Michael Puckett
Jennifer Marciniak
English 102
29 July 2011
A Community of Volunteers
“In the United States of America (USA), volunteers are a vital human resource for non-profit and faith-based organizations and for government agencies in providing social services and in addressing community needs… High turnover rates among volunteers create problems and have negative effects on volunteer institutions, placement sites and service recipients, as well as the volunteers themselves”( Fengyan 859,860). The problem is though people do not understand how much they can actually help the community by participating and supporting volunteers and volunteers organizations. Most people believe jobs just get done, and that is not true, it takes people giving their time to help others for no monetary return. Volunteer service is satisfying for those who take part in it, and that is their pay. “Various aspects that are known to play a role in the job attitudes of paid employees (such as pay, security, advancement opportunities) do not necessarily apply in the case of volunteer workers”(Bozeman 897,898). There is an argument that paid employees work better because of the motivation, but I will show you that volunteers who have a personal stake in what they are doing perform better than paid employees whose main focus is monetary gain. In this paper I will illustrate the importance of volunteers and how to combat the low retention rates in volunteer service.
“when a paid workforce is active in a charitable volunteer organization, such a workforce usually carries out tasks for which volunteers are unqualified” (Meijs, qtd. In Bozeman 901). This is not always the case, as I am sure a paid employee will be qualified for the job they are hired to do, a volunteer can be just as qualified for the job, or be able to learn what is required of them and do the job to the same degree of satisfaction, most of the time. This of course all depends on the nature of the job.
It is though hard to compare the volunteer and paid employees but it does make an argument that the paid employee can be more beneficial to the organization because of their skill set that they bring to the table. It is not to say however that a potential volunteer could have the same skill set with a deeper background in the particular job or has more education the particular field. Just because someone is volunteering for a job or service project does not mean they are no qualified for the job. If the job is to cook a meal for local fire department, is the professional chef more qualified than a team of people who have experience cooking for large families and large gathering as many churches and many families put together, I myself would probably rather the home cooking of the non professionals to the elegance of the chef most of the time.
As leaders and organizers of community service projects it is important to know the kind of people who will be volunteering. “Knowing why people volunteer can enhance the recruitment and retention of volunteers to human service and other organizations…” (Shye 183). This is essential because if you cannot recruit and retain the volunteers in the first place, the project or mission will never get off the ground. This was a big topic brought up this summer during our community service projects. If we could not get the number of volunteers together in the first place, our goals could not have been as grand as they turned out to be. If we could not keep the volunteers coming back week after week then we would end of being a “fly by night” church that we initially set out not to be. Even though this was a volunteer project, there was a commitment expected and throughout the summer it was honored by enough of the volunteers to have been very successful so far,
There are so many success stories about volunteer service over the years that it should be easy to figure out why people keep coming back, and keep volunteering their time to help others, and help their community. Throughout literature, there are two positions found to be held:
1. One may reject the assumption, and acknowledge the existence in human beings of sense of altruism, which is understood to be an urge to sacrifice for the good of others;
Or,
2. One may accept the claim that voluntarism is practiced in order to promote one’s own interests, needs or wants. The volunteer, according to this view, expects to gain something out of his or her volunteering activity. In this case the natural question arises, what are the benefits of volunteering. (184)
While in the course of the project, you will come to find both of these types of people probably working with you. Some, genuinely wanting to help others, sacrificing their time for the good of the many, while others see it as personal gain, as some way to achieve personal goals. I can see it both ways, if you are volunteering for a religious organization, are you doing it to help others, or because you feel you need to so you can fulfill your own spiritual needs. If the job gets done, is knowing the motivation of the volunteers necessary to help you retain their service? I believe that in being a leader you should know and understand those who you are leading, and knowing what motivates them will help you guide them in the right direction, while allowing the project to better succeed.
People do not realize how valuable volunteers are to organizations, especially churches. In 1998 a study was done to try to find the value of volunteers as resources to congregations. For the study they felt that “The value of volunteers' time can be measured from two different perspectives -- the value to the individual volunteer and the value to the church.” (Donahue et al. 476) What the individual’s values plays an important part in why the volunteer in the first place, and that it is not necessarily the way they view themselves and living a Christian life “Volunteering cannot be predicted by attitudes about congregational needs, attitudes about leadership processes, or attitudes about the overall primary duties of Christians in this life.” (479) the churches especially realize how important the volunteer is, even in term of their monetary value “There is no doubt that volunteers are important to churches. From the viewpoint of cost to the churches, they are worth an average of about two-fifths the amount of monetary contributions. For Baptists and Lutherans they are worth almost half the amount of monetary contributions.” (479) Understanding just how much money churches raise from tithing and the giving of money should put the value of volunteers more into perspective.
“We as a church family are raising over one hundred thousand dollars per year to sponsor
mission’s trips, and this year we have seven or eight different missions planned, in the United
States and internationally….We have been ranked as the top church for 2010 from the North American Missions Board in terms of giving, and that is truly a blessing.” (Elieff 2011)
mission’s trips, and this year we have seven or eight different missions planned, in the United
States and internationally….We have been ranked as the top church for 2010 from the North American Missions Board in terms of giving, and that is truly a blessing.” (Elieff 2011)
Ninth and O alone raises over one hundred thousand dollars a year sponsoring missions trips locally and internationally and it done all through volunteer work throughout the year and throughout the church.
