Revisited: Thinking the Unthinkable: Are We Using the Wrong Model for Volunteer Work?

In this issue,Voices revisits two favorite Volunteer Engagement “voices” to debate a topic that could not be more timely today: Are we using the wrong model for volunteer work? In this repost of an April 2003 column by the late Susan J. Ellis and Steve McCurley, these two co-founders of e-Volunteerism, now known as Engage, discuss what happens when the patterns of volunteering change but the models and structures to support Volunteer Engagement remain the same. This prescient column from two decades ago – foreshadowing short-term, episodic volunteering patterns reflected in post-pandemic volunteering trends – serves to remind everyone that what goes around comes around. Indeed, “thinking the unthinkable” was but a clarion call to face facts. As Ellis and McCurley once wrote, “This call for reassessment of tradition is based on our willingness to face reality.” 

Available May 31