(Photo via LCR)
There is obviously no one reason why anyone, even a baby boomer volunteers. Two recent studies mentioned by the ONN looked at baby boomer volunteering and found that:
a. the only real thing you could count on was whether they volunteered in the past. That was the only really strong thing in predicting whether a baby boomer would volunteer after they retired. Makes sense psychologically — people are creatures of habit. Once you start doing something you tend not to stop (inertia).
b. there’s no one ‘other’ reason that really drives anyone to volunteer.
Is it too late to engage the baby boomers as volunteers? | Ontario Nonprofit Network: “We need to reconsider that volunteering is not just about making a difference (that is often our sales pitch to prospective volunteers), but also about becoming an engaged community member through small steps. ‘Defining volunteering as a membership, communal or even leisure activity may be a more successful strategy for recruiting volunteers than defining it as ‘productive work’.’ And improving the management of volunteers and the infrastructure needed to support them is critical to our future, as pointed out by these authors – ‘Well-run programs will attract older volunteers just as they will attract people of all ages.’”
Cathy Taylor from the Volunteer Centre of Guelph/Wellington concludes that if (a) is the real big thing for volunteers then we should be inspiring, motivating and training our volunteers of tomorrow today. I totally agree — so would a whole bunch of enlightened kids educators that I know. You always start when they’re young and you foster the culture.
You want to build a better world? Build it through your youth. That’s the only way you can be sure of having volunteers of older ages and making lasting change.
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