October 7, 2012

The Volunteering X Factor

Posted in A Bigger Picture, Good news stories, Recognition of Volunteering, volunteer experience tagged , , at 4:00 am by Sue Hine

There are no definitions for the X factors of volunteering.  There will never be a TV reality show for the unseen and unsung qualities that make up the best of volunteering and its management.  Mostly it is chance encounters that tell us something of the outcome of our work.

Three times in as many weeks I’ve been reminded of the influence a manager of volunteers can sometimes have on the lives of volunteers.

The first is a story about a volunteer and his wife, told fifteen years after the event.

A few days later I get to hear, long after I have left the workplace, how my words at a group induction session are still ringing in a volunteer’s ears:

“You don’t think you will gain anything from volunteering?  Keep your hearts and minds open and you will discover all sorts of rewards.”

You know, the volunteer says to my successor, I’ve never forgotten that, and by heck, she was right!

 

Then Andy Fryar, who has his own remarkable story of unintended influence on a volunteer, puts up this poster on his Facebook page, noting it is something he raises regularly in training sessions.

 

None of us set out to be inspiring or to make a difference in the lives of volunteers.  It’s a by-product, and we are merely catalysts for that inspiration to take hold, or that change to happen.

And mostly we never get the feedback.

I’ve been volunteering for yonks, and worked in a variety of management roles.  My one experience in managing volunteers was in a hospice, where I discovered there was still much to learn about volunteering and management.  Hospice volunteers taught me about the work they did, how they did it and why.  Simple – serving cups of tea and dishing out meals.  But it was the way they provided these services that showed me how volunteering is a whole lot bigger than ticking off a task sheet.

Because reports from patients and families indicated how the supporting words and gestures from volunteers touched them at just the right moment.   When I gave this feedback to the volunteer there was usually a shrug and a comment like “But all I did was listen, and it was only for a few minutes”.  No big deal for the volunteer, yet an inspirational spark for the family.

Now it’s my turn to tell a story about a volunteer and what comes after.

Mary had been volunteering for some time when I met her – Wednesday lunch service, regular as clockwork, a close buddy with her volunteer partner.  She liked things neat and tidy, liked knowing what was what.  Always Mary was someone you could count on to let you know if she could not come, wanted time off for travel, or if something was bothering her.  Sometimes the bothering could be personal stuff, outside the volunteering bit.

Now Mary the volunteer has become the patient.  Pinned on the notice board by her bed in the hospice is a letter I wrote to her eleven years ago, alongside the certificates issued in recognition of her years of volunteer service.  Such little things, such small gestures from the office of a manager, to be received and treasured in ways I never anticipated.

All of us can touch other people’s lives in unknown ways.  It’s part of being human.  Sometimes we can turn the cliché of ‘making a difference’ into something real.

But always, in times like this, my mind flicks to the line that says:

You are the last person to understand the effect you have on other people. *

And I wish I did not always have to be the last to know.

_____________

* William Boyd (1990) Brazzaville Beach

September 23, 2012

Why Else Would You Volunteer?

Posted in A Bigger Picture, Language, Motivation, Valuing Volunteers tagged , , , , , at 4:46 am by Sue Hine

At the beginning of this month I was extolling the nature and philosophy of volunteering, quoting words like Citizenship, Engagement, Generosity, and a Felt Sense of Community.  No question, these words represent the best concepts of volunteering.

Except….  Unless….  Until….  I start thinking about the other reasons why, in this day and age, people give their time and skills and energies, for free, for community benefit.

I have banged on a lot about the Gift Relationship, spoken in hushed words about the virtues of Altruism and the Spirit of Community.  You see, all these words (they deserve no less than Capital Letters) are the true representations of volunteering.  Except….  Unless….  Until….

Now it is time to get real, time to see just how inclusive volunteering and volunteer programmes can be, outside the Goodwill and Community Solidarity philosophy.

