Policy Paper for Stichting Present
On the Value of Volunteering, Effective Volunteer
Management and Achieving an optimal balance of paid and
volunteer staff
By
Chris Lassooij 362497
Nasim Payandeh 331411
Frederike Streese 347799
Doing good done better - Effective management of philanthropic “NGO” organizations
BKMME 18-11
Prof. L. Meijs
March 27, 2013
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
Table of content
Executive summary ................................................................................................................................. 3
1.
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5
2.
Stichting Present.............................................................................................................................. 7
3.
Theory introduction....................................................................................................................... 11
4.
Value of volunteering .................................................................................................................... 12
Economic value: Low cost resource .................................................................................................. 12
Economic value: Performance measure............................................................................................ 12
Social value: Motivation .................................................................................................................... 13
Social value: Attitude......................................................................................................................... 13
Social value: Perceptive added value ................................................................................................ 13
5.
Management of volunteers ........................................................................................................... 14
Developing organizational capability for volunteer management.................................................... 14
Considerations for the NPO in balancing paid staff and volunteers ................................................. 15
6.
Method .......................................................................................................................................... 16
7.
Findings.......................................................................................................................................... 17
8.
Recommendations......................................................................................................................... 18
1. Achieving the right balance: Task Interchangeability.................................................................... 18
2. Building the Positive Volunteer Experience: Recruitment, Training, Integration and Retention . 19
3. Linking the Positive Experience to the Organization: Organizational Characteristics and Culture21
4. Expanding the knowledge on mixed staff management: Future Research Opportunities ........... 22
References ............................................................................................................................................. 23
Articles ............................................................................................................................................... 23
Interviews .......................................................................................................................................... 25
2
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
Executive summary
Stichting Present is a Dutch nonprofit volunteer organisation. Its chapter offices are usually
run by paid staff as well as volunteers (i.e. volunteer administrators). At the same time the
volunteer/paid staff balance is left to the discretion of each chapter. Some offices are rather
successful in employing few paid employees and running the chapter office with volunteers
mostly. Stichting Present is interested in the success factors of these local chapters and the
applicability of their success stories to other local chapters. The purpose of this research is to
address such interest by looking into theoretical constructs related to topics of volunteering
value, volunteer management and optimal volunteer staff levels. In doing so, the following
paper aims to derive insights from the existing knowledge contained in the volunteering and
volunteer management literature as well as to consider the implications of such knowledge,
and recommendations that may be drawn therefrom, for the case of Stichting Present.
Therefore, basing on a review of theory, the research question investigated in this paper is
the following:
How can Stichting Present optimally benefit from mixed staffing (volunteer and paid staff)?
Stichting Present connects people in need and those who are willing to help. The
organisation is structured in chapters that operate in cities all over the Netherlands.
Stichting Present functions as a broker between four parties. Groups of volunteers will
approach the organisation by defining the kind of volunteer project they want to do and in
which timeframe they want to do it. Stichting Present then inquires about possible
beneficiaries within their vast network of civil society organisations which in turn are
connected to people in need. Then Stichting Present makes a match between the
beneficiaries and the volunteer group drawing up a contract. The actual project will be run
involving all four parties. To live up to Stichting Present’s core values - quality, continuity and
professionalism - the organisation tries to continuously learn and improve their operations.
The section on theory encompasses two main bodies of literature, namely the value and
management of volunteers. The value of volunteer is generally viewed through two
perspectives, economic and Social value. The economic value perspective can be used to
calculate the Replacement cost for using volunteers over paid staff and measuring
performance of an organization and individuals. The social value perspective shows that the
economic perspective misses certain affective aspects of volunteer valuation by
organizations and beneficiaries which could make organisations reconsider the way in which
volunteers are currently employed within their organisations.
Literature on volunteer management highlights organizational-level factors that should be
taken into consideration when optimizing the value of volunteers. It proposes a series of
characteristics, abilities and activities that organizations need to develop. On the one hand,
organizations need to incorporate characteristics that support volunteer staff work. Firstly,
governance structures need to be formal yet participative. Secondly, organizations should
develop a culture that motivates a predisposition of paid staff-volunteer collaboration. On
the other hand, literature also pinpoints necessary organizational abilities directed along two
lines: motivating volunteers to develop skills, such as recognizing the contributions brought
forth by them; and removing structural barriers for such skill development, through, for
instance, implementing flexible work schedules.
3
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
These two aspects, characteristics and abilities, are communicated and materialized in a
series of activities taking place around the volunteer work, which we denominate: core
activities and consist of training, integration and retention. When volunteer staff is engaged
in such activities through which a sense of belonging and importance, as well as a role
identity and learning opportunities are created, they build a positive volunteer experience.
This in turn, becomes an indication of effective volunteer management. However,
organizations need not only develop the necessary capability to manage volunteers but also
decide on the optimal balance between paid staff and volunteer staff. A review of the
relevant theory suggests for this purpose a combination of recategorization of tasks along
their interchangeability and a cost-benefit analysis of the different mix options that takes
into consideration both tangible benefits from volunteering, i.e. costs savings, as well as
intangible ones, i.e positive externalities such as word of mouth promotion of the
organization’s mission.
In order to generate applicable and valuable recommendations for Stichting Present we also
conducted three interviews with chapter and regional coordinators to relate theory to
practice. The resulting advice for Stichting Present is thus the following:
1. Re-categorize chapter tasks into: non-interchangeable and interchangeable
according to task requirements. Conduct a cost-benefit analysis for the resulting
interchangeable tasks to arrive at an optimal balance of paid staff and volunteer staff
to fill in the positions in these tasks.
2. Use recruitment, integration, training and retention to build a positive volunteer
experience. All four activities form the basis for all staff activities. We advise Stichting
Present to invest in training and integration and develop talent within the
organisation. A joint volunteer project for the chapter teams could further increase
team building and strengthen the feeling of belonging.
