Why Volunteers Stop Serving

Introduction

In spite of the economic downturn, many individuals continue to serve in their communities–helping their neighbors and organizing service projects.

In  2008, 61.8 million adults donated approximately 8 billion hours of time, and yet, over one-third of these individuals (35.5%) stopped volunteering and did not serve with any organization the following year.  This high rate of volunteer turnover has forced nonprofits to focus on replacing volunteers instead of maximizing impact and building organizational capacity.

A July 2009 report titled Pathways to Service posted on Volunteering In America identified five barriers that may keep individuals from volunteering or returning to service.

Key Findings

1.  Personal invitations to serve are more appealing to prospective volunteers.

Many individuals said they had never volunteered because they had never been asked. These same non-volunteers also said that if they were asked, they would be open to volunteering.

Organizations need to address this misconception in order to effectively recruit new volunteers.  Having existing volunteers share their stories can help non-volunteers see that they are just like those who serve.

2.  Non-volunteers see themselves as essentially different from volunteers.

Non-volunteers saw volunteers as retired, without children, and with an abundance of free time. While this may be true for some volunteers, data shows that the majority of volunteers tend to have busy schedules filled with work, children, and other commitments.

Organizations need to address this misconception in order to effectively recruit new volunteers.  Having existing volunteers share their stories can help non-volunteers see that they are just like those who serve.

3. Non-volunteers worry about having enough time to volunteer.

The term time poverty was coined over a decade ago.  Organizations are competing with people’s free time and time with family and friends.  They need to offer a variety of jobs—both short and long term.

Data shows that 65.5% of all US volunteers are episodic volunteers (volunteering less than 100 hours a year with all organizations) whereas 34.5% of individuals are intensive volunteers (volunteering 100 hours or more per year).

4.  Poor volunteer management turns people off of service.

Individuals who had a bad experience volunteering with one organization often did not volunteer again.  Individuals complained about poorly trained and unprepared leaders,  inadequate orientation and  skills training, restrictive volunteer assignments, lack of recognition and more.

5.  Skills-based volunteering can bring in new volunteers.

Non-volunteers reported that using their skills and learning new skills was important to them.  Pro bono and skills-based volunteering gives nonprofits access to needed expertise at a time when many are short staffed.

Organizations need to develop sound business strategies, models, and protocols. In support of this effort, the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation recently initiated a challenge to leverage $1 billion in skilled volunteering and pro bono services from the corporate community. This three-year campaign, titled A Billion + Change, is led by the Corporation for National and Community Service to help nonprofit organizations benefit from professional skills, skills-based volunteering, and pro-bono contributions.

To see the full report:

“Pathways to Service: Learning from the potential volunteer’s perspective,” July 2009.

For another excellent report see:

The New Volunteer Workforce, By David Eisner, Robert T. Grimm Jr., Shannon Maynard, & Susannah Washburn, Winter 2009

How The Recession Is Affecting US Volunteering

Unemployed people are spending large amounts of their time volunteering. Recent evidence of this includes:

• NYC Service had 30% more visitors in February 2009 than in February 2008.
• The Philadelphia Chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters had a 25% increase in inquires about mentoring from February 2008.
• The Taproot Foundation, a San Francisco-based organization that places skilled professionals in volunteer positions, had more people sign up on one day earlier this year than in an entire month a year ago.

Benefits of volunteering:

• Volunteering gives people something to do while job hunting that allows them to feel good about themselves.
• Volunteering is a way to stay active and stay in touch.
• Volunteering fills a gap in one’s job history and answers the questions, “What have you been doing?”
• Volunteering can lead to new job opportunities.
• Hard economic times give people a renewed sense of compassion and a better understanding of how others are struggling.
• Volunteering relieves stress from constantly thinking about economic matters.
• Because of the current economic climate, teens have become more aware of the needs of others and are volunteering.

The impact of increased number of volunteers on nonprofit organizations

• Smaller organizations without volunteer coordinators are struggling to absorb the influx of volunteers many of whom are highly skilled.
• Funding cuts can make nonprofits less able to take advantage of volunteer support.

Courtesy of Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.

Adapted from:

“From Ranks of Jobless, a Flood of Volunteers,” by Julie Bosman, in the New York Times, March 16, 2009

“Some US jobless find hope and solace as volunteers” by Andrew Stern in RUETERS, February 24, 2009.

Related links:

“How Will the Economic Crisis Affect Volunteering”   by Susan Ellis, energizeinc.com, November 2008.

“Turning Down Volunteers”  by MBA Publishing, volunteertoday.com, May 2009.

