WHAT NONPROFITS NEED TO LEARN FROM FOR-PROFITS
At last, volunteering is getting some of the respect it deserves.
In its just-released seventh annual Volunteer Impact Survey, Deloitte reports a significant shift in corporate attitudes toward workplace volunteerism.
Seen in the past by companies as little more than an employee perk, volunteerism lately is being dressed as a serious tool for social change. “The business community sees its promise and, in fact, has very high expectations for what volunteerism can accomplish,” concludes Deloitte, based on online interviews of 303 executives at companies with 1000+ employees. More than eight in 10 companies (84%) believe that volunteerism can help nonprofits accomplish long-term social goals.
In the silver lining category, we can pretty much chalk up this corrective leap to the recession. Nonprofits need more support than ever as funding dwindles and need keeps climbing. Volunteer help is more essential than ever. Smart stewardship in the form of skilled board members, invariably volunteers, is likewise key to navigating the tough times. Corporations are intent on appearing helpful and virtuous. In point of fact, greed is now bad, very bad, indeed. For-profit companies are taking great pains to polish their image as a company that cares about the community and gives back.
Certainly, the proliferating challenges burdening nonprofits these days are dreadful and scary. But at least this adjusted attitude toward volunteering is one outcome of the New Normal we can applaud.
The prevailing notion that volunteers STILL are wealthy ladies who lunch or bored grandmas who don’t know how to fill up their days is laughable. The group that volunteers the most hours and the most often in this country is working moms, who, arguably, have the least amount of discretionary time than any other demographic.
In 2009, volunteer time was estimated to be worth $20.85 per hour, a jump of 60 cents over the year before, according to Independent Sector, a nonprofit lobbyist and association. And since, as research tells us, women volunteer more than men do, both in frequency and in number of hours, we know women are contributing billions of dollars in talent and time that is woefully undervalued and underappreciated.
The fact that so many nonprofit organizations do not recruit, train or even thank volunteers is thoughtless and, in many cases, obnoxious. Nonprofits also need to readjust that old chestnut that advises, “If they give money, they won’t give time.” Nowadays, donors give both.
Nonprofits must rearrange their attitudes and their practices when it comes to respecting volunteers. If Deloitte is really onto a big shift here, maybe nonprofits ought to start taking lessons from the for-profit world.