Not-For Profit Pulse on Volunteerism: The Results are In!

The long-awaited Not-for-Profit Pulse on Volunteerism has arrived...with some very interesting results! Read on for the highlights:

Volunteer Levels Holding Steady Despite Downturn

Despite a very difficult couple of years for the non-profit sector, volunteerism levels haven’t declined as some would have expected.  In fact, most of the participants in this survey saw little or no change in the ratio between volunteers to staff over the past two years.

Participants are also fairly positive about the future, with most predicting the ratio between volunteers and staff will hold steady or grow in the next five years.

NFP’s Continue to Rely on Traditional Methods for Attracting Volunteers

Participants continue to rely heavily on ‘tried-and-true’ methods when it comes to attracting volunteers.  Leveraging existing donor and other stakeholder networks as well as targeting the private sector are the most common ways for participants to mobilize volunteers to join their ranks. 

Social media and the internet is growing in popularity as a way to attract volunteers but just a fraction of participants feel that it is effective at achieving this goal. As appears to be the case in many areas to do with this evolving medium, while non-profits seem to recognize the potential of social media and the internet to attract volunteers, they haven’t yet seen a significant ‘return’ on the time, money and energy they have invested...at least, not yet.

Formal Volunteer Training Not Widely Offered by Non-Profits

There is very little being offered by participants in the way of formal training to their volunteers.  While most offer informal on-the-job training or at least some general information to their volunteers about their organization or cause, a surprising one-fifth offer absolutely no volunteer training, whatsoever.

NFP Opportunities Evolving to Meet Hectic Volunteer Schedules:

Shorter, project-based volunteer opportunities are becoming more popular as non-profits struggle to align with peoples’ hectic schedules. Looking forward, participants expect project-based volunteer opportunities to continue to replace a growing number of the ongoing opportunities that currently exist.

Despite their relative newness in non-profit circles, virtual volunteering (volunteering remotely via the internet) and micro-volunteering (volunteering in short, task-based bursts remotely via computer or mobile phone) is also being offered by a significant number of participants. 

That said, micro and virtual volunteering are still not widely perceived by participants to be the most effective method of volunteerism – As appears to be the case with social media and volunteerism, it seems as if people are still working out how to leverage this new technology effectively in this arena.

Free Access to the Full Not-for-Profit Pulse Highlight Report

If you would like to access the full highlight report (PDF), complete with tables and statistical analysis, please access it here. For those interested, we are also offering free access this week to the first two editions of the Not-for-Profit Pulse on Social Media and the Generation Shift.

If you like what you see, please sign up here to participate in our upcoming NFP Pulse on Recruitment and Retention of Members and Donors, scheduled to be launched in just a few days.  Results are always free to participants.

Summer Is Here! Celebrate With Free Access to the Not-for-Profit Pulse!

The Summer Solstice is upon us! To celebrate, we’ve decided this week only to provide public access to the first three volumes of Not-for-Profit Pulse. These free highlight survey reports each provide an analysis of a different trend that is top-of-mind for today’s not-for-profit sector based on a series of short surveys of the Canadian not-for-profit community.

Topics covered to date include:

• The Evolution of Volunteerism (New - Released Today!)
• The Impact of the Generation Gap on NFP’s (February 2010)
• Social Media and the NFP Sector (December 2009)

If you like what you see, we hope you will sign up here for an email notification to participate in our next NFP Pulse, which will launch in the coming days.

Our upcoming five-minute survey will focus on the recruitment and retention of members and donors – a trend that has been identified by several Pulse participants as something they would like to see covered in this publication.

Happy Solstice everyone – I hope it is a sunny one!

(This great photo taken by: Todd Baker)

Volunteerism in a Changing World: How is Your NFP Adapting?

Volunteerism is an evolving phenomenon that is having a significant impact on associations and charities alike.  Whether they manage your organization at the board or committee level, support your staff, or carry out your mission through their day-to-day activities, volunteers are clearly the lifeblood of the not-for-profit sector.

We received a lot of great topic suggestions for our upcoming NFP Pulse but a surprising number of you asked for a survey on volunteerism.  Specifically, you wanted to know what other NFP’s are doing in the way of volunteer recruitment and retention in an era where changing demographics, priorities and lifestyles are conflicting in many ways with the traditional way in which people have volunteered in the past.

