I was listening yesterday to Rob Jackson’s Advancing The Profession podcast, episode 2 of season 4, with Sarah Latto, who was at the time Senior Policy Officer for Volunteer Scotland. Because the episode focused on policy, some of the conversation revolved around the political side of volunteerism. That triggered something for me. I don’t think that there is a political “side” to volunteering. Rather, I believe that, in a very real sense, all volunteering is a political act.
Think about it. Every time we choose to volunteer, and more importantly choose where to volunteer, we are making a statement about what we feel is important, and what we want our communities and our society to be like. The Volunteer Functions Inventory, which is a research method for assessing volunteer motivation, found that acting on their values is consistently the most common reason people give for volunteering. I’m not just talking about volunteering for political parties. When we choose to volunteer at a hospice, for example, we are taking a stand that dying with dignity is important. When we volunteer at a food bank, we show that we value food security for everyone. These are political declarations, even if you don’t think of them as such. Even if we choose not to volunteer, that’s also a political statement.
Whether and where we volunteer should be a wake-up call to politicians.
According to Harvard’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, citizen participation provides the feedback that democratic systems need to stay responsive. When millions of people make the choice in where to volunteer, those decisions, as a whole, functions very like an ongoing referendum on what a community or society feels is important to them.
While voting only happens every few years; volunteering is a continual and hands-on way that people show what they value. Think of it like the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat. A thermometer, like an election, shows the situation at one particular moment in time. A thermostat, on the other hand, continually monitors the environment and adjusts as things change. The causes that people get involved with over time, and the ones they don’t, can illustrate clearly to those politicians who bother to watch what issues people want dealt with. NCVO’s Time Well Spent research in the UK illustrates that people volunteer where they see something that needs to be improved or changed, and where government is falling short.
It’s an accepted fact that people vote with their money (where they shop, what they donate to). Time is, arguably, an even clearer indication because, while everyone has different amounts of money, everyone has the same limited, and unrenewable, amount of time; 24 hours a day. That limited amount means that people tend to be far more careful in how and where they spend it. As no one can volunteer for everything, every opportunity that you accept means that there are dozens or even hundreds more that you have to say no to. Our collective choices indicate where our society’s values lie. Good politicians care about that.
Understand, “political” doesn’t necessarily mean controversial, or even partisan.
Volunteering is a political act even in something as innocuous as serving at a hospital or an animal shelter. It’s a choice you’ve made to prioritise one need over countless others. Volunteering defines how you feel your community should work, and whom it should serve.
In addition, both currently and historically, volunteers often step in precisely where formal political systems fall short or move too slowly; for example, services that (supposedly) cash-strapped governments are cutting, or assistance for populations that are politically unpopular. Volunteering isn’t just a nice-to-have in society; it often does the work that political institutions have failed to do.
You may feel that I am rather overstating the case. “I volunteer at the library because I like being around books, not because I want to stand on some political soapbox.” And that may be true. But doesn’t liking being around books also mean that you care about literacy? And if you volunteer at a public library, doesn’t that mean you feel that everyone ought to have the chance to experience being around books? Sorry, but that sounds like a political statement to me.
So. If all volunteering is a political act, what does that mean?
How does it change how we should make our volunteering choices? Or does it? And should it change how organisations view the people who step forward to help them? What if few volunteers are coming in your door, what does that say about the value that people assign to your mission, and what should you do to change that? I’m not saying you should quit! Think about how many years it took before the environmental movement became a priority for the majority of people. But it’s good to know what people are thinking.
With that in mind, the next time you volunteer, or someone volunteers with you, remember that that action is a vote, and somewhere someone ought to be counting!
