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Volunteering Is Bigger than the Nonprofit Sector
Posted on 8 April 2008Mark Lyons,
University of Technology, Sydney,
Professor,
NSW Australia
In its 2006 Voluntary Work survey the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that 35% of the adult population volunteered at least once during the previous year. It also identified whether the organisations that they volunteered for were nonprofit, government or for-profit. 14.4% were government and another 1% were for-profit.
The survey also identified whether the organisations people volunteered for depended entirely on volunteers for their existence (the great majority of nonprofit organisations, often overlooked in discussion of volunteer recruitment and management) or were organisations that employed staff to do much of their work. Government organisations comprised 27% of this latter group. They included government schools, hospitals, museums, environment agencies, emergency services and so on. Very important indeed!
Posted on 3 April 2008 by Billie Ann Myers,
AARP-Arkansas,
State President,
Little Rock, AR USA
Susan, You know that I agree whole heartedly!!!! The Division of Volunteerim has tracked state and local government volunteer involvement since 1983 and the value of the service is in millions, maybe billions of dollars.
The Arkansas Legislature authorized state and local government volunteeer programs with benefits and procedures in Act 42 of 1981. For more information contact Sherry Anderson at:
Posted on 2 April 2008 by Marti Sowka,
Portage County RSVP,
RSVP Director,
Stevens Point WI USA
Amen indeed! I’ve fought this fight for a long time as an RSVP project sponsored by a unit of county government – and it is pervasive. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve added the words “and public agencies” to local documents being developed and edited by groups I work with. I’ve countered this to some degree by building strong relationships with county and community public sector programs. For example, a local RSVP site is the state Division of Motor Vehicles where RSVP volunteers take photos for driver licenses/id cards. This allows staff more time to tackle complicated legal issues. The staff are union members who totally support the volunteers because it strengthens delivery of services to customers.
And take a look at many volunteer award nomination forms - often the single eligibility standard listed will be “must be non-profit organization.” The Purpose Prize nomination form provides a template for the best wording I’ve seen, stating under eligibility: Be currently working in a leadership capacity in an organization or institution (public, private, nonprofit, or for-profit) to address a major social problem in the United States or abroad.
Posted on 1 April 2008 by Chris Myers Asch,
U.S. Public Service Academy,
Executive Director,
Washington, DC USA
Amen!
Volunteering -- and salaried service, for that matter -- absolutely must include the public sector. Too many of our politicians (and too many Americans), on both the left and the right, have imbibed the reflexive anti-government antagonism that assumes that public sector work is somehow less important, less effective, or less noble than work in the private and non-profit sectors. The non-profit world depends on effective public institutions, and we need good people to work and volunteer in them!
One way to get this topic into the presidential campaign is by urging the candidates to support the U.S. Public Service Academy (http://www.uspublicserviceacademy.org), which would be the civilian counterpart to the military academies.
Posted on 1 April 2008 by Hillary Roberts,
Project Linus NJ, Inc.,
President,
Keyport/NJ USA
While we are discussing this months hot topic, I encourage you to visit and read through the U.S. Public Service Academy website to learn more about the national proposal, developing Board and planned youth conference as it relates to public service and higher education.
Visit: http://uspublicserviceacademy.org/
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