We hear a lot about volunteers just cleaning up a park.
What about volunteers leading in information gathering and guidance for the future of an entire park and recreation district?
The board of the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District (THPRD) in Oregon solicited feedback to guide them in future decisions, and that information-gathering, as well the subsequent report, was done by volunteers:
A dedicated multigenerational, multiethnic, and multilingual volunteer group – the Visioning Task Force (VTF), was recruited to work together and with district staff to lead outreach efforts. Their task: lead and help create public involvement strategies to meet communities where they are. Throughout the summer of 2019, they captured the unique stories, experiences, and creative ideas of district residents.
Our volunteers represented the community well, reflecting a diversity in age, ethnicity, race, gender, and languages spoken. Their ability to connect with and advise the district on outreach strategies was impressive. Even more impressive was their commitment and dedication to leading the engagement efforts themselves and the hours they spent volunteering at events throughout the community to gather input.
The resulting Vision Action Plan was written by those community volunteers.
Was this done because it was cheaper than hiring a consultant? I hope not. I hope the reason it was done was because volunteers were probably the best people for this task: they had no financial interest in telling the board what they might want to hear. Volunteers can often be more neutral, more questioning and more free-to-speak than paid consultants or employees. I would love to know more how these volunteers were chosen, supported and guided.
How is your organization involving volunteers in LEADERSHIP roles?
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Points of Light commissioned a research study to understand the state of American civic engagement – in all its facets – as of May 2020, and to explore the path forward for catalyzing deeper and broader civic participation. Researchers surveyed 1,441 adults in May for the report, which says it has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
The study found that the pandemic and other catastrophes prompted a surge in interest in volunteering in May: While only 36 percent of American adults say they volunteered within the last year, 60 percent said they are interested in doing so in May, and 73 percent said volunteering is more important than ever. According to the survey, Gen Z already demonstrates higher rates of civic engagement than older generations.
The study also found that 75 percent of Americans said in May that donating to nonprofits is more important than ever because of the Covid-19 crisis, while 54 percent reported giving to charity a year ago.
Note that by civic engagement, the survey did not just mean volunteering. Activities measured included:
Donated money to a nonprofit
Signed a petition
Purchase decisions based on company’s social responsibility
Participated in volunteer activities
Posted or started group/campaign for issue on social media
Contacted elected official about issue
Considered applying/taking job because of company’s social responsibility
Attended demonstration or rally for issue
Public service thru military, elected office, nonprofit board
Voted in every/almost every election in past few years
Volunteer Preferences and the percentages of people that selected such:
Focus on global issues impacting our world: 18%
Not interact directly with people benefiting: 24%
Volunteer directly or with friends/ neighbors, not through organization: 28%
Participate at home/online: 30%
Activities where I help someone one-on-one: 27%
One-time activities: 29%
A much bigger group selected these “opposite” options of each of the bulleted items above:
Focus on issues directly impacting my community +37 —> 55%
Interact directly with people who are benefiting +22 —> 46%
Volunteer through an organization +15 —> 43%
Participate in person +12 —> 42%
Activities where I help groups of people +14 —> 41%
Activities that I can do on a regular basis +10 —> 39%
I hope that the way this was presented wasn’t done to imply that volunteering from home, online (virtual volunteering) doesn’t allow for volunteering activities that many people preferred: interacting with someone one-on-one, interacting directly with people benefitting, and focusing on issues directly impacting a volunteer’s community. All of these things are possible in virtual volunteering and have been the preferred activities of online volunteers, at least according to all of the research I’ve done since the late 1990s – indeed, when I’ve said that a greater portion of online volunteers want a more substantial experience than a few minutes of microvolunteering, a lot of tech bros – people with corporate backgrounds and tech backgrounds, not volunteerism backgrounds – have really pushed back. Yet, once again, the latest research shows it’s true.
