Trends in Volunteering
Posted by mark on Jan 12, 2012 in Volunteering | No Comments »
Americans of all ages donate their time to schools, churches, hospitals, and other local nonprofits in an effort to improve their communities. Every day, people across the country mentor students, beautify neighborhoods, help older Americans to live independently, restore homes after disasters, and much more. Not only is volunteering one way for individuals to help their neighbors and enhance their communities, it also provides opportunities for youth to develop valuable skills, older Americans to remain healthy by being active and connected to their community, and adults to share their professional and work expertise.
There has been an increase in volunteering over the last decade, which may be driven by an increased demand for volunteers from nonprofit organizations. The number of public charities registered with the IRS increased by 60 percent from 593,802 in 1998 to 947,274 in 2008 (IRS Business Master File, 2010). While many of these new nonprofits may be primarily staffed by professionals, nonprofit organizations continue to rely on volunteers to help them run their internal operations and provide services to the community. A study of nonprofit volunteer management in 2004, sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Involvement and the UPS Foundation, indicates that 81 percent of nonprofit organizations in America utilize volunteers. These two findings combine to suggest that there has been a large increase in the demand and competition for volunteers. Organizations must be smarter in their approach to volunteer coordination by better attracting, managing, and retaining volunteers.
In 2009, 63.4 million Americans volunteered to help their communities. This is an additional 1.6 million volunteers compared to 2008, making 2009 the largest single-year increase in the number of volunteers since 2003. Volunteers also provided 8.1 billion hours of service in 2009, which has an estimated dollar value of $169 billion (CNCS Volunteering in America, 2010). As the economic crisis affected many individuals personally and sent shockwaves across the country, Americans reached out to help through service.
The greatest question to those responsible for volunteer application, volunteer scheduling, and volunteer retention is “How do we best attract the right talent and properly manage their services to permanently impact the long-term success of our mission?” While having well-trained and experienced non profit managers plays the most vital role in volunteer management, implementing the right volunteer management system can make your volunteer coordination much more efficient, allowing the great managers you already have to become an even greater success.
