Whenever I take interest in an organization, and in particular in an organization which depends on the participation of volunteers or the community, the first question I ask is, “Does this organization have any hope of success?” It is a blunt question. Even people in the worst situations often have some hope, but it is my belief that many community-based organizations which have a goal of encouraging volunteers to do something constructive fail in their work. I imagine the following situation:
When evaluating the organization, I think of a smart person who is interested in their organization and mission comes to them and wants to volunteer. This person is competant to do work, knows the field, and has a few hours a week to commit for the next few months. They can do anything on a computer and can show up to events. They would be interested in doing something fun and meaningful, and less interested in doing rote work or boring labor.
In such a situation, is the organization prepared to accept this person’s volunteership? For almost all organizations the answer is no.
Here are some examples of the kinds of intellectual work which I think organizations ought to make more available to volunteers:
- creating social media content, such as posting on forums, Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else where people are having active discussions
- creating broadcast media content about the organization, including articles (as on a blog or Wikipedia), videos (as on YouTube), or photographs (as on Flickr)
- posting comments on broadcast content created by others
- participating in meetings where each individual’s comments matter, are recorded, and distributed in summaries of meeting minutes
- otherwise personally empowered to present themselves as fans of a cause with limited or no formal affiliation to the organizers of the cause
I feel very bad when I hear about a volunteer who has time and resources to donate but their contribution is not accepted for lack of management infrastructure to moderate the volunteer’s contributions. I know that large organizations frequently worry about their brand image and do not want to encourage voices which are not certain to be in line with their concept of their own organizational image but I think the cost of not permitting stakeholders in a cause to have a voice in the big projects funding it is far greater than the cost of having to handle occasional miscommunication.