Articles

Seventh issue of Voluntary Action
Winter 2000 (Volume 3 Number 1)

 

Volunteering and social development

Justin Davis Smith, Director, Institute for Volunteering Research

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This article looks at the social and economic benefits of volunteering and at how governments can support it. First, four core characteristics of volunteering are defined, and on this basis four broad types of volunteering are identified: mutual aid, philanthropy, participation and advocacy. The main benefits of volunteering are then enumerated: it contributes to the national economy, helps to create a stable, cohesive society and brings personal benefits to the volunteers themselves. Volunteering currently faces challenges from economic retrenchment and adverse demographic trends – but advances in IT and the growing number of older people represent promising opportunities. Governments can help to support volunteering by recognising its contribution, by creating a favourable legal and fiscal environment and by funding its infrastructure and promoting it through national campaigns.

Faith, voluntary action and social policy: a review of research

Priya Lukka, Institute for Volunteering Research
Michael Locke, Centre for Institutional Studies, University of East London

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This article focuses on the relationship between faith and volunteering. After a review of the existing literature, it speculates on how far altruism is internally generated and how far it is fostered by membership of religious bodies. The relationship between faith communities and the wider community is examined, as is the phenomenon of the decline in Christianity in the West and the rise of other religions. The role of faith groups in delivering social welfare services and creating social capital is discussed, and the article concludes with some suggestions for future research.

Organising cultures: voluntarism and professionalism in UK charity shops

Richard Goodall, Department of Geography, University College London

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This article contributes to the debate about voluntary sector and volunteering management in different organisational contexts. Focusing on participant-observation research into the contradictory world of UK charity shops, it looks at three different uses of the word ‘professional’. In response to the third meaning of professional, senior managers in charity shop organisations display three distinct attitudes to voluntary sector management: strident commercialism, limited professionalism and vibrant professional voluntarism.

Volunteering to learn: approaches to educational provision for volunteers and their clients

Helen Kenwright, researcher, York College

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This article presents a series of activities that took place as part of a project to encourage volunteers and their clients to take part in learning. The overall aims of the project are described and the relevance of the activities to the voluntary sector in general is explained. Six case studies are used to highlight the issues that arose from the project and the main benefits are identified. The project outcomes are then considered in the light of the challenges to the voluntary sector presented by the launch of the Learning and Skills Councils in 2001.

Management implications of contemporary trends in voluntarism in the United States and Canada

R. Dale Safrit, Ohio State University
Mary Merrill, L.S.W. Merrill Associates

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The authors identify ten contemporary trends in voluntarism in the United States and Canada, based upon documented societal trends, published literature and forty-five years of combined experience in volunteer management. The trends include: (a) increasing rates of volunteer burnout; (b) increased competition among organisations for a decreasing number of volunteers; (c) an emphasis by volunteers on the human touch; (d) workplace changes; (e) episodic volunteering; (f) the professionalisation of the volunteer corps; (g) an emphasis on diversity; (h) new forms of voluntarism; (i) liability issues and risk management; and (j) technology broadening volunteer opportunities. Critical management implications are discussed for each trend. The authors conclude that administrators of volunteer programmes must practise strategic thinking so as to maintain the long-term viability of their programmes.