Volunteering is important for numerous reasons that benefit both the community and the volunteer themselves.
Volunteering has been identified as a critical component of social capital development.
It helps to build social capital by bringing people together from different backgrounds and promoting shared values and goals.
Volunteerism delivers impressive social benefits. Through voluntary action people create groupings that can cement social norms and inculcate a sense of civic responsibility and belonging.
The participatory aspect of volunteerism can contribute to a heightened understanding of the forces which shape governments and societies, leading to greater transparency, accountability and improved governance. Volunteerism also has an important economic impact.
On an individual level, volunteerism contributes to capacity building processes by helping the individual volunteer to develop marketable skills, providing access to workplace networks and boosting confidence and self-esteem (ATD Fourth World. ‘Volunteering & Social Inclusion’, 2000.)
Volunteering rates among young people are generally higher than they are among adults 26 and older. However, measuring volunteer rates among all adults is a difficult task (“Measurement of Volunteering: A Methodological Study Using Indiana as a Test Case” in the Non-profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Volume 31, issue 4, 2002 by Kathryn Steinberg, Patrick Rooney, and William Chin).
People increasingly feel that if they look hard enough or wait long enough, something that more exactly suits their needs and desires will appear.
Volunteers now expect a lot more from charities in terms of being given meaningful work, having a say in how the organisation is run and receiving appropriate training, support and recognition.
Volunteers now want to know exactly what it is that they are getting into and how it compares with what others are offering.
Volunteers’ indication that they are primarily motivated by a belief in the cause and a desire to make a difference would suggest that if it is made clear to them that their role (no matter how mundane) contributes to the greater cause of the organisation, they will remain engaged.
Other key motivations that are frequently mentioned both by volunteers and volunteer managers are training and skills, social opportunities, and the desire for an experience or insight.
Too often in most of the society, volunteering is conceptualised as a generous gift of time from the empowered and virtuous volunteer to the helpless recipient.
