The Value of Volunteers
Author: Sandy Thompson - LEAD Director & CEO
In celebration of Volunteer Week, LEAD would like to acknowledge the quote by Susan Ellis
- Publishing Editor of e-Volunteerism that "Volunteer is a pay rate not a job title."
There is no doubt that volunteers add value to our communities and our community organisations. Volunteers take an active role on governance boards, leadership teams, and out in the field participating in community benefit activities.
The value that volunteers bring to our community include citizen engagement, informed public policy and enhanced democracy. Volunteering fosters social inclusion, cohesion, leadership and resiliency. For our organisations, volunteers commonly enhance our organisation’s capacity, provide us with access to skills, increase our community engagement, and ensure we are including diverse world views. Volunteers also build our stakeholder connections.
Cheryll Martin - General Manager for Volunteering Auckland - says that we need a greater focus on measuring volunteering outcomes, versus outputs . The latter relates to our common statistics such as how many volunteers we have and how many hours they contribute - “numbers seem to be understood better than impact”. But to truly observe the “ripple in the pond” impact, we need to be telling more of the volunteers’ stories. She reflects on one volunteer who came to Volunteering Auckland as a “last resort to get help”. Due to injury, they had lost their job, their partner and experienced alcoholism. Through Volunteering Auckland, they were referred to the SPCA and later received a commendation for their voluntary contribution; turning their life back on track.
The story of their life slowly being rebuilt, carries far more weight than their statistic as “one volunteer” or “one referral” who gave this number of hours.
So what’s in for volunteers? At LEAD we commonly hear folk share that they volunteer because they “want to give back”. This is certainly backed up by research. However, there is strong evidence that in order to keep volunteers engaged (and subsequently for their organisations to benefit) we need to create an environment or culture that supports volunteering in a mutually positive, yet personal approach.
These include volunteers:
having the same resources and access to information as paid staff
having the same rules and expectations as paid staff
having input and ownership
experiencing a mutually validating climate
seeing the impact or outcomes of their contributions shared internally and externally
being invited to organisation events
being kept informed of what is happening in the organisation.
skills, expertise and creativity being utilised
being held with regard in the organisation
experiencing sincere, authentic ,and consistent recognition
having opportunities for interactions with others and with the community
(Source: Adisa Group)
This research, which backs up our experience, also gives us insight into how volunteers appreciate being acknowledged
“I think it’s critical that an organization talks with each volunteer to find out what they need in order to feel satisfied by the work they do and feel valued and appreciated for their time and efforts.” (Quote from Adisa Group research.
Cheryll notes that the volunteering infrastructure still needs support to ensure smooth operations. Part of the puzzle is ensuring that volunteer work is appropriately recognised so that central/local governments as well as the NGOs themselves can understand the benefit of strong investment in volunteering. She considers that relationships are the most important thing in keeping the community going strong. Having a well resourced volunteering infrastructure, that includes the person responsible for volunteering, is vital to the health of any volunteer involving programme.
What the research shows keeps volunteers engaged and themselves feeling valued:
Sincere and authentic recognition
Personalised thank you on an informal basis (especially noted by older volunteers)
More concrete expressions of recognition – certificates, letters of reference, small gifts and nomination for awards. (especially noted by younger volunteers)
Opportunity to participate in informal group outings such picnics, potlucks and small get-togethers
Interestingly the types of recognition volunteers are NOT interested in include public forms of recognition, newspaper columns or radio ads and other forms of recognition. Volunteers also are not interested in recognition that come at a cost such as banquets, formal gatherings and small gifts. Their preference is the organisation uses funds directly to the organisations mission rather than them.
The research gives us food for thought? We invite you to reflect on what your volunteers need, to keep them engaged and how do you recognise this?
Cheryll asks that you also reflect on how you can showcase the impact that volunteers are having on the delivery of your mission, on your organisation, your clients or cause, as well as on the volunteers themselves. We need to understand what drives changes in volunteer numbers and the demographic spread of those volunteers. Equally important, is the need to be telling the stories of our volunteers, to show the real impact and value of social change through volunteering.