At the local Op-Shop the customer service volunteers are pretty much all older people.  They tell me their time here is the social highlight of their week.  Yes, they are unpaid, and all there by free will, though their ulterior motive is socialisation, to meet and greet people, have a conversation and a bit of a laugh.  And maybe a chance to pick up a bargain as well.

Also on the staff at this Shop are the sorters and cleaners, a right mix of volunteers.   There are young people looking for work experience to put on their CVs.  There are migrants and refugees practising English language skills.  There are the people working off community sentences.   Others are there as evidence of job-seeking in order to retain their welfare payments.

In the administration office of another organisation I meet the ‘interns’, mostly students on placement for their applied degree qualification, and a fair smattering of new migrants.  Unpaid internships are welcomed as work experience to improve job prospects, especially for these groups.

And then I come across the team of Corporate Volunteers who are out on their ‘day-release’ programme, that annual event that demonstrates ‘corporate social responsibility’.  They have engaged with the Department of Conservation to check out bait traps in a protected reserve.  Whoa, I think.  The exercise is likely to be a whole bit of hiking, and possibly encounters with some health and safety hazards in the not-so-nice parts of the day when dealing with captives in the traps.  It is quite a bit different from their day job.  Next time they might prefer to offer pro bono services of their professional skills in governance, or in organisational management and administration.

Volunteering is not what it used to be.  The ideas of ‘free will’ and ‘compulsion’ have been mixed and stirred in a blender.  (I can even confess to volunteering as an escape from tele-marketing calls.) Take a look at Volunteering Tasmania and how they are describing volunteering for our new age:

  • It has a direct benefit to the community and the volunteer (whether the benefit is tangible or intangible);
  • It is undertaken by choice; and
  • It is unpaid. (However, the volunteer may receive reasonable or appropriate reimbursement for expenses incurred that are associated with the role, and/or may receive a monetary or other incentive/reward.)

That’s the commonsense reality of volunteering in the 21st century for you.  Volunteering is always a two-way stretch of reciprocal benefits.

Because, whatever the reason for volunteering, the experience of working for nothing is also an exposure to community services, to the values and commitment supporting development in our communities.  Many a volunteer has extended self-interest to an employment career in the community and voluntary sector.  Or a corporate volunteer programme has introduced people to organisations and opportunities for on-going volunteering.

Understanding these details gives you a head start in recruiting volunteers, and in knowing how to reinforce the rewards, and how to retain volunteer support.

September 9, 2012

Volunteer – At Your Own Risk

Posted in A Bigger Picture, Best Practice, Leading Volunteers, Organisation responsibilities, Professionalism, volunteer experience tagged , at 4:17 am by Sue Hine

My present work focus is updating a basic guide for managers of volunteers which can serve as an introduction for new people and also a reminder and refresher for the old hands.  It’s amazing how much has changed, or shifted over the past five years.  This new edition will go on line, keeping up with technological advances and it will certainly be more user-friendly.

The hardest part of this update is ensuring accurate information on legislation relevant to volunteering – all the Health & Safety stuff, the Privacy and Human Rights provisions, and Employment law, and a few other things besides.  I am getting a headache from trying to assimilate all the information.  That’s when I think about the bundle that managers of volunteers have to absorb into training programmes and in their daily practice.

It is also a huge responsibility for organisations who engage volunteers (and paid staff), and exposes a number of risks.  Ideally, all organisation policies would cover the work of volunteers as well as paid staff.

Trouble is, the law vacillates a bit when it comes to volunteers.   Yes, they are included (with some exceptions) in the organisation’s ‘duty of care’ – the obligation ‘to take reasonable care not to cause injury or damage to a person or property’.  There’s some very clear guidance about this duty to volunteers under Health & Safety regulations.

On the other hand Employment law specifically excludes volunteers.  There is no recourse to employee rights, no option to be heard at a Tribunal or Employment Court.  But hello, the provision to be a ‘good employer’ extends to volunteers!  Except there is no one recipe or template for being a good employer.   At best we can follow a guide that includes examples and initiatives.  All of these are pretty much common sense – though sometimes we need to be reminded of common sense practice.

