I am finding that more and more of our volunteers are short term. Seems that 75% of the people that come through my door are episodic volunteers rather than the 25% that it used to be. I am finding group project volunteers coming out of the woodwork. Most of our opportunities are written for long-term volunteers. Departments are used to and prefer long-term volunteers. Our database ofshort term versus long term seems upside down.
Robin Popik, City Volunteer Services, City of Plano, TX.
For regular service volunteers I NEVER expect long-term volunteers here. For me, it's an outdated, unrealistic way of looking at volunteerism-especially in this community. The average length of resident stay is only 5 years. I try to focus on quarterly volunteer commitments. The majority of volunteers here are episodic volunteers. For special event volunteers my focus has not been to maintain them throughout the year, but to retain them for the same event from year to year. For example, one event had a less than 10% retention rate before I came and now it has just over a 50% retention rate for that one event. There have been many mechanism/relationship -building strategies to achieve this.
Christine Nardecchia, Coordinator of Volunteer Service, City of Dublin, OH.
The Survey of Giving and Volunteering in the United State conducted every two years by the Independent Sector reported the highest ever-recorded level of volunteering in 1998. 56% of the adult population over 18 reported volunteering atotal of 19.9 billion hours. A comparison of the Survey results over an 11yearperiod shows that while the total number of adults volunteering increased, the average number of hours per week decreased, as did the total number of hours given to volunteering. Deducting the number of hours reported for informal volunteering, there is a slight decrease in the total number of hours devoted to formal volunteering.
| Year | Percentage of adults volunteering | Total number of volunteers | Average weekly hours per volunteer | Total annual hours volunteered | Total annual hours of formal volunteering |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 54% | 98.4 million | 4.0 | 20.5 billion | 15.7 billion |
| 1991 | 51% | 94.2 million | 4.2 | 20.5 billion | 15.2 billion |
| 1993 | 48% | 89.0 million | 4.2 | 19.5 billion | 15.0 billion |
| 1995 | 49% | 93.0 million | 4.2 | 20.3 billion | 15.7 billion |
| 1998 | 56% | 109.4 million | 3.5 | 19.9 billion | 15.5 billion |
The 1998 Survey reported that 41.9% of respondents indicated they had volunteered sporadically and considered it a one-time activity. Thirty-nine percent (39%) volunteered at a regularly scheduled time, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. 9% indicated they only volunteer at a specific time of years, such as during a rel
igious holiday.
These figures support the increasing trend by volunteers to seek episodic volunteer opportunities (short term or one-time activities) rather than commit to ongoing or long-term volunteer assignments. Episodic volunteering was first identified over 10 years ago by Nancy Macduff in an article titled, "Episodic Volunteers: Reality for the Future." Today most volunteer administrators know it has moved from a trend to a reality.
A variety of studies in the past five years have identified work and family pressures as the main reasons for taking people away from volunteer work. Adults increasingly report they are "too busy" or "unable to make long term commitments" as reasons for not volunteering. The Netherlands Organization on Volunteering identified time as one the 10 top worldwide trends at the 2001 World Volunteerism Conference: "Time becomes more fluid: clear separations between time to work, time to care, free time and volunteer time disappears."
"It is rather frustrating to see the number of regular volunteers drop so dramatically. I am not sure how to deal with it - re: rewards, newsletters, statistics, and marketing (both internally and externally)."Robin Popik
Steve McCurly (consultant and author) has advocated viewing short-term opportunities as marketing events that encourage new people to "try out" anorganization. Many volunteers today have their first exposure to an organization through a group opportunity organized by their workplace, church or synagogue. Sometimes volunteers are simply "shopping around" for something to do at a particular time of the year. Frequently these volunteers come and go without developing a connection or relationship with the organization that can leadto on-going or long-term volunteering. Volunteer managers often walk a fine line between trying to turn episodic volunteers into long term volunteer and accepting/valuing the short-term contributions volunteers can make.
In our efforts to respect time pressures, perhaps we are neglecting some of the mission and personal relationship building that are part of the richness of the volunteer experience. Episodic opportunities are developed to allow for quick in and out work. Orientation is minimized, training is minimal, and commitment is one time. Whether the initial assignment is for 3 hours or three month, retaining these one-time volunteers requires strategies for developing commitmentto mission and for building ongoing relationships.
It might be interesting to survey group project participants or special event volunteers to see if they had an opportunity to become "connected" with the organization. Were they made to feel a part of the mission? Did a volunteer manager talk to them personally? Did they have an opportunity to meet long- term volunteers? Did they meet clients or hear stories of how their contribution made a difference for the people served? Was there an opportunity to socialize with other volunteers? Did anyone (volunteer manager or other volunteers) contact them after the event? Were they personally invited to a second event or opportunity?
The best relationship building efforts will not lead every episodic volunteer into a long-term volunteer experience. Short-term volunteering offers new options for volunteering and as the Independent Sector numbers indicate many more people are at least sampling volunteering. Volunteer managers will continue to be challenged to rewrite job descriptions that have traditionally focused on long-term volunteers, and to educate staff who are used to and perhaps prefer long-term volunteers.
The service from volunteers still happens, just at a much higher turnover rate. The key for me has been to get staff to take on a more active rolein volunteer training, 'ownership', and evaluation. Volunteer job descriptionsare written to carry over from quarter to quarter, event to event. When I discuss quantity of hours/people, I will say, "In a year's time, this is how many people walk through our doors to offer their assistance..." I find it very exciting to have such a diverse group of volunteers who are attracted to one-time events and programming. This makes the volunteer program in and of itself aprogram to be marketed to internally.
Christine Nardecchia
Episodic volunteering is undoubtedly here to stay. It will never replace long-term volunteering, but it can offer the same satisfactions and benefits as long-term assignments. Retired doctors and nurses are volunteering 30 hours per week to operate free health clinics. Seniors are tutoring students 20-30 hours perweek. Working adults are making one-year commitments to serve as court appointed special advocates or as a guardian ad-litem for seniors in nursing homes. Virtual volunteers in the Open Source community devote significant hours to the development of free software applications. ("Open Source promotes software reliability and quality by supporting independent peer review and rapid evolution of source code." www.opensource.org/advocacy/faq.html). In these cases volunteers talk about thesignificance of the work they are doing and the importance of developing personal relationships around common values. Open Source volunteers hold a common fundamental belief in what they are doing (Free Software Foundation, www.fsf.org) and enjoy working collaboratively on things they are passionate about.
From the volunteer's perspective, I find it almost disloyal to think of volunteers as short or long term. The so-called short-term volunteers don't think of themselves in that manner; they think of themselves as giving what they can give with the time they have. For example, if we have a person who has volunteered for one event for the past 6 years, even though they only give 8 hours a year to that one event, they consider themselves committed long-term to thatevent. There is the connection. "A City" in and of itself is usually not something a volunteer will cozy up to or find a connection to because it is too general or too "big" to them. Its services and programming are the connection, and volunteers singularly identify those services as the connection. Therein lies their loyalty.
Christine Nardecchia
Every volunteer assignment, short-term or long-term, offers an opportunity to establish a connection and build a relationship. Connect everything a volunteer does to the mission of the organization and showcase how they are making a difference and helping the organization reach its ultimate vision. Offer volunteers the opportunity to do meaningful, challenging work collaboratively, with peers, as part of a significant volunteer community. Encourage volunteers to do workthey are passionate about. There is nothing like a "helper's high" and a personal relationship/connection for build ongoing commitment.
Quotations in this article were excerpted from an online discussion between Robin and Christine and used with their permission.