Throughout history, people have always been involved in supporting different causes, social issues and helping one another. There are countless inspiring stories of people who gave generously, provided shelter at their own homes, and some even gave their lives. These remarkable acts will always remind us that human kindness is real and selfless. At Redwood Psychology, we believe in the immense potential of people converging together, contributing toward worthy causes and supporting one another.
Allow me to address some ideas on volunteerism here.
(1) You volunteer to give back to society
I always think there is something strange in this statement. It has some connotations – you have arrived at a decent station in life; you have excess; you are better off. Hence, please give back as an obligation, to return society a favour. I think we should use less of this statement. From my experience and observation, the lesser well-to-do volunteers contribute a much higher proportion of their 3Ts – Treasure, Time and Talent. And yes, they also do not post on social media, and may not answer a survey.
(2) The 80-20 Rule
This applies to many observable behaviours. 20% of the volunteers do 80% of the volunteering tasks; 20% of the top sales staff bring in 80% of the all the deals. In the commercial world, you reward the salesman with corresponding sales commission. But for the active and committed volunteer, he gets more tasks. Until one day, he politely tells you, “There has been some changes in my schedule and family commitments”. We need to give attention and engage the 80%, who are not active and committed, yet.
(3) Corporate Volunteering
This is very attractive for both charities and corporates. For charities, you have access to a pool of volunteers, many are skilled, there might even be technical transfers, donations and branding. Large cardboard cheque-giving ceremony photo opportunity, done. We are a Company that Does Good, check. Anyway, corporate volunteering does promote staff cohesion, attract talent and a break from the grind. But corporates pay their staff to deliver profit. No profit, no growth, no increment. A word of advice to the charities, don’t solely chase and rely on the corporates for donations and volunteers. Have a diverse pool of volunteers.
(4) You can make a difference
The starfish story; the tide receded and thousands of starfishes laid on the beach with a burning hot sun overhead. You may not be able to save all the starfishes left on the seashore, but every starfish that you toss back into the sea, you are making a difference to that one starfish. No room for main character syndrome here, your name may not appear in the movie poster. At the end of the movie credits, perhaps a small print of your name that vanishes in 0.5 second. Not to make a difference, but to help a fellow human being. That should be sufficiently satisfying. Different focus.
Using the science of psychology, and with an experienced team with extensive knowledge of the social sector, we are here to support charities and corporations to design and enhance your volunteer management framework and goals.
Our team has experiences in designing national-level volunteer programmes, engaging specialist volunteers in carrying out capacity building initiatives in the cross-countries projects and teaching volunteer management courses to social sector professionals. We bring in our knowledge and expertise of organisational development, strategy formulation, implementation science and community engagement to expand and accelerate your organisation’s impact.
Depending on where your organisation is on the volunteer management journey, we are here to help. Be it starting the conversation with your board members and senior leaders on the value of having proper volunteer management programmes, reviewing your current volunteer management framework and policy, or redesign your entire volunteer engagement journey. Or simply conducting customised trainings to upskill your current community of volunteers.
We are here to help, so that your organisations can grow from strength to strength.
Drop us an email at enquiries@redwoodpsy.com for a discussion.