3. Link positive volunteer experience to the organization by leveraging organizational
characteristics that support volunteer identification with the organization and
transforming organizational culture to motivate and align collaborative vision of paid
staff and volunteer staff.
4. Explore fields of future research to expand knowledge for the organisation by
investigating on the individual level if motivations, attitudes and perceptions of staff
members. Moreover, an analysis of typical problems that arise with certain staff
mixes could help other chapters who are interested in changing their staff mix.
Additionally we advise Stichting Present to look at variety of factors that are external
to the organisation and could influence their performance.
An organisation that is able to recognising the value of their volunteers and at the same time
succeeds in developing the capabilities needed to actively manage volunteers by creating
firstly, al alignment of vision and activity and secondly manages to build a stronger
identification of its staff with the organisation will be able to reap the benefits that
volunteers can offer to an organisation.
4
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
1. Introduction
Like other nonprofit organisations Stichting Present relies heavily on volunteers. Their
contribution to the nonprofit sector is increasing noticeably. Salamon, Sokolowski and List
(2003) who conducted research on volunteers in 35 countries concluded that by now
volunteers contribute as much time as 12.6 million full-time employees would.
However, what exactly is a volunteer? Several authors have attempted to define what a
volunteer is or what volunteerism entails. These definitions list several characteristics which
volunteers should own such as e.g. not earning a salary or the fact that others and not the
volunteer himself should benefit from the volunteering activities. Cnaan, Handy and
Wedsworth (1996) have categorized characteristics of volunteerism into four dimensions.
The first dimension centers around the fact that the volunteer’s acts have to be of voluntary
nature. This would e.g. exclude work conducted in the scope of community work assigned to
convicts. The second dimension is related to the rewards received by volunteers through
their work. While different approaches to remuneration can be taken, ranging from not even
covering expenses to medium levels of compensation, one guiding principle remains valid – a
volunteer’s contribution must be in excess of the reward given.
The third dimension relates to the degree of formality with which the volunteer work is
performed. For some, only volunteer work which has been formalized under an
organizational structure should be defined as such while others also include less formalized
work into volunteer work. The last dimension of Cnaan et al’s (1996) framework involves the
beneficiaries of the voluntary act. For those who follow a rather strict definition the
volunteers should not know any members of the beneficiary group and in turn will not form
a part of this group. However, others have defined the group of beneficiaries in broader
terms which allows beneficiaries to include people of groups (e.g. in religious, geographical
or ethnic terms) to which the volunteer also belongs. The main limitation of this dimension is
that volunteer work has to benefit more people than the volunteer himself and his direct
surroundings.
Moreover, a clear distinction in volunteers has to be made between volunteers contributing
to the actual purpose of an organization and those facilitating the projects. In the case of
Stichting Present the first category of volunteers are those that actually do help people and
work directly with the beneficiaries while the latter would be those volunteers who are
actually working in the office to support the administration process, often called volunteer
administrators. Next to volunteer administrators most boards of nonprofit organisations are
composed of volunteers.
Stichting Present’s chapter offices are usually run by paid staff as well as volunteers (i.e.
volunteer administrators). At the same time the volunteer/paid staff balance is left to the
discretion of each chapter. Some offices are rather successful in employing few paid
employees and running the chapter office with volunteers mostly. Stichting Present is
interested in the success factors of these local chapters and the applicability of their success
stories to other local chapters. The purpose of this research is to address such interest by
looking into theoretical constructs related to topics of volunteering value, volunteer
management and optimal volunteer staff levels. In doing so, the following paper aims to
5
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
derive insights from the existing knowledge contained in the volunteering and volunteer
management literature as well as to consider the implications of such knowledge, and
recommendations that may be drawn therefrom, for the case of Stichting Present.
Therefore, basing on a review of theory, the research question investigated in this paper is
the following:
How can Stichting Present optimally benefit from mixed staffing (volunteer and paid staff)?
In an attempt to answer this question, we will firstly elaborate in detail the functioning of
Stichting Present. Then a short introduction to the two main bodies of literature, namely the
value of volunteers and volunteer management is given. The following section is a literature
review on the social and economic perspective one can take by assessing the value of
volunteers within an organisation. The section thereafter elaborates on the literature in the
field of volunteer management taking into account organizational capabilities an
organisation with volunteers should develop and, secondly, maps how an organisation can
arrive at an optimal mix of staffing, combining volunteers and paid staff. We decided to
support the theoretical insights by conducting interviews, the findings of which are
presented after the theoretical section. The theory and the observations from the interviews
are linked in a final section where recommendations are given with the purpose of helping
Stichting Present gain learning on the topic of volunteer management.
6
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
2. Stichting Present
Stichting Present is a Dutch nonprofit organisation that connects people in need and those
who are willing to help through their network. The foundation was set up in 2003 based on a
British role model. The organization has been growing steadily over the last years increasing
the total number of chapters to over 60 located all over the Netherlands. All chapters are set
up on behalf of local initiatives and function as individual entities with additional support
from Stichting Present Nederland. The chapters have a high degree of autonomy in financial
and administrative terms due to the fact that they all run as a soft franchise. This form of
franchising offers a higher degree of freedom, however also bears more risk (de Jong and
Jiang, not dated). Additionally, soft franchising is the right strategy to adapt to local
conditions (Brand and Croonen, 2006). Nonetheless, the core approach and identity of
Stichting Present is embedded among all local chapters.
The foundation presents itself as a Christian organization that stimulates other Christians to
give back without distinction of persons. As literature suggests, active members of
congregations are more willing to volunteer than others (Cnaan, not dated), which also
applies in practice. Especially in the starting phase, Stichting Present relied on the existing
wide network of church-related volunteer groups. The volunteering model of Stichting
Present has a clear focus on working with volunteer groups. All individuals that want to
participate will also form groups (Flex groups) to support the cause.