So a risk management strategy is an important ingredient in best practice for managers of volunteers.  Yes we have some guidance from existing law.  Yes, we are blessed in New Zealand with Accident Compensation, providing comprehensive, no-fault personal injury cover – though this will not excuse us from ensuring volunteers are informed about all the health and safety information relevant to our organisation.  Yes, the legislation on Human Rights and Privacy give us a good steer on how to be inclusive in recruitment, and how to protect volunteer privacy.

What worries me is the short cuts that can be taken when recruiting volunteers, in implementing a programme that has not developed all the necessary policies, in short-circuiting volunteer training, and failing to monitor volunteer practice and experience.  If you want to know more about the risks of legal liabilities read Sport NZ’s account.  Better to skip the worst case scenarios and go for the straightforward information and advice from Keeping it Legal or CommunityNet Aotearoa (see p 13).

We can cover risks and protect volunteers through a signed agreement relating to the job description.  We can hold to a Code of Practice, outlining commitments by the volunteer, and by the organisation.  Or ensure everyone knows their Rights and Responsibilities in a document that spells out the entitlements and obligations of both volunteers and the organisation.  Undertaking Police Checks of volunteer applicants is another safeguard for those working with vulnerable people.

There is no way I am suggesting we become fearful risk-aversive managers of volunteers.  Nor are volunteers saying they want to be wrapped in cotton-wool – indeed some people object to learning about all the regulations and policies.  Volunteering to make cups of tea is not as simple as it used to be, they say.

The bottom line of risk management has to be ‘beneficence’, the practice (in medical ethics) of ‘doing no harm’.  Or, to use the word in its conventional sense, the business of community organisations and the work of volunteers are about ‘doing good’.  Let’s not lose sight of that!

August 26, 2012

Enlightenment (Take 2)

Posted in A Bigger Picture, Leadership, Managers Matter, Organisational gains from volunteering, Recognition of Volunteering tagged , , , , , , , , at 2:12 am by Sue Hine

I’m doing a double-take on the word Enterprise. In recent years the word has been thrown around like it is newly-minted. Yet the business of enterprise has been around for centuries, since history began. Business entrepreneurs have driven industry and economic growth for generations. They invented consumerism, though I daresay the global market of people avid for the new and different accelerated the process, and the profits. Entrepreneurs and enterprise have created corporate and multi-national organisations, and, let us acknowledge, contributed to the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) in less-than-honourable dealings.

I am sobering-up from last week’s high at the conference on Social Enterprise. Yes, creating a business that turns a profit for social interests is a sea change from creating wealth for private shareholders. And yes, there are a heap of good intentions and good results in ‘doing good’ and collaborating for sustainable outcomes.

Here’s the Big But:

• I did not hear acknowledgement or recognition of NFP organisations, though their representatives dominated the ranks of those attending the conference

• Volunteering and management of volunteers did not get a mention

• And everybody ignored history

Here are my Reminders:

• Social Movements have stimulated more social change than any corporate enterprise. (OK, that claim could be debated…) I am thinking of organisations and programmes established on the back of global activism in Civil Rights, Feminism, Disability, the Environment and hundreds of others at local community level. Or cast your mind back to early crusaders on slavery and poverty, and to pioneers like Florence Nightingale and Henri Dunant.

• It was Community-based Social Enterprise that created local support services and long-standing organisations and community change – achieved by Volunteers, and funded in the past simply by cake stalls and raffles.

• NFP organisations have been operating Social Profit enterprises since Oxfam opened its first High Street op-shop – though it seems most NFPs continue to rely on philanthropic largesse or the caprice of a government contract.

Operating a charity is not the same as running a for-profit business. Yet financial stability is of primary importance for both sectors. Just think what a community organisation could achieve if it could rely on a sustainable funding stream. That’s where social enterprise could really be Doing Real Good.

