Research on Volunteering

Volunteer “voice” in nonprofit organizations has not been the topic of a lot of study. What happens, for instance, when volunteers encounter situations they find dissatisfying? This issue’s Research to Practice looks at this subject through “Volunteering an Opinion: Organizational Voice and Volunteer Retention in Nonprofit Organizations,”published in the academic journal, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, in October 2011. This study reviews the experiences of over 380 volunteers at several nonprofits in Southern California. It used an online survey to ask volunteers how they reacted to a particular dissatisfying circumstance, and then related their responses to their motivations for volunteering - and the degree of satisfaction with their experience. As writer Laurie Mook points out, the research reveals a relationship between the particular motivation leading volunteers to work for the organization and how they respond to dissatisfaction. The study also provides suggestions for eliciting constructive feedback from volunteers while also encouraging volunteer satisfaction and retention.

This quarter’s Research to Practice approaches the issue of credentialing in volunteer management by looking at one possible framework for evaluating the effects of credentialing or not credentialing. For this review, writer Laurie Mook turns to David Suárez, Ph.D., a well-known researcher in nonprofit management who developed a typology of nonprofit sector leaders for his article, “Street Credentials and Management Backgrounds: Careers of Nonprofit Executives in an Evolving Sector,” published in the journal Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly in 2010.

As Mook points out, Suárez, assistant professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Policy, Planning and Development, frames his work in a typology of four 'ideal' types of nonprofit leaders. Suárez bases these types on two factors:  the degree of nonprofit experience, and the extent of management background and credentials.  In this Research to Practice, Mook switches the focus from the nonprofit as a whole to the volunteer management function.  In doing so, Mook is able to ponder some important research questions of her own. For instance, is  volunteer retention more likely to be higher in a volunteer program directed by someone with lots of nonprofit experience but no credentials? Or is volunteer retention higher in a program directed by someone with little nonprofit experience but with credentials?  Mook’s review of Suárez’ work and her valuable insights provide an important addition to e-Volunteerism’s special issue on credentialing

For nearly two decades,the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies research group has conducted comparative research on volunteer work and the nonprofit sector. This year, in conjunction with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and in collaboration with the United Nations Volunteers and an international Technical Experts Group, the Johns Hopkins Center has published a Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work. The Manual was developed “to help statistical agencies around the world track the amount, type and value of volunteer work in their countries” in a systematic, regular and comparative fashion.  Although national statistical agencies are its primary focus, the influential document also provides food for thought for measuring volunteer work at the organization level. This quarter’s Research to Practice presents highlights from this work.

The volunteer base has changed over time. It has moved from volunteers with long-term commitments to welcoming the diversity of youth, families, baby boomers and employer-supported volunteers – and required us all to adapt our volunteer management practices.  In this Research to Practice, Laurie Mook presents "Bridging the Gap," a new research study out of Canada that describes the many volunteer changes of the last decade or more. Mook's review highlights some important ideas from this research study that you can put into practice today.

This report examines the civic and volunteering behavior of young adults age 15-25 following September 11th. There are surprising findings, some of which we don't quite understand, so you'll have a chance to join in the analysis as we're trying to figure out what's going on.

In the spring of 2001, Canadian Blood Services (CBS) contracted the services of an external consulting firm to conduct a review of its volunteer program. The research had two key purposes. The first was to explore how CBS might improve both the involvement, and the management, of volunteer resources. The second was to summarize current and anticipated issues and trends in volunteerism and volunteer program management both in North America in general, and in other large Canadian health sector organizations. This article reports on the results of this review.

Can you put a monetary value on volunteering? What is a volunteer’s time and effort worth? This Research to Practice re-visits theses questions by studying a paper called “The Economic Value of Volunteering in Queensland,” by Dr. Duncan Ironmonger, Department of Economics, The University of Queensland. Undoubtedly the tools are there to do so, and we will review those methods. In times of austerity, even greater attention is being put on volunteering and the notion of placing a monetary value on volunteering will be very attractive to policy makers. Now is a good time to consider how we ‘value’ volunteering, at an organisation and an aggregate level.

It seems increasingly complex to offer what the different generations of volunteers want, particularly Baby Boomers and Millennials: high impact volunteer opportunities, a range of choices of positions, ways to apply their workplace skills and more. The good news is there is a wealth of research on the topic. The bad news is that many of today’s leaders of volunteers don't have the time to sort through the gigabits of information on generation change, are puzzled by (or sick of) the hype on Boomers, and face real barriers in implementing the necessary modifications in their organizations.

This month’s Research to Practice takes a slight detour from reviewing research to report on an article that tries to take a completely new view on some well-known volunteer issues.  The article, called “It Ain’t Natural: Toward a New (Natural) Resource Conceptualization for Volunteer Management,” is written by Jeffrey L. Brudney and Lucas C.P.M. Meijs and published in the April 16, 2009 edition of the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. Steven Howlett explains that in their article, the authors ask readers to consider what would happen if “we draw our eye from the need to recruit volunteers all the time and start to focus on retention?” So far not so new, Howlett admits, before adding that “the authors think they have a new way to describe how we should think of volunteers.  We should look on them as a natural resource, and one that can be exhausted or managed sustainably.” Instead of reviewing research, this popular e-Volunteerism feature may just trigger some research of its own as the authors attempt to extend this new way of thinking into implications for management.