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Chapter 3

Debunking the Myths of VolunteerEngagement

Sarah Jane RehnborgCVA, PhD

We’ve all heard it: Volunteers are as revered as “motherhood and apple pie,”regarded (incorrectly, I might add) as distinctly “American,” and celebrated eachApril during National Volunteer Week. Yet, when it comes to organizationaldecision-making, managerial hierarchies, and funding priorities, volunteer pro-grams and community engagement are rarely seen as “top-shelf” issues.

Staff tell us that they . . .

• Would consider engaging volunteers, but can’t trust them to keepinformation confidential.

• Want it done right, so they have to do it themselves.

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• Are tired of do-gooders that don’t do much good.

• Can’t trust volunteers to be there when needed.

The list goes on.Meanwhile executive leadership and boards wonder . . .

• How to fund a leadership position for volunteers. After all, volunteers arefree, and funders can’t be expected to underwrite this position.

• If volunteer contributions are really worth the liability risk.

• If they let volunteers into the organization, will they ever be able to getthem out if they don’t perform to expectations?

• If days of service are worth the time and effort, especially now that theseshort-term episodic events have gained so much popularity.

All of which leaves volunteer leaders/managers asking:

• How will I ever get the support I need from this organization to effectivelyengage the community?

• Is there a career path for me within this organization?

• How can I make the case for community engagement and staff supportwhen no one understands what I do?

• How do I develop a range of volunteer opportunities aligned with the needsof a changing society?

• How can I do my job when the structure of our organization seems to bestagnant?

• How do I intervene in a world saturated with newly minted professionalsand needs-based thinking?

These aren’t idle questions. Rather, they have vexed the field for as long asthose who manage volunteers have reflected together on more effective strategiesfor engagement. These are also the questions that this chapter proposes toultimately address by looking closely at the most pernicious assumptions in thefield that keep organizations from greater achievement while clouding the role ofvolunteers and those who are responsible for volunteer engagement.

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Revealing the Five Myths of Volunteer Engagement

As typically practiced, volunteer engagement efforts too often involve a self-reinforcing cycle of poor management, which are then seen as presenting a“catch-22,” an unsolvable logic problem for which we then blame the volunteer.The process goes like this:

1. A nonprofit recognizes the need for assistance to achieve its mission.

2. It assesses its financial resources, finds them deficient, and reflexively turnsto volunteers to fill the gap.

3. Leadership assumes that free volunteer labor requires little financial orstrategic investment.

4. The organization engages volunteers who may or may not be qualified.

5. A staff person may or may not oversee the volunteer effort, andexpectations, accountability, and communication remain unclear.

6. When the effort achieves little, volunteers are identified as the problem andare approached with skepticism, if at all, the next time a need is identified.

Does this sound familiar?A variety of additional issues can make this skepticism worse. An organization

facing cutbacks eliminates its volunteer manager position while increasing theexpectation for volunteer involvement. Major organizational restructuringimpacts the volunteer program, yet volunteers are never engaged in the processor informed of the outcome. A longstanding service tradition is discontinuedwithout attention to the feelings or needs of those who will be affected or theforesight to create new roles or opportunities for volunteers.

In short, volunteers are frequently overlooked as stakeholders in the process,programs suffer, and the victim becomes the identified problem.

This cycle of dysfunction is widely accepted even among those who championvolunteers, leaving the underlying assumptions and perceptions that perpetuate itunexamined. This begs the question: To what extent are some of these assump-tions and perceptions accurate? Are the perceptions of the volunteer managersaccurate? Are they actually marginalized and misunderstood, or are their super-visors overworked? Do executive directors or board members really overlookcommunity engagement as a component of organizational function or are theytoo busy to attend to these “details”? Do board members and executive directors

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actually spurn volunteers, even though trustees are themselves volunteers, or arethey so focused on other responsibilities that their inattention is perceived asdismissal? Is it true that executive leadership doesn’t regard volunteer manage-ment as a position that can be sold to a funder or to the board? Do executivedirectors believe that this work is “easy” and anyone can do the job (just as anyonecan volunteer), or does the organization’s leadership see the position as one thatrequires special training and expertise worthy of professional status within theorganization? Do volunteers actually pose liability and confidentiality risks, or arethese just smokescreens for other issues?