And here’s another thing: I read that “strong leadership is crucial for social enterprises”, including a list of recommended attributes:

• Have passion and purpose
• Trust and be trustworthy
• Be pragmatic and prudent
• Share the lead
• Never miss the opportunity to praise and say thank you

Which sounds to me just like the qualities of many a worthy manager of volunteers. When I think about the enterprise involved in running a volunteer programme I would call the managers Social Entrepreneurs. And even if volunteers do not come for free they can reap huge profits in terms of goodwill and service delivery, and in fund-raising.

August 19, 2012

Enlightenment

Posted in A Bigger Picture, Conference communication, Language tagged , , , , at 4:47 am by Sue Hine

There were two days this week of intensive concentration. Two days of learning new ways of expressing old ideas, two days of interpreting new inspirations for a new age.

There were two events: one was a national conference, and the other a brief breakfast session at Parliament hosted by Jacinda Adern MP, on behalf of ComVoices. Both covered common elements: community engagement and citizenship; the business of funding community projects and enterprise; and different models of operation.

Nothing is forever. We live in a world of constant change. There’s something new every day. Yes, I know all the clichés. But there is something more going on here.

The meanings of ordinary words are revitalised:
• Citizenship is you and me and the responsibilities we have to our community and to each other;
• Participation is being engaged in our communities and networks, and engaged in the process of change;
• Sustainability is creating something that is not just a one-off attempt, and it is also the big word in better management of our environment;
• Collaboration and Partnership will drive the operations of community groups in times of austerity; and are the key facilitators in developing a social enterprise.

Hackneyed terms and phrases are revisited and rephrased:
• The old catch-cry of Making a Difference morphs into Doing Real Good, implying there are tangible results in what you do. (And begging the question of defining what we mean by ‘Real Good’.) Well, we are learning fast about outcomes and results-based funding conditions.
• Community gets to be described and understood as a philosophy, a collective value, and not just a blanket neutral term for everyone out there, or the generalisation for why our organisation exists. There are many different forms of ‘community’.

When we turn these words and ideas into action there is a whole new vocabulary to learn, and new ways of doing business. The new vocabulary begins with Social Enterprise, and the new business model is based on collaboration and partnership between business, philanthropy, government agencies and communities and community organisations.

That’s the beauty of the new ways of thinking: we can escape from our silos of Public, Private and Third or Non-Profit Sectors (and eliminate perceptions of community as third-rate, or non-anything) to find the new view and new solutions. It’s happening now, somewhere close to you. Go find out more, and be a part of the change. Or read about the international trend for NGOs to embrace profit-making social enterprises.

Going on three hundred and fifty years ago there was an earlier Enlightenment, a period of awakening in Europe, of the beginnings of formal science, philosophy, economics and the rise of capitalism and industrialisation. It was also called the Age of Reason, because it was argued that rational thinking provided more answers to the mysteries of life than religious beliefs. One of the facilitators of this new age was the invention of the Coffee House, where you could enjoy the new stimulant brought by the merchant traders from Africa and South America. Here was the place where intellectuals met to discuss the issues of the day, to form political policies and to plot the French Revolution.

Next time you go to a business meeting at your favourite café give some thought to how your discussion might influence the new Enlightenment.

July 29, 2012

What if ……?

Posted in A Bigger Picture, Leadership, Organisational gains from volunteering, Recognition of Volunteering, Valuing Volunteers tagged , , , , , , , at 4:57 am by Sue Hine

I have been rabbiting on for ages about the relevance of volunteering and the importance of good management of volunteers in the community and voluntary sector.  I have been on about organisations that just don’t get volunteering, about boards and management that take volunteers for granted, and who fail to recognise that volunteers might be just the true deliverers of organisation vision and values.

Volunteers live the organisation’s mission; they have organisational values at heart; and they put up their hands to work for free without expectation of a pay package or other reward.

What if, I venture to ask, what if we turn running the organisation over to volunteers?

I can hear the objections shouted down the e-waves:

  • The board members / trustees are all volunteers!  Isn’t that enough?
  • Volunteers are part-timers, mere bit-players in service delivery
  • Volunteers are unreliable, take time out, have other commitments and priorities
  • Volunteers do not have the necessary professional knowledge and skills
  • Come on – volunteers are not the answer to everything!
  • Lots of them are merely getting work experience, or fulfilling their employer’s obligations for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
  • Open Sesame to organisational chaos!

