March 15, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
Is Disney’s effort to promote volunteerism an innovative way to get people to donate time or is it tantamount to bribery?
Since the start of this year, the Disney company has offered free admission to anyone who volunteered with organizations connected with the HandsOn Network, a national coalition of volunteer centers and charities. The effort was bolstered by television ads featuring the Muppets.
The Give a Day, Get a Disney Day program produced a surge in participants, and in less than three months the company reached its goal of spurring 1 million people to volunteer.
Charity leaders and others applaud the effort.
“The innovative nature of this program has exponentially increased our capacity to both invite and excite people about volunteerism,” says Michelle Nunn, co-founder of HandsOn Network, in a press statement. She says many of the participants were first-time volunteers.
Joanne Fritz, a former fund raiser, writes on her About.com blog about nonprofit work that the Disney idea is “a smashing success by anyone’s standards.”
But others are less sure.
“I find it wrong-headed to bribe people into ‘volunteering’ by offering them a ticket to Disney if they do,” writes Sharon Schneider on Twitter. Ms. Schneider is the philanthropic director at Foundation Source, a company that helps donors with their giving and managing their assets.
Rachelle Friberg, who writes the Conservative Girl with a Voice blog, called the Disney program a “handout for service.”
What do you think? Was the Disney idea a good one? Click on the comment button below to share your views.
