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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:
Now more than ever, technology is playing an all-encompassing role in keeping nonprofits and volunteer programs going. While volunteer-matching apps and social media platforms have been around for a while, social distancing takes us to a whole other level in terms of technology use. In this issue of Research to Practice, Laurie Mook looks at a study of nonprofits in Hong Kong which explored in-depth how technology reconfigured their volunteer management. We focus mainly on the challenges these nonprofits faced to highlight the limitations and unintended negative consequences of going online. The study also suggests several ways to optimize online volunteer resource management, including how to engage your volunteers while programs are put on hold.
Do you ever feel like you’re treading water in this vast volunteer management ocean? Struggling against perceptions of what you do that simply don’t match the reality? As Meridian Swift writes, “I know I did. It took getting out and drying off to uncover what was missing in my volunteer management career.”
In this e-Volunteerism feature, well-known volunteer expert Swift reviews how leaving the profession helped her gain new perspectives and insights into volunteer management, and helped Swift see that what she really needed, metaphorically speaking, was a “boat. . . a sturdy foundation that would keep me from treading water.” As Swift writes:
“I began to look at it in a different light. What could have made volunteer management more respected? I dove into researching everything from HR trends, to systems and project management, to ecological symbiosis. Research made me realize that it is we, the volunteer managers, who must control the perception of volunteer management. . . So let’s pull ourselves out of the water and build a boat that lifts high the volunteerism sail.”
Much that’s been said about the motivations and outcomes of skills based volunteering (SBV) has been written from the corporation’s perspective. We know less about what motivates or what it takes to engage a SBV program from a nonprofit point of view.
In this e-Volunteerism feature, authors from NC State University and the Southeastern Council of Foundations examine the experience of one nonprofit as they expand their already robust volunteer program to incorporate skills based volunteerism. Their findings examine how SBV is perceived from different organizational levels, and the benefits and pitfalls of engaging such initiatives. Using a case study with 20 interviews from multiple stakeholder groups, the authors also discuss the coordination and resources it takes to implement a successful SBV program. This important feature provides insight into capacity considerations for any organization interested in implementing a SBV program.
In this Research to Practice, Laurie Mook reviews two articles that bring together issues related to measuring the impact of volunteering, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a set of 17 goals that address social, economic, and environmental challenges at the global and local levels, and are gaining currency across the public, private, and social economy sectors. Volunteer resources managers are well-positioned to embed the SDGs into impact measurement, with the potential benefits of increased volunteer engagement and retention, as well as increased funding. Strategically, reporting on performance related to the SDGs can also be used to influence local and national policy agendas.
Adults 65 and older are an increasing demographic, with many retired from work and reinvesting some of their time into volunteering. A new challenge for volunteer administrators is managing these older adults and, eventually, managing their decisions to withdraw or retire from volunteering.
This segment of older, volunteering adults was a major concern of U.S. and Canadian volunteer administrators who responded to a survey in a study reviewed in this issue’s Research to Practice. Almost 80 percent of the respondents were concerned with volunteers retiring or aging out, and the resulting impact on their volunteers, volunteer programs, and organizations. Few indicated that their organization had policies related to this issue, which led to a logical conclusion: though a lot of attention is paid to recruitment and retention of volunteers, it is now time to add volunteer retirement to the conversation.
High school students do not often think of nonprofits as an option for career-building. Although they may have been exposed to nonprofits through volunteering or community service requirements, they are generally guided by career counselors and their parents to have career aspirations outside of the nonprofit sector.
In this issue of Research to Practice, Laurie Mook looks at a mixed-method study of nonprofit professionals from various chapters of the Young Nonprofit Professional Network and explores how students initially became aware of nonprofit careers and the connection between volunteering and career selection. The implications for volunteer resource managers and their role in fostering the next generation of nonprofit leaders are discussed. The conclusion? At a time when the need for nonprofit leadership continues to grow, volunteer resource managers can play an important role in nonprofit career decision-making for students.
With more and more volunteer recruitment done online, it is important to take a step back and look at who has or doesn’t have the opportunity to volunteer as a result of not having household Internet access. Has digital access changed the demographics of who is being asked to volunteer or to serve in leadership positions such as on a board? In this issue’s Research to Practice, Laurie Mook reviews a study on the influence of household Internet access on formal and informal volunteering. The results confirm that “volunteer recruitment may not always be an inclusive process” and that nonprofits have a role in bridging this digital divide.
In this Voices, co-editor Tracey O’Neill reviews a new book called The Disruptive Volunteer Manager by well-known volunteer manager Meridian Swift. As O’Neill explains, the new book lays out six steps to increase awareness of volunteers and to try and elevate volunteerism by disrupting the volunteer management norm in a forward-moving way. Swift, who has more than two decades of volunteer management experience, calls it a “step by step journey to setting a new normal, one in which leaders of volunteers unleash the potential that awaits.” And O’Neill provides an assessment of Swift’s new book that promises to “reframe, redefine, reshape, and re-imagine” volunteer management.