To which I respond:

  • The role of Board members / Trustees is governance, overall direction and decision-making responsibility – well-placed to ensure best practice service delivery
  • If you regard volunteers in your organisation as ‘bit-players’ then you do not deserve them
  • Many community services are delivered entirely by volunteers – and highly valued for their standard of service
  • Yes, volunteers are free to come and go: respect that freedom and you get loyalty and long-term commitment
  • When volunteers know and understand why they join your organisation, they are demonstrating the real meaning of being ‘professional’, and all the knowledge and skills that go with that
  • Volunteers are powerful contributors to community development, community integration, and the building of Civil Society
  • And by being exposed to volunteer experience those people engaged for work experience or CSR events are likely to continue volunteering
  • As for the chaos, welcome to tumultuous energy of the world of Management of Volunteers and  the community and voluntary sector

What if, I ask again, what if the manager of volunteers was promoted to Chief Executive?

I can hear the gob-smacked responses from here!  Sure there’s a load of extra responsibility and more things to think about.  But think about it a bit more:

  • The manager of volunteers is well-versed in management and leadership, especially in being responsible for more people than most Chief Executives in the community sector.  [See Susan J Ellis, Non-Profit World 1986, 4/2 - Maximising the Potential of the Director of Volunteers; and 1996 – What Makes the Position of Volunteer Programme Manager (VPM) Unique?  (Adapted from Chapter 4, From the Top Down: The Executive Role in Volunteer Program Success)]
  • The manager of volunteers is creative and flexible; has to be a strategic thinker and really good at time management; has an amazing network of colleagues and game-players to call on, and really good mentor support.
  • The manager of volunteers knows the organisation inside out; works across all service areas; has effective working relationships with senior managers.
  • The manager of volunteers is committed to organisation mission and vision and knows how to engage volunteers to put these into practice.

You might still think I am in fantasy-land.  Not so, if you read Claire Teal’s arguments about the status of management of volunteers:

[S]o many of us seem to simultaneously lament the lack of value given to our role, but also resist any real attempt to do anything about this. In many ways we seem to want to have our cake (a higher value placed on our role) and eat it too (not change anything we’re doing).

This on-going self-deprecation has to be turned around!  If you really object to a volunteer take-over, or to the manager of volunteers becoming your Chief Executive, go read Betty Stalling’s counterfactuals about Volunteer Program Champions.

That is the What If challenge for organisations and their managers of volunteers.  That’s the world of difference a What If question can make.

July 21, 2012

Getting it Together

Posted in A Bigger Picture, Language tagged , , , , , at 11:11 pm by Sue Hine

There’s an old word getting serious attention these days, giving me pause for some serious thinking.

Collaboration is a word that denotes ‘working together’, for a common goal. It is a word that connotes shared interests, which can lead to shared resources.

In my mind Collaboration is associated with Cooperation, Consideration of others, Collectives, and of course, Community.  The idea of Collaboration invokes team-work, collective problem-solving, multi-party representation and partnerships.  At the end of the day Collaboration has the potential to offer a gestalt, a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.

Collaboration has been turning up in different contexts, so it is starting to look like a trend.  Here’s the evidence:

  • The practice of Public/Private Partnerships (PPPs) is not a new form of collaboration, though it is a hot topic in New Zealand at present.
  • I am following the rise and rise of social enterprise, and the partnerships negotiated between business and community organisations, between government and community.
  • I note one philanthropic funding source is encouraging joint ventures for community-based services.
  • The influence of community organisations on government policy is limited by the diversity of organisations, and I hear a passionate plea for collaboration, at least at a national level.  Dammit, we need to get our act together.
  • Genuine partnerships between Not for Profits and Government, corporates and clients are “crucial to the achievement of positive social outcomes”, is the theme for a conference in Western Australia later this year.
  • Volunteering New Zealand’s Management of Volunteers Project has certainly benefited from shared information and a collective approach to developing the programme.  There is a great deal of collaboration from diverse interests to achieve an outcome that will be mutually beneficial. The Draft Competencies are now out for consultation.  (Note how ‘consultation’ can also be interpreted as a relation of ‘collaboration’.)