Volunteer groups e.g. from companies, sport clubs, families, neighbours and church groups
etc. either directly approach Stichting Present with an idea of how, when, where and for
how long they want to volunteer or they are approached through volunteers from Stichting
Present. The chapter then approaches their network of civil society organisations (CSOs) to
inquire where this help would be most needed. The organisations cooperated with range
from local governments, psychiatrics, elderly homes, volunteer centres to women’s centers.
The reason for cooperating with CSOs is twofold, firstly CSOs possess the local knowledge for
potential projects and furthermore are experienced in providing service to people within
their communities. Secondly, CSOs are better fit to monitor and follow up on the activities
undertaken by volunteer groups.
Stichting Present takes on the role of a broker, helping to connect volunteers with civil
society organisations and in turn with the beneficiaries. This is what Brudney and Meijs
(2012) would call an intermediary model of volunteer management: the volunteers who are
recruited are external to the organisation and will also be placed outside the organisation to
do the actual volunteering (See Table 1 on the next page).
7
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
Table 1: Volunteer recruitment and placement
Within
Outside
Volunteer Placement
Volunteer Recruitment
Internal
External
“Membership Model”
Examples: membership association,
self-help group, day-care cooperative
(service groups and religious groups
have both internal and external
placements of volunteers)
“Service Model”
Examples: volunteer service-delivery
program in a nonprofit organization
or a government agency
“Secondary model”
Examples: corporate volunteer
program or a school-based volunteer
program, social activation programs
that require volunteering to receive
social service benefits
“Intermediary Model”
Examples: volunteer center or
volunteer bureau, “voluntourism”
agency, board of directors selection
bureaus, single Volunteers, Inc.
Due to the fact that volunteers are recruited outside the organisation the volunteer
administrators have to find their own target groups. Once they have successfully completed
this task, the volunteers then need to be placed in a way that matches the volunteer itself,
the hosting volunteer organisation and the matchmaking organisation (Brudney and Meijs,
2012).
The projects done can entail any kind of social help including support with moving,
renovating, gardening but also spending time with e.g. the elderly. Next to the actual value
added (painted walls, a neat garden etc.) Stichting Present claims to also deliver more
intangible benefits: firstly, all parties involved will get to know each other and develop
relations in which they start to care for each other, which may continue after the project.
Secondly, a Stichting Present project may sometimes serve as an impetus for the
beneficiaries to become active again and become self supporting. These people often
experience the support by others for the first time in years. Stichting Present stresses the
fact that help will always be given on a par with the beneficiaries which is emphasized
through the fact that beneficiaries are always involved in the process. The actual goal that
Stichting Present pursues is to facilitate a social movement, which makes it natural again to
support those in your community.
An average project process will entail the following steps: Firstly, the involved chapter of
Stichting Present will introduce itself to volunteer groups interested in cooperating with the
organization with a presentation. Secondly, those volunteer groups which identify with
Stichting Present’s way of working sign up and define their requirements regarding type of
task, group size, available time slots and the length of the project (see Figure 1).
8
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
Thirdly, Stichting Present gets in touch with their CSO network to find the right
beneficiary/ies. If Stichting Present is successful in doing this, a meeting with the CSO
chosen, Stichting Present, a representative of the volunteers and also the actual beneficiary
or a representative is called in and the terms and conditions are agreed upon and laid
down(fourth step). The agreement also defines the contribution that will be made by the
actual beneficiary which is essential for Stichting Present projects since the organization
wants to involve people and help on a par instead of providing external help. Beneficiaries
often provide the materials needed or support the team during their actual tasks. Finally, the
volunteering phase starts, during which the volunteer group executes their projects with the
help of the beneficiaries and the support of a Stichting Present group leader and the CSO in
charge (see Figure 2).
9
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
While some projects only last a day, others will take several weeks or even months to
complete. Embedded in the project processes is an evaluation and reflection on the projects
which help to continuously improve the organization. The lessons learned are integrated in
documents which serve as guidelines and help to share knowledge country-wide. The final
steps of evaluation, reflection and continuous improvement are essential for Stichting
Present to maintain and uphold their three core values, namely quality, professionalism and
continuity.
10
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
3. Theory introduction
Stichting Present is administered by a mixture of both paid staff and volunteers, as are many
nonprofit organisations. Nonetheless, some organisations run their operations with paid
staff or volunteer staff only. In general, none of the three forms is inherently superior to the
others, however, all three options have their advantages and disadvantages which will apply
in certain contexts.
Financial considerations by organisations have led to an increase in volunteer staff for these
organisations. This trend is further supported by an increase in people that are willing to
volunteer. This increase has not only led to positive developments in the nonprofit sector,
but organisations have reported higher turnover for volunteers, which makes it difficult to
complete projects and continuously run operations. Moreover, the motivation for people to
volunteer is subject to change and needs to be considered to keep people on board.
According to Eisner, Grimm, Maynard and Washborn (2009) the main challenge for
nonprofits has been to strategically manage their volunteer force.
11
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
4. Value of volunteering
When discussing the value of volunteering, two perspectives are dominant in the way we
look at this topic. First, volunteers are often seen through the economic perspective,
focusing on the financial contribution the volunteer makes within the organization. This
contribution can be the amount of money saved by not paying staff (cost saving focus) or the
performance a volunteer delivers, like the amount of hours he/she spends on the
organization (performance measure). On the other hand, volunteers can be valued through a
social perspective, focusing on the added qualitative value for the NPO or the beneficiary.
This results in social value. Social value is seen in the different affection beneficiaries feel
when working with volunteers compared to working with a paid staff member.
Economic value: Low cost resource
One of the most used reasons that support the employment of volunteers is that they cost
less than paying someone to do the same job. This makes volunteering appear like a cheap
kind of resource and creates illusions about the possibilities for exploiting the resources.
First we focus on the resource aspect and then the illusions associated with this assumption
are discussed.