According to the survey, the top barriers to volunteering (among those interested in volunteering who have not done so) are the following – the same things those of us in the volunteer management field have heard year after year:
Unsure how to get involved or where to find opportunities 44%
Cannot find opportunities near me 44%
Not sure what I can do that would be helpful 43%
Busy, don’t have time to volunteer 42%
Haven’t found a group of volunteers with whom I fit 41%
Haven’t found opportunities matching my skills, abilities 41% ‘
Rather do other things when I have free time 34%
Uncomfortable volunteering with people I don’t know 33%
Don’t believe my efforts will make a difference 26%
From the volunteer perspective, a worthwhile experience is:
discoverable. Can be easily found online.
local. Addresses an issue important to my community.
credible. Delivered by an organization with local/issue expertise.
social. Allows me to invite my friends and family.
authentic. Explains why my actions will matter, upfront.
personal. Allows me to engage with beneficiaries.
impactful. Shows me the outcomes of my actions.
repeatable. Provides an avenue for me to reengage.
This part was my favorite part of the study, in fact – what makes a worthwhile experience. How many managers of volunteer programs are going to use this to improve their own volunteer engagement schemes? And, again, this supports everything I’ve said about micro volunteering – it’s nice, it’s worth exploring, but it’s NOT what most volunteers are looking for.
Here’s the full research study. It would be fascinating to compare this to now – in May, the country was experiencing a pandemic “surge”, where people were feeling optimistic and community-minded. Now, it’s almost October, and we’re most definitely in pandemic “fatigue” where people are feeling anxious, even negative, and rebellious.
Before March of 2020, for the 10 years previous to that month, it was hard for me to find nonprofits who were NOT engaging volunteers online in some way. Thousands of nonprofits have been immersed in virtual volunteering for decades – as I keep saying over and over, virtual volunteering is NOT new, it’s NO LONGER innovative, and it’s an established, proven, effective form of volunteer engagement, whether just to support staff or to also be a part of service delivery.
Yet, as home quarantines and social distancing required by the coronavirus pandemic quickly took hold worldwide, many nonprofits, NGOs, charities and other mission-based programs that had drug their feet for years regarding using the Internet to support and engage with volunteers found themselves having to rapidly pivot into the world of virtual volunteering. One of those hold outs was in tech-savvy Austin, Texas, where a representative from the United Way of Austin said “We did not have virtual volunteering. Everything we did before coronavirus was all in-person,” in this article “4 Nonprofits Show How to Adapt Volunteer Programs in the Coronavirus Era.” in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.*
Now, and for months to come, these organizations that did not have virtual volunteering components are having to play catchup. I profile a few at the news section of the Virtual Volunteering Wiki and in updates to the Reddit community focused on volunteering. And this rapid pivot has some nonprofit leaders that have only now introduced virtual volunteering elements to their program wondering what they will keep and what they will leave behind when the pandemic recedes in terms of online service delivery – it is no surprise to me at all that so many virtual volunteering measures that have only recently been deployed are proving to be valuable tools worth keeping.
James Taylor is the CEO of the John H. Boner Community Center in Indianapolis. The center runs several social-service programs, such as providing recreational facilities and opportunities for youths and affordable housing. In that same Chronicle of Philanthropy article, Taylor says his organization will consider keeping their online application forms for volunteers developed since the pandemic and is open to using videoconferencing more in the future. “Volunteers used to come to us and we’d figure out how to plug them in. This is the first time we’ve actually gone out and have recruited volunteers,” said Taylor. “There’s no reason why those things can’t continue.”
In that article, another nonprofit representative said that, instead of their traditional onsite volunteer recognition event, two volunteers have shared testimonials on the nonprofit’s social-media outlets telling of their experiences.
And all I can think is: great, it really is a shame you weren’t doing this all along, but please keep doing this. Virtual volunteering is going to allow you to include people you were previously excluding as volunteers. Virtual volunteering is going to bring diversity to your volunteer corps. Virtual volunteering is going to allow you to be not-as-limited by the restrictions of time and space. No one is saying to replace all of your volunteer roles and activities with online versions, but there is NO REASON you shouldn’t always have online roles right alongside those onsite roles. In fact, don’t be surprised if your onsite volunteers end up ALSO being your online volunteers.
For more advice on working with remote volunteers, or using the Internet to support and involve volunteers, check out The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. Tools come and go – but certain community engagement principles never change. You will not find a more detailed guide anywhere for working with online volunteers and using the Internet to support and involve all volunteers – even after home quarantines are over and volunteers start coming back onsite to your workspace. It’s available both as a traditional paperback and as an online book. It’s co-written by myself and Susan Ellis.
