Trends and Issues

As social media expands throughout the world, it has spawned a unique sub-category of virtual volunteering dubbed “clicktivism” – letting people who are online or on a Smartphone make an impact on their causes in a short amount of time with very little effort. The name comes from what these volunteers do: reposting, retweeting, and other one-click activities such as buying an item on a charity Web site. While some consider clicktivists as second-rate to traditional volunteers (and even use the term “slacktivists” to describe them), many others appreciate the value-added services this micro-volunteering provides. And if the recent worldwide example of the ALS “Ice Bucket Challenge” shows, clicktivism can go viral!

In this edition of Along the Web, author Erick Lear explores clicktivism in an effort to remind everyone that regardless of how or where a volunteer donates time, all types of volunteers should be appreciated.  

The BBC News Web site reports that the worldwide prison population stands at around nine million, with the U.S., China, and Russia ranked as the three countries with the most prisoners. Together, these three nations imprison half of all the world’s prisoners, with the U.S. having the highest ratio of prisoners per 100,000 of the population.

The Russian writer Dostoevsky noted that “the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” Around the world, states take varying approaches to the purpose of prison for those who are convicted, adopting approaches from liberal at one extreme to authoritarian at the other in their treatment of prisoners. In many countries, all prisons are state run, while others use private providers or a mixture of both. Some solely exist for punishment and exclusion, some attempt rehabilitation and skills training.

Ten years after Susan J. Ellis’ Voices from the Past, ‘On the Inside: The Tradition of Volunteers in Prisons,’ this edition of Along the Web offers an update of Web sites about volunteerism behind prison gates and what they reflect about the ‘degree of civilization’ volunteers encounter.

Over the last 10 years, a number of formerly thriving national Volunteer Centres in English-speaking countries have faltered, forced to find avenues of new funding or to merge with other organisations. But what about the fates of local and regional Volunteer Centres? How have they fared?

Using the development of volunteering infrastructure in Australia as a starting point, writer Annette Maher considers the pressures on Volunteer Centres everywhere – national, regional, and local. She considers their struggles to meet the needs of volunteers and their organizations, and to advocate for the field of volunteering in a world that is rapidly changing. In this feature story, Maher also examines such universal issues as the formalization of volunteering, professionalization of volunteer management, the benefits and dangers of government funding, and the need to collaborate. 

What does a successful and relevant Volunteer Center look like? In a time when many question the viable future of Volunteer Centers, what common traits and best practices do thriving Volunteer Centers share?

In this edition of Along the Web, authors Arnie Wickens and Erick C. Lear attempt to answer these questions by presenting 30 examples of Volunteer Centers and related resources that operate quite well throughout the world. In selecting these sites, Wickens and Lear attempt to stay true to the tenets outlined in the October 2013 Points of View column, where Susan J. Ellis and Rob Jackson described what volunteer centers must do to remain relevant: 

1. Focus more attention on the big picture and support their communities in responding to the 21st century volunteer;
2. Offer an umbrella and neutral meeting ground for connecting many different constituents;
3. Look for innovative practices and make sure everyone learns about them; and
4. Educate funders and legislators about the need for local infrastructure to support volunteering efforts.

 “While by no means an exhaustive list,” the authors write, “the Web sites (listed here) are highlighted because they demonstrate successful approaches to presenting their vision and mission. Serving as leaders in vollunteer recruitment, management, outreach, and community problem solving, many Volunteer Centers have been change agents throughout the world. Failure to maintain their services would be a loss to their individual communities and the field of volunteerism as a whole.”

This much is clear: Volunteer Centres are vital to build and sustain local and regional volunteer ecosystems. Often seen as the “one-stop” help for individuals looking to get involved in the community, Volunteer Centres are not only remarkable at surviving funding and policy changes but they have also inspired the development of volunteering innovations like service-learning, community service, family volunteering, and corporate volunteering. 

But this much is clear, too: Volunteer Centres throughout the world can no longer operate as they have always done. Volunteer Centres have to be responsive to the changing times they helped bring about or they will lose their ability to create a volunteering legacy for the future. Inspired leadership and creative vision are absolutely critical elements for Volunteer Centers to move forward, with experts predicting that a high-tech, high-energy, Apple Store-style social action centre may help redefine the Volunteer Centre of the future. 

From Canada to the Netherlands to Australia, from the United States to the United Kingdom, six experts on Volunteer Centres join together in this critical and provocative Keyboard Roundtable to discuss the issues facing Volunteer Centres around the globe. These issues, the experts discovered, are quite often the same regardless of geography. 

It would come as no surprise if this Along the Web started with the statement: “Pets are an integral part of our lives.” Animal lovers have always known about the bonds between humans and pets (although many suspect that beloved pets knew this well before anyone else). What may come as a surprise, though, are the number of volunteer opportunities available for pets and their human companions. In this issue of Along the Web, Erick Lear introduces readers to this trending topic – a topic that has spurred the inclusion of many pet-friendly policies in corporate America and also the emerging field of veterinary social work. 

The National Trust, a British charity founded by volunteers in 1895 to advocate historic preservation and conservation, announced in 2010 its determination to make sweeping changes, both to expand public engagement at its properties and to restructure its internal staffing and procedures.

These changes included a mandate to think differently about volunteering:

To move away from volunteering being seen as a sacrifice (“I give up my time to volunteer”) into volunteering as an active choice to use one’s leisure time in meaningful and rewarding ways.  Volunteering shouldn’t be about giving up something; it should be about having everything to gain.

Part 1 of a two-part series, this feature article presents why and how the Trust decided to rethink its approach to its nearly 67,000 volunteers in a campaign called “Going Local.”  This article includes a reprint of one of the early products of this Going Local campaign, a booklet called Thinking Differently about Volunteering. In a few short pages, the booklet outlines the importance of volunteers and presents a game plan for moving forward with volunteer engagement at the National Trust. The results of this campaign, and the National Trust’s continued efforts “toward our shared goal of engaging every household and connecting with local communities,” will be presented in Part 2 of this series in a future issue of e-Volunteerism.