Abstract
Volunteers are a critical operational resource for not-for-profit organisations in the health and welfare sector. However, trends towards episodic volunteering may be a source of disruption. This study examined contemporary management beliefs and practices about episodic volunteers in the sector. A cross-sectional online survey with 186 managers and coordinators of episodic volunteers across North America and the Asia Pacific examined organisational values and beliefs about volunteers; perceived benefits and challenges of working with episodic volunteers; volunteering management. Episodic volunteers were highly beneficial to organisational profile, mission, service profile, and cost savings. Challenges include matching recruitment to workplace and skill needs; lack of paid staff to supervise and train volunteers and inadequate administrative support. There is a disjunct between the perceived value provided to the not-for-profit sector by episodic volunteers and the extent to which episodic volunteering is supported through organisational training and management practices.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Volunteering Queensland for support in promoting this research through their networks.
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This project was funded by the Australian Research Council (LP150100368) with additional financial contributions from Cancer Council Queensland and the Union for International Cancer Control.
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JD, PS, MH, KS, LZ and SC contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by JD, PS, LZ, S-KN, and SC. The first draft of the manuscript was written by JD, S-KN and LZ and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Dunn, J., Scuffham, P., Hyde, M.K. et al. Designing Organisational Management Frameworks to Empower Episodic Volunteering. Voluntas 33, 217–228 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-020-00226-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-020-00226-5