The Real Challenge for Volunteerism

The number of Americans who volunteer has increased each year since 2002. This multiple-year climb in civic engagement is extremely unusual — traditionally, spikes of this kind fade after just a few months. Not since the attack on Pearl Harbor has the United States seen the kind of sustained increase in volunteering that has marked the years since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

People clearly are looking for ways to get involved, and are acting on that desire. They do so in myriad ways — helping out in soup kitchens on holidays, cleaning up rivers, or joining with colleagues at work or their houses of worship to serve the community. Others serve as a mentor to a child or join a full-time community-service corps like AmeriCorps. And plenty of Americans engage in advocacy campaigns on behalf of important public-policy matters.

But ensuring that the nation’s 64 million volunteers have the power to tackle some of our nation’s most pressing social problems requires that nonprofit groups, private donors, government, and business put more money and effort into improving how organizations manage volunteers and keep them engaged. Too often, volunteers get frustrated and drop out of community-service activities because they do not feel they have been well managed — and that is because few organizations have sufficient staff members devoted to the important task of overseeing volunteers.

Numerous efforts are under way to get key elements of society to step up their attention and their effort to open pathways to civic participation. Among them:

• At a two-day conference in New York in May, Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, a group of grant makers, brought together 80 donors, corporate grant makers, nonprofit leaders, and government officials to discuss how those players can apply their combined power, influence, and resources to expand civic engagement.
• In September, the Hands On Network and an alliance of 29 companies spearheaded by Home Depot will start their first corporate “month of service” as part of a campaign to increase employee volunteerism focused on solving community problems. Participating companies clearly see the importance of employee volunteerism and will be working together to help build the case that such efforts are good for business, not just for the community.
• This week, the National Conference on Volunteering and Service will bring together 2,500 volunteerism experts and managers from nonprofit groups, businesses, and government agencies to share ideas and research about what works best in the management of volunteers. In addition, corporate leaders and nonprofit executives will discuss how they can collaborate more effectively.

For such efforts to succeed, however, it is important that nonprofit and government leaders stop obsessing solely on motivating people to volunteer.

The systems that support civic engagement desperately need to be strengthened and modernized so they suit the work, time, and social preferences of today’s Americans. The most difficult need to meet for potential volunteers is more time.

And because time is so precious, volunteers want to get more out of their service than simply accomplishing a task. They want to socialize, learn something new, make professional connections, or satisfy their religious obligations as part of their volunteer time. Unfortunately, too few nonprofit groups take the steps they need to ensure that this happens.

In 2003, the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, conducted the first national study on the capacity of charities to manage volunteers. The study was financed by the UPS Foundation. While charities reported that volunteers significantly increase the quality of their services, reduce their expenses, and increase public support for their organizations, many of them do not invest in the necessary tools to maximize organizational benefits or to provide volunteers with the high-quality experience necessary to retain them.

The benefit an organization receives from volunteers is directly tied to the benefits it provides to them. For example, the study showed that volunteers produce greater organizational benefits and continue volunteering for a charity when they are offered a variety of work assignments.

The study identified three management practices correlated with high rates of retaining volunteers: screening volunteers for their interests and aptitudes and matching them to organizational tasks; providing volunteers with training and professional development; and acknowledging volunteers for their contributions. Regrettably, 90 percent of organizations do not regularly practice all three of these techniques.

While nonprofit executives do not need to be persuaded to dedicate staff, policies, and systems to fund raising, they seldom deploy the resources needed for even minimal volunteer management. That is true even though good management of volunteers requires a staff member who can devote 30 percent of his or her time to volunteer management. What’s more, the study shows a clear correlation between the amount of time a staff member can devote to managing volunteers and the benefits that charities report in terms of improved services, cost savings, and public support.

Grant makers and government agencies could make a big difference in helping nonprofit groups advance to a new stage of managing volunteers.

For example, they could help organizations they are already supporting to hire a volunteer manager, or to enable a staff person to devote significant time to that activity. Since one-third of paid managers of volunteers have never had any training, it is also critical to sponsor training and development opportunities for people who recruit and supervise volunteers.

Those approaches will multiply the value of a grant by increasing groups’ efficiency and effectiveness in using volunteers.

Foundations and corporations that take these and other steps to invest more in volunteering will be helping nonprofit groups do a better job of marshaling Americans to meet vital societal needs at a time when financial resources for government and social programs are extremely tight and likely to remain so in the near future. What’s more, such investments will put nonprofit groups in a better position to cultivate a sense of responsibility and a sense of possibility in Americans that will inspire them to lifelong involvement in civic affairs.

In some circles over the past couple of years, it has become fashionable to play down the importance of volunteer activity — or at least to disavow its connection with other forms of civic engagement. Indeed, some observers have taken the view that today’s volunteers, especially the rising generation of college students and young working adults, volunteer in relatively large numbers because of their alienation from politics, local civic associations, and other traditional forms of civic engagement. By volunteering, young people are said to be actively seeking an alternative to broader civic engagement.

But that is not the case. Studies show, for example, that AmeriCorps graduates are much more likely than others to choose public-service careers, such as teaching, social work, and military service. Forty percent of AmeriCorps graduates were employed in public service after two years, compared with 33 percent of a control group. If that trend continues, each year AmeriCorps could help generate as many of 5,000 additional people in public-service careers.

And as the nation’s 77 million baby boomers reach retirement age, America needs to find ways to make sure those people and apply their skills and knowledge to meet societal needs. As Robert D. Putnam, the author of Bowling Alone, notes, “Volunteering is part of the syndrome of good citizenship and political involvement, not an alternative to it.”

So to build a stronger democracy, this nation needs a coordinated effort involving government, business, foundations, and nonprofit groups that focuses on ways to help people of all ages and backgrounds get more engaged in civic, community, and political life.

Government needs to seek new ways to collaborate effectively with foundations and nonprofit groups; grant makers must better collaborate with one another, with government, and with the nonprofit groups that are already making good use of volunteers to solve social problems. With a better understanding of what’s working, organizations can invest money and other resources into promising solutions and improve their impact.

In addition, foundations and other donors can play a leading role in educating nonprofit leaders, government officials, policy makers, the news media, and others of the wide-ranging value of civic engagement in all its forms. Government- and foundation-supported programs dedicated to expanding the opportunities for people to serve are among the most cost-effective investments our nation is making, but people will not support and invest in civic engagement if they don’t understand its benefits and relevance.

Every person should have the opportunity to serve his or her community and make a positive impact on the lives of those around them. Government and private philanthropy must lead the way, but neither can lead alone. We must all do our part, so that all citizens can do their part.

David Eisner is chief executive officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service.