* True story: back in the late 1990s, when I was directing the Virtual Volunteering Project at the University of Texas at Austin, I could not get anyone from the United Way in Austin to meet with me in my more than four years there. I got to meet a couple of staff members at an onsite seminar by Susan Ellis, who insisted they allow me to co-present with her. And at that meeting, one of the staff members asked for my advice: the United Way had chosen not to have a web site at first, so one of their volunteers had built one anyway. Now, they wanted possession of the web site and the URL, and the volunteer, who had worked on the site for years, was balking. I had hoped that more than 20 years later, things MIGHT have changed…
A web site for any company based in the USA that is inaccessible to visitors with visual, auditory, or other disabilities may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), according to a recent federal appeals court decision in Robles v. Domino’s Pizza. This decision includes nonprofits’ websites, according to “Ninth Circuit Ruling Bolsters ADA Website Accessibility Suits: Risks for Nonprofits,” by DC-based law firm Venable.
But just as important as the legal aspects, a web site that is not designed to be accessible for people with disabilities – people who use verbal screen readers, people who use screen magnifiers, people with mobility issues that use assistive tech and cannot use a mouse, etc. – locks out potential customers, clients, employees, volunteers, donors, and other supporters. People with disabilities in the USA comprise more than 19 percent of the people living in the country, an even larger percentage than Hispanics and Latinos, who are the largest ethnic, racial or cultural minority group in the USA, making up 15 percent of the population. Law or no law, can any nonprofit really afford to leave out so many, many people?
71% of people with disabilities leave a website immediately if it is not accessible, according to 2017 research conducted by the governance committee of Section508.gov in the USA, as quoted on this 3playmedia website.
The population that needs accessible web sites includes people who don’t identify as people with disabilities. People who wear glasses, for instance. I wear reading glasses and have started using the accessibility feature on my laptop and phone that automatically makes text large – but it doesn’t work with a web site that isn’t designed to be responsive to such settings.
You don’t have to be a professional web designer or developer to produce a basic, content-rich web site. You don’t have to be a professional web designer to produce a web site that’s easy to navigate. You don’t have to know most web design and development terms to produce a web site, like HTML, CSS, Java, ARIA, and on and on.
And that’s been wonderful for many nonprofits, NGOs, charities and other mission-based organizations, as well as small, independent artists like musicians, dancers, singers, poets, sculptors, theater troops, photographers and on and on, as most can never afford to pay a professional web designer or developer.
But you do have to involve a professional web designer or developer if you want a web site to have certain advanced features. And you do have to involve a professional web designer or developer if you want your web site to be fully accessible for all users and all devices (mobile phones, tablets, the voice reader in your car, etc.).
That means, for the vast majority of nonprofits, NGOs, charities and other mission-based organizations, as well as for the vast majority of artists, they cannot have fully accessible web sites for all users, because they will never be able to afford to pay a professional web designer or developer.
That means many people with disabilities who want to donate to, volunteer to, or just learn about a small vast majority of nonprofits, NGOs, charities and other mission-based organizations, can’t do any of these things via these programs’ inaccessible web sites. That means many people with disabilities that want to buy a ticket to an upcoming event, to find out where to purchase a CD or poster or book or whatever, to attend a conference about a cause they care about, can’t do any of those things.
A study from 2019 by the nonprofit RespectAbility found that most foundations and nonprofits aren’t doing enough – if anything – to enable people with disabilities to have the access and accommodations they need to fully participate in the work these organizations are doing – not as program participants, as volunteers, even as donors. The study included a review of nonprofits’ websites and online videos. “Philanthropy-serving organizations don’t know what they don’t know and often haven’t even thought about including people with disabilities,” said Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, president of RespectAbility. “Even among well-meaning groups who are engaged in a lot on racial and gender equity overall, disability is missing.”
What do we do about nonprofits not being able to afford fully accessible web sites? Anything?
The only program I know of that tries to address nonprofits that want accessible web sites, that tries to help small nonprofits, NGOs, charities and other mission-based organizations to have an accessible web site, as well as artists – just three to 25 organizations at a time – is the Accessibility Internet Rally, a virtual volunteering and web design/development training event by the nonprofit Knowbility. Otherwise… there’s nothing that I know of that is working to educate nonprofits, charities and other small mission-based organizations about digital accessibility – nor educating corporate donors and foundations about why they should fund such.
