Australia

In the last quarter century, nonprofits have increasingly been held accountable for the resources that have been entrusted to them. For some organizations, accountability mechanisms have been imposed left, right, and center, as funders and donors seek to monitor the use of the funds they provide. While a reasonable amount of accountability is beneficial all around, too much emphasis on this measure can be stifling and may indeed have exactly the opposite effect of what it intended to promote: efficient and effective use of resources.

While we generally can find information on the financial resources used by nonprofits, public disclosure of the amount and significance of volunteer contributions to those organizations is far less common. In this Research to Practice, Laurie Mook presents the findings of researchers in Australia who set out to determine just how organizations account for volunteer services. The study involved over 400 nonprofit organizations. The researchers systematically reviewed these organizations’ websites and annual reports for any disclosure of volunteer contributions, including their acknowledgement; how they supported mission and the wider community; human resources measures such as the number of volunteers and hours contributed; and policies guiding their involvement.

How well did the organizations do in discharging their accountability for their reliance on and use of volunteer contributions? Too much, too little or just right? As Mook reveals, the results are enlightening.

Australia has seen its share of natural disasters – most notably bushfires and floods – and the surge of spontaneous volunteering each emergency produces. While recent attempts to register volunteers in advance of a disaster are useful, too few are actually activated during an emergency because local officials do not have the resources or skills to coordinate them. In the spring of 2012, with the annual bushfire season right around the corner, Volunteering Victoria, the peak volunteering body for the State of Victoria in Australia, had a simple idea: Why not create a platform that links volunteer program managers across the state in times of emergency?

Launched in January 2013, the Volunteer Program Manager Register now has 70 skilled and experienced volunteer program managers ready to respond to calls for assistance in times of emergency and natural disaster in Victoria, Australia. In this feature article, author Alicia Patterson, the marketing and communications manager for Volunteering Victoria, explains how this Register is meant to work, and how it helps the helpers coordinate volunteers who are keen to assist with recovery efforts when disaster strikes. 

Due to the nature of volunteering, this sector of society is not often associated with conflict. However, like the wider community, conflict within volunteer-involving organisations can be a persistent problem. Although most volunteers enjoy positive and fulfilling experiences and are generally satisfied with the volunteering process, research undertaken by Volunteering WA shows that around 10 per cent of volunteers have been involved in a conflict with an organisation where they have volunteered.

This feature article by Denise Bertilone, the Research & Project Officer at Volunteering WA, describes how conflict develops and focuses on conflict and conflict resolution within volunteer-involving organisations in Western Australia. It examines some of the sources and results, and features personalized accounts of volunteers’ experiences with conflict and its aftermath. It seeks to stimulate discussion on whether or not an independent redress mechanism is a necessity for the volunteering sector, and whether or not volunteer organizations should implement grievance policies and procedures.       

Pets are therapeutic for people of all ages. But as aging pet owners and their families can attest, age and disability often restrict elderly or seriously-ill pet owners from seeking veterinarian services and general assistance for their pets. Some people even refuse to enter hospitals or residential care facilities if they are worried about their pet's future. In response, St. Joseph’s Hospital in Auburn, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, teamed up with RSPCA NSW (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, New South Wales) to establish the Pets of Older Persons or POOPs program. Through POOPs, more than 150 volunteers serve as “foster parents” to care for the pets of elderly persons and palliative care patients in the community.

This e-Volunteerism feature article showcases the POOPs program, with an inside look at how these special volunteer services for pet owners and their pets might be replicated elsewhere. 

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.

The expression “work-life balance” was first used in the UK in the late 1970s to help explain the unhealthy life choices that many people were making. According to one definition, people “were choosing to neglect other important areas of their lives such as family, friends, and hobbies in favour of work-related chores and goals.” In the 30 years since there has been research and discussion around the topic of work-life balance, taking on increased importance as the pace of life in developed countries becomes faster and faster.

As a volunteer manager, have you ever explored how volunteering fits into the balance of the lives of your team?  Many people talk about their lives as a ‘juggling act,’ in which they feel pulled in many directions by the demands of paid work, family care, community involvement, physical fitness and emotional health. Whether volunteers or employees, not all people have appropriate balance or clearly established boundaries in their lives. This Training Design is an opportunity to explore how the work-life balance of volunteers impacts your organisation.

Despite all the theory and research about Generation Y — those individuals typically born between 1977 and 1997 — there still appears to be a considerable amount of confusion as to how volunteer managers can effectively engage this generation. Could this confusion stem from not clearly understanding the key factors that shape the lives and thinking of Gen Y? Author Catherine Williams thinks so. In this feature article, Williams reviews how effective engagement with today’s young adults involves moving beyond the hype associated with this generation and developing a deeper understanding of what shapes the lives of our younger generations. By sharing the stories of a few Gen Y individuals (also called Millennials), Williams presents some important lessons about why young people are not engaging in traditional volunteer roles. She also looks at the implications for volunteer management practices, and explores some of the changes that volunteer managers may need to consider in order to make volunteering relevant to this generation.

Research To Practice takes its eye off research about volunteers in this issue and instead takes a look at that other vital resource – the people who look after volunteers. Call them managers or coordinators and any one of the myriad of other names that become attached to people who are responsible for volunteers. This summary report is based on a global survey from 2008, one that drew responses from 851 people who are responsible for volunteers and who answered questions on their status, responsibilities and levels of support. This Research to Practice also reviews how the survey highlighted issues that managers identified as important to further their own skills and their profession.