Posted 06 Jan 28 by Mary Williams,
Lena Mae Farris Foundation
Volunteer Coordinator,
Washington, TX United States
What a great and unresearched topic to address. The importance of volunteering is minimized in our current society. It would be wonderful to have thought-provoking questions addressed and publicized in an overt manner. Volunteering is so underrated but is so beneficial to the recipient, and there is always something to do. Volunteering is healing to the giver and assistance to the recipients. It might be good to have statistics of the number of recipients being helped and some of their comments. Yea-a to all of the wonderful people who volunteer to help others in need!
Posted 12Dec01
Submitted by Robert Leigh, Chief, UNV Representation Office for North
America, New York, NY
As so often, you have put your finger on a key issue. In many countries,
especially in developing regions, measuring is one key factor in convincing
policy makers and others that volunteering makes a significant contribution
to society, and therefore merits support. Advocacy was very much one
of UNV's goals when it invested in the Tool Kit project (www.iyv2001.org),
in collaboration with INDEPENDENT SECTOR and the Institute for Volunteering
Research in the UK. The Tool Kit provides any organization that wishes
to embark on measurement with elements which can be adapted to local
circumstances. One of the many success stories of the International
Year of Volunteers (IYV) already in evidence is the growing number
of countries interested in measuring volunteerism. At a recent meeting
of developing country focal points involved in such research, one
message came out loud and clear. Contrary to what you state, "will"
is not enough: measuring does "take money" and this fact of life must
be taken into account. The notion that volunteering is cost effective
but not cost free applies as much to measurement as any other area
of volunteering. If IYV has contributed a little to exploding the
myth of volunteering being a free ride, then this will have been a
not inconsiderable advance.
Posted 12Dec01
Submitted by Colleen Kelly, Executive Director, Volunteer Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada
Thank you for referring to us as forward-looking Canadians! We have
been very focused on young people as volunteers and our surveys have
included volunteers aged 15 and older. From 1987 to 1997, there was
an increase in the number of youth volunteers - defined as age 15
- 24. The 2000 National Survey on Giving, Volunteering, and Participating
told us those aged 15 - 24 who volunteered declined to 29% in 2000
from 33% in 1997. Almost one in 5 (18%) of these young volunteers
reported that some or all of the hours they contributed were required
by their school, their employer, or government. On December 5, 2001,
the Government of Canada signed an Accord developed with the Voluntary
Sector as part of the Voluntary Sector Initiative. The Voluntary Sector
Initiative also released a report on the Canada Volunteerism Initiative
along with commitment for funding of $50 million over five years.
This includes funds for ongoing research on volunteerism including
the continuation of a Canada Survey on Giving, Volunteering, and Participating.
Complete details of the funding will be approved by the Treasury Board
and will be released in 2002. Further information can be accessed
at http://www.vsi-isbc.ca/
Posted 12Dec01
Submitted by Bonnie Jennings Steele, Director of Volunteer Services;
President-elect, ASDVS, Stamford, CT
One place to begin is to enlist the support of the major volunteer
database design firms who have sold their record-keeping software
to thousands of volunteer programs across the country and beyond.
Many have access to this data through modem connects with their users.
If the clients were willing to participate, this would be an excellent
start. Having used two of these programs, I know there are categories
that all users enter data in. These could be identified and used for
simple data collection and future benchmarking.
Posted 12Dec01
Submitted by Sister M. Peter Bernard, Holy Family Home & Shelter,
Inc., Connecticut/USA
The backbone of Holy Family Home & Shelter, Inc. has been and continues
to be its Volunteers. The Shelter opened its doors in February of
1989 in a small city in Eastern Connecticut. Since that time several
hundred volunteers from Junior High students to Professors of two
local universities have been part of the staff. At this time we have
6 adult volunteers from neighboring towns; UConn and Eastern CT State
Univ. provide us with interns and work/study students and course related
hours. Also, ECSU has a on campus housing requirement of 12 hours
community service per semester. Also, participants from the Foster
Grandparent program, 4 grandmothers, are here 5 days a week.
Posted 12Dec01
Submitted by Diane Bright, Director, Care Team Ministry, Faith
in Action, Wisconsin, USA
I agree with the idea of counting volunteers. We do it in our nonprofit
and it helps convey the need, importance, value, etc. I believe that
it is important that we NOT worry about whether these figures would
be added into the current delivery system data. When extrapolated,
it would be denoted VOLUNTEERS and could be impressive when comparing.
