Volunteering
Volunteer Strategy Call to Action
5 December 2011
Tanya Plibersek, the Minister for Social Inclusion and Minister for Human Services, yesterday launched the National Volunteering Strategy at the Volunteering Australia Conference. The development of this strategy is the culmination of consultation and research overseen by Minister Plibersek and previously, Senator Ursula Stephens. A key element to the consultation was a National Volunteering Strategy Advisory Group, of which I was a member.
The release of the strategy coincides with the 10 year anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers that was spearheaded by the United Nations. This has been formalised into a global United Nations campaign called IYV + 10, which is focussing on recognising the contribution of volunteers toward peace and development.
All of this is worthy of our support because my sense is that Volunteering has gone into a sort of holding pattern in the last decade. We haven’t really seen the level of innovation required to ensure Volunteering is best placed to respond to significant societal change like increased migration, the rise of Social Media, Boomers retiring in large numbers and both parents in families staying in paid work. Not responding effectively to these changes will have catastrophic implications for those accessing community services, for the not for profit sector and for our society as a whole. I still remember the International Year of Volunteering in 2001 and the momentum off the back of the Sydney Olympics. There was a great sense of hope and optimism but, like Sydney post the Olympics, it seems Volunteering itself has suffered a similar malaise.
The Strategy released by the Commonwealth is a good shot in the arm for Volunteering
The Strategy released by the Commonwealth is a good shot in the arm for Volunteering with a few important qualifications. From the outset of the work of the Advisory, Minister Plibersek was rightly at pains to point out that the Commonwealth should not play a heavy hand in volunteering, being very clear on where Government’s role ends and society’s begins. Volunteering is and should be community lead and were it to be controlled by Government it would be inherently compromised. In addition to this Minister Plibersek also acknowledged the significant budget constraints of the Commonwealth and as a result the limited available spend.
All that said, through this strategy the Commonwealth has tried to hold up a mirror to the Voluntary Sector and other stakeholders to highlight the enormous social upheavals that are impacting volunteering. The hope is that this will spark some new self initiated activity to innovatively respond to key trends such as technology and demographic changes for young people and older Australians. The paper also identifies a range of insightful examples of what is already being done globally and locally. The paper itself makes a range of funding announcements that are focused on improving Volunteering infrastructure, such as $5m for local volunteering centres, and funding for new initiatives such as the Foundation for Young Australians’ Young People without Borders volunteering program. The big ticket items identified in the paper, such as the National Broadband Network and Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission, are in reality initiatives that create a secondary benefit for Volunteering.
Invariably the release of the strategy will lead to vested interests who will be identifying gaps and missed opportunities. My own thoughts are that the strategy hasn’t adequately come to terms with the under representation of migrants in formalised volunteering. Whilst people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds often participate in ‘informal volunteering’, largely through supporting their families, there is more to be done in providing opportunities to work more closely with not for profit organisations which can promote greater levels of social cohesion.
The other element that could have been given more focus is Employee Volunteering and funding Social Innovation. The report acknowledges that 40% of volunteers are employed and from the perspective of a strengths-based approach, one would have to think that this channel of volunteers must be mined further. In simple terms the workplace is the easiest and most cost-effective way to access the largest amount of people with a propensity to volunteer. Coupled with the rise in Corporate Social Responsibility, this presents an opportunity that can’t be ignored.
In simple terms the workplace is the easiest and most cost-effective way to access the largest amount of people with a propensity to volunteer
At United Way we find that there is no end to the opportunity to engage Employee Volunteers and up to 42% of our volunteers are first timers. In other words, it’s a great gateway for new volunteers. The challenge is developing the models that harness this talent and finding the Not for Profit partners with the level of professionalism to meet expectations. I think that some sort of investment in this area and more broadly, in the area of Social Innovation, could have made an enormous difference in helping Not for Profit organisations be more responsive to the way prospective volunteers want to get involved.
But perhaps this is where the Commonwealth sees their role as ending and the role of others starting. The Minister has said that this report is a ‘call to action’ and I think it’s an opportunity for the Voluntary Sector and Business to step up and work together to ensure volunteering continues to be part of our culture, an important resource for Community Services and fundamentally a catalyst for future Social Innovation. I hope that there are enough of us who won’t leave the future of volunteering to circumstance but collaborate intentionally; involving all sectors to ensure that volunteering continues to adapt and grow in the future.