Are associations of nonprofit organizations going to explore how to address the inaccessibility of web sites for theater companies, dance troops, homeless shelters, nonprofits helping kids explore science, etc.? Are associations of museums, animal shelters, rural arts organizations, and other specific kinds of nonprofits going to at least discuss this?
Are companies that provide ready-to-use, customizable website templates and drag-and-drop web development platforms/web hosts like WordPress, Weebly, Wix, Square Space, Webflow and Jimdo going to address this, other than having a page on their sites that talk a bit about alt-text? (February 4 update: here is an excellent review of some of these sites regarding whether they are capable of creating accessible websites – spoiler alert: they aren’t).
Are companies and foundations that give money to nonprofits going to quit refusing to fund overhead – and, in fact, give special, additional gifts so that nonprofits can hire professional web site designers and developers to build accessible web sites?
Should associations like the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP), G3ict and/or the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) try to address this – or at least discuss it?
Or do we keep telling people with disabilities that want to donate, volunteer and otherwise support or be involved with nonprofits and artists, “Tough luck, they can’t afford to be accessible to you”?
I have no answers to these questions… if you have ideas or comments, I’d love to hear them. I have asked this question on Quora and my own Facebook page and ended up mostly with recommendations for techniques about how to make a website more accessible, rather than answers to how we elevate this as a priority at mission-based organizations.
In the meantime, if you need to make the business case to your board of directors for fundraising so that you can afford to pay a web site designer with accessibility training to build and maintain your site, here are some resources that can help:
And if you want to encourage your web manager, whoever that person is, part-time, full-time, volunteer, whatever: the government of the State of Illinois provides Implementation Guidelines for Web-Based Information and Applications (formerly Illinois Web Accessibility Standards) and, as a non-web site designer, I find it easier to understand than most other guidelines out there. These guidelines are good to ask your web site designer and manager – no matter that person’s web design skill level, to follow. These guidelines from the state of Illinois also provide links to resources from other organizations:
Knowbility has done a few webinars with TechSoup about accessibility for nonprofit organization’s websites and they are available free online on TechSoup. The most recent was this webinar with Knowbility Executive Director and myself in August 2017. This is a good video for anyone who manages your organization’s website, particularly the non-webmaster webmaster – the person who doesn’t have much training in web design but does have the responsibility to update the site.
It might be out of your nonprofit’s price range, but Knowbility also offers several online courses and onsite (Austin, Texas) training events that can raise the skill levels of your web site master regarding accessibility – they are worth looking into if you are looking for training for the person who manages your web site.
January 28, 2020 update: I encourage EVERY company, not just businesses but also nonprofits and NGOs, no matter your business or mission, to take the 2020 State of Digital Accessibility Survey from IAAP, G3ict and Level Access. For nonprofits and NGOs – choose “foundations & charities” as your org type. If you don’t have an accessibility program, don’t have an inclusion strategy, you should still take this survey – because we need to show that such strategies are NOT widespread (and that they should be!).
January 30, 2020 update: There are various web hosts that have ready-to-use templates that say things like “If your website is hosted with us or you are looking to switch to our nonprofit content management system (CMS), we can add an accessibility widget to make your website more accessible. Our widget will allow visitors to easily adjust settings on your website to meet their unique needs.” Among web accessibility experts, add-on accessibility toolbars are referred to as “toolbar overlays.” I asked a website accessibility expert about this and this was his response: “accessibility overlays are a scam and a lie and do not fix the actual problems” and then he linked to this article from Karl Groves and this website, overlaysdontwork.com. I also found this blog that begins: “Thinking about using one of those plugins or widgets that puts an accessibility toolbar on your website? This article will make you think again… What’s ironic is many of the toolbar companies tout the ‘We won’t touch your website code’ line as a selling point when, in fact, this is what buyers should want and expect.
If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.
Most web masters at mission-based organizations – at nonprofits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies and schools – want to do the best job possible in creating and managing the initiative’s web site.