Posted 12Dec01
Submitted by Judy Rust, Dir. of Volunteers at Minnetrista Cultural
Center/Oakhurst Gardens, Indiana
I am in total agreement with your opinion. In this day it is not that
hard to count the data (there is good software that is inexpensive
our there. We need to use our resources and keep the records that
will help with this information. Those of us who do count the information
we would love to share our data - but how and where would we send
it. If someone really cared they would contact AVA membership and
Points of Light membership to get a base started. With a bit of publicity
I can see others joining in. Youth are definitely a part of the mix.
We see more and more involvement by youth from 10-21. The colleges
and schools are trying to encourage philanthropy through community
service. That ultimately will impact the donated dollars. Service
and commitment come first and the dollars will follow. I say put the
cart before the horse and begin somewhere.
Posted 9Dec01
Submitted by Gail Orser, Guideposts, New York, USA
Great article. I definitely agree that we need to be documenting the
number of volunteers and that we need to include youth. If we do not
encourage youth to volunteer and count their contributions will they
consider being volunteers in their adult lives? The joy of volunteering
is learned. One has to participate in order to understand the rewards.
We need to encourage our youth to volunteer and let's measure their
contribution. It is an interesting topic. We certainly count our volunteers
at Guideposts. Counting the number of hours would have to be an estimate,
because much of the volunteering takes place in their own homes. But
we could certainly ask them to give us an average. We will do that
in 2002.
Posted 9Dec01
Submitted by Bonnie Esposito, Director, Minnesota Office of Citizenship
and Volunteer Services, MN USA
Gathering this information is vital to volunteer programs to use in
funding proposals, reports to funders and boards, as well as recognition
for volunteers and staff. One of the problems with large-scale collection
is cost. In Minnesota we do an annual statewide survey by partnering
with the University of Minnesota and two state agencies. Still, the
cost is so high we can only collect the barest of information and
sadly don't survey young people. We can report the "rate" (66% in
MN), hours, where people volunteer, but would love a more extensive
survey -- which has been cost prohibited. We are very disappointed
in the new IS survey since with the new collection we can no longer
exactly compare our "rate" to the national average. This was an important
comparison for elected officials and funders -- how does Minnesota
stand nationally? The new survey makes that hard since they no longer
count informal volunteering.
Posted 6Dec01
Submitted by Jean Strating, Volunteer Program Specialist Alachua County
Library District, Florida, USA
I think the observation of the way money is getting tangled in with
volunteerism is very timely. To confirm this all one has to do is
look at the job board in the Chronicles of Philanthropy. If you look
under Volunteer Management Positions, you will find several jobs as
Development Directors...requiring fund raising skills. The other one
that is fairly new is the position of "Membership Director" which
places volunteers, but is really about fund raising. Volunteer Managers,
more and more, are having to justify their existence or wear more
than one hat or are put in part time positions. Volunteer Centers
should be helping us out, but even they have to have programs like
food drives, etc. to keep community attention on them. On the positive
side, the Library I work for provides monthly reports on the number
of volunteer and their hours to our Governing Board.
Posted 05Dec01
Submitted by Julian M. Young, Project Manager - Computer Dimensions,
Inc., South Carolina - USA
People need to celebrate on a regular basis. However, in order to
do this, data has got to be collected in a format that will give good
reports so that the information can be disseminated through the right
organizations. Updated individual information keeps statistical data
valid and useful to whoever needs to use it. If you don't already
own software to help you keep and manage data well, this might be
an excellent time to investigate the various programs available.
Posted 01Dec01
Submitted by Thomas Karwaki, Nativity House of Tacoma, WA USA
Accountability is the issue raised this month. The problem is that
if we try to measure volunteers we may end up viewing the volunteers
as an input in the production/delivery system. Some non-profits, particularly
fraternal and "animal" organizations/clubs do gather data on the number
of volunteer hours etc. on a project and annual basis. Governmental
agencies, such as local public safety, hospitals and state corrections,
are collecting and reporting this data in part to garner public support
and to show the level of support within the community. But the schools
are not doing a great job of reporting -- and we should be striving
to measure volunteers from age 14 or 18 up.