What is going on here?  I know we can all be ground down in efforts to be heard, so “if you can’t beat ‘em, you join ‘em”.  I know how funding pressures can push an organisation into new collaborative ventures with another party, outside the regular frame of reference – or out of existence altogether.

I also know about ‘patch protection’, how proposals for economies of scale like sharing back-room functions with other organisations never go anywhere, and how a ‘silo mentality’ can blinker many a community organisation to the potential benefits of shared interests and collaboration with others.

Because the way the world works is through competition, right?  Evolution determines survival of the fittest.  Supply and demand in the market place predicates which product, which business wins out.  Business mergers are more about swallowing and destroying competitors than a re-invention of enterprise. Politics is all about winning over rivals, or the other party.  Right now we are heading into the opening of the London Olympics and a few weeks of achieving individual glory and national rivalry to top the medal tally tables, no matter how much we talk up the spirit of internationalism.  All of which is the antithesis of collaboration.

I daresay the business of competition will never go away.  We will still want to cheer the All Blacks to another World Cup, and to climb a few pegs on international tables.

Yet, the signs of collaboration on the radar suggest there are some new dynamics entering the business of political, social and economic organisation.  The opportunities for ‘doing good’, for achieving qualitative and positive social change are there if we go look.  As Tom Levitt says in the preface to his book Partners for Good, “In today’s Big Society it is said that ‘we are all in this together’”.

Does anyone notice there is never a mention of volunteers and volunteering?  Nor of managers of volunteers who have been practising collaboration for years, working with volunteers to get great outcomes wherever they are engaged.

 

July 15, 2012

Volunteering and its Variations

Posted in A Bigger Picture, Language tagged , , , , , , at 4:30 am by Sue Hine

Last week I attended a fund-raising function organised by former refugees from the Kachin State in Myanmar.  Most of them have not been here longer than 5 years.  In very short order they learned about living in their new environment.  They bonded as a group, like seeking like, as you do in strange territory.  They learned from each other, finding out how to access resources, and supporting those who needed extra help.   And the leaders among them established a national network to share local information and to keep in touch with homeland politics.

This function entertained both old and new Kiwi supporters with song and dance, and then provided a meal for 200 people.  It was a superb demonstration of event management organisation and spirited goodwill: a totally awesome display of volunteering.  Now they have raised a goodly sum to provide medical supplies and mosquito nets to send to the remote and primitive camps for displaced people in their homeland.

This story got me thinking of all the different representations of volunteering: there are a lot of related words and phrases in common parlance these days.

The Kindness of Strangers turns up as a book title, over and over.  It’s there on You Tube presentations and in song lyrics, and a TV programme.  It’s the title of a scientific study, which includes reference to that archetypal model of a kind stranger, the Good Samaritan.  Pay it Forward is a variation on this theme – a practice that has been around a lot longer than the movie of this title.  A Guardian (UK) article claims “a civil society needs the kindness of strangers and acquaintances”, and cites another report from the Young Foundation , which argues that

Civility is the largely invisible ‘glue’ that holds communities together, and that experiences of incivility cause hurt, stress and deeper social problems, and has a bigger impact of people’s sense of social health than crime statistics. Perhaps most significantly it shows that civility operates on a reciprocal basis and that it is ‘contagious’.