Unfortunately, there are situations where staff at mission-based organizations are intimidated by the people that manage their web site, to the point of being afraid to ask questions, even to ask for a change in the site. All a web master has to say is, “That can’t be done” or “that’s too expensive” or “I won’t be able to do that” and many of these staff members will not pursue an issue further. After all, the web master is the expert, right?
It is unfortunate that there are so many web masters that take advantage of their expertise and will use it to claim certain things cannot be done on a web site when, in fact, they can be done. Perhaps they don’t see it as a priority and don’t want to do it. Perhaps they don’t know how and don’t want to admit it. Whatever the reason, it holds a lot of organizations back from doing all that they should with their web sites, like making them designed for their particular audiences, or making them accessible for people with disabilities.
Here are things staff at mission-based organizations can do to set a tone with IT staff regarding who has input into web-related decisions, including design:
1. Ask your web master what company hosts your organization’s web site, how your domain name is registered, and for all passwords. Your web site should be hosted by a reputable company in the business of hosting web sites, not the web master’s side business or through a company he or she has a “special deal” with. You can look up your domain name registration here and make sure it’s registered in such a way that your organization owns it, not your web master, and that it matches what your web master tells you. You need all of the passwords associated with the web site in case the web master leaves.
2. Ask your web master what the 10 most visited pages are on your web site are. This is a very easy question to get answers for, and there should be no reason for your web master to hesitate to provide this information.
As you review the data he or she provides, ask yourself, the web master, and other staff member these questions:
Is there a page on your web site that is more popular than the home page? Why is that?
Are these the 10 pages you want to be the most visited on your web site? If not, what should you do to increase the number of visitors to the pages you most want users to visit?
Don’t just think about increasing visitors to certain pages. Sure, you could get more people visiting your donate to us page if you made it your home page, but would it increase the number of donations your nonprofit gets? No. Think about what you want to happen as a result of people visiting your web site, what you want users to do as a result of navigating around your web site, and remember that different people will have different wants regarding your web site. Have your web master in on these conversations, so he or she can understand your organization’s communications priorities, which program staff should set, not the web master.
3. Invite volunteers to your conference room and have them navigate your web site with their own laptops and smart phones. Have the web master there to observe. Ask the volunteers to find information on how to volunteer, and quiz them on what they found. Ask them what donations pay for at your organization, based on what they found on your web site. Ask them what difference your nonprofit makes, based on what they found on your web site.
Take notes on their answers and then have a followup meeting with communications staff, including the web master. Talk about what you learned from this feedback, and either develop a plan on how to adjust your web site so that it does what you want it to do, or ask your web master to develop such and then present it to staff.
4. Six months after the changes have been made to your web site, do steps one and two again. Are the top 10 pages visited on your web site the pages you want most visitors to see? Are volunteers able to more easily find information about how to volunteer, what donations pay for, what difference your nonprofit makes, etc.?
5. When you want a feature on your web site, find an example of it on another web site, particularly at a company or agency about the size of your organization. Have this ready to show the web master, to prevent the “that can’t be done” argument.
6. Tell your web master which staff members need to be able to make simple text changes without his or her support. Whomever is in charge of communications at your organization should have this ability. Maybe you want a small group of reliable volunteers with some web design experience who can step in to do such when the web master is not available. And then have your web master show exactly how those staff members should make those changes via whatever content management system he or she prefers. Maybe there is a WordPress interface. Maybe there is another type of interface (I use BlueGriffon). The point is that you should never have to wait for the web master to make time to merely add a paragraph or two to a page, or to correct a typo.
These six simple things will let you take back control over your organization’s web site, and help you have the documentation you need for when your web master moves on – and your web master WILL move on!
If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.
I asked this back in 2011, but it’s time to ask it again:
I would like to know YOUR favorite online resources regarding volunteerism / volunteers (especially the support and management of such), nonprofits or NGOs (non-governmental organizations), including Tweeters, in languages OTHER than English.
Spanish, French or German are most desired, but any language – Arabic, Persian Farsi / Dari / Tajik /, Hindi, whatever – would be welcomed.
Please send the name of the resource, the URL of the resource, and a summary of what the resource is – does it focus on volunteer management? On nonprofits / NGOs / charities using the Internet? Or helping organizations recruit volunteers? Or fundraising / resource mobilization? Or any aspect of management? Is it a web site? A database? A Twitter feed?
