Image of Volunteering

Many volunteer program managers bemoan the fact that they receive little support from top management.  In this issue’s Points of View we consider the consequences of having entirely too enthusiastic backing from executive decision-makers – whether politicians or agency administrators – especially in the early stages of developing a volunteer effort.

There are two levels of possible over-enthusiasm.  The first is the growing tendency of national governments to voice advocacy for volunteerism, whether through proclamations of country-wide recruitment campaigns, actual legislation channeling funding for various projects, or just loud speechifying on how important volunteering is to the social good and civil society.   The second is at the individual organization level, in which the attitudes and actions of top managers lead to increased volunteer involvement (maybe).

We have, in Points of View, spent some time in past columns looking at questions, problems, difficulties and quandaries. Alas, there are a lot of those things in our field to look at and ponder.

But since that’s not the only picture, in this issue we thought we’d focus, for a change, on what is happening in volunteerism that is positive and right. All those things, in other words, which we tend to take for granted because they aren’t causing us any trouble.

And we thought we just make a list and see what you might like to add to it.

For quite some time the notion of “corporate social responsibility” has been discussed and demonstrated in various ways. The concept includes many things, from producing products in environmentally-safe ways to providing family-friendly working conditions, yet our field more narrowly looks for whether a company is philanthropic or charitable, both through financial donations and in offering the talents of its employees to the community.

American companies have led the way in corporate employee volunteer programs, just as they have in setting up corporate foundations and other giving. But the idea has caught on worldwide, spurred by multinational companies, and today there are efforts underway in many countries to increase business community involvement and teach best practices in this type of activity. By and large, the volunteer field has been uncritical of this development, welcoming whatever help we can get from any source without much analysis of the process. Here Susan and Steve take a stab at examining workplace volunteering more closely...and arrive at different conclusions.

Susan’s Point of View

I admit to some concern over corporate employee volunteering practices, though I hasten to note right away that nothing I say is meant to disparage the actual volunteers who come through such programs. Universally, the individual employee is delighted to have the company-sanctioned chance to do community service and we should neither discourage nor refuse such volunteering. My issues are with the employer and the often disproportionate praise we heap on companies for what is, essentially, the effort of their workers.

And Steve Counters

The problem with being a perfectionist is that you have so many opportunities to be dissatisfied.

Sure, there are warts in corporate involvement:

• Not all companies provide adequate support for their volunteer program.
• Some companies probably influence the kind of volunteer projects chosen in ulterior ways.
• Employees are sometimes coerced into “volunteering.”
• Many efforts are confused and muddled.

So, what else is new in the world of volunteering?

Steve and Susan react to recent news stories and observations that perpetuate some frustrating thinking about volunteers. Volunteering is either undervalued or over-valued, elevated to selfless sainthood or seen as a means to the end of teaching the middle class to love others. Some excerpts from this essay:

From Steve:

…Now I suspect that Mr. Roy came to his conclusion following a great deal more thinking that Mr. Sanders brought to his, but I’m not sure that his conclusion is any more rational. Each distorts a realistic look at volunteering, one by undervaluing it and the other by over-valuing it. Each seems struck in the interesting mindset that what a person does can only be valued by what they are paid to do it. People who have this mindset have a hard time thinking reasonably about volunteering, and they generally end up either putting it on a pedestal or else treating it like a momentary aberration of the slightly deranged – one that should be tactfully ignored in a politely capitalistic society.

From Susan:

I realize that I am now in danger of alienating some readers, but I honestly have never understood the goal of selflessness. It makes me wonder:

• • Given the conscious intention to be selfless, isn’t there the danger of selfishly using the person in need for the volunteer to feel spiritually holy? Thereby ending up as the opposite?

  • Why is it necessary to “leave one’s ego at the door” in order to serve? Isn’t it more genuine to bring yourself fully into the relationship with the person to be served? To share your skills and talents generously?

Steve and Susan then start a list of Suggested Universal Principles of Volunteering, to which readers can feel free to add their own Pet Peeves.