Fundraising Principles and Practice, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER TWENTYMANAGING FUNDRAISING VOLUNTEERS

Walter Wymer and Adrian Sargeant

Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Understand the importance of using volunteer fundraisers.
2. Develop a volunteer role description.
3. Describe key forms of volunteer fundraising.
4. Develop strategies for recruiting volunteers.
5. Understand key reasons for volunteer attrition.
6. Develop strategies for retaining volunteers.

Introduction

U.S. Census Bureau and Americorps data (2023) tell us that an estimated 23.2% of Americans, or more than 60.7 million people, formally volunteered with organizations between September 2020 and 2021. In total, these volunteers served an estimated 4.1 billion hours with an economic value of $122.9 billion.

While formal volunteering rates dropped from 2019 to 2021 in every demographic group, informal helping rates largely remained steady.

With respect to formal volunteering for the period 2019 to 2021:

• Women continue to volunteer at a higher rate than men (25% versus 21%).
• Generation X (ages 41 to 56 in 2021) had the highest rate of all generations (27.2% volunteer).
• People ages 16 to 17 had the highest rate of all age groups at 28%, followed by people ages 45 to 54 at 27%.
• Parents with children under 18 formally volunteered at a higher rate (30%) than those without children in their household (21%).

With respect to informal volunteering:

• Baby ...