitudes necessary to fundraising success and a wide variety of ideas for finding or generating adequate funds. Included are: