I’m not the only one constantly harping that we need to stop talking about volunteers in terms of money saved or in terms of “Hey, we’ve got all this work to do, let’s get some volunteers to do it” – and, instead, start talking about the true value of Volunteers.

Here’s a fantastic article from 2008 by Jennifer Woodill for the Nonprofit Quarterly that echoes what a small but growing number of managers, researchers and volunteerism advocates have been saying – there are much better reasons to involve volunteers than we don’t have to pay them!

And I don’t think it’s volunteer managers that are the biggest obstacle in changing this mentality – it’s donors, particularly from the corporate sector, as well as big organizations like the United Nations Volunteers program and John Hopkins University, which just cannot let go of the idea of volunteers being great primarily becaues they mean not having to pay employees or consultants to do work.

Way to go, Jennifer!

Also see:

Do NOT say “Need to Cut Costs? Involve Volunteers!”

The Value of Volunteers (and how to talk about such)