Tomorrow, December 5, is International Volunteer Day (#IVD2024). The UN estimates the world-wide number of volunteers as over 862 million per month! That’s at least double the population of every country in the world with the exception of India and China. It’s over 21 times the population of Canada, where I live. Every month. We should be a force to be reckoned with!
So why aren’t we?
Why, even in the organisations that depend the most on volunteers, are we often a bit of an afterthought? How many organisations include the volunteer program in their strategic plans? Or have volunteer professionals on their boards of directors/trustees? How many actually consistently and thoughtfully invest in their program?
Too often, the leader of volunteers has that portfolio added to an already over-full schedule, or the role is assigned to someone with little or no experience or training. As I’ve often said before, the leader of volunteers is a leadership role! And the person in that role leads more people than almost anyone else in the organisation. Yet it’s often relegated to the side of someone’s desk.
And that’s the perception in organisations that depend on volunteers!
How, then, does the greater community perceive volunteers and leaders of volunteers?
It’s important to have a day that is acknowledged in the international arena but, really, how many people outside the sector have ever heard of it? Is it any more known than, say, Feb 10 – International Day of the Arabian Leopard? Or August 11 – World Steelpan Day? Raising awareness of the importance of volunteers (and other issues) is critical, but in trying to raise that awareness, we often talk, post and blog to people who are already aware. Basically, we’re shouting into an echo chamber.
For volunteers to become a force to be reckoned with, we need to get our voices heard outside the sector.
How? I have a few ideas.
- See if you can publish blogs or articles in online news magazines or in other general interest publications. I reached out to our local online newspaper, Castanet, and they now publish my blog as one of their weekly columns.
- Rather than just speaking on podcasts that are aimed at the sector, reach out to ones that have a broader audience.
- Talk about your volunteering or your volunteer program to everyone, not just those you want to recruit. I need to get better at this myself.
- Join an advocacy group that is petitioning your government to prioritise volunteerism, or talk with your government representative about ways to promote volunteerism.
- Hold recruitment drives in places like malls or libraries where you can be seen by – and educate – the general public.
- If nothing else, put a sticker in the window of your vehicle bragging about being a volunteer!
These are just off the top of my head. There are bound to be far more ideas that I haven’t thought of yet. The point is to think about where and how we can be seen by people who don’t already see us.
In what other ways can we make volunteers and volunteerism a force to be reckoned with?
Educate our own organisations. Give presentations to the Board about the benefits of investing in the program. Sit down with the executive and discuss the importance of having a volunteer engagement professional leading the volunteers. Hold workshops for other staff who interact with volunteers so they learn the value that volunteers bring to the organisation.
We know that volunteers are a force to be reckoned with in this world. How do we get other people to give us that recognition?
Tomorrow is International Volunteer Day. What are you going to do to get the word out there?
