Reflections on the Volunteerism Industry

Esme Barratt who I work with in Adelaide, Australia, drew my attention to an article in the Australian newspaper by Frank Ferudi called "Do Good Our Way" in which he challenges the development of the "volunteerism industry [my words]. It is a very thought provoking article.

His premise starts:  What endowed volunteering with an attractive moral quality was that people performed an action or provided a service to others without any compulsion. This was an act based on one's own free will and motivated by the conviction that it was the right thing to do. 


I personally, would be reluctant to say that all volunteering has always been about altruism. Human motivation for volunteering and volunteering acts is rarely "pure" and is deeply linked to our values, culture and relationships. For example, we know there is a high correlation between religious faith (in all traditions) and volunteer involvement. However, I do strongly believe that volunteerism is about humans saying I want to do something to make a difference. Like Frank I do believe that people are thinking "that it was the right thing to do". I know from my own research and real experience that people who believe in the mission and cause are more passionate, stay longer and work harder than those who don't. 

Research from the Wisconsin longitudinal study published in September showed there was a direct correlation between volunteering for "the right reasons"and life span.  Those volunteers whose motivations were more focused on others lived longer than those who volunteered for their own reasons or who chose not to volunteer at all.

Having said that I have always opened up volunteering to anyone. I look for people who want to support the mission of the agency they are volunteering for. They can volunteer with me whatever their motivations and desires if there is a match with those desires and our opportunities.

Ferudi goes on to suggest that volunteering has been turned into an institution that is promoted on the grounds of its benefits for the volunteer and for the community" I actually do not see this as a bad thing. His major concern is that volunteering is being advocated  "not because it is something that is good in itself but because it "delivers a number of key social and economic benefits".

Here is where Ferudi really hooks me in. We have almost allowed volunteering to be captured and turned into an economic force for its own sake.  For example, I have noticed when I sit with young people, they talk about their desire to volunteer to help neighbours, strangers and the world. When I sit with legislators and volunteer managers, these people talk about young people wanting to volunteer simply for their resumes. That's a massive disconnect. Then we market volunteering in this way so it sounds like a job preparation program. We then force young people to "volunteer" through schools, universities and job programs and turn not for profit agencies into de facto job readiness providers.And then we wonder why young people don't volunteer. (Many of them are starting up their own not for profits and social enterprises instead)

I don't often see governments investing in campaigns where we talk about volunteering as part of the creation of social capital. The same with advertising by volunteer centers and community agencies. I see in fact a de emphasising of the community benefits of volunteering because everyone believes we live in a selfish society. Instead we focus on "what people are going to get out of it". Yet we are competing in the wrong way. Why fight selfishness by emphasising selfishness?

Volunteering is competing for people's leisure time. When I ask how will we compete for this time, the number one thing people mention in my workshops is we need to emphasise how much fun volunteering is. Sorry, I don't volunteer because its fun. No offence, I can think of  a million more fun things to do than wrapping Christmas parcels in 35 degree heat or fighting a fire or feeding the hungry at midnight. People do those things because they are wanting to make a real. They may have fun while doing them. Again, In the end I want to use my precious time to volunteer because I want to make a difference. Is that how we are marketing and constructing volunteering?

At the 1998 Australian National Volunteering Conference, a group of volunteer managers formed a small rebellion and convened a meeting to protest the bureaucratisation of volunteering. They feared that the spirit of volunteering would vanish with things like the then proposed  Australian National Standards for Volunteering. At the Australians Retreat for Advanced Volunteer Management, a few years ago, we asked the question "have we gone too far?" In other rewords in trying to protect the community, clients, volunteers and agencies, are we squeezing then lifeblood out of volunteering? 

Vern Hughes says yes.In an opinion post in The Melbourne (Australia) Age last February Hughes said: Non-profits lose sight of volunteer heritage. He has gone on to to start an organisation called Street by Street which says: Participants in a Street by Street link-up are not volunteers, they are people in a voluntary relationship with their neighbours, as neighbours. 

This organisation is tapping into what we are seeing anecdotally, a massive rise in people saying they want to volunteer but they do not want to participate in "structured volunteering" Also anecdotalyl are the stories of people losing interest because of 14 Page application forms, six week training courses and what feel like to be onerous long term "contracts" to volunteer. 

I think these are serious issues we need to confront:

1. We need to talk more about the social capital created through volunteering
2. We need to build an appreciation of volunteerism and altruism while opening up volunteering to anyone and not judging people's motives
3. we need to find ways to make it easier for people to volunteer while protecting people
4. we need to avoid the tinkering of volunteering that causes the spirit and reality of volunteering to be lost

Ferudi concludes by saying that "real volunteers are still doing the business. They are those unassuming and often anonymous individuals who don't possess paper qualifications as mentors or facilitators or animators. Let them thrive."  Writings by people such as Frank Ferudi challenges us to think about this volunteering industry and rediscover a  middle ground.