Trends in Volunteerism
- Less interest and participation in traditional service groups and traditional volunteer positions
- Shift to preference for shorter-term commitments (ie demand for clear boundaries, expectations, and endings to terms of service, less availability weekdays from 9:00am - 5:00pm)
- Little tolerance for make-work projects or wasting volunteers’ time
- Occasional and episodic volunteering
- Expectation of choices from among diverse opportunities
- Technology playing a greater role (virtual volunteering)
- Family-unit volunteering
- Baby boomers becoming an evolving potential volunteer pool
- Desire for opportunities to grow personally and to learn widely usable information and skills
- Youth/college students required to volunteer as part of academic programs (ie service-learning)
- Expectations of an effectively managed volunteer system (including a screening process, orientation, training components, and greater attention to risk management issues)
- Expectations of opportunities to make a real difference
- A Practical Guide for Transforming Volunteers into Ministers, copyright © 1995 Jean Morris Trumbauer.
To learn more about current trends in volunteerism, please click on the following links:
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4416&t=nonprofit
Baby boomers dictate trends in every sector of society, and the non-profit community is no exception. Research shows that this generation plans on leading an active, healthy, engaged retirement, which spells good news for nonprofit organizations looking to attract a new, committed corps of volunteers. For an overview of the opportunities and challenges presented by these future volunteers see this article in the Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge newsletter.
http://uk.oneworld.net/article/archive/8427#Corporate
Benefiting employees, corporations and non-profit agencies, it is little wonder that employee volunteer programs are being adopted by a growing number of companies, a key component of the larger trend of corporate citizenship. This Web pages looks at some of the issues surrounding employee volunteering and provides links to case studies as well.
http://www.serviceleader.org/new/virtual/index.php
Any discussion of trends must include a reference to the impact of technology. Virtual volunteering is quickly gaining popularity, enabling people to give back to their communities in a world where time is a precious commodity. ServiceLeader.org provides a very useful online guide for nonprofit organizations looking to implement a virtual volunteering program.
