People are volunteering less. Here’s what you can do about it.
Sit on your hands. That’s what I told myself as my son’s kindergarten teacher asked a roomful of moms and dads, “Who wants to be the room parent this year?”
The silence was interminable. Room parent is a volunteer position that involves organizing class celebrations and other activities. As an involved parent, I wanted to support my child’s teachers, but I had just started a new job and didn’t have time for another commitment.
Just keep your mouth shut and sit on your hands.
The tension rose. I couldn’t take it anymore. I opened my mouth to speak – but the voice that finally broke the silence was not mine. “I’ll do it!” shouted another mother, raising her hand just in time. The rest of us applauded, relieved.
Since you’re reading The Rotarian, I know you can relate. Every service-driven individual has had a sit-on-your-hands moment. We all want to make the world better; we all want to help our communities. But there are times when the demands of work and family force us to cut back on volunteering.
In 2013, Americans cut back in record numbers. The volunteer rate declined to 25.4 percent, the lowest it has been since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking it in 2002.
The reason for the dip is unclear, and it may be more of a blip than a long-term trend. Still, it’s a reminder that we can’t take volunteers for granted. An organization that depends on this kind of service can’t afford to get complacent about recruiting new people to relieve the old standbys.
To attract volunteers, it helps to understand their motivation. People seek out service opportunities for three main reasons, says Nina Eliasoph, vice chair of sociology at the University of Southern California and author of three books on volunteering. First, the practical: “to help people in need,” Eliasoph says. Second, the emotional: to interact with others. “There’s something emotionally important about volunteering. You develop a camaraderie with the other volunteers,” she explains. Third, the intellectual: to understand, and to improve, the world. We’ll get back to this one later.
The first two reasons come as no surprise to Rotarians. In the more than 100 years since Paul Harris came up with the idea, Rotary clubs have been founded on service and fellowship. Even so, clubs sometimes fall short on volunteers. That’s why some have extended the notion of fellowship beyond their own members.
When the Rotary Club of Tallahassee Sunset, Fla., set out to build wheelchair ramps for the elderly and people with disabilities, it foresaw one minor problem: “A lot of our members have never held a hammer in their life,” says club president Tonya Chavis. “We have enthusiasm, but not much expertise.”
So the club got together with some engineers from the Georgia Tech Alumni Association of Tallahassee/Thomasville. “These are guys who know how to swing a hammer,” Chavis says. The local nonprofit Ability 1st, which provides services to people with disabilities, came aboard too, and this year, a roller derby team and Tallahassee Rotaractors will help out. (In addition to teaming up on service projects, Rotarians and Rotaractors in Tallahassee hold a joint happy hour and other social events throughout the year.) The result was a workforce of 20 volunteers, 12 of whom were Rotarians. They constructed a ramp in a single day and plan to build more.
“We are a small club, and our membership is young and active. If we are going to make a difference, we must be creative,” Chavis says. “As president, I am pursuing these partnerships to improve networking opportunities, find potential Rotary members, and create a greater impact.”
That brings us back to the third reason people tend to volunteer. Our desire to change the world often goes beyond holding a coat drive for needy children to asking why those children lack winter clothing in the first place and what we can do about it.
Such questions can be overwhelming. “This may be where the decline is coming from,” Eliasoph says. “Volunteers need to feel like they can make a difference.”
One way to foster that feeling is to choose a single service project and make a long-term commitment to it. This is especially true of international projects, which take a while to establish and sometimes unravel in the early stages of planning. “Having a partnership that goes on for decades is more effective, and better for both sides,” Eliasoph says.
Technology has eased communication between clubs partnering on international service efforts. It also has connected projects in need of volunteers with people looking to help. “Thanks to technology and the groundswell of social media, people have become catalysts in their communities through online organizing and virtual volunteering,” says Tanisha Smith, national director of volunteer services for Volunteers of America.
Clubs looking for volunteers, in-kind resources, and contributions can use a new tool, Rotary Ideas (ideas.rotary.org), to find support for their projects. And anyone – Rotarians as well as the general public – can browse the site for efforts that interest them and match their skills. Another tool, Rotary Showcase (www.rotary.org/showcase), lets clubs upload photos and videos of completed projects, track a project’s impact, and see how much work Rotary clubs are doing locally and globally.
Meanwhile, a Rotarian named Chuks Onwuneme has developed a mobile app called Personify.It, which links people with volunteer opportunities. Nonprofit groups across the United States are already using the app, which bills itself as “the Airbnb for social good” and is open to individuals as well.
“Each club will be able to use this to publicize its specific needs, or to organize its projects and volunteers,” says Onwuneme, a member of the Rotary Club of Queen Anne (Seattle). The app opens to a list or a map that shows opportunities and events taking place near the user’s phone.
I have another theory about why people volunteer: It’s about our sense of self. Sure, it’s satisfying to help those in need and to be among friends. But it’s just as satisfying to think of ourselves as the sort of people who do those things. It simply feels good to be a volunteer.
Back in my son’s kindergarten classroom, once the room-parent drama had settled, I was left with a nagging sense of neglected duty. I wandered to the back of the room, where the teacher had posted sign-up sheets for weekly volunteer jobs. Before I could talk myself out it, I had committed to helping with lesson prep every Friday morning.
I didn’t have time for it – as volunteers, we never do. But I have no regrets. Those mornings in the classroom – cutting bright green leaves out of construction paper while sneaking glances at my son – were some of my favorite mornings of the year.
Next time my busy life seems to argue against volunteering, I’ll remember that. — Kim Lisagor