To look more deeply into these issues, the Volunteer Impact Fund projectbrought together a group of leaders in the field to try to figure out what executivedirectors really think about community engagement.1 A purposeful sample ofmore than 35 executive directors of nonprofits participated in three focus groupsheld in Austin, Texas, and Denver, Colorado. Invitees were selected using thecriterion of ignorance about the participants’ perceptions about volunteers. Inother words, if no one could readily identify what the executive director (ED)thought about volunteer engagement, they were added to the invitation list, andif someone knew that the ED was a “champion” of volunteer engagement, theywere excluded from the sample. Each focus group session was recorded, and thediscussions were transcribed.

Not only was turnout for these focus groups high, the rich discussion yieldedconsiderable insight into the executive mindset about volunteer engagement.Wide ranging comments covered all aspects of the volunteerism “waterfront,” soto speak, from the problematic . . .

“We do more work for volunteers than they do work for us.”

“You tend to focus on what can go wrong.”

“It’s almost easier to not have volunteer-client contact.”

to the more generous . . .

“We get a lot of people who want to volunteer . . . . It’s folly for us not to find away to engage those people, because it generates ill will if we can’t utilize thatenergy.”

“Today, our goals have to do with social capital building in the communities weserve . . . . Our thoughts about volunteer programs . . . have to change.”

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to basic management considerations . . .

“Each volunteer has an agenda, and we need to match that with our programsand mission.”

“I can see that even though I was hesitant to hire a volunteer manager, 20 hoursisn’t enough . . . . I’m starting to see how this fits with branding anddevelopment—how it all goes together.”

In analyzing the data from the focus groups, we found that the same five mythskept coming up:

• Volunteers are free.

• You can’t “invest” in voluntary efforts.

• Volunteers want only what you want.

• Meeting volunteers halfway is a recipe for trouble.

• “Volunteer work” is best defined as that which staff wants no part of.

Our findings also helped us to hear more clearly the concerns of executiveleadership about volunteer engagement, and find some clear ways to respond tothe problems they encounter on the topic. In examining these myths and some oftheir root causes, we hope to provide a few guidelines to assist the leader ofvolunteers in targeting and addressing internal resistance to volunteerism.

Debunking the Myths

If you work to involve volunteers, you will undoubtedly run into many of thesame attitudes again and again, and perhaps you’ve even felt these things yourself.Certainly, the myths that bubbled up in our focus groups aren’t exclusive toexecutive directors. As you read the following section, I encourage you to first askwhether each assertion is familiar to you, and to explore the evidence that is usedto reach the assertion. Then I invite you to consider the research findings andother materials that I present. There’s ample information that these “truths”really aren’t self-evident, but rather are easy responses to complex issues worthy ofthoughtful analysis. How would letting go of them serve you, your organization,

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and the community interested in working with you to achieve importantoutcomes?

Are Volunteers Worth It?

• Myth 1: Volunteers are free.

• Myth 2: You can’t invest in volunteers.

These myths, which are actually deeply intertwined, speak to perceptions ofthe “value” of volunteer engagement.

The language and vocabulary associated with volunteers may be responsible,at least in part, for some of these assumptions. The term volunteer generallyconnotes free choice, socially beneficial behavior, and the absence of market-ratefinancial compensation. In a society in which people are frequently judged bytheir salaries and their financial success, a service rendered at no charge is oftenconstrued as unskilled, menial, amateur, lacking in value, operating within thepurview of thoughtless do-gooder-ism, or, in a sexist light, as “women’s work.” AsSusan Ellis points out in Chapter 2 of this book: “Men have always volunteered;they just call themselves coaches, trustees, and firemen!”

Because volunteers are so often regarded as “free,” the notion that they mightrequire an investment seems paradoxical. As one executive director noted in ourfocus group, “Volunteering sounds like it’s free and not worth anything,” thus, “. . .it’s tough to convince the board to use money for volunteers.” Although it is true thatvolunteers operate without receiving market-value compensation for the workperformed, serious organizational initiatives—of any type—require a strategicvision and an outlay of time, attention, and infrastructure.