The concept of volunteers doing a paid staff task is called replacement cost (Goulbourne and
Embuldeniya, 2002). NPO’s can offer their output (services, products) at prices lower than
market price or even for free by replacing the cost of paid staff with that of volunteers.
However, it is interesting to see that this replacement cost has a limit. Handy and Brudney
(2007) state that managing volunteers includes managing negative value. By this he means
that there is a cost linked to an attorney performing a €10/h level volunteer job. This is from
the organization point of view, taking the volunteer’s perspective he or she has a certain
opportunity cost when applying for a volunteer position as opposed to a paid function.
Besides these costs, Brudney and Duncombe (1992) found another limit to volunteer-run
organisations when researching fire departments in the USA. When costs per volunteer
(including costs for recruitment, training and retention) rose above a certain limit, it turned
out to be cheaper to install paid staff to do part of the (administrative) work. This shows that
even though replacement cost can be interesting, paid staff are economically attractive also.
What is often neglected is the fact that paid staff is contracted for a longer period of time,
(mostly) multiple days per week and that they have targets to fulfil. Volunteers often work
fewer hours, are less trained, are not that consciously retained, have no (or little) monetary
motivations and they (usually) do not work with targets. This forces an organization to seek a
new balance between paying staff and accepting the inefficiency costs volunteers carry.
From the concept of efficiency, it is a small step to the second way of applying the economic
perspective of value, the performance measure.
Economic value: Performance measure
There is a wide range of methodologies available to assign monetary value to this resource
(Mook, Sousa, Elgie, and Quarter, 2005). This valuation is important for organizations
because assigning an economic value to a resource gives the ability to determine how well
the organization performs with or without volunteers. Bowman (2009) describes Several
ways of linking the value to performance. Output quantity, output price and revenue divided
per volunteer hour worked should give an impression of the performance of volunteers
12
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
within an organization. The assumption behind this perspective is that by measuring the
performance of paid staff and volunteers in the same way, their performance can be steered
in the same way. This assumption may be one of the few situations in which equality is
applied in a wrong way. The steering of volunteers is different from that of paid staff as they
have different motivations, attitudes and skills, relating to their social value.
Social value: Motivation
Handy and Brudney (2007) found that there are hospitals in which volunteers are recruited
even though there is enough budget to use paid staff. This shows a certain value that
volunteers have over paid staff other than their low cost. As for the volunteer motivation
aspect, the article from Bang and Ross (2006) gives excellent insight in volunteer satisfaction
and how that is to be measured. The article uses the concepts of expression of values,
community involvement, interpersonal contacts, career orientation, personal growth and
extrinsic rewards to measure satisfaction. The article of Forbes and Bussel (2002) also
researches the motivation of volunteers. They show that volunteering process, corporate
volunteering, altruism, community benefits, benefiting voluntary organization, family
benefits, affiliation needs, skills development, prestige gains and religious beliefs are all
viable motivational aspects that can show the rationale behind volunteering. Stichting
Present can use this to understand their volunteers better and possibly to see why one
volunteer performs better than another.
Social value: Attitude
The attitude of volunteers can also contribute to their performance according to Farmer and
Fedor (1999). They use the concept of psychological contracts to explain the attitude
volunteers have towards the organization and how this can affect performance. Liao-Troth
(2001) also looks into the attitude of volunteers, but he uses the concepts of psychological
contract, organizational commitment, and organizational justice to determine the
difference in attitude between volunteers and paid staff. This can answer Stichting Present’s
question at least partially, so this will also be interesting for Stichting Present to test at their
chapters.
Social value: Perceptive added value
A very important third way of applying the Social value perspective is focused on the
perception of volunteering by the benificiary. Handy and Brudney (2007) found an increased
feeling of affection, reciprocity and affective trust towards volunteering. These are three
very powerful characteristics for organizations and that explains the demand for volunteers
while money is no issue. Therefore it could be a strategic choice to put volunteers in
positions at which they can facilitate affective trust and recruit new volunteers.
13
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
5. Management of volunteers
However, it is not enough for organizations to be aware of the value that recruiting
volunteers bring forth. In order to optimally benefit from such value and leverage the
potential of an NPO’s choice to rely on mixed staff, this realization and appreciation needs to
be materialized and translated into organization-wide initiatives and features. That is to say,
organizations considering or experimenting with mixed staff should look into and develop
their own capabilities, characteristics and activities to effectively manage volunteer staff.
Developing organizational capability for volunteer management
In the search for increased effectiveness, volunteer managed organizations may profit from
identifying factors that contribute to effectiveness. In the particular case of Volunteermanaged NPOs (VNPOs), these factors are aimed at overcoming general challenges of this
specific type of organizations: a variety of goals, lack of good accounts and intermittence in
activities (Smith and Shen, 1996). Smith and Shen (1996), in an attempt to generalize finding
from studies on paid staff managed NPOs, pinpoint a series of critical success factors (CSFs)
at the structural VNPO level. In general, VNPOs can witness an increase in effectiveness if
they are able to formally, yet flexibly, mobilize their volunteer members through directed
empowerment. This is achieved for instance by establishing a formal board of directors and
standard officers who overlook organizational processes, providing the organization with a
degree of centralization. Similarly, a high level of formalization through e.g. an explicitly
communicated mission statement, can contribute to the necessary vision alignment. On the
other hand, empowerment of volunteer managers is maintained as they are included in
decision making processes (Boyd, 2003) and as such an important CSF becomes the creation
of specific task committees with a level of autonomy. These CSFs are related to
organizational characteristics that are to be embedded along the governance structure.
One can complement Smith and Shen (1996) by adding a second aspect of organizational
characteristics that enable the effective management of volunteers, and which refers to an
organizational culture that embraces the collaboration between paid staff and volunteers
(Netting et al, 2008). Here, the ability of the organization to manage the complex
relationship between volunteers and paid staff (Netting, et al., 2008) becomes important.
