The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, 5th Edition

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVELEADING AND MANAGING VOLUNTEERS¹

Rebecca Nesbit

Volunteers are an essential part of society's social and economic fabric. In the United States, an estimated four out of five public charities work with volunteers (Hager and Brudney, 2004a), as do government agencies at all levels (Brudney and Kellough, 2000; Brudney, 1986; Nesbit and Brudney, 2013). Approximately one-fourth of the U.S. population volunteers in any given year, donating over 4.1 billion hours of service to nonprofit and public organizations (Americorps, 2021). Yet despite the clear importance and prevalence of volunteering, nonprofits invest relatively little in volunteer program design and management. Few nonprofits employ a full-time, paid volunteer manager, ...