Philosophy of Volunteerism

Fund raising in Italy is deeply rooted in antiquity. We could go as far as to maintain that it was born 2000 years ago at the age of the Roman empire. Seneca and Cicero (De Officiis) might be regarded as the first two theorists of fund raising, not to mention the golden age of the Renaissance and patronage of arts. At that time the government, i.e., the emperor, did not exert the same functions as today, but we are well aware of all that was done for the arts, culture, sciences and nursing. This must be our starting point, leaving aside the American culture for a moment, which came on stage three centuries later.

I began work as a Coordinator of Volunteers in 1964. A year later I started writing poetry and haven't been able to stop since. I only hope this is not another occupational hazard in a profession already well supplied. Still, it's true that poetry can say some things hard to express in sober declarative text, as demonstrated by the wonderful lyrics to "The Volunteer Song" by Paul Horrisberger, an outstanding volunteer coordinator and musician, which I share below. Plus several other of my poems.

 

At the recent Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City many non-Canadians would have heard our national anthem, "O Canada," for the first time. Of course, it is a young anthem, adopted only 35 years ago. Canada is a young country but we have a long history of volunteerism. During 2001, the International Year of Volunteers, I had the privilege of co-chairing what was called the National Volunteerism Initiative Table. This gave me the opportunity to examine volunteerism, to take flight and travel this young and beautiful country from coast to coast. The flight had its spells of turbulence along with periods of very smooth skies. It was really a privilege to be able to view volunteers in Canada from a position way up in the clouds. I listened to volunteers and those who work with volunteers. I had a most unique opportunity to learn about this country and its volunteers. They have many differences and much that is incredibly the same.

At a time of world crisis , this paper calls for proponents of volunteerism to join together in a rethink of priorities and programs. Managers of volunteer programs and volunteers are challenged to take a big picture approach and see volunteerism as a powerful tool in reassessing values and activities and in building constructive relationships between individuals, cultures and nations. As we know, volunteering provides citizens with the opportunity to take the initiative, have a voice and build community. Actions can be taken which focus attention on values and long-term goals that are important in life. Some examples of possible responses, covering a range of interest areas, are given as a starting point for readers who are keen to widen their horizons and institute initiatives aimed at making this world a more tolerant, equitable and cohesive society.

Research for the report, Flying Under the Radar: The Significant Work of All-Volunteer Organizations, was conducted in 1999 in the San Francisco service area of CompassPoint by Cristina Chan, M.P.P., and Sonali Rammohan, C.P.A. Leadership for the study was provided by Jan Masaoka, Executive Director of CompassPoint. I first became aware of the study when I attended a workshop presented by Cristina and Sonali at the 1999 National Community Service Conference. It was very telling that, in a conference of nearly 2,800 participants, there were only about a dozen attendees at this particular workshop. Obviously, not many all-volunteer group representatives were at the conference! When I was discussing the study with CompassPoint Executive Director Jan Masaoka, she used a term that to me describes why the health and well being of all-volunteer groups are so vitally important for our consideration. She called the sub-sector a "fragile ecology" that is little understood and very much under-supported by any of the primary sectors of modern life. This is despite the fact that these groups really create the rich fabric of what we call "community" and bring people together in so many ways. 

 

Is there a big blind spot in volunteer management? Consider:

• the elderly gentleman in the park, feeding pigeons or even squirrels
• a woman regularly looking in on a sick neighbor
• a teenager teaching other young people how to skateboard
• the police officer (definitely not as part of his official job) finding time to stop for a friendly chat with a troubled young person
• the helpful giver of directions to confused tourists

...and a whole host of other such “natural helpers” and doers of daily decencies, enriching virtually every neighborhood. To all these I would add the Dreamers who “go for it” to achieve their personal vision or goal. Often they are not paid for trying, just as often the goal itself is not defined primarily or at all in financial terms. So Dreamers, too, are often volunteers, though they rarely think of themselves in such terms. Moreover, my experience is that most of their goals have direct or indirect positive social implications. Even where the goals seem primarily to serve the Dreamer personally, I would argue that a happy society can be seen in many ways as the sum of fulfilled individuals.

People in the above examples could be thought of as "self-employed volunteers" in the sense that their helping behavior is not just unpaid, but is also primarily "on their own": freely chosen and accomplished, without benefit of bosses, managers, supervisors, rules or regulations, and typically without significant organizational support. There is always accountability, or should be. But for the self-employed volunteer, this accountability is virtually entirely to the client or goal served, not to any boss or agency.