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INSPIRING COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS TO ‘LIVE A LIFE OUTSIDE OURSELVES’
14 Nov 2012
“I think we all have these deep desires to make an impact, to make a difference, to live a life outside ourselves, and what you guys do in breaking that down in terms of how we can make a difference is priceless, so thank you.”
This year in Sydney we have been busy building and working with our Corporate Community Champions network – a group that brings together our dedicated Community Champions from across 13 of United Way’s Corporate Partner organisations.
The aim has been to provide an opportunity for Network members to learn and share how Corporate Community Programs are run across the wide variety of organisations United Way works with. It has also provided an opportunity for United Way to share more on the breadth of work we are doing and to bring to life the impact of workplace giving and corporate donations, as well as the efforts of our corporate volunteers.
The most recent meeting, kindly hosted by our partner Genworth, provided a space for our Champions to reflect on their community engagement programs and to share their successes, highlights and challenges with other Champions.
A common personal highlight shared amongst our Champions was their engagement in skills-based volunteering and team–based volunteering projects. We heard how they had been inspired when they had volunteered themselves and also how participation in team volunteering days had generated real value beyond the day.
A key insight which emerged from a discussion amongst the Champions was the importance of commitment by their senior leaders to community engagement initiatives. This senior level commitment was understood to support others in the business to integrate community engagement initiatives into their employee work portfolios.
Champions also had the opportunity to learn more about two of United Way’s community partners, Hayley Tanti from Plumpton High School and Jesse Garcia from Good Beginnings Australia, Claymore and hear firsthand about their work and the people whose lives are being changed by the programs and interactions with corporate volunteers.
To build on United Way’s approach to creating Community Impact (ie focusing on evidence, collaboration and innovation), we are looking forward to working with our Champions Network again in early 2013 to further explore key elements of successful programs which build deeper engagement inside workplaces.
5 STRATEGIES TO TRANSFORM YOUR CORPORATE VOLUNTEERING PROGRAM
15 May 2013
In conjunction with National Volunteering week this week Doug Taylor, CEO – United Way Australia, writes here about 5 strategies corporations from across the world have successfully used to transform their volunteer programs.
I’m lucky enough to be able to have some fairly frank conversations with corporate leaders about their volunteer programs. While most of them would suggest that their programs have all the basics in place and are doing some good things, more often than not they will suggest that they believe they can do better and would like to see more employees engaged, their people utilised more strategically and greater levels of impact created in the community. As part of National Volunteering Week, I want to take this opportunity to highlight 5 strategies that I have seen corporations from across the world use to transform their volunteer programs. There is enormous potential within Australia to capitalise on the enthusiasm and expertise of corporate volunteers, and the support and investment of their employers, in order to bring about effective community change.
- Be fit for purpose
It sounds overly simplistic but the key question to ask yourself is; why do you run a volunteer program? So many corporate volunteer programs have become transactional services for voluntary experiences without an overarching purpose. Of course there’s a place for this but it’s critical to remember that corporate volunteering is a means to an end but not end in itself. The end should be about improving people’s lives in the community. Here’s a question to think about; can you clearly articulate how someone’s life will be improved by a specific volunteer activity or program that you operate? Being able to do this might help people understand how what they are doing really makes a difference. Being able to clearly communicate this to your people can really fire up your program.
- Build clear pathways
Just as every customer is not the same, so too are employees. Every workforce has different demographics and it’s critical that these are understood to ensure a corporate volunteer program reaches its potential. This means creating multiple pathways into and along your program. What does this mean? Firstly it’s important that there are different ways into volunteering in order to create a variety of different programs to attract the diversity of your workforce. One size doesn’t fit all! Similarly once people have been engaged in a volunteer program they are often open to doing more activities so it’s critical that this be capitalised on by providing opportunities for people to move along the volunteer journey. At United Way we often see people start with our Team Volunteering programs, moving into Engaged Volunteer programs where they support people more directly and then to Strategic Volunteering where they are able to exercise their leadership and specialist skills.
