The Volunteer Gap
An interesting study released this week found that more people are willing to volunteer than actually do. According to the survey, 65% of Americans would be willing to serve food to the homeless, but only 12% did so in the last year. Fifty-one percent said they would be willing to mentor at-risk youth, but only 15% of those surveyed have done so.

Do you have any ideas about what causes this gap? If so, email us your thoughts and we may publish them here.



Comments:

I believe the gap between people’s good intentions and their actual volunteer activity is caused by 2 factors: lack of time and lack of sufficient motivation. All of us in the Volunteer management world understand that time is currently more precious than money. Between two-earner households, people working two jobs to make ends meet and the increasing competition for scarce leisure hours, volunteerism is currently taking a backseat to spending time with family and friends. People don’t have “spare” time to give anymore. But motivation is also a factor. It sounds nice to say you would be willing to feed the homeless, but when the potential volunteer realizes that they must contact the organization, go through some sort of interview process, travel to a possibly inconvenient or unsafe location and then commit to giving up precious free time to this activity, the volunteer “opportunity” may look like more trouble than it’s worth.

I think these factors make volunteer management a bit more challenging, but that’s what keeps the job interesting, isn’t it? Sincerely,
Wendy Moluf
Coordinator of Volunteer Services
Citizen Advocacy Program/The Arc of New Jersey





I think the keys may be (1) getting information to people about volunteer opportunities AND (2) having a currently active volunteer make personal contact and "lead [the new volunteer] by the hand" the first several times they do volunteer work.

Maria Misurac

Brought to you by
Coming of Age
a partnership of:

The Temple University Center for Intergenerational Learning
WHYY Wider Horizons
United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania
AARP Pennsylvania



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