This complexity could be traced back to the general conception that volunteers may be seen
to threaten paid staff positions in the organization (Brudney and Gazley, 2002). Netting et al
(2008) approach this ‘threatening’ perception by suggesting that a transformation in the
relationship between both types of staff is rooted in a shift of organizational culture
recognizing that volunteers are in fact not “free” and that the organization is predisposed to
using volunteers rather than considering them an addition. In this line, a new organizational
culture is reflected in the use of psychological contracts that incorporate aspects of
receptivity to volunteerism and embeddedness of its value. Achieving an organizational
culture that relieves the apparent tensions in the human resource pool will potentiate the
organization’s ability to manage volunteers.
Smith and Shen’s research (1996) also relates to other literature on the topic (Boyd, 2003;
Skoglund, 2006) in highlighting that in order to achieve such CSFs, organizations need to
develop the necessary practical abilities and implement a series of activities.
Among the organizational competencies, Boyd (2003) uncovers a series of abilities that
organizations need to fulfill in order to leverage the potential of volunteers. The role of the
14
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
organization in this line lies primarily in two areas. Organizations should motivate the
acquiring of individual competencies, yet at the same time they should also strive to remove
barriers hampering the development of such competencies. Boyd’s Deplhi study focusing on
American NPOs, identifies that while some organizational requirements may be easily
implemented such as ‘recognizing volunteer contribution to the organization’s mission’,
other require a deeper organizational culture change such as ‘implementing flexible
schedules and participative decision making’. It could be said that when organizations
achieve volunteer-friendly characteristics in their governance structures and cultures, while
at the same time develop the necessary abilities, they build the volunteers’ identity with the
organization, which, falling in line with Skoglund’s (2006) research, contributes to a positive
volunteer experience.
Since such positive experience consists of a feeling of importance, belonging and the
availability of learning opportunities (Skoglund, 2006), organizations need to materialize
their organizational characteristics and abilities into a series of activities, namely training,
retention (Skoglund, 2006) and integration (Sharpe and Barnes, 2009) so as to construct this
positive experience. Skoglund (2006) identifies that the development of training seminars
and the formation of support volunteer groups are but some core activities which
organizations with the necessary competencies may implement in creating the positive
volunteer experience. This is complemented by a third core activity: integration efforts
(Sharpe and Barnes, 2009). Integration refers to integrating volunteer work into the personal
lives and interests of the volunteers and it consists of two main areas. Firstly, it should give
the opportunity to develop new skills providing volunteers with a benefit to their own lives
that can be traced back to their volunteering work. In a similar manner, involvement efforts
may be directed at minimizing the personal costs of volunteering, people would encounter
in other aspects of their lives. As organizations engage in a mutually enforcing process of
training, integration and retention, they set the stage for effective volunteer management
(Skoglund, 2006; Sharpe and Barnes, 2009).
Considerations for the NPO in balancing paid staff and volunteers
As mentioned earlier, the main reason many organizations are attracted to substituting paidstaff with volunteers in management positions lies in the potential salary savings resulting
from the use of volunteers. Based on economic ideas, the use of labor, whether paid staff or
volunteer, will depend on the supply, price, productivity and substitutes (Handy et al., 2008).
However, the costs related to managing, recruiting and training of volunteers, in many cases
less professionalized than paid staff, are commonly overlooked. Brudney and Duncombe
(1992; 1995) thus develop a cost-benefit analysis based on their case study of firefighter
organizations in the United States and conclude that true monetary benefit from the use of
volunteers sources from identifying the right balance between volunteer and paid staff. Even
though their conclusions apply most directly to fire protection services, the idea of
minimizing costs while maximizing benefits in establishing an optimal mix of paid staff and
volunteers can inform other organizations involved in similar decisions.
Brudney and Duncombe’s proposition focuses on the economic sense behind volunteer
recruitment (1992). Their cost-benefit balance is further supported by the inclusion of
positive externalities, which has been explored more in detail by Handy and Brudney (2007)
in an attempt to construct an economic function. Positive externalities derive from the idea
that the total benefit from volunteering is more valuable than the sum of its parts because
15
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
of the social capital produced by volunteering (Bowman, 2006). Positive externalities of
volunteering translate into value for society as well as for the organization. Not only do they
establish a culture of civic service but provide promotion for the NPO as well as a larger base
of human support (Handy and Brudney, 2007). As such, though the cost-benefit analysis
focuses on the actual costs to the volunteer and economic benefits to the organization,
positive externalities have an influence over the actual proportion of paid staff and
volunteers an organization should opt for.
Perhaps motivated by the initial attractiveness of monetary benefits in favoring volunteers,
the discussion of such balance revolves around what makes economic sense. However,
beyond the application of an economic function deriving from a cost-benefit analysis, there
needs to be a careful consideration of the tasks within an organization and the degree of
interchangeability inherent in these tasks. Task interchangeability (Handy et al., 2008) helps
in distributing tasks among personnel by determining to what extent a certain task can be
taken by both paid staff and/or volunteer or whether it is tied to one in particular. That is to
say, the higher the degree of interchangeability, the more flexible the decision between paid
staff or volunteer for that task. The degree of task interchangeability is influenced by several
factors characteristic of the task at hand and the person required to fulfill them, such as
minimum time required, level of professionalization or level of control (Handy et al., 2008).
For instance, if a task requires much time to be accomplished, its interchangeability
decreases and there is a preference for paid staff. In this sense, it could be said that the final
balance between paid staff and volunteer may be reached after selecting the tasks that are
interchangeable and running the economic consideration on those.
6. Method
To support the theoretical findings with observations from practice, two chapters from
Stichting Present were interviewed to come up with more direct and applicable advice
linking theory with practice.
