Volunteer Management & Meaning in History
Volunteer management has remained a focus of both the nonprofit industry and value-driven business. These sectors often have lean resources. This focus has persisted since history has been recorded.
Emphasizing different terms and values, the need for volunteers often begins with one’s local community. It then spreads to social and spiritual affiliations, networks, and invested institutions.
Communities and networks come together during an emergency or crisis. This creates the imagery of a sense of duty. It also creates an obligation to help others.
Bonds that are both personal and meaningful strengthen the human desire to help others. This desire transcends geographic, social, and spiritual boundaries.
Harnessing this good will during an emergency is more spontaneous. It is also more natural during the duration of a specific and finite project. This is unlike when ongoing and consistent help is needed.
The processes, tools, and strategies needed to build long term commitments can vary considerably. They differ from those used for short term projects.
The values of giving, belonging, impacting, and loving remain the same but the structure and intervals for growth are changed.
Developing a volunteer management ecosystem requires a system thinking approach. The benefits of taking a systems approach are twofold. First, a system’s thinking approach supports the leadership team. It harnesses the opportunities inherent in the larger interconnected systems of stakeholders, values, and interests.
A systems approach also accounts for the risks and barriers that exist in approaches implemented in isolation. Developing complex frameworks is challenging. Ignoring stakeholder, resource, and system constraints often leads to unsustainable frameworks.
Purchase the Book or Android App
Purchase on Amazon!
Purchase Android App!