Chanda Helms
English 102
July 29, 2011
Unit IV
Getting it Right; to be successful in volunteer recruitment you have know the who what when where and how or you might fall short
“Five out of ten dogs in shelters and seven out of ten cats in shelters are destroyed simply because there is no one to adopt them.”(Pet Statistics) Being an animal lover I have always paid attention to such statistics. When I am watching television and I see a commercial for the ASPCA with the slow music and pictures of the dogs and cats on the screen I can’t deny or hide the huge rock that finds its way into my throat. I hear the celebrities who endorse this organization explain how the animals can’t talk so “we are their voice.” (ASPCA) Every time the commercial gets to the point where they ask for that small donation I find myself more and more compelled each time to pick up the phone and call. I would even receive a free t-shirt if I did donate. I can only imagine how many people feel the same way as me but actually do something about the rock in their throat. I wonder how many animal lovers nationwide take the time to donate their money to save these animals by picking up the phone and giving a credit card number to the operator then rest easy that night knowing they did a great thing today. Helping out the ASPCA or any other animal rights group by providing a financial donation is, of course, a selfless act. However, there are thousands of animal shelters all around the united states that are struggling to make ends meet.
“Approximately 5 to 7 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year, and approximately 3 to 4 million are euthanized (60 percent of dogs and 70 percent of cats). Shelter intakes are about evenly divided between those animals relinquished by owners and those picked up by animal control. These are national estimates; the percentage of euthanasia may vary from state to state” (ASPCA) What is causing this mass destruction of these animals? It is the over population in the shelters nationwide and not enough amenities to provide and care for them? Barbara Zekausky CEO/CFO of the Shelby County Humane Society would argue that “being short staffed and underfunded is the source of almost all of the issues any nonprofit organization faces today.” (Personal Interview) Since Shelby County has become a no-kill county (meaning they do not euthanize any adoptable animals) the more pets they can take in the more they can save. Being a nonprofit organization it is hard enough to keep the lights on for the building let alone provide for animals outside their normal capacity. In order to raise money there has to be fundraisers, in order to put on those fundraisers there has to be people in other words volunteers. Volunteers are a key ingredient to nonprofit companies. Without them nonprofit organizations would not survive. How does a nonprofit organization obtain these volunteers? Networking.
“It’s all about connections. Sure you can walk around and ask for volunteers for one specific event and a few people will show up for that one fundraiser, but in order to get a group of good reliable hardworking volunteers who will come back on a regular basis, you have to know the right people, offer the right incentives and have the right volunteer coordinator all of which we don’t have the time and or money for at the moment.”
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| Shelby County Humane Society Logo |
It would seem that a sacrifice of some sort will have to be made in order to do the things that need to be done to keep the SCHS running smoothly. So which sacrifice should be made? The Humane society should spend the extra money to offer incentives as well as promote volunteer opportunities to those willing to help raise money for the organization in order to obtain more volunteers. By doing this they could get more attention from the people of the surrounding counties. “There aren’t too many people who are willing to work for free; everyone likes to see something for their work.” (Zekausky) By offering incentives it would attract more people to volunteer or donate.
There are many opportunities to raise money for the business but there isn’t any manpower to do so. “There aren’t enough reliable volunteers that we can count on to do what they are supposed to without having to hold their hands.” (Personal interview) Barbara has been struggling with her volunteer situation her entire 10 years being CEO however, recently has been more of a challenge than anything. She claims to be feeling helpless when it comes to finding the right amount of people needed to do even the smallest tasks to raise money for the company. Where have all the dedicated volunteers gone?
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| T-shirt and wristband offered for donating to the ASPCA |
Anyone who watches television has seen the commercials. There have been well known superstars like Alyssa Milano and Sarah McLachlan promoting Foundations such as the ASPCA and the SPCA. By putting theses well known people on their commercials it is showing their support and grabbing the attention of the public. They have been aired on nearly every station over the past several years. During the ASPCA commercials there is a section which shows they will give you a t-shirt for your small donations. There are more than 1 million members in the ASPCA and to become a member all you need to do is make a donation. It seems that by offering this incentive and making it so simple for people to help the ASPCA has recruited enough people to keep the company afloat.