Hagar and Brudney found just this in an analysis of 3,000 charities in 2004.2

Based on extensive telephone interviews, the authors concluded that “organiza-tions that invest in volunteer management capacity are likely to attain high netbenefits.” According to the study, key elements of an investment in volunteermanagement capacity would be having a volunteer coordinator, having “regularsupervision and communication” with volunteers, buying “liability coverage orinsurance protection” for volunteers, tracking hours, and having written policiesand job descriptions for volunteers, among other things.

Hagar and Brudney expand their definition of investment to include volun-teers themselves. This might mean, for example, giving them more responsibilityfor a greater array of tasks. As the authors found, “Investment in volunteers leads

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to higher net benefits, which in turn leads charities to make an even greaterinvestment in their volunteers.” Surprisingly, although this finding was true fornonprofits of all sizes, smaller organizations had slightly greater benefits when theyinvested in volunteering.

So, how, then, does one tackle the argument that it might be cheating toinvest in volunteer, aka “free” labor? This is clearly tied into the complex issuethat every service organization wrestles with—how to translate intangibleservices into tangible, quantifiable outcomes. What, for example, are the metricsthat demonstrate the value of counseling services? How does a crowded hospitaljustify the costs associated with play space for children in an acute-care facility?How does an organization build the case for a marketing campaign or spendmoney on advertising? How does one argue the “value” of granting a final wish fora dying child or define the worth of the consistent support provided by a bigbrother or big sister? In the context of volunteer engagement, what is the value ofa volunteer’s service and how is this value identified, defined, and enumerated?

The answer, in part, is to acknowledge that most products require an under-lying process in order to achieve a desired end goal. Yes, steel, plastic, nuts andbolts, wires, and computer systems go into the manufacturing of a car but so doeshuman labor, and human labor is as vital an element of the nonprofit equation asit is in the for-profit sector. Moving closer to home, a great many nonprofits, andthe foundations that fund them, require logic models, the linear planning toolthat traces an organization’s theory of change. Resources, or inputs, are part of theequation leading to outputs and outcomes. When included as a tangible input inthe organization’s logic model, the outcome of the community’s effort can bemore readily measured and quantified.

Just as solar panels capture the power of the sun’s rays, we need systems thatcapture the power of the “free” labor of volunteers. We need to debunk the myththat volunteers are simply the result of the spontaneous combustion of “helpingenergy” and recognize that complex human issues require complex systems toaddress them. We need to focus the energy of those who want to make adifference, we need to prepare them for service, we need to account for their effortjust as we account for the efforts of every other input, and we need to measure thereturn on that investment. It is a team sport, and we need staff, experiencedvolunteers, and board members who move our organizations to their finish lines.We invest in and measure what we care about, and we care about what we investin and measure. (For more on this topic, see Chapter 20, “Measuring theVolunteer Program.”)

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What Do Volunteers Want?

• Myth 3: Volunteers want only what you want.

• Myth 4: Meeting volunteers halfway is a recipe for trouble.

In contrast to nearly every other relationship in the nonprofit sector,volunteers are often viewed as a homogenous group whose needs and motivationsfor volunteering are seen either as directly aligned with the organization’s needs,or otherwise unimportant and distracting. Furthermore, if volunteers are seen asactually needing anything, they are considered a nuisance. As one focus groupparticipant noted: “Doing things to support volunteers . . . is that truly necessary? DoI have to do appreciation lunches? We want volunteers who are focused on the [client]and bringing them joy at no cost.” Another executive director took this concern astep further: “Volunteers are the biggest area that I struggle with in my job. They aretime consuming. They contribute to mission drift.”

Yes, the mission of a nonprofit organization, whether a charity or a publicsector agency, is paramount. In practice, however, the needs and motivations ofsome stakeholders are deemed more important than others. Effective nonprofitrelationships are characterized in win-win terms; foundations are selected basedon sympathy with certain causes, grants are written to cultivate a positiveresponse, and board members are solicited with an eye toward time, talent,and treasure. When our expectations are not met in these relationships, we don’tdismiss the entire category of stakeholder as deficient. Rather, we work to analyzethe problem and fix it.