The two chapters were chosen with the purpose of identifying best practices in the area of
volunteer management, especially mixing paid and volunteer staff, and disseminating the
knowledge across the network of Stichting Present chapters. One case is highlighted as a
best practice from which learning is hoped to be identified, while the other represents a case
in which the need for improvement has become clear. The particular cases to be interviewed
were suggested by Stichting Present Nederland and allowed for a clear picture of the
difference between two chapters which were founded at approximately the same time. The
objective is to compare and contrast these two cases by means of interviews while
attempting to apply the theoretical insights in the analysis of both cases.
Practical insights from both chapters were collected through telephone interviews (lasting
for 30 to 60 mins), which have been conducted with the general coordinator of each
chapter. The interviews were semi-structured with questions targeted at identifying the
common practices within the chapter regarding training, integration and retention, as well
as staffing and perceptions of volunteer value.
16
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
7. Findings
The main findings from these interviews are displayed in the following table:
Table 2: Comparing both chapters
Den Haag
Houten
Staffing
3 paid staff, 3 volunteers
28 additional volunteers
1 paid,
6 volunteers
Environment
Big city, own office
Smaller city, Utrecht office
Matchmaking
Paid staff task, 4 days a week
Paid staff task
(interchangeable), 1 day a
week
Training
Not too much, however
reflection and evaluation
Training failed, unclear if
wanted in the future
Vision on ratio
Double amount of volunteer
hours, decrease paid staff hours
Unclear
Type of leadership
Pioneer, entrepreneurial
Allround, managerial
Actual working hours of
the chapter coordinator
0.9 FTEs
0.4 FTEs
Main identified difference
between paid staff and
volunteer
Paid staff has more
responsibilities and a stricter
duty to deliver and perform.
Volunteer has more flexibility in
task accomplishment
Paid staff and volunteer
staff have different
obligations
Lower commitment of
volunteer staff to complete
tasks
17
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
8. Recommendations
1. Achieving the right balance: Task Interchangeability
If Stichting Present wishes to optimize the benefits from bringing together paid staff with
volunteer staff, it is essential that an optimal balance between the two is first achieved. This
is to be done through conducting a cost benefit analysis (Duncombe and Brudney, 1992;
Brudney and Duncombe 1995) comparing the potential benefits, both tangible and
intangible (Handy and Brudney, 2007), with the costs that the organization is to incur from
the recruitment, training and management of volunteers. In many cases this analysis will
reveal to what extent it is beneficial to have volunteers perform tasks that paid staff would
otherwise do. Moreover, as Brudney and Duncombe argue (1992, 1995) it will also help the
organization determine the level of volunteer staff it can accommodate before the costs
exceed the benefits.
However, before a cost-benefit analysis is conducted, Stichting Present may want to
encourage its chapters to re-conceptualize the tasks at hand and categorize them according
to Handy et al. (2008) idea of task interchangeability, i.e. the extent to which a particular
task could be attributed, on a chapter basis, to a certain person or group of people and could
not be overtaken by others. In this sense, we recommend that each chapter based on their
own particular contexts and task requirements, such as minimum working hours or level of
professionalization, divide the tasks within the chapter into non-interchangeable and
interchangeable.
In the case of Stichting Present, we have observed through our interview findings that noninterchangeable tasks would fall in two subcategories: those tasks, which could be attributed
to paid staff only and those that are to be taken only by volunteers. For instance, in Houten,
volunteers are recommended to be given the task of contact-keeping with the local
churches. From the interview, we see that such contact-keeping becomes active work for the
organization only once a group of volunteers is identified, after which one to two hours a
week are dedicated to formalize the contact with the particular group. This task could be
characterized as being sporadic (it is only required at irregular moments) and little intensive.
As such, this chapter could consider this as a non-interchangeable volunteer task. Moreover,
the coordinator of the The Hague chapter stressed that group leading during weekends
could become a task solely executed by volunteers.
On the other hand, the experience of The Hague chapter points out that matchmaking
becomes a non-interchangeable paid staff task. In this case, matchmaking, as the “core
business” of Stichting Present Nederland as well as the chapter’s, becomes important in
ensuring ‘continuity’ and ‘quality’ of the organization’s work, important values for Sitchting
Present, and as such requires 4 days a week work and a minimum level of control to be
performed effectively. The motivation, commitment and degree of control for such task are
thus most commonly enabled by paid contractual arrangements and thus paid staff would
be preferred.
Taking this line of argument into consideration we expand Handy et al (2008) division of
tasks along interchangeability to include the non-interchangeability sub-groups and arrive at
figure 3 shows on the next page.
18
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
It could be, however, that Stichting Present Nederland were to suggest the categorization of
certain tasks across all its chapters into one or another specific task group according to
nationwide needs of the organization. If this becomes the case, Stichting Present Nederland
may consider including this as a guideline within its handbook.
Once the re-categorization of tasks has been done, the chapter will have an idea of the
minimum volunteer and paid staff it needs based on task requirements (noninterchangeable tasks). This allows for a more informed cost-benefit analysis to be
performed, since the costs and benefits associated with the resulting staff combination in
the non-interchangeable tasks are included in the analysis. Thus, the analysis, which is
explained in more detail by Handy and Brudney (2008), can be conducted with the purpose
of arriving at the ideal combination of staff for the remaining tasks, the interchangeable
ones.
2. Building the Positive Volunteer Experience: Recruitment, Training,
Integration and Retention
Once the task distribution and interchangeability are set, efforts to recruit, integrate, train
and retain staff can be guided in the right way. All activities have to be followed up for both
paid staff and volunteer staff, however, emphasis may be put on differing activities for each
group.
While the acquisition of staff, both paid and unpaid, is usually done countrywide via the
Stichting Present website, the activities of integration, training and retention are efforts
made within each chapter individually.
As seen in the chapter of The Hague the awareness about different skills and people needed
at different phases is quite high. The chapter coordinator in place at the moment sees
himself as a pioneer who has helped setting up the chapter, however, he also considers this
19
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
phase as almost complete and will hand over the chapter to someone else whose efforts will
help to keep the chapter running and who will possibly have different skills to do that.