Some may say that is not necessary or it may be counterproductive to spend money on incentives to attract people who will help raise money, but by spending the money on the incentives the SCHS will attract more people who will see something for their time or money. There have been studies conducted that have shown results when offered incentives had no effect on the willingness of volunteers. When a case study was done on a group of volunteers for the female community health center in Nepal researchers found that“. . . it may not be useful to promote a generic range of incentives, such as wages. . .” (Vijaya et al Abstract?) In the results it suggests that many women who were asked to volunteer were not wooed by the incentives that were offered to them which would suggest that it would in fact be useless. Maybe the incentives aren’t right in this situation. Instead of offering higher wages for extra work there could be a more materialistic reward such as a t-shirt which would also promote the company as well as show others that the person in the t-shirt is a volunteer. It would give the volunteer a badge of honor almost which would gain them respect when wearing it much like a member of the armed forces. When someone wearing a uniform of our country people tends to show them more respect than if they were dressed in everyday casual clothing. But that is just one scenario.
In a different case study involving teachers and faculty members when asked which incentives they would prefer many opted for more teaching opportunities as well as academic rewards. (Kumar et al 122) What this means is that in a different volunteer opportunity with a different group of people a different incentive would be preferred. So if the group of teachers value the academic rewards they must be useful to them. By offering an opportunity to have more practice in your line of work it would seem that you would be more likely to take that opportunity and enjoy it.
Now when do incentives “cross the line”? Susan Ellis raises some questions regarding volunteer rewards when she read an e-mail from a volunteer coordinator of Phoenix. In this email Lacretia Bacon brings up the topic of incentives being thrown around too much. In Ellis’ article she asks the questions about these rewards that have been given out to people who have put their time and effort into volunteering. There is one case where a pitch for a project is
“One volunteer through their service on this assignment will earn a new MINI COOPER car, donated by EZFIND. Other volunteers may also earn a new LAPTOP or IPOD or one of a number of other incentives to volunteer as a MS EZFIND ENVOY.”(Ellis)
In this pitch I am sure plenty of people showed their support when the incentive is something as extravagant as a brand new car. But I feel that the incentives should not be too flashy. What this will cause is people waiting around for the incentive before they will decide to help. It would be like spoiling the public or bribing them and they may become accustomed to these rewards and not work unless they are offered. In other words the humane society needs to find out what the incentive should be and who should they target? They have to aim for the right group of people, and they have to aim for the right reward. For starters any animal lover would enjoy being with the animals so there should be a volunteer opportunity to spend time with the animals and gave them the love and attention they deserve. They may not need an actual reward for doing something they would enjoy anyways. There would be no sense in wasting their time or money trying to find and produce an incentive for something that someone would want to do. By doing this it would give the actual paid members of the humane society less things on their checklist so they could focus on more productive tasks. It would also gain them some volunteers. Maybe by letting the people come in and do something fun they would want to come back. After their third or fourth appearance the staff at the humane society could suggest a more revenue producing opportunity for the volunteer.
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| Me spending time with my animals, you would never have to pay me to do this. |
They could promote at the high schools of the surrounding counties and let the students know how much fun it would be to get the community service hours they need by helping clean up the humane society or maybe put on a car wash to raise money. They would in turn earn the hours they need and maybe a letter of recommendation for college from the staff members. This would be something a high school student would value because it would save them the time they need to devote finding someone to compose a letter of recommendation. By also making this volunteer opportunity seem effortless it would attract more students to the humane society.
The more help they can get will be beneficial to them. There is no definite source of income so the humane society has to rely on volunteers to keep the wheels of the business turning and running like a well oiled machine. By gaining more volunteers the SCHS can get more done and continue to take more animals into the shelter. Thus saving more lives. The reason they were struggling to gain new volunteers is because they weren’t promoting enough or offering any reward for the work they needed done. There are so many opportunities available to raise money for this organization all they need is some extra manpower. Just a little help goes a long way. (Arnold)
Works cited
“Pet Statistics.” The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ASPCA: We are their voice. 2011. Web. 22 July, 2011
“Help the ASPCA Fight Animal Cruelty!” The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ASPCA: We are their voice. 2011. Web. 22 July, 2011
Vijaya Shrestha, et al. "The female community health volunteer programme in Nepal: Decision makers’ perceptions of volunteerism, payment and other incentives." Social Science & Medicine 70.12 (2010): 1920-1927. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 July 2011.
Kumar, Ashir, David J. Kallen, and Thomas Mathew. "Volunteer Faculty: What Rewards or Incentives Do They Prefer?" Teaching & Learning in Medicine 14.2 (2002): 119-124. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 July 2011.
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