Older Adult Volunteers Bring New Expertise and New Life to Nonprofits

(ARA) -When Margaret Ross retired from a career in nursing, she had no idea that her new life as a volunteer would lead her right back into healthcare. Neither did Mike Chesnut, whose work building retail partnerships looks a lot like his volunteer service for a group of Denver nonprofits that are fighting homelessness. The same is true for retiree Berlin Hall. Since leaving his accounting executive career, Hall’s desire to help at-risk families led him to volunteer to manage the books for a family services agency.

As they move into roles in service and volunteering, older adults like these are discovering that what they know is just as important as how much time they can give. Their help couldn’t have come at a better time. With demand for nonprofit services skyrocketing, fundraising and revenues are way down. Some experts predict as many as 100,000 nonprofit organizations could run out of money for their programs completely.

The recession has spurred more interest in volunteering among older adults, particularly among boomers, says Jill Friedman Fixler, a nonprofit consultant and co-author of “Boomer Volunteer Engagement.”

“This is a group with abundant skills and profound circles of influence and they believe they can have an impact in their community right now,” she says.

That was the idea for Chesnut. After leaving his job as a retail sales executive with Procter & Gamble, Chesnut, 64, spent several years as a counselor for small business owners. When he moved to Denver a few years ago, he decided to focus on helping nonprofits. As he explored his options, Chesnut was struck by Denver’s homeless problem. Millions of dollars were being spent pulling families out of shelters, but programs that were trying to keep families out of them to begin with were underfunded. After organizing a coalition of local nonprofits, Chesnut began a research project that eventually led to a successful $600,000 grant.

“Coming from the corporate world and working with large retailers, you learn to look for common interest,” he says. “What I did was put numbers to the problem.”

Nancy Benyamin, a volunteer coordinator for Jewish Family Service who worked with Chesnut, says he’s an example of the increasing importance of skilled volunteers to nonprofits that want to expand their capacity in lean times.

“Mike really enabled us to apply for this large grant,” Benyamin says. “Without his assistance, the new funding just wouldn’t be happening.”

For Ross, 72, the serious needs she saw as a volunteer for SeniorsPlus in Lewiston, Maine, made her rethink the decision to step away from healthcare completely. After retiring as director of nursing for a state Medicare program, Ross signed up to help answer a referral phone line for SeniorsPlus, an agency that helps the local aging population get services and support. The organization was so impressed by her knowledge of medicine and healthcare benefits that they asked her to take on a new role as a counselor, and even get additional training. Seeing the healthcare system from the point of view of at-risk seniors has been an eye-opener, Ross says.

“[In my old job], I rarely was aware whether the patient was insured or not,” she says. “Now I’m on the other side of the fence saying, ‘Let’s get this person the coverage they need.’”

For Hall, a Hughes Aircraft retiree, volunteering for Family Assessment, Counseling & Education Services (F.A.C.E.S.) was a way to shield some families from the challenges his own family faced when his father, an alcoholic, left. After reviewing Hall’s background, Mary O’Connor, the executive director at the Southern California nonprofit, asked him to set up a new accounting system for the cash-strapped group. Five months later, the books are on the way to being balanced and Hall has become a strong F.A.C.E.S. supporter. He says his experience getting involved on a skilled basis, while frustrating at times, has been extraordinary.

“If my mother had access to this kind of thing, I can see how much better off we would have been,” he says with emotion. “But I had no idea that the kind of challenges this organization faces even existed.”

To find skilled volunteer opportunities, visit www.VolunteerMatch.org.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Speed Up the Board Recruitment Process!

Imagine getting excited about volunteering for something, and then waiting six or seven months before you actually get to do it. Can we accelerate the process by “pre-qualifying” candidates?

One of the most frustrating parts of board recruitment is the length of time — often months — between talking with a prospect and then bringing him onto the board . . . months during which the candidate usually becomes less interested. For instance, a person might be tentatively asked in January, discussed by the governance/nominating committee in February, have her name brought to the board for discussion in March, officially interviewed/asked in April, elected by the board in May, and her first board meeting is in July! Some boards invite potential recruits to observe a board meeting before deciding whether to join, which adds even more time.

To accelerate this process, some boards invite candidates to the board meeting at which they will be voted on. The hitch, of course, is that it makes it very difficult for a board NOT to approve someone who is already in attendance (albeit asked to sit in the hall for a few minutes).

