The slow death of volunteering

 

Recently I saw a dear colleague of mine decry the lack of support for the volunteering infrastructure in their state budget here in Australia for volunteering. My colleague was brave enough to state this on LinkedIn. I know how passionate she is about the volunteering sector and I had great empathy with her statement. I’ve been blogging about this for many years now so I wasn’t surprised. I nearly replied that in my 26 years as a volunteer manager and advocate for our profession and volunteering that the story simply has not changed. Our sector get peanuts. Most volunteer managers get paid peanuts. I continue to look at salaries of volunteer managers when the positions are advertised. Firstly, many are advertised as part time roles and secondly even the rate of volunteer manager seems to be on the lower band of wages compared to other specialist roles such as HR Management.

So the viscous cycle continues. There are a few exceptions. There are organisations that do understand the value of volunteer management because they understand the value of volunteering, not only in monetary terms but they know that resourcing volunteer management is a great investment with a great return on investment.

With volunteering and volunteer management the macro has much to do with the micro. By this I mean, if Governments do not invest in the volunteering infrastructure, then volunteer management at a micro level suffers. Sub - standard wages for a sector of professionals that are not even unionised mostly.

I believe it comes down to hubris. Politicians think that people will always volunteer. And naturally, I have never seen any strikes in the volunteering sector. Because volunteers always turn up. That is the mindset of Government. They see volunteering as nice and good but not critically important. Oh they will tell you different during volunteer weeks and International Volunteer Day and other times when they can get an opportunity to make a speech telling us that “Volunteering is the backbone of our society” Or “volunteering is the heart of our community”.

In Australia in particular when we budget for 300 billion in Nuclear Subs but give a few pennies to the volunteering ecosystem you have to wonder where their priorities are.

I have seen organisations where the volunteer management budgets have been pulverized and volunteer numbers drop dramatically. I personally have been approached by organisations asking if I would be National Manager of their volunteer programs with the type of remuneration that are insulting to our profession.

As we prepare for another International Volunteer Managers Day in November I struggle with their new slogan “Helping Others Help”. I bemoan the fact that in some ways that we celebrate volunteer Managers “paid and unpaid” because I know the HR industry would never celebrate HR Managers “paid and unpaid”. I’ve become so tired of hearing that volunteering runs on the smell of an oily rag. I have become tired of the myth that Volunteer management is simple and easy. I have become tired of the dumbing down of our profession.

In todays’ world, after a pandemic, with natural disasters to become more common due to inaction on climate change, in a world where wars continue to feed the military industrial complex and volunteer activists are locked up for protesting I know, and you know that volunteering is more important today than it ever is. Maybe the powers that be don’t want it to be managed and supported. After all, citizens who volunteer may need to know their place.

The solution? Our sectors voice is no longer enough. We need to join with movements that want a better and more peaceful world for our citizens. We need to come together with the whole community that want a better world for us and our children and their children. We need to get out of our volunteer management silo and form alliances with businesses who really care about corporate social responsibility, with political parties who are interested in citizen assemblies, with philanthropists who can give us resources and with the vast majority of our population who are tired of the old status quo. We can no longer advocate for ourselves because it is simply not working. We need to get tired of going to Governments and organisations with our hats begging for a few pennies.

Because if we don’t. Volunteering itself will die a slow death. They will eventually see the corporation of our charities and NGOs whose “profit for purpose” mottos will seem hollow as they take on more leaders from the corporate world who bring with them their corporate methodology.

Heed this warning. A better world will only become a reality with volunteering. And if it is not supported, formal volunteering will decline, and volunteer activism will be criminalised! It’s already begun.