New Styles of Volunteering

1. New Styles of Volunteering Identifying and Managing Volunteers

2. Objectives • Describe the Multi-Paradigm Model of Volunteering • Describe four forms of volunteer service • Describe implications for managing non-traditional volunteers • Teach participants to tailor recruitment or recognition efforts based on different volunteer styles

3. Multi-Paradigm Model of Volunteering Objectivism Radical Change Entrepreneurial Volunteer Social Change Volunteer SUBJECTIVISM Serendipitous Volunteer Traditional Volunteer Stability

4. Traditional Volunteering • Work done is predictable • Identified lines of supervision are expected • Volunteers are comfortable with incremental change • Volunteers prefer to be included in decisions to make change

5. Implications for Management • Defined job responsibilities • Screening • Supervision/Contact • Recognition-welcome outward expressions of appreciation for their service • Regular communication - newsletters, e-mail and phone calls

6. Serendipitous Volunteers • Prefer stability and incremental change • Serve on an occasional basis • Have little patience with those who dictate to them • Act in unconventional ways in response to a perceived need, based on beliefs in the power of communal responses

7. Serendipitous Volunteers • Organize teams of people to address an issue or problem • Work with an existing organization, but under a loose connection • Need to have an idea about service and then figure out how to provide it on their own or with a small group

8. Managing Serendipitous Volunteers • Volunteers need to design their own tasks or service, in consultation with the organization • Tasks need to be available when the volunteer is available - Be Flexible • Group interaction is important toward the contribution of the work project process • Gentle guidance, mostly in the form of questions and sharing of information is the preferred method of supervision

9. Social-Change Volunteers • Seek something radically new —based on his/her perceptions of the unmet needs of members, clients or communities • Do not need a specific job assignment in an organizational context to begin working • Seek change and action • Seek to create new systems and solutions for existing problems and contributing to the larger society

10. Social-Change Volunteers • Are motivated by innovation and change • Prefer participating with groups of people to revolutionize the way in which programming or services are implemented • Have a desire to adjust and experiment with new approaches, products and services that will make the final outcome better than it currently is • Are cause-oriented

11. Managing Social-Change Volunteers • Passive activities that require sitting or repetition are of little or no interest to them • Conflict is expected and can serve as a strong motivator for these volunteers • It is helpful for them to creatively address conflict to better the goals of the work • It is helpful that they are given a chance for the development of new strategies and tactics for social change

12. Managing Social-Change Volunteers • SCV can bring vitality to a stale program. • Individuals and groups must be organized to address what they consider to be pressing needs and move to gather others to address the issues. • Most often they are leaders of like-minded volunteers. • The manager must be comfortable with conflict and the promotion of social causes.

13. Entrepreneurial Volunteers • Regard themselves as self-appointed doers of good • Act outside of the boundaries of organized or formalized volunteer programs • Have an intense personal desire to do justice their way • Work to facilitate radical change one person at a time • Enact change by working independently without personal gain

14. Managing Entrepreneurial Volunteers • Typically EV cannot be easily managed and will be unhappy in traditionally organized volunteer programs with forms, applications and discussions about service. • It is possible to recruit an entrepreneurial volunteer for special tasks that involve independent work and substantive change.

15. Reference • http://www.volunteertoday.com/ARCHIVES2007/4Q06%20Workshop_Macduff.pdf