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Volunteering 12 Feb 2009
A Virtual Matchmaker for Volunteers by Sue Self

Sue SelfAn article in today’s Wall Street Journal. “A Virtual Matchmaker for Volunteers” boasts that 60.8 million Americans donated 8.1 billion hours of volunteer service in 2007. Unfortunately, it also reports that volunteers are more fickle, have less time, and don’t want to make a long term commitment.

In my position as director of a volunteer based hotline, I often commiserate with my colleagues who work at other hotlines—“Where have all the volunteers gone?” Our volunteer count has steadily dropped over the past 15 years, while the quality and endurance of the volunteers who are with us today is nothing short of astounding. The websites mentioned in this article help would-be volunteers find a fit, and do some of the legwork. But nothing is better than a volunteer, like many of ours, who want to put heart and soul into helping people, and want to commit to doing it for a while. A volunteer who commits and stays not only saves salary, training, and tax dollars, but becomes part of an agency’s fabric and culture, making it a better place all around.

Here’s a link to the article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123439604394574921.html#articleTabs%3Darticle


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