Attracting volunteers in the 21st century is a challenge. While some research shows that volunteering has remained steady over recent years, IFUW and other women’s organizations have seen their membership figures slowly decreasing. It is therefore important to understand what kind of organizations and activities are still attracting volunteers.
Apart from the economic and social benefits to the state and community-building, individual benefits seem to be an important aspect of volunteering. On Wikipedia one can read: “volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity, intended to improve human quality of life, …but people also volunteer for their own skill development, …to meet others …and to have fun”.
What do volunteers look for today? What kind of organizations and activities interest them? Are the individual benefits of volunteering becoming more important? Does IFUW need to change to better meet the needs of the new volunteers?
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Volunteering is so important in today’s world. People need to come together in order to make things happen. One person can make a difference, but a group can do so much more. Volunteerism, like everything else, is evolving. With people’s modern individualistic attitude and as busy as they are, they consider that they do not have time to invest personal effort or money in something they feel will not give back to them.
The idea of volunteerism has to be adapted to modern needs. Organizations have to show members, and especially future members, what they have to offer: business contacts, new friends, professional experience, personal fulfillment.
This aspect is one of the most important ones to take into consideration, especially in organizations where volunteers refrain from taking on responsibility or where membership rates are dropping.
I can share information about a wonderful group of volunteers who have helped with the establishment of the Centre for Gender, Culture and Development in Rwanda. In 2009, between April and December, we had nearly 30 volunteers, including six Rwandans who gave their time to work as administrative assistants and library workers to catalogue the book donations which have come from around the world. Professors from Old Dominion University, Virginia, City University New York, and University of New York- El Paso have helped us to develop the Bachelors, Masters and Certificate of Continuing Professional Development programs. Interns from Canada, Australia and US have worked on research projects, curriculum development and media. Marion Gibson from Ireland and Denise Gray Felder from Communication for Change delivered courses. We would not be in the position to begin the centre this year without the work of such volunteers.
The Rwanda Association of University Women has also benefited from the support of interns. Three young university students staffed the office between appointments of Office Managers. One Canadian assisted with the development of the strategic plan. This has been a wonderful opporunity for people to learn about gender and development in Rwanda.
We generally recognize that availability of time for volunteer activities today is scarce. So, what we now need is less formal structure to have to maintain if volunteers are to be attracted to the actual work of a mission they support. Letting go of enough structure and gatekeeping is a difficult step for most organizations facing a changing environment.
It does mean that greater trust among participants needs to be developed so that individual members are free to make decisions about what actions to take, or service to provide. At the same time, the profession of volunteer management needs to be enhanced and encouraged so that when one does volunteer their time, the “system” is efficient enough so that the volunteer can be the most effective using their talents in the endeavor.
We need to continue to emphasize the benefits of volunteering for the greater good –defining this is concrete terms — is “what one gets for their money” — and that the skills, contacts, friendships developed will contribute to their profession and their own human development.
It is a fact that many women’s organization face the situation that number of members decreases. But perhaps it has very little to do with attraction of voluntary work. The answer is demanding every day life. Young women do not have time. But fortunately whose who retire have better health and education than before.
Women do not feel that fund rising is enough. They want to do something more visible. We in Finland have very good experiences from a voluntary project called Lets learn together. It was started by local UNIFEM branch and idea is very simple: retired Finnish women teach once a week (illiterate) immigrant women to speak, read and write Finnish. Students are elderly women or mothers of big families who cannot join programmes offered by the authorities. Most important is coming together and learning from each other. And interesting enough, not only project succeeds, but both UNIFEM and UW have got among “teachers” many new members. Seeing the problems in your neighbourhood opens the eyes to needs far away.
In countries like France, voluntary work means also those people who , at retirment, proposes their expertise to help countries in need; For example, doctors, teachers. They are not paid but expenses like travels and lodging are taken in charge by the organisation
in the past we had neighbourliness, people who lived nearby who would visit, shop, help, care for children, cook, …. mostly women who knew from their own experience the difficulties of everyday living with poverty and ill-health. Now. although this neighbourliness still exists, the spirit of helping and giving is organised into a far more widespread this type of neighbourliness has been translated into ‘volunteering’ , a far more widespread form of ‘gifting’. We can now reach people in need right across the globe, as well as those in our own community.
But why volunteer? and who are those who volunteer? One essential aspect is that of sensitivity – and for many of us that comes with knowledge of our own pain, how we have handled it, and how then we can reach out to others.
Volunteers are often those who have experienced significant pain in their own lives – and use this knowledge to help others.
Good for them!
What would we do without volunteers in our communities? It is the gift of time work in my community that keeps the real links between people in our street, our city and our wider community. Volunteers often do basic tasks like delivering meals, helping take library books to the hospital patients.
Social inclusion and participation, learning and sharing skills and contact locally, and globally are the benefits beyond price.
Each person has to manage their time between paid work, gift work , family and friends and time for self. I do hope volunteering grows as it essential for human beings.