Volunteering is also touted as a glue to hold communities together; and ‘civility’ reminds me of Civil Society – which is just the term to embrace volunteering and all the ways we talk about community and people.  Like this:

Civil society activity meets fundamental human wants and needs, and provides an expression for hopes and aspirations. It reaches parts of our lives and souls that are beyond the state and business. It takes much of what we care about most in our private lives and gives it shape and structure, helping us to amplify care, compassion and hope.  (Making Good Society, 2010)

The Gift Economy is another variant of the concept of volunteering, that ancient practice of exchange and sharing that kept the wheels on communities before we got hooked into market-economy drivers.   And the Gift Economy is still a big one.  Pacific Nations can enjoy remittances from emigrants that total more than local economies.  Maori consciousness of collective wellbeing and responsibility means ‘volunteering’ in the accepted definition has no equivalent in their language.  So we refer to mahi aroha – “work performed out of love, sympathy or caring”, which is part of everyday cultural life within family/whanau, and marae communities.  Nor should we forget that New Zealand’s 4.9% contribution to GDP by the community and volunteer sector is another constituent of the Gift Economy.

And then I think of Altruism, a virtue demonstrating a selfless concern for others, the opposite of Selfishness. It is a huge topic, involving religion, philosophy and pretty much all of the social sciences.   Volunteering is a form of altruism, given the normative definition of free will and no financial reward.  And wouldn’t you know it – research is showing a strong correlation between volunteering and personal health and well-being.  Volunteering, as a Gift Relationship, is always a two-way stretch.

One more piece in the jigsaw of volunteering is Philanthropy, that munificent gesture that is going to keep an organisation solvent for another year.  Etymologists will recognise the Greek origins of this word, meaning ‘love of humanity’.  It’s another way to reinforce all the interpretations of volunteering I have highlighted.  Philanthropy is about private initiatives for public good, operating outside government and business.  You could say Philanthropy embraces all the elements above, writ large.

I learn from these reflections that “volunteering” is a fundamental element of being human, of belonging to a community of family and friends and to wider connections.  Long may this premise remain without corruption.

June 10, 2012

The Changing Volunteer World

Posted in A Bigger Picture, Leadership, Leading Volunteers, Managers Matter, Professionalism, Recognition of Volunteering tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , at 4:06 am by Sue Hine

Nothing can be certain, said Benjamin Franklin in a letter written in 1789, except death and taxes.  I am surprised he did not include ‘change’ in his aphorism.  He lived through a fair bit of historical change himself, in his enterprising career and as a Founding Father of United States, and he must surely have seen what was coming to France when he wrote his letter.

Well – change in the not-for-profit sector, and in volunteering, is all around the world at present.  I read the exhortations for managers of volunteers to get up to speed with social media – for everything from organising fundraising events to volunteer recruitment, and for regular organisation promos.  And for networking and conversations on common interests for managers of volunteers.

I read about the impact of generational differences and the statistics on who volunteers and what for and why.  Short-term, time-limited assignments please.  A specific focus, relevant to my skills. Or please, some work experience that will get me a job (when you give me a reference).  There are significant increases in prospective volunteers out there.  They are clamouring for roles – particularly the younger age groups.  And despite the huge bubble of older people, the baby-boomers, newly retired, this cohort is not rushing to fill the ranks of volunteers.

There is no denying the global financial crisis (GFC) is creating change, forcing governments to downsize, to rethink priorities for community support and development.

Change is coming from another direction too: the ethos of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is generating waves of corporate volunteering.  Corporates are going beyond conventional sponsorship and funding grants: active partnerships with non-profits are being pursued.  Even ‘Philanthropy’ gets a new connotation, loses its original glow of generosity, munificence and beneficence.  Now philanthropy is about venture capital for social change.

A whole new way of looking at the community and voluntary sector is evolving.  The social value of volunteering is increasingly seen in economic terms.  We trumpet the significant contribution volunteering and the NFP sector makes to GDP.  We are trying to improve reporting on volunteer impact beyond numbers and hours and donations in kind.  We look for ways to measure the social return on investment (SROI) in volunteering.  The word ‘social’ starts appearing in front of words I thought only bankers and accountants used: capital, innovation,  investment – and even New Zealand’s OCVS has a raft of papers and information social finance and social enterprise.  What will these terms mean for volunteers and
the community sector?  They sound good, but will they really do good?