Stichting Present could improve this even more by ensuring that all parties involved agree
that a certain phase is complete.
Another aspect of recruitment became evident during the interview with Houten, the
coordinator described her chapter team as mainly having a background in the social sector
while according to her staff with a business background could make an important
contribution to the chapter. If this constitutes a problem in several chapters joint efforts
could be taken in order to attract more staff with business background by e.g. keeping close
contact with volunteer groups coming from firms.
The incorporation of new staff members in the existing workforce and the organisation as
such is especially important due to the fact that often both groups of staff will form one
team while their characteristics considering age, working hours, long hours, level of
experience, tasks assigned and compensation may differ. Moreover, the effect of integration
on team-buidling should not be underestimated. This could be reflected in a chapter team
doing their own project at Stichting Present to boost teambuilding as well as familiarising the
group with those tasks they usually only administer. Through the projects volunteers can
integrate their own abilities, work on a project of joint interest and combine their volunteer
work with their personal life.
Since Stichting Present strives for quality and professionalism the training of both paid staff
volunteer staff is integral to the running of a chapter. The training of staff can serve several
purposes. Firstly, a training of the present workforce will develop those working at the
organisation and help to fill positions encompassing more important and more complex
tasks instead of recruiting for these externally. At the same time this results in making room
for new volunteers to enter in the lower positions which are easier to fill and constitute a
lower threshold to start working for the organisation. Secondly, the training can serve as a
kind of compensation for volunteers, since they will personally benefit and grow with the
trainings they receive and can also apply the gathered knowledge outside the organisation.
And thirdly, the organisation can through the spread of knowledge professionalise its
operations. These training benefits, however, need to be communicated and internalised
well, otherwise the implementation of trainings may be rejected. This happened in the
chapter of Houten, where a presentation training was refused since volunteers saw the
sacrifice of time they had to make instead of the intended benefits that the chapter
coordinator in mind. In order to avoid these kinds of reactions it is important to on the one
hand inquire about actual training needs and wants of both staffing groups and on the other
hand communicate the reasons for completing certain trainings by mentioning the
development of each individual as well as the intent to internally recruit for higher positions.
Inadequate training is, according to Skoglund (2006) one of the main reasons to quitting a
volunteer job and should therefore be taken very seriously.
Additionally, for financial considerations we would advise Stichting Present to limit training
activities to a smaller group of people which could be limited to people working above a
certain amount of volunteer hours per week. In this way high training costs could be
controlled and committed staff members will be rewarded for their efforts. This leads
directly to the next activity which needs to fulfilled by chapter management: retention.
20
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
Retaining volunteer staff is a central task to any kind of organisation that works with them.
Since volunteer staff does not receive a financial compensation for their time and effort
contributed they need appreciation for their efforts, especially once projects are completed
or of volunteers have been active in the organisation for a considerate amount of time
(Skoglund, 2006). A suggestion for activities in this line may include social activities for the
whole group such as joint dinners and Christmas parties etc. as practiced successfully in
chapter Houten. Nonetheless, Houten also directs much attention to individualised
appreciation of efforts. Even though this may be beneficial, following Skoglund (2006) we
advise all chapters to focus on activities that target the group as a whole.
Skoglund (2006) suggests that volunteer retention is a means to create a positive feeling in
volunteers about what they do. Being able to create feelings of belonging and importance
connected to an organisation are key to this and will help keeping volunteers within the
organisation. If volunteers quit the organisation despite all efforts, Stichting Present should
take the time to carefully evaluate together with these volunteers why they want to leave
the organisation in order to evade avoidable mistakes in volunteer management.
3. Linking the Positive Experience to the Organization: Organizational
Characteristics and Culture
Drawing on the reviewed literature, when Stichting Present engages in the process of
implementing core activities, i.e. training, integration and retention, it builds a positive
volunteer experience (Skoglund, 2006; Sharpe and Barnes, 2009). The way in which Stichting
Present can link this positive experience back to the organization is again through making
use of its organizational characteristics and abilities that enable the organization to work
with a mixed staff (Smith and Shen, 1996; Boyd, 2003). This ensures that an identification of
the volunteer (and staff in general) towards the organization is created and that a sense of
belonging emerges.
Such an attempt at leveraging the organizational characteristics can translate into practice
by, for instance, grouping volunteers and paid staff into committees with some degree of
autonomy in operational decision making, if the size of the chapter was to allow for such
structure. In this way, volunteers could trace the development of new skills and human
empowerment, constituting an important aspect of volunteer experience, to their work at
the organization. On the other hand, in an effort to develop a level of organizational
formality chapters could explicitly communicate their mission and values to their volunteer
staff during training activities. Moreover, based on Netting et al (2008), organizational
culture needs to embrace the idea that volunteer staff are a necessary part of the
organization much like paid staff. Our recommendation is that the chapters embed such
perception into their working culture. For instance, an adjustment to the psychological
contracts could enable a cultural transformation during the recruitment and training
activities for both types of staff, building mutual beliefs and informal obligations that
predisposes for a collaboration between volunteers and paid staff. When staff develop a
working culture that motivates them to work together as one collective through activities
within their chapters, identity with the collective could be strengthened, and as such, with
the organization as a whole.
21
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
As can be seen, Stichting Present’s chapters can incorporate aspects of their culture and
characteristics into their activities with volunteers and paid staff to define and materialize a
strong chapter identity. The results, are hoped to include a positive image from beneficiaries
and other stakeholders, as well as an alignment of vision and efforts that could reflect an
optimal management of mixed staff through the creation of a positive volunteer experience
coupled with an optimal staffing mix.