So clearly the value of volunteers is worth a lot of money to organizations. So why is it that there is such a high turnover rate, especially in older people? “The total number of older volunteers will probably increase in the next decade, even if the rate of volunteering falls.” (Fengyan et al. 860) There are good reasons older people choose to not volunteer anymore, or as much as they used too; other commitments in employment, or care-giving, decline of health, problems in administration and work environment, program turnover, not have resources or transportation, not interested anymore, or feeling unhelpful, travel, vacation, and moving turnover, and the need for personal leisure and time with family are all reasons that older people are not volunteering as much as they used too. (870)
“There is evidence to suggest, however, that the number of people volunteering has progressively declined from 1960 to 1995” (Cuskelly, 2004; El Nasser, 1997; Wymer & Starnes, 2001 qtd. In Kim et al. 152) this could be from more people working than before, and having less time to volunteer (Kim 152). Volunteers in youth sports are as important as any volunteers. These volunteers are more important to retain because of their background with the sport, the youth, and their experience would be harder to replace. Volunteers such as coaches meet the Person-task fit model that matches “knowledge, skills, and abilities of an individual or the needs of an individual and the requirement of a job or task.”(153) Losing these volunteers could be disastrous for the organization and to the children trying to partake in the sport. To give the children the best possible people to coach them and to be around them the volunteers who have proven records or service need to be held onto, not only is it more cost efficient but it saves a lot of time and energy training someone else to do the job. Working with children takes a special kind of person and not all people who wish to volunteer can handle being around young children.
The WHAS Crusade for Children is an amazing success story. Through the work of mostly volunteers they collect millions of dollars to help the local children in our community that are in need of medical treatment and other needs. It is through volunteers that stand at intersections for hours at a time, and go door to door collecting money that this is possible. I believe it is the love of children and the love of the organization that has grown over the years that allows this to be as successful as it has been over the years. “The phenomenon of volunteerism, it has traditionally been argued, emerges from a sense of belonging among individuals to local communities or other collective frames of reference, such as class and religion (Beck, 1998; Eckstein, 2001; Putnam, 2000; Wuthnow, 1998 qtd. In Hustinx 204)
The crusade for children is an instance that it doesn’t matter about what class you belong too or what religion you are, it is about helping children, and their families, that are in need. It is amazing that once a year the whole community can come together to raise this much money, and volunteer this much time, for such a good cause. When the cause is there, and it is shown that it is a worthwhile cause, the people will come, like the quote “if you build it, they will come” we here in Louisville have proven time and time again that this is true.
Doing my first major community service project in a long time this summer, I have found that there is a problem with retention in our small scale setting. While not seeing our numbers go down substantially this summer, I have seen some weeks we have more help and others we have very few. The retention rates of volunteers doing community service are a problem all organizations find themselves having when undertaking a community service project. Sometimes the retention rate is so low that the organization has to abandon the project all together or scale it back to a more manageable goal. I have recently, through researching community service projects at my church seen how the retention rate affects even small projects. If someone who you are counting on doesn’t show up it might throw off the whole plan and have to rework it at the last minute, or cancel it all together, luckily we have not had that problem in my group, but others have. Community service is something a lot of people talk about doing, or wanting to do, but not many are willing to put in the time to do it. Most people don’t realize how little time is needed usually if everyone works together to do even a large project.
It has to be a team effort, the individuals who make up the volunteer workers need to realize how important they are to the organization and the project, to the people they are helping and to the people they are working with. The leadership on the other hand needs to try to find what is motivating the volunteers and help steer them in the right direction, if it is their personal motivation or helping them find the right project to volunteer on that will help them achieve whatever their goals are. The retention of volunteers is important as is finding new volunteers, but keeping those you have will most organizations to be more successful as they have experience and knowledge and ideas about how to accomplish goals.
Works Cited
Boezeman, Edwin J., and Naomi Ellemers. "Intrinsic need satisfaction and the job attitudes of volunteers versus employees working in a charitable volunteer organization." Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology 82.4 (2009): 897-914. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 22 July 2011. "Community Action Response Effort". Cards care Web. July 29 2011
Michael J. Donahue, et al. "The Value of Volunteers as Resources for Congregations." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 37.3 (1998): 470-480. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 11 July 2011.
Elieff, Jeff. Personal interview. 6-28-2011
Elieff, Jeff. Personal interview. 6-28-2011
FENGYAN, TANG, NANCY MORROW-HOWELL, and CHOI EUNHEE. "Why do older adult volunteers stop volunteering ?." Ageing & Society 30.5 (2010): 859-878. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 11 July 2011.
HUSTINX, LESLEY, and FEMIDA HANDY. "Where Do I Belong? Volunteer Attachment in a Complex Organization." Administration in Social Work 33.2 (2009): 202-220. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 11 July 2011.
Kim, May, Packianathan Chelladurai, and Galen T. Trail. "A Model of Volunteer Retention in Youth Sport." Journal of Sport Management 21.2 (2007): 151-171. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 11 July 2011.
"Republic Bank Puts Crusade over the Top" Photograph. WHAS Crusade for Children 6-2011 Web. July 29 2011
Shye, Samuel. "The Motivation to Volunteer: A Systemic Quality of Life Theory." Social Indicators Research 98.2 (2010): 183-200. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 11 July2011
"Republic Bank Puts Crusade over the Top" Photograph. WHAS Crusade for Children 6-2011 Web. July 29 2011
