Don’t Just “Volunteer” for Stuff

A person should never “volunteer” for anything…ever. Organizations who thrive on the good nature of their fellow citizens for funding and action spend hundreds of thousands of donor dollars convincing others that their mission is one worth championing. Every year a new crop of good people take on leadership roles, and generally these efforts flame out with mediocre results. Yet society has lauded upon the cultures of the world for eons that volunteering is a civic duty all are expected to perform.

Let’s review common benefits bestowed upon people who decide to serve as a volunteer:

• You get to babysit other people’s kids, and not even get paid!
• Enjoy personal time? Write that off…free time now belongs to your volunteering efforts.
• Want to see your family? Make sure your brood can also participate, or kiss that off.
• Expect an annual solicitation for a donation, in addition to the time you are already providing.
• Pay for what you need out of your own pocket, or implement fund raising efforts to earn cash.
• More drama and stress to take up your mental and emotional capacities.
• Pressure from the organization’s professionals and member families, who will expect you to give more time and complain if they perceive your efforts are falling short of expectations.
• School and rules. Once you become a volunteer there are trainings you need to attend and very strict rules to follow. Failure to do so could end you up in legitimate legal trouble

So why do people volunteer for stuff?

For years is was expected that people volunteer in order to make their local community better, and these positions were treated with great esteem. People wanted to be the church deacon, city council official, local Scoutmaster, or a member of the Masons, Lions, Odd Fellows, Rotary, and many others. Titles, uniforms, medals, secrecy, and access to people of affluence were all used to entice individuals to commit their time, talents, and treasure. All of the hardships and inconveniences that came along with these posts were seen as expected consequences of the appointment, and folks swallowed it up whether it fulfilled them emotionally or not.

Some participated to get ahead at work, others to raise their social status among peers, and for a few it was seen as an obligation to carry on a family legacy of service. For those who had chaos in their personal or work lives, volunteering provided a sense of purpose — because volunteers who were the most engaged gained positions of importance within the group quickly, and thus in their local community as well. The point is that it was not questioned, it was simply expected, and many obeyed this request…for centuries.

At the end of the Great War Macivelli’s greatest fear was realized: the public started having access to information and experiences that were not curated by those in power. It started with the expanding influence of science, then railroads transformed our infrastructure, radio cracked the airwaves, the automobile provided access from sea to shining sea for all, and television brought the far corners of the globe to people’s living rooms. Opinion papers and magazines give conflicting thoughts to the standard edicts of the day, flight broke the sky, and a moon landing proved that the universe was greater than ever thought. Gender and race equality changed family, work and societal norms, the internet gave all instant access to whatever information people could want, and social media has allowed us to create twenty-four-hours-a-day peer networks across the globe.

New ideas, the realization that the world was bigger than just the boundaries of a local community, cheap access to travel, food and shelter that could be acquired all over the globe, new teachings, the provability science, and awareness of differing belief’s about creation and the unknown all helped to convey to the citizens of the world that there was more. Life is short and people wanted to see what they can while they can, broke free of their hometowns, and moved on.

The departure of this resource has created a change in the status formally associated with volunteer service. Most non-profit groups struggle to fill the roles necessary to operate. Additionally, more expectations are lumped upon volunteers than in the past due to this manpower deficit. The associated societal glory is long gone, promotions at work due to hanging out with the affluent at service clubs are rarely given, and titles and medals awarded for charitable efforts mean little to the vast majority of people. Citizens no longer concern themselves with their social status at home — it is their digital status that matters at the dawn of the twenty first century.

In plain english: being a volunteer is a thankless role that can cause more trouble than it’s worth. Organizations and individuals dependent on volunteers will counter this statement by saying the thanks of those they are serving are all the satisfaction that they need, and I would agree…as long as that experience was positive for all involved. A weak program delivered by people not completely focused on the mission of the organization helps nobody in the end, and tends to create negative memories versus positive ones.

Some people will share that they were reluctant to volunteer at first, but after spending time with an organization they learned to love it. They “jumped in feet first and learned to swim;” a situation that worked out in their favor. I would submit based on my 20+ years of non-profit volunteer organizational management that this is the exception rather than the rule. Groups that have an effective cultivation process where perspective volunteers can “dip their big toe” into the water before completely committing to a cause have a better retention rate, to be sure. But very few have a robust enough manpower source and operational structure to support such an effort. It is great in theory, but very hard to find being implemented in reality.

However, a certain population of people still give their time to these groups. Some because they can not escape the guilt placed on them by their religion or some family history of expected service. Others are trying to fulfill emotional voids in their lives and think volunteering will fit the bill. The rest get bullied or guilted into taking on roles they did not intend because their child participates in the organization, they want them to have a good experience, and nobody else will fill the vacancies. All of these people are being set up to fail. The hours, stress, responsibility and human drama start to stack up, and things fall apart.

In the end, for kindness to overcome hardship and good to defeat evil the world needs volunteers, and it is almost always the super rich or the lower-middle class who end up providing the most support. But even more importantly, a person has to wholeheartedly embrace what an organization represents to effectively support it. Annual funding events get held, and donations are made by those who fondly remember their time associated with an organization, but the real impactors are the people who contribute their time, energy, and minds completely to a movement.

The point with this piece is to point out that if you are not committed to the mission of an organization at some deep personal level, being a volunteer in it’s service sucks and creates headaches you do not need. No medals, statues, or Wikipedia pages will be bestowed or established to commemorate your dedication. And in some cases you pay an annual organizational registration fee for the privilege to enjoy all this inconvenience. Like they say in the book and movie Polar Express, you are expected to just “believe” that your efforts are worth while and important.

It is my personal belief that the best gift you can give another person in life is a helping hand in what can be a very unfair world. However, don’t “volunteer” for anything….commit completely to the cause or gracefully bow out. Being anything less will end in frustration and a sour experience for all involved.