I have some of these resources already, but I would like to have more. Plus, mine need updating:
I will share what I’ve compiled already and what’s submitted – and is what I’m looking for – on my web site, and announce the page here on my blog, as well as my Twitter feed and my Facebook page.
If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.
The Corporation for National Service has released its annual report on volunteering in the USA. And, once again, the way they present the data, and the old-fashioned view of volunteering, has disappointed me greatly.
How was the data gathered? I can’t find anything on the web site to tell me. How many people were interviewed? Or how many organizations provided data regarding their volunteers? Where is a report I can read, to get more in-depth info, not just graphics and summary paragraphs? I spent a lot of time on the web site and searching on Google and cannot find this information anywhere.
Once again, the Corporation is focused on a dollar value for measuring the impact of volunteering: “Over the past 15 years, Americans volunteered 120 billion hours, estimated to be worth $2.8 trillion” and in the year for this report, volunteers gave $167 billion in economic value. That’s right – volunteers mean you can eliminate paid staff! And also contributes to the mistaken belief that volunteers are free (they aren’t).
The Corporation summary of the report breaks down volunteering activities in these categories:
Fundraise or sell items to raise money
Collect, prepare, distribute, or serve food
Collect, make or distribute clothing, crafts, or goods other than food.
Mentor youth
Tutor or teach
Engage in general labor; supply transportation for people
Provide professional or management assistance including serving on a board or committee
Usher, greeter, or minister
Engage in music, performance, or other artistic activities
Coach, referee, or supervise sports teams
Provide general office services
Provide counseling, medical care, fire/EMS, or protective services
Other types of volunteer activity
Sigh… so, where do these common volunteering activities go?
creating web pages (designing the pages or writing the content)
editing or writing proposals, press releases, newsletter articles, video scripts, etc.
transcribing scanned documents
monitoring the news to look for specific subjects
managing social media activities
tagging photos and files
And, as always: where is the information about the resources it takes to engage volunteers? It takes money and time – yet the report never says a word about this. Volunteers do not magically happen.
More than 20 years later, this kind of fan-driven philanthropy is still happening – so much so that I long gave up trying to track it. But some initiatives still stand out, and one of those is the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA). I’ve written about them before, back in 2011, but one of their more recent efforts deserve attention: they now host an online Wizard Activist School. This online school allows enrollees to complete modules to develop skills regarding effective activism, including:
Elevator Pitches
Goal Setting
Mission Statement Development
Member Engagement
Hosting an Event
Conflict Resolution
Leadership Styles
Social Justice 101
and more.
This may be the most ambitious project by a fan-based philanthropic group I have ever seen. I absolutely will be taking it – I know how to do all this, I’ve led workshops in many of these subjects myself, but I want a Wizard Activist School certificate!
My only criticism: lots of “click here” links on the web site. The web site needs to be accessible, and that starts with descriptive links.
In addition, the Harry Potter Alliance also sponsors the Granger Leadership Academy, an annual onsite event now in its fifth year. The next one is in Philadelphia, March 21-24, 2019 and it is limited to just 200 people. “if you’ve ever wondered what your own heroic tale would look like, this is your moment.” The Academy brings in experienced activists and leaders to provide attendees – most, but not all, women – with training based on the kinds of dynamic, collaborative, strategic leadership Hermione Granger exhibited in the Harry Potter books.
One of the reasons I find all of this fascinating is that there are constant laments that younger generations aren’t volunteering, aren’t joining traditional civic groups like Rotary, Optimist, Lion’s, etc. And all I can say is that younger generations ARE volunteering, ARE getting involved in their communities – but they are doing it in different ways. Maybe the local civic group didn’t bother to create any social media channels to talk about their work, haven’t updated their web site in years, and have spent more time complaining about declining numbers than trying to do an honest assessment of why that is happening.
My dear colleague Erin Barnhart (Effective Altruism) is organizing summer webinars on selected Fridays regarding expanding skills in volunteer engagement, some featuring my other dear colleague, Liza Dyer, and some featuring me! The webinars are in June and July and, if interest is high, we’ll keep doing them!
