Imagine a world without volunteers

Vol­un­teers are part of the team that makes a non-​profit work. How­ever, a man­age­ment infra­struc­ture is required to unleash their potential.

By SUSAN J ELLIS 

Vol­un­teer­ing is a vital ele­ment in what is called “civil soci­ety”. Pri­vate cit­i­zens will­ing to con­tribute their time, think­ing, hands and minds to improv­ing the com­mu­ni­ties in which they live can often accom­plish as much as or more than Gov­ern­ment, busi­nesses or estab­lished insti­tu­tions can. This is the essence of par­tic­i­pa­tory democ­racy and the root of social change. 

Vol­un­teers are always on the cutting-​edge of change because they see things that should be done before any­one else addresses those needs. The first indi­vid­u­als who recog­nised the enor­mity of AIDS, child abuse, how we treat dying peo­ple, and other crit­i­cal prob­lems were com­mu­nity lead­ers who mobilised other early vol­un­teers to cre­ate care cen­tres, hos­pices and other types of ser­vices now fully funded by Gov­ern­ment and non-​profit foun­da­tions. Vol­un­teers have been and still are pio­neers, mav­er­icks and visionaries.

Vol­un­teer­ing is often mutual aid. Peo­ple with com­mon char­ac­ter­is­tics or shared needs will find ways to work together towards com­mon goals. When vol­un­tary action moves beyond per­sonal, famil­ial or neigh­bour­hood net­works, and begins to have an impact on the larger com­mu­nity, new organ­i­sa­tions are formed, new leg­is­la­tion is cham­pi­oned, and the effort becomes far more inclu­sive than exclusive.

Note that vol­un­teer­ing is not inher­ently right or good. Peo­ple sup­port causes that are con­tro­ver­sial or adver­sar­ial. Vol­un­teers can be found on both sides of issues, pro and con, of all polit­i­cal par­ties, with dif­fer­ent reli­gious con­vic­tions, and with a range of self-​interests. This too is part of a func­tion­ing democ­racy. Vol­un­teer­ing is a method­ol­ogy for accom­plish­ing end results, not an end unto itself.

Cheap labour?

When the econ­omy is bad, politi­cians and agency exec­u­tives re-​discover vol­un­teer­ing as “free labour”. This is frus­trat­ing because the com­mu­nity needs both suf­fi­cient fund­ing and ded­i­cated vol­un­teers. Those who think vol­un­teers are a cheap work­force soon dis­cover that hav­ing vol­un­teers cost real money and time to coor­di­nate them effec­tively (and vol­un­teer­ing cer­tainly costs vol­un­teers in time and, often indi­rectly, money). Even in the best of times, engage­ment of vol­un­teers is too often invis­i­ble at the exec­u­tive level and too few peo­ple have for­mal train­ing in suc­cess­ful vol­un­teer man­age­ment. Non-​profit lead­ers want to learn how to raise money, cre­ate a strong and mean­ing­ful brand, and man­age employ­ees. It is just as impor­tant to learn the best prac­tices of work­ing with vol­un­teers on a day-​to-​day basis. 

Suc­cess­ful vol­un­teer­ing does not come from spon­ta­neous com­bus­tion. Most organ­i­sa­tions are com­plex and, unless organ­i­sa­tions develop clear ways for vol­un­teers to par­tic­i­pate in activ­i­ties, peo­ple really do not know how they can con­tribute. Or worse, they start doing all sorts of things that are not help­ful at all. Involv­ing vol­un­teers in the right way offers end­less oppor­tu­ni­ties for accom­plish­ing many things, while inat­ten­tion to vol­un­teer involve­ment can waste everyone’s time and energy. It is a form of vol­un­teer recog­ni­tion to estab­lish stan­dards for vol­un­teer accom­plish­ments but the best vol­un­teer man­age­ment serves to enable vol­un­teer achieve­ment, not limit it.

Exec­u­tives must have the con­vic­tion that vol­un­teers are impor­tant. They must under­stand that vol­un­teers are:

• Part of the human resources team that makes the organ­i­sa­tion work.

• Part of the organisation’s “brain”. While com­mon sym­bols of vol­un­teer­ing are hearts and hands, the most effec­tive vol­un­teers also offer their minds and voices, adding both skills and ideas to those of the paid staff.

• “Time donors”, whose con­tri­bu­tions par­al­lel those of money donors. It makes great sense to approach both fundrais­ing and vol­un­teer devel­op­ment as peo­ple–rais­ing or friend–rais­ing. The same peo­ple may give both funds and time, either simul­ta­ne­ously or alter­nat­ing their engage­ment as their life cycle per­mits. The over­all goal is a wide cir­cle of con­tin­u­ing sup­port­ers, of which vol­un­teers are an active, hands-​on corps.

• Unique in enabling an organ­i­sa­tion to exper­i­ment with or test new service/​programme ideas before attempt­ing to raise funds to enlarge and main­tain them.

• A source of vital input from the com­mu­nity, offer­ing points of view quite dif­fer­ent from that of the paid staff and often more informed about the per­spec­tive of the peo­ple served. Con­versely, vol­un­teers are enthu­si­as­tic ambas­sadors for the organ­i­sa­tion back to the com­mu­nity, if they are sat­is­fied with their work (another rea­son to make sure of that satisfaction!). 

Organ­i­sa­tions that look at vol­un­teer involve­ment in these ways will develop the man­age­ment infra­struc­ture to assure the poten­tial is unleashed.

The ben­e­fits of volunteering

Finally, vol­un­teers deserve to ben­e­fit from their con­tributed ser­vices. Altru­ism and self­less­ness are attrib­utes of old-​fashioned char­ity or noblesse oblige. The best vol­un­teer sit­u­a­tion is one of an exchange, in which both the giver and the receiver gain some­thing that they each value. At dif­fer­ent times through­out our lives, we all need help of some sort; at other times, we all dis­cover we can assist some­one else. Vol­un­teer­ing is a way to:

• Make a dif­fer­ence and cam­paign for causes that mat­ter to us.
• Learn new skills or apply what we already know in new ways.
• Make new friends.
• Explore careers and build a resume.
• Expand our world view.
• Use free time pro­duc­tively (for those few who have free time, of course).
• Enjoy our­selves.
• Be a part of some­thing big­ger than ourselves.

The list of ben­e­fits is much longer than this, but it is clear that vol­un­teer­ing is a choice to use our time in ways that we often can­not do through our paid jobs, fam­ily oblig­a­tions or other avenues. 

Susan J Ellis is the pres­i­dent of Ener­gize, Inc in the US. She will be in Sin­ga­pore on May 22 to 24 as a guest speaker for the three-​day Vol­un­teerism Con­fer­ence organ­ised by NVPC.

(** PHOTO CRED­ITS: SG Cares)