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Access our news feedThe Value of Volunteering
by Arden Brummell
Past Chair, Volunteer Calgary
Posted with permission of Volunteer Calgary, from their quarterly newsletter. http://www.volunteercalgary.ab.ca, Volunteers Connecting Community Summer 2001
"Not everything that counts can be counted. And not everything that can be counted, counts." - Albert Einstein
In 1988, a French observer to the Calgary Olympics
was impressed with the huge effort, commitment and contribution of
volunteers to the games. He said the 1992 Albertville games would
also use volunteers. How would he recruit them, he was asked. "We'll
pay them," he said.
What is a volunteer? What is the value of volunteering? Is volunteering
about money? Should we measure it that way? Most people would say
no. Volunteering is not about money. Volunteering is about giving,
contributing, and helping other individuals and the community at large.
It is working with others to make a meaningful contribution to a better
community.
People volunteer for an endless variety of reasons. Many people want
to gain experience, acquire new skills, meet new people, or expand
their network of contacts as a way to get a new job or start a career.
Others just want to give back to their community, to help a friend
or promote a worthwhile activity. They do it because it makes them
feel good. It gives them what current Chair of Volunteer Calgary,
Dan O'Grady describes as a "private smile."
This is the intrinsic value of volunteering. It is not about money.
And volunteering should not be measured that way. Ever. We can add
up the hours but not a dollar value. Others would like to do so. The
federal government, for example, would like to add up the billions
of hours of volunteer time in Canada, multiply by an hourly rate and
determine the economic value of volunteering. This is simplistic and
dangerous. First, it assumes that only economic measurements are valuable
and second, that volunteer time is free labour.
This is a slippery slope. It infers that volunteer work is replacing
paid labour. It infers that if work is not paid for, it is not valuable.
It reduces volunteerism to hours worked instead of contribution made.
It ignores the value of volunteers in creating a vibrant civil society
- dynamic, engaged and self-reliant.
To attempt to put a dollar figure on the value of volunteerism cheapens
and undermines the basic concept. Volunteering is rich and diverse.
Volunteering is not just about organizing hundreds or thousands of
volunteers for large events like the Olympics, the World Petroleum
Congress or The Stampede, of which Calgary is justly proud. It is
thousands of volunteers in minor league sports, shelters for the homeless,
giving aid to seniors, holding hands in a hospice or cleaning up a
local stream bed. It is spontaneous acts of kindness like helping
a neighbour shovel their walk, coming to the aid of a stranded motorist
or helping an elderly person cross a busy street. These large and
small acts, given freely, are what bind communities together. Volunteering
is helping, not hiring; giving, not taking; contributing,
not counting.
Some believe putting a dollar amount on volunteering does no harm.
This is wrong. It insidiously undermines the true value of volunteerism.
Like the term "mandatory volunteerism," it distorts the
meaning and spirit of volunteering. We want motivated, not mandatory
volunteers. We want willing, not "paid" volunteers.
Add up the hours if you must but do not be blinded by the numbers.
The value of volunteering is much deeper, much more fulfilling and
much more important in contributing to a healthy and vibrant community
than money can ever measure.
In the end, we cannot and should not put a dollar value on volunteering.
How can we put a monetary value on ordinary people doing extraordinary
things?
For books on this topic in our bookstore, click the link(s) below:
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Permission is granted for organizations to download and reprint this article. Reprints must provide full acknowledgment of source, as provided:
Posted with permission of Volunteer Calgary, from their quarterly newsletter. http://www.volunteercalgary.ab.ca, Volunteers Connecting Community, Summer 2001.
Found in the Energize website library at: http://www.energizeinc.com/art.html
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