In fact, effective exchange relationships are built on devotion to the mission,shared understanding, clarity of expectations, appropriate boundaries, andmutual respect. Nowhere is it stated that every applicant for a job must behired, nor is it necessary to engage every volunteer that walks through your door.Carefully crafted job descriptions underpin both salaried and nonsalaried posi-tions. What needs to be done and by when? What attitude and demeanor fit mostappropriately within this workplace? Is training a pre-requisite for this position, oris training provided on the job? Do we need lots of people for a short time(distributing water at a marathon fundraiser), or are we seeking a person withspecific skills (a bilingual translator)? The type of work, its nature, and durationall become factors in the development of the relationship as well as the latitudethe manager affords the applicant, whether salaried or not. There is no “one size-fits-all” solution.

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Yes, volunteers do “want something,” but generally it’s consistent with theneeds and desires of the organization. Volunteers want to know their time is beingwell used. They want to know they can make a real difference. They may alsowant job experience or a new connection to the community. They may want tohone a new skill or make a donation.

To ascertain these needs and desires, the skills associated with effectivehuman resources management apply. Targeted recruitment narrows the field;interviews illuminate motivation and temperament; and applications and back-ground checks ascertain skill levels and hidden issues. These processes alsoprovide the opportunity to set expectations and select the person who is mostappropriate and exclude those who aren’t.

Staff must also be prepared to work with volunteers to assure a win-winrelationship. For example, staff members who have themselves volunteeredsomewhere are more likely to identify with the needs of the volunteer anddesign appropriate opportunities. Putting volunteer engagement into someone’sjob description further reduces resistance. Rewarding staff for creative teamworkwith volunteers adds incentives, giving this part of the position credibility andexcitement.

To bring the point home, it’s helpful to think about when the “issue ofvolunteers” pops up within the organizational lifecycle. A developmental sketchof the history of most nonprofits finds a group of committed individuals gatheredaround a kitchen table sharing their dreams, concerns, and aspirations. Thesepeople—yesterday’s organizational founders, today’s social innovators—channeltheir energy and ideas to promote a shared common interest. Seldom are theseearly innovators salaried.

In other words, they came together as volunteers. Along the way, a board isformed, articles of incorporation filed, IRS designation sought, bylaws created,and funds solicited. As the history of the group evolves, these early volunteers seekfunds to further their objectives and hire staff to hopefully reach new levels ofsuccess.

Generally, it is only after an organization is reasonably well established that adifferent and distinctly separate notion of volunteer emerges. Usually this is whenan organization revisits its goals and realizes that its needs exceed its resources.Maybe volunteers can help! Of course, by this point in the evolution of theorganization, barriers to engagement have already sprung up and the kind ofrobust volunteer energy, which helped launch the organization, is now consid-ered extraneous and viewed as distracting the group from reaching its carefully

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constructed goals. Or, as one of our focus group participants observed, now theorganization “works on making sure that volunteers are giving what the organizationneeds, not just doing what they want to do.” Maybe there would be fewer nonprofitsif only we could keep engaging the energy and enthusiasm of those who want tomake a difference in new and creative ways?

What Do Volunteers Do?

• Myth 5: “Volunteer work” is best described as work that staff want nopart of.

“Should we save our volunteers for envelope stuffing and hire someone to work thefront desk? Would this drive away our volunteers?”

Volunteer engagement, like any other critical aspect of organizational life,requires forethought and alignment with the group’s mission, vision, and goals.The question is not “What can volunteers do?” but, rather, “What work needs tobe done to achieve organizational success?”.

There are no tasks that a volunteer with the requisite training and credentialscan’t do. Medical and dental clinics can be staffed by pro bono clinicians;attorneys and CPAs often donate their services; executives write business plansfor startups without charging for it; speakers and trainers offer workshops toenhance skills; firefighters and first responders serve many of the nation’scommunities without compensation; cooks deliver gourmet meals; and U.S.postage special-issue stamps are selected by citizen advisory committees.

To not harness the skills and abilities of the community leaves a valuable asseton the cutting room table. Expanding your vision, it turns out, expandsopportunities. Or, as one executive director in the study noted, “I wish I hadknown more about the literal ‘dollar value added’ . . . . I finally got that itimpacts your bottom line and that having a healthy [volunteer] program benefitsthe organization.”

