Volunteer

For other uses, see Volunteer (disambiguation).

Volunteers fit new windows at The Sumac Centre in Nottingham, UK.

A volunteer is someone who serves in a community or for the benefit of natural environment primarily because they choose to do so. Many serve through a non-profit organization – sometimes referred to as formal volunteering, but a significant number also serve less formally, either individually or as part of a group. Because these informal volunteers are much harder to identify, they may not be included in research and statistics on volunteering.

By definition, a volunteer worker does not get paid or receive compensation for services rendered.

Motivations and rewards

Each person's motivations will be unique — but will often be a combination of the following:

Altruism

volunteering for the benefit of others. Most people argue that there are no purely altruistic volunteers – altruism is a common motivation but never the only motivation for sustained commitment to serve – there is always some aspect of personal gain or satisfaction

Quality of life

"serving community because doing service makes ones own life better — is perhaps the most significant motivation for volunteering. It is often mixed with a good dose of altruism. Included here would be the benefits people get from being with other people, staying active, and above all having a sense of the value of ourselves in society that may not be as clear in other areas of life."

Giving back

many people have in some way benefited from the work of an organization, or more generally, and volunteer to give back.

Sense of duty

some see participation in community as a responsibility that comes with citizenship – in this case they may not describe themselves as volunteers

Religious conviction

Many faiths hold that service to others or the community is a spiritual duty or a means of reaching higher spiritual states.

Financial

Being motivated by finances is not generally included within the definition of volunteering. Some organizations are able to pay the expenses of a volunteer, others provide what is essentially a stipend or honorarium. Generally speaking, the higher the stipend, the more difficult it is to claim that a service is volunteering. Experiences that can add to career prospects and many employers value volunteering experience.

Social

Volunteering is a good way to meet a lot of different people from other walks of life and it is often easy to make new friends.

Recognition

2001 was the International Year of the Volunteer, as designated by the United Nations. Every 5 December is International Volunteer Day, also designated by the United Nations. 2005 was the United Kingdom Year of the Volunteer., National Volunteer week in Australia is the week after the second Sunday in May.

Common terms

International volunteer

a person who volunteers outside of his or her own country, usually related in some way to a development program.

Online volunteer

(virtual volunteer, cyber service, telementor, e-volunteer, cyber volunteer) — a person who contributes time and effort with an organization through an online connection, rather than or in addition to an onsite service.

Online volunteers do a variety of tasks, such as translating documents, proofreading books, editing or preparing proposals, designing logos, researching information, developing strategic plans, reviewing budgets, creating web pages, designing flash presentations, moderating online discussion groups and managing other online volunteers. Online volunteers may support organizations in their own community, or entirely remotely (such as Wikipedia).

ICT volunteer

someone who uses Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a central part of his or her service, or, who advocates for ICT access for under-serviced communities.

MMORPG volunteer

often MMORPGs have Volunteers (or "Vols"), unpaid staff who moderate the game. A Volunteer can perform simple operations such as banning a player from the game, or silencing an abusive player. Volunteers are often used to lighten the workload for the GMs (Game Masters) who usually contribute mainly towards the server based operations (such as server maintenance).

Museum volunteer

many museums have unpaid volunteers as well as paid staff involved in their running. They may act as gallery attendants, work on the collection catalogue, look after the museum shop, etc., as required. Smaller museums are often entirely run by volunteers. See main article at docent.

Youth volunteer

a youth volunteer is when a young person primarily aged 12- 21 years of age do voluntary work that is of benefit to their community. There is a number of national organisations focusing solely on the promotion of youth volunteering as young people are seen as the future. Civil society requires young people to be active citizens and volunteering is seen as key to this.

Peer Health Educator volunteer

involved in supporting or leading health services or programs, usually in the context of a community or outreach program and with an emphasis on providing resources or information.

Mandatory community service

Main article: Community service

"Mandatory volunteering" includes various forms of community service in which the primary motivator is external to the individual — when people are mandated to serve an authority. (See also indentured servitude)

1. a high school student required to provide a certain number of hours of community service to a nonprofit organization in order to graduate,
2. a high school or college student engaged in service learning, using a volunteering experience to apply skills learned in the classroom and to meet a requirement to pass the class, or
3. a person convicted of a misdemeanor being required to provide such community service as part of his or her sentence. Some organizations require members to provide a certain number of community services as well.

In recent years, mandated community service has been on the rise, driven by increasingly cash strapped (and perhaps more humanitarian) correctional systems, and by moves to encourage the notion of 'active citizenship' in youth. Many in the voluntary sector argue that they are expected, often with no additional funding, to pick up these functions from justice and educational systems.

Controversy exists around the terminology used — 'Mandatory volunteering' is seen as oxymoronic, since definitions of volunteering overwhelmingly include the element of free choice to act. Many opponents of the term also see a threat to the spirit of volunteering if it becomes contaminated with notions of force and punishment. Ironically, there is some indication that the term originated in the voluntary sector itself — the sector now most keen to clarify the difference between volunteering and mandated activity. A term that allows clearer definition is "Mandatory Community Service".

Controversy also exists around some aspects of mandated community service. The effects of forcing some people to serve — on both their future commitment to community and the commitments of others — are largely unknown. Many managers of volunteers note that managing those on mandatory programs is different from managing volunteers, not least because motivation is a key underlying theme in volunteer management, but also because some MCS programming requires elements that may not exist at all in a volunteer program — policing and reporting being notable examples.

(Although it is by no means a universal sentiment, this quote reflects the strength of one persons reaction: Suellen Carlson, the Director of Volunteers, at Lutheran Social Services in New York. "I no longer do someone else's job for them. The judge will have to find another way to punish someone other than punishing me in the process. I don't want to chase anyone, get nasty phone calls from someone who has to get in so many hours by a certain time (usually within the next couple of days).")

Military Volunteers

In the armed forces "volunteer" takes on a number of meanings. It can mean that the individual has actually consented to some dangerous mission. However more commonly it means that the officer (usually NCO) has picked you for something unpleasant/onerous/dangerous: "I need three volunteers; you, you and you". Or "dress forward one pace all those who want to volunteer", nearly the whole squad quickly dresses to the rear leaving only the dimmest "dressed forward".

See also

• Pro bono
• Community organization
• Hospital volunteer
• Hiwi
• Service club
• Volunteer fire department
• Non-governmental organization
• Private voluntary organization
• Council for Voluntary Service

External links

• Directory of volunteering-related links at Curlie
• Gap Year Worldwide Volunteer for free, browse our gapyear directory, teach, work, study or travel abroad