Instead, think about “pre-approving” some candidates. Often a few names arise of people who are already known well by several other people on the board: perhaps a community leader, a mayor, a long-term activist, and so forth. In such cases, the board can have a preliminary discussion about the candidate and provisionally approve him or her as a board member. The full board then cedes to the governance committee the power to make a final decision on the candidate based on the outcome of the governance committee’s discussion with him or her. The committee members will interview the candidate, then quickly discuss among themselves how the interview went. If the committee members agree, the person can be immediately notified of his or her acceptance, and can attend the next board meeting.

The accelerated process:

1. The governance or nominating committee brings a list of perhaps five prospects to the board. Of the group, there is immediate consensus that one of them would be terrific, and she is pre-approved: elected to the board pending confirmation by the governance committee and the board chair.

2. The governance committee approaches the pre-approved candidate, and if committee members are still positive and she is interested, the committee reports by phone back to the board chair. Assuming there are no other problems, the committee goes back to the candidate and tells her she has been accepted. For the candidate, the gap between agreeing to join and being accepted is only a couple of weeks.

3. The other four prospects are also approached, but the governance committee discusses each of them before deciding which to bring to the board. They may, for example, decide to pass on one of them, and bring the other three nominees to the full board for a vote.

Remember that most board candidates need to be investigated before being invited to join. Even just one bad board member can set back the board and the organization for years. But with life moving at Internet speed, let’s accelerate board recruitment — when we can — to keep pace.

See more board recruitment strategies

Author: Jan Masaoka • February 14, 2009

This article is reprinted with permission from Blue Avocado, a practical, provocative and fun online magazine for nonprofits. Subscribe free by sending an email to editor@blueavocado.org or visit the site at www.blueavocado.org.

Suffering From ‘Recession Depression?’ Try Volunteering!

(ARA) – Downsizing. Difficult. Depression. Dread. These are a lot of “D” words. But “D” words seem appropriate — even reflective — of the grade many of us might give our financial and mental states right now.

Corporate downsizing and increased unemployment can take a heavy toll on everyone. And the impact is more than economic. Difficult economic times also produce increased incidence of depression as well as a dread of dealing with personal finances.

Tough, even scary, news about our country’s worsening financial condition continues to bombard us from television and radio broadcasts, printed pages and the Internet. To compound the problem, many Americans without jobs have too much time to dwell on their misfortunes and seemingly bleak futures. A downward mental spiral can lead to a range of feelings from a general uneasiness to serious depression.

Clinical psychologist Mary Gresham says, “This is a scary time even for those who are not in an immediate crisis,” on the American Psychological Association’s Web site.

“Many people,” Gresham adds, “mistakenly believe that money stress can only be reduced by money itself … the more you think about money and how not to lose more of it, the more anxious you will become and the less likely you’ll be able to solve problems.”

This certainly seems to be sensible advice, but it provokes an obvious question: How do you stop thinking about money problems? And that query prompts a simple response: Think about something else.

Thinking about something else may be accomplished best by thinking about someone else.  Focusing on how you can make even a tiny effort to help another human being will immediately present a new perspective. Volunteering offers all kinds of benefits, some of them particularly important as we struggle to maintain our financial composure.

Research by the Corporation for National & Community Service has found that volunteering leads to greater life satisfaction, lower rates of depression and improved physical and mental health. It reported that “when patients with chronic or serious illness volunteer, they receive benefits beyond what can be achieved through medical care.”

American companies have taken this kind of research to heart and some even encourage employees to volunteer, offering them paid time off and company-supported volunteer opportunities. During the current economic downswing, this approach is more important than ever.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a member-based financial services company in Minneapolis, Minn., has gone so far as to form an alliance with Habitat for Humanity International called Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity. The company committed $125 million over four years to assist with and help administer the construction of hundreds of Habitat homes each year.

It then reached out to members and employees, encouraging them to volunteer on Thrivent Builds construction sites in the United States and abroad. One form of encouragement was to subsidize 50 percent of a limited number of days to volunteer through its “shared release time” policy. Another was to provide special discounts to members who wished to volunteer on Thrivent Builds sites in other countries. In providing these special benefits, Thrivent Financial was recognizing the importance of volunteering to the health and well-being of employees and members.

“We understand the life benefits that volunteering engenders,” says Brad Hewitt, senior executive vice president and chief operating officer of Thrivent Financial. “And our alliance with Habitat for Humanity also aligns well with our company’s values. We are committed to offering our members programs that engage their hearts, impact communities and demonstrate the value of their membership.”

“We’ve heard time and time again from member and employee volunteers just how delighted they are in their volunteer experiences,” adds Hewitt.

Another “D” word with a decidedly different spin.

Courtesy of ARAcontent