The March edition of the Not-for-Profit Pulse will be launched next week and we hope you will take the opportunity to participate.  Your input will be used to help you and other NFP's to better understand how associations and charities are positionning themselves to succeed in light of this evolving trend. 

More information about the NFP Pulse can be found here. As always, participants will be provided with a free copy of the results as a thanks for their participation. 

Stay tuned, more info to come soon!

Playing the Not-for-Profit Prophet

I have been following a really interesting discussion on the CSAE Conference Group on LinkedIn over the past few days.  Bud Crouch, who will be leading the 2009 Governance Summit, asked association professionals to weigh in on what they think associations will look like five-to-six years from now.  His own thoughts (which I think are pretty spot-on) can be found in this article.

I thought it would be fun to play the not-for-profit prophet for a moment and weigh in on what I think a successful association will look like in the not-so-distant future. 

So here’s my take:  I think that while tactics will evolve and achieving success will become more of a challenge than ever before, the things that will take an association to the top and keep it there will be the same as what they are now:  In my version of the future, differentiation, innovation, value and engagement will continue to be the factors that make or break not-for-profits of all shapes and sizes. 

While the basic rules will remain the same, I agree wholeheartedly that the game is changing.  Based on what I’ve been seeing and hearing, here is how I think things might evolve:

Customized Membership

Associations will have to battle ever-harder for a shrinking number of members in the face of competition from other associations, online networks and resources, and private sector providers.   The survivors will be those who are truly able to stand out from the crowd by being able to deliver value in a world where the term means something different to each member. In order to provide a unique experience that members can’t replicate elsewhere, membership and all that it involves will become more customizable. 

New Revenue Models

The increased competition from the sources mentioned above, particularly from the internet and social media are allowing people to access networks and resources without having to pay a membership fee. Associations will increasingly have to give away for free a lot of what they have until now leaned on as their main sources of revenue.  Some real outside-of-the-box thinking will be needed to help associations figure out how to generate enough revenue to continue with their mandates.

Flatter, Less Hierarchical Structures

The key to achieving differentiation will be in the hands of associations that do more than just pay lip service to the term “putting members in the driver’s seat.”   

In the for-profit world, the traditional organizational structure looks a lot like a triangle with the company leadership at the top and the customers at the bottom.  In the not-for-profit sector, this triangle should be turned on its head because the members are the de-facto owners of the association (associations can’t exist without their members).  The reality is that many of today’s not-for-profits continue to imitate the for-profit environment and adopt a top-down governance approach.

The democratic and transparent nature of tools like social media will help to tear these traditional structures apart.  Jeff Decagna in this very relevant session at ASAE over the summer suggested that association ‘leaders’ will become the stewards or caretakers of their associations and that governance will go from being inside-out to “outside-in.”

As an extension to his, I would add that members truly will become the leaders of their associations and dictate in a more direct way than ever before what the association is, where it is headed and what its priorities will be. 

Evolution of Volunteerism…and Engagement

Volunteerism has been on the decline for awhile now.  The reality is that people are busier than ever before and have more things competing for their time.  Bud Crouch suggests that volunteerism in the future should address these challenges by being “fast, flexible, focused and fun.” 

I would add that social media will be a great tool for the innovative association looking to achieve the above.  Beyond this, I also think the markedly ‘un-linear’ and transparent nature of this medium has real potential to help boost engagement among all stakeholder groups, from members and volunteers to staff, board members and donors.

Transparency Will No Longer Be An Option

As social media moves more into the foreground, non-transparency just won’t be an option anymore.  When associations mess up, they will have to face the music.  If you haven’t followed the Kiva.com saga, this charity is a great example of how social media makes this happen.  Here’s an article on the debate from the New York Times.

The Great Age Divide

The baby boomer generation is retiring and this will continue to have a significant impact on not-for-profits.  All of the stakeholder groups will start looking a lot younger - from association staff, board members to volunteers and donors. 

Helping members to attract ‘young blood’ to their industries, adjusting to the new leadership styles of a younger generation, and finding ways to transfer tacit knowledge between seasoned executives and young leaders are just some of the challenges associations will face in this arena.

So What Say You?

I've given my two cents, now it’s your turn!  Put yourself in the shoes of the all-knowing Prophet to Not-for-Profits for a moment. Look into your crystal ball and let us know what you see!