Tag Archives: communitarianism

Fund more volunteer engagement, build more community cohesion, cultivate empathy, counter extremism.

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Two petroglyph-like human figures have clubs in their hands and are about to fight each other.

The 2026 USA elections are over. But the USA is, by most accounts, breaking apart. For the last few years, folks in the USA have heard it over and over: We’ve never been more divided. I think that’s true. And, in addition to these deep political divisions, dangerous misinformation has become rampant and all-too-often believed, humans are spending less time with other humans, there’s a war on empathy, and the news is filled with stories about epidemics of loneliness. In fact, those issues are happening in other nations too.

For many years, I’ve been advocating for more volunteer engagement at nonprofits and government community initiatives as a way to build community, to build empathy for others, to address the loneliness crisis and to counter extremism.

Examples of my past advocacy:

There are certain organizations and causes that tend to attract volunteers who represent different views across the political spectrum: Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, the American Red Cross, food pantries, temporary shelters for individuals or families and animal shelters are but five that come to mind. As both a consultant and a practitioner regarding the management of volunteers, I’ve encountered this diversity of volunteers from different parts of the political spectrum firsthand. Absolutey, the differences in political views among volunteers can present problems. For instance, I met with an animal shelter volunteer manager in Texas who was having trouble with rising hostilities among his volunteers over the issue of hunting. Many of his volunteers were hunters, and many of his other volunteers thought that should be disqualifying to volunteer at the shelter. While volunteering at a temporary shelter, I encountered a volunteer, the founder of a nonprofit to help the homeless, who launched into a long speech about how everyone who is homeless is just really lousy at managing money, they spend money on things they shouldn’t, and his wife wrote a book on money management they really all should read. But in both of these cases, volunteer engagement was bringing people together who would not know each other otherwise, and was in a position to help create understanding not just among volunteers and clients, but among volunteers themselves.

The key to making sure volunteers are all on the same page regarding a community or environmental cause, even if they aren’t on the same page regarding other issues, is through frequent awareness building, and that not only starts at the very first moment you are talking to a new volunteer, it keeps going throughout their experience. And if you lose some volunteers because of your emphasis on the mission of the organization and your requirements for civility and respect, it’s okay: not everyone is appropriate to your work. But make sure your organization is clear about what civility looks like at your organization, what respecting clients and fellow volunteers looks like, and about what is a disqualifying view for a volunteer (someone posting that all immigrants should be deported, for instance, and they are volunteering at an organization that has immigrants among staff and volunteers) and what is not.

As I’ve said before:

I do believe in volunteer engagement as an amazing tool: to build awareness about an issue among a group or population, to give the community a hands-on experience regarding a cause, to educate a group about the realities of a topic, to build understanding among people who may not know much about each other, or might even be hostile, and maybe, just maybe, to restore faith in institutions and other people.

And that may sound simple, but it’s not. It takes experienced, skilled people training all those that will work with volunteers, and volunteers that are leading and supporting other volunteers. And that kind of training takes MONEY.

Volunteers are never free. Volunteer engagement comes with significant costs. Want nonprofits to create more roles and tasks for more volunteers? Give those nonprofits cash: for staff to supervise and support volunteers, for staff training in effective volunteer engagement, and for all of the snazzy tech tools you want nonprofits to use to engage with volunteers. And that’s just to start: these nonprofits will also need training in recruiting for a diversity of volunteers (different neighborhoods, different communities, different ages, different economic groups, etc.), in conflict management, regarding effective facilitation, in inclusive volunteer engagement and communication, and more if you want them to fulfill your dreams of unity – and that requires skills they may not have, and to get those skills requires classes and consultants, and that costs money.

Here’s more about what funding volunteer engagement looks like.

As I’ve also said before,

We all have to stop talking about volunteering only as a way to get tasks done. We have to talk about volunteering as a way for all participants – volunteers, employees and clients – to have a transformational experience. And that means that, often, involving volunteers means tasks will not be done as efficiently and economically as possible: it’s much easier to hire one person or involve one highly-skilled volunteer to do a task than to create a way for a group of dissimilar people with a range of skills and experiences to do it at a time when everyone in that group might be available. It also means making volunteering about learning about an issue related to the mission of the organization – climate change, the reasons people are homeless, the challenges faced by under-employed people, etc. – again, not just getting work done, and not all people charged with creating volunteering tasks and roles and managing volunteers have the skillset to do that.

And I’m starting to repeat myself from my other blogs, I know. But a lot of people need to read and hear it again, and the message is clearly not reaching those it should. Please help me get the word out. Please share this blog on your social media.

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