These webinars are intense, fun, interactive, an hour long (never more), affordable and each focused on ONE aspect of effective volunteer engagement. We designed these topics based on what we are all hearing from people working with volunteers, in any capacity, as well as our own experiences as managers of volunteers and as volunteers ourselves.
Back in February 2012, I wrote a blog called I’m a Frustrated Volunteer. It was about how often people try to volunteer but run up into so many roadblocks: incomplete, hard-to-understand information on the organization’s web site, lack of followup by the organization after the person expresses interest, no clear direction or support when they are trying to complete a volunteering task, etc. So often, when organizations, especially schools, tell me they can’t find volunteers, the problem is, in fact, they are turning potential volunteers away per the aforementioned challenges.
In that blog, I admitted that the frustrated volunteer wannabe I was describing was, in fact, ME, based on my experiences trying to volunteer oh-so many times since September 2009, when I moved back to the USA – Oregon, specifically. I noted that the upside with all this frustration was that my own attempts to volunteer had made me a better consultant and better manager regarding volunteer engagement, and the experience had generated a lot of new resources on my web site. Those experiences as a frustrated volunteer also influenced my writing of The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook.
It’s six years after that blog. Am I still a frustrated volunteer?
Yes. Yes, I am.
Here are some experiences I’ve had in trying to volunteer over the last few years:
I wanted to volunteer at the local high school. I was ready to help with their drama club, their speech team, or any other club or class where my expertise might help the students. The home page for the school doesn’t even have the word volunteer on it. Once you find the page for potential volunteers, it has just three paragraphs: no information about what volunteers do, the minimum amount of commitment required, etc. The lead statement is “Our volunteers contribute more than $1.6 million worth of help each year — the equivalent of about 12 extra hours of adult time for every student in the district.” Yes, that’s right – volunteers are great because it means the school doesn’t have to hire people to do that work! Next…
I wanted to explore volunteering with a local public service agency that supposedly involves volunteers in auxiliary support roles for staff engaged in a very intense activity. The web site has no info about this auxiliary, though I’m sure it exists. I wrote the person who is in charge of agency’s more labor-intensive, time-intensive volunteering. He wrote back and said he had some PDFs he could share with me about the program – but offered no summary of what the program was about, the application process, etc., and certainly no encouragement – I felt like I was bothering him. And why isn’t this information on the web site? He never said why. Next…
I’ve wanted to volunteer to help girls go camping or to become leaders or to use tech both safely and to explore careers, but Girl Scouts doesn’t do those kinds of activities where I live, and another group that I thought did those things never got back to me after my TWO applications to volunteer. Next…
I was interested in volunteering at a nearby jail to help people regarding résumé writing, finding volunteering after incarceration in order to build community ties and skills, interviewing skills, etc. But when I tried, I was told a religious-based organization was in charge of all of these volunteering activities, and I would need to contact that religious-based organization. I am not of that religion – in fact, I am not religious at all, and I felt like I wouldn’t be welcomed because I’m not religious and wouldn’t be helping from a faith-based motivation. I submitted my application, but I never heard anything back from the church in charge of the program. Next…
What volunteering has worked out for me?
There’s a woman in the town where I live who is trying to start a nonprofit, and I’ve been able to help her with by-laws, writing a mission statement and other basic requirements.
I signed up online to help at a forum for candidates running for a particular office. I ended up being the greeter at the sign-in table, something that I actually really enjoy. I wasn’t given much guidance – good thing I’ve worked a LOT of registration tables over the years. But it was over in just three hours. No more candidate forums until the Fall, before the November election.
I’m serving on a citizens’ committee for public safety in the town where I live; after a year, the committee has come up with exactly zero recommendations to police and fire or the city council regarding safety in our town, and other committee members have balked at my ideas regarding pedestrian and bicyclist safety. Still, she persisted…
Online volunteering is super easy to find, as always, and I love it. But I continue to be frustrated in my attempts to be an onsite volunteer in activities that I feel a personal passion about. And I know that this is a chronic problem. Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of campaigns to get people to volunteer, we had funding and training for nonprofits, public sector agencies and schools about how to appropriately on-board and engage volunteers?
So, what volunteers has your initiative been turning away?
The Corporation for National Service has released its 