Developing a vision for volunteers and broader community engagementbegins with an open mind. To automatically assume that volunteers are somehowdifferent from the rest of us is a myopic view of the potential of communityengagement. When we add words like pro bono, trustee, intern, student, corporategroup, and friend to the litany of words that describe our volunteers, this opens usup for skilled service opportunities, short-term as well as long-term experiences,and space for the generalist who wants to be associated with your cause.

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Expanding our engagement circle also brings new life to the process. Mostassuredly, the staff upon whom these plans rest need to be a part of the process, asdo representatives of the community, clients, and other stakeholders whoseoutreach helps us harvest the necessary resources. Likewise, it is important totake stock of where you are with engagement efforts. Frequently, organizationshave networks that may be invisible or underutilized. You may have friends whoare waiting for the chance to be a part of your mission-critical work.

If you are new to the world of volunteerism and community engagement,think about employing pilot programs that allow some of these ideas to be testedand refined. Ask volunteers to help you try out ideas and establish guidelinesbefore large problems emerge. Explore what other organizations are doing.Sometimes, the best ideas come from organizations unlike yours; at other times,you may want to benchmark your success based on the work of leaders in yourorganizational domain. And, finally, determine ways to measure success. How willyou know if your efforts are a success? What baseline data should you collect? Arethere new measures to establish, and if so, what are they?

The participants in the focus groups we introduced at the beginning of thischapter left with a number of observations. One person noted that he was“surprised that the issues are the same in a small organization as they are in a hugeorganization. You’re thinking it’s not going to be quite that complicated.”Another commented, “If you can see that having a healthy [volunteer] programbenefits the organization, and it’s a sign of a healthy organization, it would be somuch better. It’s one of the 40 million things I wish I had known.”

A point person, a vision, and the resources to spearhead the work of volunteerengagement are the critical ingredients of success. This isn’t work that staffwant “no part of ”; rather, it’s work that moves your mission one step closer toreality.

Conclusion

Nonprofit leaders operate in constrained economies with ambitious goals andeven greater dreams. Meaningfully incorporating community into the equation oforganizational success isn’t just a nice idea; it is essential.

In The Birth of the Chaordic Age, Dee Hock’s account of the founding of VISAInternational, which he led for 16 years before stepping away from businessleadership, speaks eloquently about the nonmonetary exchange of value and

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essence of community. In going beyond the myths of volunteer engagement, hiswords might help to spur us forward:

Without an abundance of nonmaterial values and equal abundance of non-monetary exchange of material value, no true community ever existed or everwill. Community is not about profit. It is about benefit (p. 43) . . . . It is amistake to confuse money with value. It is a mistake to believe that all value canbe measured. And it is a colossal mistake to attempt to monetize all value(p. 44) . . . . The essence of community, its very heart and soul, is the non-monetary exchange of value; things we do and share because we care for others,and for the good of the place (p. 42) . . . . Life is a gift, bearing a gift, which is theart of giving. And community is the place where we can give our gifts and receivethe gifts of others. (p. 45)

Thoughtfully, meaningfully, and effectively engaging the community in thelife of nonprofit and public service organizations is the gift of community, a giftthat the volunteer brings to the organization and the organization provides to thevolunteer.

Dr. Sarah Jane Rehnborg is Associate Director of The RGK Center ofPhilanthropy and Community Service and a lecturer in the LBJ Schoolof Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. Sarah is a memberof the Reimagining Service Council and serves as a consultant, speaker, andtrainer for numerous local and national organizations. She served as Presi-dent of the Association for Volunteer Administration, developed the field’sperformance-based certification system, and served on the founding boardof the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration. Sarah earned aPhD from the University of Pittsburgh.

Notes

1. Sarah Jane Rehnborg et al., Strategic Volunteer Engagement: A Guide for Nonprofit and PublicSector Leaders, RGK Center for Philanthropy & Community Service, the LBJ School of PublicAffairs, the University of Texas at Austin, 2009.

2. Mark A. Hagar and Jeff Brudney, Balancing Act: The Challenges and Benefits of Volunteers(Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 2004).

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