Know the Research About Effective Volunteer Engagement
1. Effective volunteer engagement leverages and increases the impact of grant making.
- When engaged effectively, volunteers augment an organization’s financial and in-kind resources, producing greater value for each dollar invested.
- Volunteers provide new or expanded services to increase the return on investment and add significant value to the objectives of grants received by organizations.
2. Effective volunteer engagement is linked to stronger, more effective, and more efficient organizations as a whole.[1]
- All organizational capacities are significantly and markedly stronger for nonprofits with a strong volunteer engagement model.
- When organizations engage any number of volunteers well, they are significantly better led and managed as a whole.
- Organizations that fundamentally leverage volunteers and their skills towards their mission are significantly more adaptable, sustainable, and capable of going to scale.
- Organizations that engage volunteers are equally as effective as their peers without volunteers, but at almost half the median budget.
3. Effective volunteer engagement occurs when there is strong organizational and community infrastructure.
- The organization’s leadership (i.e., board, executive staff, and funders) must consider support of the volunteer infrastructure to be as important as any other organizational resource.
- Having a strategic volunteer engagement model requires strong and well-developed human resources management practices[2].The ability to engage and retain increasingly diverse volunteers requires highly competent leadership.
4. Effective volunteer involvement occurs when board and staff at all levels are adequately trained.
- Training helps board members—many of whom are corporate and philanthropic leaders—and executive staff members understandthat well-supported volunteers can increase an organization’s service and fundraising capacity.
- Training of volunteers and of the staff who support them is vital to successful volunteer engagement models.
5. People give their money where they give their time
Investing in Volunteer Engagement has a Big ROI
Investing in robust and strategic volunteer engagement infrastructure pays off significantly (e.g., organizations certified as Service Enterprises have reported a $6 return in volunteer value for every dollar invested in volunteer engagement)[3].
People give their money where they give their time
- Volunteering can be an important way of evaluating an organization for future financial support, as a significant number of donors (2 in 5) volunteered at a charity before making a financial donation to that organization.
- Half of volunteers say that volunteering leads them to give more financial support.
- Nearly 70% of high net worth individuals give financially to the organizations with which they volunteer.
- Organizations that provide robust volunteer opportunities have an edge in creating a steady donor base and in growing their overall level of financial support.
- Compared to younger volunteers, volunteers 61-70 years old (65%) are more likely to show interest in opportunities that require a specific skill set. These same volunteers are increasing their interest in philanthropy.
According to a 2009 study by Fidelity Charitable, volunteers give, on average, ten times as much as non-volunteers and most donate to the organizations in which they are involved. Nearly half of the wealthy donors interviewed give financially to most of the organizations where they volunteer.[4]
Research Shows that Effective Volunteer Engagement…
- Is linked to stronger, more effective, and more efficient organizations as a whole
- Leverages and improves grant making and corporate community involvement
- Requires ongoing training and development
- Requires organizational and community infrastructure
Putting Volunteer Engagement at the Core of an Organization
In 2009, Reimagining Service, a national cross-sector coalition dedicated to better understanding and promoting the power of volunteer engagement, conducted research on the state of engagement in the country. Through this research, the correlation between organizational health and sustainability and effective engagement of volunteers became clear. The term “Service Enterprise” was coined to describe an organization that fundamentally leverages volunteers and their skills to achieve its social mission. Now, Points of Light offers the opportunity to be certified as a Service Enterprise through a comprehensive training program to transform to an organization that fundamentally leverages volunteers and their skills.
Research conducted by TCC Group and Deloitte demonstrates that nonprofits operating as Service Enterprises outperform peer organizations on all measures of organizational capacity thereby allowing these nonprofits to more effectively address community needs and operate at almost half the median budget.
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