nfpSynergy reports on the 21st century volunteer
Howard Lake | 12 December 2005 | News
Nonprofit sector think-tank and research consultancy nfpSynergy has published a new report on the “21st Century Volunteer” sponsored by the Scout Association.
The report looks at the current state of volunteering, the socio-economic trends that may influence volunteering, and it identifies key trends. These include “The rise of the brain volunteer and the demise of the brawn volunteer”, “The rise of young activists and the decline of young volunteers”, and “Volunteering needs to be more like fundraising (and fundraising
needs to be more like volunteering)”.
Authors Joe Saxton and Elisha Evans identify the rise of what they call the selfish or self-interested volunteer, who wants to know as much about what they will get out of volunteering as about what they will put in. This creates opportunities for charities to create “win/win volunteering opportunities” where both charity and individual get clear sustainable benefits.
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The report presents many challenges and its principal advice on how to respond to these is “to productise volunteering opportunities”. The authors explain that by this they mean “giving time needs to be packaged (and marketed) just as fundraising now is.”
The full report can be downloaded at no charge, as can the executive summary.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.