Shocked by Volunteer San Diego

I was stunned to learn last weekend, that one of my favourite volunteer centres closed one month ago (see below). Volunteer San Diego, a vibrant, innovative organisation was unable to secure funding and closed its doors. I want to say "thank you for the work you did" and to express my sadness to the end of their work and the loss of employment for their paid staff as well as a loss of opportunities for their volunteers. Their Facebook is still live.

I do have some hard questions though:

1. I acknowledge that VSD team were working hard to secure funding. I didn't know they were struggling. There is nothing on their Facebook page to alert us. Could some key people been contacted across USA and advised this was the reality to see if emergency funding could have been found?
2. What other options were there to closing. I am assuming the Board examined every option. Could a smaller version have kept going? Could some core services been kept alive under another auspice?
3. What will be the impact? The interesting test of this closure will be if anyone notices in their work? Will volunteer participation fall? Will it cost agencies more to recruit volunteers? How will we know if they are missed?
4. Whats a viable volunteer centre model look like in 2011? Money for volunteering infrastructure is almost impossible to find so how do volunteering centres scrape enough to function?

Love some answers!


Statement from Volunteer San Diego
After careful deliberation and weighing all the alternatives, Volunteer San Diego (VSD) has elected to close its doors. Despite an all-out effort by staff, volunteers, and the Board of Directors, VSD has not been able to secure sufficient funding to sustain its operations in this economy.

We take pride in the impact VSD has made in San Diego County, but we did not do it alone.

We thank the public for demonstrating year after year how important volunteering is to our community. We thank our partner organizations for providing excellent service opportunities across a broad range of interests and skills. We thank our corporate sponsors not only for believing in and supporting us, but also for understanding that there is a cost to volunteering. And we extend special thanks to our individual donors, those who gave of their time and talent, as well as their dollars.

We hope you will continue to seek volunteer opportunities at the many nonprofits, schools, libraries, faith-based and other community organizations throughout the county.

Thank you for the memories!

- The Volunteer San Diego Staff and Board of Directors