The Future of Volunteer Management

Erin, here is a perspective.

Your idea of volunteer consultants is excellent. Here is why.

More and more as the economy continues to crash, people are not going to be able to volunteer for free. They will volunteer if their volunteer work somehow contributes to their employability.

In other words, except for 14% of the top elite institutions that will attract rich volunteers who seek social status, social connections, or some other personal reward, 86% of the population today will not be able to donate time.

In other words, volunteer managers are now in the workforce development business!

Now, here is a huge opportunity. In fact, your humble servant here did a workshop on this at the state convention of the volunteer directors of Wisconsin! Nobody disagreed. Skills, contacts, references, and emotional support between jobs are the stuff of future volunteer programs, for most places, if they want them at all.

Therefore, your idea of "volunteer consultants" fits into this picture of the future very well. To use volunteers as "consultants" elevates their expertise, talents in the eyes of other people, especially potential employers, especially if in fact the volunteer "consultant" actually operated at this level of expertise.

Moreover, given the layoffs of more and more high-priced older workers, e.g. Boomers, you ought to be able to tap into such "consultant" demographics.

In summary, "consultant" is a subset of "workforce development" - which is the future of volunteer work except for the elite organizations that will attract the social, economic elite because of status.

Last week, your humble servant here, attended a local service club meeting. What struck this writer is how the leadership assumed people would have time galore to volunteer. More and more they do not. For this reason, volunteer organizations more and more are hurting for members.

One way to make volunteer work attractive is to cast it in the mode, mold of workforce development. Enter consultant volunteers as one aspect of this approach.

My suggestion would be to look at the "workforce development" challenge and how to meet it. This will make you "golden" in the world of nonprofit management.