- Power your program through peers
You know better than anyone that no one person can transform a corporate volunteer program. It needs a team and workplace peers are critical allies to energise and scale a program. Ideally these allies will be at all levels of your business and can be from both formal and informal networks. Champion’s networks of employees are a great tool for creating ideas, disseminating information, recruiting volunteers and creating a pipeline of advocates for your community program. Of course this won’t happen without engaging, training and equipping them to do this work, but it’s a worthwhile investment and sure to get a return.
- Develop an integrated program
One of the greatest problems that corporate volunteer programs face is that they often look like a lot of good ideas thrown together by competing interests in the organisation. One simple strategy that can have a transformative impact is to better integrate volunteering efforts. You can start doing this is by leveraging existing core community partnerships including ones that might be supported through fundraising and grant making initiatives. Once you do this start to look at the many other ways you to touch the community and explore how these connections can be better leveraged for volunteering. But remember a few deeper relationships are more efficient to manage and more compelling in your communications.
- Apply CANI
The best form of transformation comes from the virtuous loop of acting, reviewing and improving or CANI- Continuous and Never-ending Improvement. At United Way we recently released our Community Impact Report and core to this was our public reflection on two key questions that are critical to seeing improvements in corporate volunteers programs; ‘As a result of our learning from the year prior what did we do differently?’ and ‘What have we learnt this year and how this will influence what we will do differently next year?
It’s fun to be caught up with the new and exciting programs but this can only be done on a solid foundation of improvement. As well as celebrating the efforts of the 3000 volunteers that United Way worked with last year, I also want to use this opportunity to recognise the contribution of those people who are responsible for delivering corporate volunteer programs. These people are the ones working away in the background and are often not acknowledged for their efforts, so thanks. Corporate volunteering has come a long way since we started engaging with our corporate partners 10 years ago and I hope that this article might get you thinking about what we can do in collaboration to get better outcomes for corporate volunteers and the communities we serve.
WHY DOESN’T GENERATION X JOIN ORGANISATIONS COMMITTED TO PUBLIC SERVICE?
14 Aug 2013
Across the world these ancient institutions are dying on the vine and we sit at home surfing the net or watching TV. Okay – perhaps that’s a little unfair – many of us are actually quite busy with both partners working long hours and loads of time spent running children to their next extra curricula activity. However, I wonder if these excuses are a little too convenient and a cover for something deeper going on?
I recently attended the leadership changing ceremony for Rotary in Sydney as a guest of the incoming District Governor. Yes, it was quite ceremonial – numerous speeches and the odd well placed ‘dad joke’ – but Tim Freedman of the Whitlams provided the entertainment. Surely that’s a sign of Rotary’s desire to be more relevant for younger generations? Rotary faces significant challenges in sustaining their membership – their numbers are static, but their average age is not at around the mid 50s to 60s. That worries them considerably, but it concerns me too because I know they’re not alone.
In Australia so many of our voluntary institutions have aging memberships. Think about the declining memberships of political parties, churches and other social service organisations like the Red Cross or your local Meals on Wheels service. To lose the benefits that these groups create for our communities would be a huge blow.
So what explains this apart from our busy lives that we so often talk about?
John Cleary from the ABC said the other day that we are no longer a nation of ‘joiners’. I think what he means is that younger generations don’t join others and form organisations to serve the community and foster friendships. After World War Two, our Grandparents formed thousands of small social, religious and sporting institutions, committed to reconstructing Australia after the horrors of the war and the threat it posed to their community. While many of the Boomers chose not to join, instead enjoying the fruits of the golden age in Australian history, enough stayed on to keep these groups going.
So what of my Generation? We all know that Generation X got busy getting themselves through their education and working hard to get a job during a recession but being ‘time poor’ only explains things in part. Fundamentally we just didn’t want to commit to these groups because we couldn’t relate to their values and ways of working. Despite this, many of us have a desire to stay connected to our community which is only partly salved by ‘communion’ at the gym or local cafe.
The solution is for us each is to bend a little. Community institutions need to change how they communicate and work, and Gen Xers need to suck it up and take some steps toward these groups despite the initial discomfort. We can’t keep waiting for the perfect organisation – they don’t exist. There’s too much at stake in the work of important institutions such as Rotary whose motto is ‘service above self’.
It’s time to step up.
A Working Life 