Over the next four months I will be sharing four principles of highly effective volunteer programs, as identified in the Changing the Paradigm research by the Points of Light Foundation.
In 1991 The Points of Light Foundation interviewed over 400 people in more than 20 organizations in 5 regions of the United States. From those interviews they identified 11 characteristics of organizations that were highly effective in the involvement of volunteers (Allen, 1995). These eleven characteristics were combined into 4 overall principles
Paradigm principle #1 is: Lay the foundation through Mission and Vision. This is made up of three characteristics:
The first characteristic refers to the way the agency or organization describes and talks about its overall mission. Most non-profit organizations are formed to address specific problems or needs in their community. Food pantries are developed to provide emergency food supplies for limited resource families and individuals. Food pantries are about ending hunger. They are one strategy for distributing food and eradicating hunger in the United States. Our tendency is to talk about our missions in terms of the services we provide - providing emergency food. Literacy programs tend to talk about teaching illiterate people to read, instead of talking about eliminating illiteracy. Meals on Wheels programs often talk about delivering meals to homebound elderly or disabled instead of talking about ending senior malnutrition and increasing independent living.
(Focusing on services rather than the overall need we are trying to fill or the problem we are addressing has contributed to our pattern of collecting numbers of people served as the measure of our success. Developing measures of success [impact] for a program that delivers meals to homebound seniors is different than developing measure of success [impact] for ending senior malnutrition or increasing the ability of people to live independently.)
Research has shown that volunteers are attracted to causes, issues, and/or needs (Safrit, King, & Burcsu, 1994). Organizations that can speak of their mission in terms of the issues they are tackling are more effective in attracting volunteers.
"Mission statements that define what the organization does do not galvanize followers as readily as mission statement that talk about meeting a need or solving a problem. It may be tedious or boring to prepare and serve hot meals, but it is rewarding to help put an end to senior malnutrition. . . . It [mission statement] should be a statement that galvanizes the volunteers and staff, a statement from which their daily activities draw meaning. It should be a living declaration of what the group is trying to accomplish. It should be a statement of the difference the group intends to make in the world." (Lynch, 1995, pp. 2-4)
Missions may attract volunteers, but there must be an internal vision for how those volunteers will be engaged and integrated into the work of the organization. Organizations that have a clearly defined vision for the role of volunteers have taken the time to think about what volunteers can do and why they are doing it. The volunteer program becomes an integral part of the planning process within the organization. Too often volunteer programs are viewed as "add-ons," nice to have, but not really essential to the overall accomplishment of mission. Boards, management, and line staff frequently does not have a clear understanding or vision for the potential of a volunteer program. They do not see how volunteers contribute to the "bottom line." Instead, they see volunteers are extras, additional help, and supplemental service providers. For example, a local program matches children in the county children's services program with adult "friends."
These friends are expected to spend time with the youth and serve as role models. Yet caseworkers have no contact with the friends, object to including them in case conferences and in many instances change living arrangements for the child without ever notifying the volunteer friend. It's a nice thing to provide a friend to each child in the system, but these friends are not really important to the overall strategy of treating and helping the child. Contrast this with a program that views each adult volunteer as a critical component of an overall plan to help each child; a program where caseworkers talk with volunteers and include volunteer observations and information in case reviews. Which program do you think has a positive vision for the role of volunteers? Which program will most effectively engaged volunteers?
Volunteer programs managers can play a critical role in bringing together organizational leadership and staff to openly discuss the role of volunteers as a strategy for reaching overall mission. All members of the organization should be able to understand, vision and articulate the role of volunteers. Without a clear vision, volunteers will be "extras" and volunteer programs will be expendable. Organizations that can effectively identify and communicate their shared vision for volunteer involvement will attract and engage volunteers in creative and highly effective ways. They organizations will expect, plan for and receive high impact volunteer involvement.
Finally, volunteers must be viewed as valuable human resources and not primarily as a means to obtaining financial or other material resources. There is growing emphasis among the new generation of philanthropists, individual and corporate, for personal engagement in organizations that are seeking funding. Paul Brainerd, The Brainerd Foundation, spoke at the 1998 International Conference of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action about his efforts at engaging a new generation of givers through Social Venture Partners.
"My goal was to put together a model that combined traditional philanthropic approaches as well as innovative approaches to giving. I was looking for a model of philanthropy that would appeal to a new generation of people. . . . People in my generation wanted something more engaging in terms of helping nonprofit organizations. . . . What we have in Social Venture Partners are people who can help that organization to become a high-performance organization. SVP partners help build organizational capacity by volunteering their time and skills to network an agency's computers, negotiate a new lease, and develop a marketing or fundraising campaign, for example. If the nonprofit organization . . . can respect the skills and connections that SVP brings to the relationship and we can respect the nonprofits' ability to do the work that they do in the community, then together we form a much stronger team and partnership. . . .
For people who join SVP, it is not just about writing a check, it is about really sitting down and being strategic with a nonprofit in terms of their nonfinancial needs. We want to work with the nonprofits to develop their organizations and provide them with assistance that will help make then even more successful at the work they do in the community." (Brainerd, 1999, pp. 502-504)
Paradigm Principle #1 deals with mission, vision and the potential of human resources to form strategic alliance. These are the foundation of a highly effective volunteer program. They deal with philosophical approaches, mindsets, and ways of viewing what we are contributing to our communities and how we will engage others in the fulfillment of our mission.
References:
Allen, Kenn (1995). Changing the paradigm: Self-assessment kit, team member's workbook. Washington, DC: Points of Light Foundation.
Brainerd, Paul (1999, December). Social venture partner: Engaging a new generation of givers. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 4, 502-507.
Lynch, Richard (1995). Changing the Paradigm: Laying the foundation with mission and vision. Washington, DC: Points of Light Foundation.
Safrit, D., King, J., & Burcsu, K. (1994). A study of volunteerism in Ohio cities and surrounding communities: Final report. Columbus: The Ohio State University, O.S.U. Extension.
Alllison, M. & Kaye, J. (1997). Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Bryson, J. (1995). Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organization. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.