Well – if we want to get volunteering and management of volunteers properly appreciated and recognised by those holding the purse-strings, then we need to learn and understand this language.  We need to be able to promote our causes and to argue our cases on an equal footing.

Yet in all the heady engagement between the not-for-profit sector and business and government, and with current trends in volunteering, I have not seen specific comment on the future for managers of volunteers.  Yes, we need to ride with changing times, adapt programmes to fit with the expectations of new generations of volunteers, be flexible innovative, creative.  But no-one has raised a direct question of what an alliance between public, private and community sectors might mean for managers of volunteers, and what will happen to volunteering further down the track.

What if CSR becomes the dominant source of volunteers, a formal process that may require a different style of management?  Different from the basic model of engaging individuals who want to ‘help’ add value to an organisation’s services?

That’s when managers of volunteers need to rise to Rob Jackson’s challenge: instead of organisations headed by “someone who knows how to make money … what we need is people-raising skills” (my emphasis).

We have been people-raising for several decades.  We have adapted to major change in the past.  Let’s demonstrate for the new era the know-how and can-do of our management expertise.

June 4, 2012

Looking for an Answer

Posted in A Bigger Picture, Organisational gains from volunteering, Recognition of Volunteering, Valuing Volunteers, volunteer experience tagged , , , , at 4:03 am by Sue Hine

It’s such a simple question.  Quite straightforward.  Should be easy-as to give me an answer.

Why does your organisation involve volunteers?

The thing is, I have put a veto on telling me It’s to save money dummy!  Because I think if that’s the simple answer then why do we employ paid staff?  Why not run the whole organisation on Volunteer Power?  And if you say No way – impossible!  then the ‘saving money’ argument sounds more like that ‘exploitation’ word.

Why does your organisation involve volunteers?  This question is not an idle thought thrown up to make mischief.  Let me offer a few leads to think about.

There are major agencies in New Zealand providing professional emergency services which include significant volunteer personnel.  Think Fire Service, Ambulance, Civil Defence.  Search and Rescue missions are likely to be staffed mostly by volunteers.  The Government’s Department of Conservation includes an extensive volunteer programme.  Yet there are no volunteers wearing a Police uniform.

There are national not-for-profit organisations with annual budgets and turnover and paid staff numbers that put them in the large business category.  Think Red Cross, Cancer Society, IHC and the Churches, for example.  All of these organisations engage large numbers of volunteers.

Why?  Why involve volunteers?

Do volunteers offer something beyond the capacity of paid staff?  Is there something special in the quality of volunteer work?  Is there something unique about volunteers, apart from working for free?

I bet there is no-one out there is saying “The reason my organisation engages volunteers is to help them get work experience, learn new skills, enjoy social connections, or simply because they want ‘to help’”.

Praises are heaped on volunteers, during annual Volunteer Awareness Week, at special functions, in organisation newsletters and in Annual Reports, and in daily ‘thank you’ effusiveness.   Is this recognition a means to engender organisation loyalty, and commitment to participate in the next fundraising appeal?  Or does the praise indicate genuine understanding and acknowledgement of the real contributions volunteers are making to the organisation?

Which are?

I am asking these questions because when you truly understand why volunteers are involved in your organisation then

  • Volunteers are integrated in organisational structure and policy
  • There are no (invisible or otherwise) barriers between volunteers and paid staff
  • Volunteers have a specific function in service delivery: they are not handmaidens
  • Volunteer contributions are acknowledged in genuine and meaningful ways
  • The role of manager of volunteers finds its rightful place
  • And (not least) there will be no more disgruntled volunteers dissing your organisation, and I will no longer find my blog on a bad volunteer experience getting so many hits.

There is a whole lot more that could be said, about history and the evolution of volunteering, about politics and the reality of service contracts, about professionalisation of fundraising (cake stalls don’t cut it any more), and about current trends in volunteering and the rise and rise of corporate volunteering and business social responsibility.  Right now, the important thing is to get the reasoning straight, so the organisation can make more of itself, and so the volunteers make something real of the work they do.

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