Net Benefits: Weighing the Challenges and Benefits of Volunteers

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Net Benefits Weighing the Challenges and
Benefits of Volunteers

• Jeffrey L. Brudney Mark A. HagerUniversity of
  Georgia Urban Institute

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Realizing Payoff from Volunteers

• How does a charity know if it is gets a pay-off
  from involving volunteers?
• This research creates a metric to assess the
  pay-offs of involving volunteers.
• Most research considers only the benefits of
  volunteer involvement.
• New metric combines benefits as well as
  challenges of volunteer involvement.

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A National Survey

• Data collected from organizational
  representatives by phone in Fall 2003
• Sampled 3,000 charities from Form 990 filers
• N1,753 charities, 69 final response rate

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Our Definition of a Volunteer

• Works on regular, short term, or occasional
  basis
• Provides services to charity/congregation or
  those served
• Not paid as a staff member or a consultant
• Excludes board of directors -- unless they
  provide services beyond traditional governance
  duties
• Excludes special events participants -- unless
  they are volunteer planners or workers at these
  events

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A Few Background Findings

• Four in five charities have volunteers.
• More than half use volunteers primarily in direct
  service roles.
• 3 in 5 charities have a paid staff person
  responsible for management of volunteers.
• The typical such staffer spends only 30 percent
  of time on volunteer management.

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Benefits of Volunteers to Charities
Percent of Charities
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Challenges in Volunteer Management
Percent of Charities
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Net Benefits Score Benefits Challenges

• Weighting For Each Benefits Question
• Beneficial to a Great Extent 2
• Beneficial to a Moderate Extent 1
• Weighting For Each Challenges Question
• Big Problem -2
• Small Problem -1

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Net Benefits and Organization Size
Net Benefits Score
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Net Benefits and Scope of Volunteer Use
Net Benefits Score
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Net Benefits and Number of Volunteer Assignments
Net Benefits Score
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Net Benefits and Adoption of Management Practices
Net Benefits Score
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Net Benefits and Adoption of Management Practices
Net Benefits Score
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Major Influences on Net Benefits

• Positive Impacts
• - Adoption of Management Practices
• - Volunteer Coordinator
• - More Volunteer Assignments
• Negative Impacts
• - Volunteers primarily do administrative
  tasks
• - Many volunteers under age 24
• - Relative dependence on staff vs. volunteers

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More information

• Reports and other study details available at
  http//www.volunteerinput.org

Mark A. Hager, Ph.D. Senior Research
Associate Center on Nonprofits and
Philanthropy The Urban Institute 2100 M Street,
NW Washington, DC 20037 Phone (202)
261-5345 Fax [phone]
Jeffrey L. Brudney, Ph.D. University of
Georgia School of Public and Intl Affairs Dept.
of Public Admin. and Policy 104 Baldwin
Hall Athens, GA 30602-1615 Phone (706)
542-2977 Fax [phone]