Order this article individually from here or subscribe to e-Volunteerism for just $40 to access all past and current articles.

Article Preview

This article proposes that those responsible for enlisting volunteers adapt the "new philanthropy" approach to recruitment and offers a step-by-step process for employing the features of the new philanthropy to ensure a good match between volunteer and organization. In one passage, it says:

"While one can find “new philanthropy” defined in a number of different ways, the core concept underlying the various definitions is a commitment to a multi-faceted investment philosophy. It requires investing in authentic, earnest relationships with donors, helping the donors value the need to invest in their communities then helping them determine what specifically they value enough to invest in, finally ensuring that their donated dollars are invested wisely so as to never betray the relationships.

"To fully understand what makes “new philanthropy” “new,” it might be helpful to begin by reviewing the traditional “charity model” of philanthropy. Fundraisers used to assume a beggar's mentality, pleading for dollars to help diffuse one crisis situation after another. One time the money might be required to respond to a sudden tragedy, another time to allow the organization to finish out the year having met its financial goal, or to fix a dilapidated building. Whatever the validity of the current need, the use of frequent pleas led savvy donors to question whether they were giving their money wisely. Since little was ever said about the outcomes achieved with the donors' money, many wondered if organizations were crying wolf or just managing their money poorly. Perhaps more detrimental in the long run was the fact that, because the charities were always focused on chasing the next dollar, there often wasn't enough attention paid to saying thank you for past dollars. This would cause donors to fade away, ensuring that the funding crisis would loom even larger next time, and ensuring a never-ending negative cycle...

"In the world of volunteerism, we are faced with some of the same environmental forces that impact other forms of philanthropy, including competition from other nonprofits and changing volunteer expectations. We are also faced with the reality that volunteering takes more time than donating money.... "

Other e-Volunteerism Articles

Subscribe to e-Volunteerism

This article was published in e-Volunteerism: The Electronic Journal of the Volunteer Community. Subscribe now to access all the articles.