4. Expanding the knowledge on mixed staff management: Future Research
Opportunities
The focus of this paper is at the organizational level. The effects of activities, organizational
characteristics and abilities on volunteer and mixed staff management may be further
studied at the individual level. This could mean a more in-depth exploration of the
motivations, attitudes and perceptions of the individuals in the chapters. For instance, more
empirical investigation into these aspects, through interviews with the individual staff can
uncover some more insights into the topics covered in this paper. Moreover, it could also be
helpful to investigate the different problems that come with a certain type of staffing mix. If
this knowledge could be gathered and laid down, chapter coordinators would be better
prepared to develop their staff mix in a certain direction. Both chapters we spoke to showed
interest in increasing their volunteer staff, however, they seemed to be less aware of
possible challenges approaching with this kind of change.
As a final recommendation we would like to advise Stichting to invest in the exploration of
further variables that may contribute to an optimal mixed staff management. Not only
organisational factors play a role in how successful a chapter will manage its volunteer staff
and find the right mix of paid and volunteer staff, but other contextual factors may play a
role in this as well. Contextual factors we assume to be of influence are the city size and the
related volunteer pool, the proximity to other chapters, the number of CSOs present in the
region and the predominant religion. With the size of a city the pool of cooperation partners
in the CSO landscape will increase and so will be the group of potential volunteers within
reach of the organisation. However, a larger city at the same time also implies more
competition for volunteers among NPOs. Increased competition for volunteers could also
arise if two chapters are geographically close which could lead to one chapter losing
volunteer groups to another due to better suited or more interesting projects. Stichting
Present has experienced the influence of the predominant religion on the actual operations
since Protestant-dominated communities usually have highly developed church-related
networks which make it easier for an organisation like Stichting Present to grow. In the
Roman-Catholic dominated south no chapters managed to gain a foothold due to the less
enhanced church network. We consider these contextual factors to reach beyond the scope
of this paper, however, we suggest further research to also look into these types of factors
to increase knowledge about their influence.
22
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
References
Articles
Bang, H., & Ross, S.D. (2009). Volunteer motivation and satisfaction. Journal of Venue
and Event Management, 1 (1), 61–77.
Bowman, W. (2006), The Economic Value of Volunteer Time to an Organization. Paper
presented at the ARNOVA Conference, 2005.
Boyd, B. (2003), Identifying Competencies for Volunteer Administrators for the Coming
Decade: A National Delphi Study, Journal of Agricultural Studies, 44(4), 47-56
Brand, M., & Croonen, E. (2006). Franchise stragey and system development. Juxtaposing
selection and adaption perspectives. Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 26 (18),
Article 1.
Brudney, J., & Duncombe, W. (1992). An economic evaluation of paid volunteer, and
mixed staffing options for public services. Public Administration Review 52 (5), 474-481.
Brudney, J. L., & Gazley, B. (2002). Testing the conventional wisdom regarding volunteer
programs: A longitudinal analysis of the service corps of retired executives and the U.S.
Small business Administration. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 31(4), 525-548.
Brudney, J., & Meijs, L. (2012). A best practice model or models of best practices? A
framework for differentiating effective volunteer program management. Paper
presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Research on Nonprofit
Organizations and Voluntary Action, November 15-17, 2012, Indianapolis, IN.
Cnaan, R. (not dated). Congregations and the value of faith-based volunteering for their
youth. Paper prepared for the Dutch research project Unique Value of Volunteering
within the Pedagogical Civil Society [PCS]. Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
Cnaan, R., Handy, F., & Wedsworth, M. (1996). Defining who is a volunteer: conceptual
and empirical considerations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 25 (3), 364-383.
Duncombe, W., & Brudney, J. (1995). The optimal mix of volunteer and paid staff in local
government: an application to municipal fire departments. Public Finance Review 23(3),
356-284.
Eisner, D., Grimm, R., Maynard, S., & Washborn, S. (2009). The new volunteer workforce.
Standford Social Innovation Review 7(1), 32 – 37.
Forbes, D., & Bussel, H. (2002). Understanding the volunteer market: the what, where,
who and why of volunteering. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector
Marketing 7 (3), 244-257.
23
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
Farmer, S., & Fedor, D. (1999). Volunteer participation and withdrawal - a psychological
contract perspective on the role of expectations and organizational support. Nonprofit
Management & Leadership 9 (4), 349-367.
Goulbourne, M., & Embuldeniya, D. (2002). Assigning economic value to volunteer
activity: eight tools for efficient program management. The Canadian Centre for
Philanthropy, Toronto. Retrieved March 11, 2013 from
http://www.uwtva.org/docs/Economic-Value-of-Volunteers.pdf
Handy, F., & Brudney, J. (2007). When to use volunteer labor resource? An organizational
analysis for nonprofit management. University of Pennsylvania Departmental Papers
(SSP), Retrieved, March 18, 2014 from http://repository.upenn.edu/spp_papers/91/
Handy, F., Mook, L., & Quarter, J. (2008). The interchangeability of paid staff and
volunteers in nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 37(1),
76-92.
de Jong, A., & Jiang, T.(not dated). Capital structure choice with vertical relationships:
evidence from franchising. RSM Erasmus University Retrieved March 12, 2013 from
http://emnet.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/conf_EMNet/2007/papers/deJong_Jia
ng.pdf
Liao-Troth, M.(2001). Attitude differences between paid workers and volunteers.
Nonprofit Management & Leadership 11 (4), 423-442.
Mook, L., Sousa, J., Elgie, S., & Quarter, J. (2005). Accounting for the value of volunteer
contributions. Nonprofit Management and Leadership 15 (4), 401-415.
Netting, F., Nelson, H., Borders, K., & Huber, R. (2008). Volunteer and paid staff
relationships. Administration in Social Work 28(3), 69-89.
Salamon, L., Sokolowski, S., & List, R. (2003). Global civil society: An overview. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies.
Sharpe, E., & Barnes, M. (2009), Looking beyond traditional volunteer management: a
case study of an alternative approach to volunteer engagement in parks and recreation.
Voluntas 20, 169-187.
Skoglund, A. (2006). Do not forget about your volunteers: a qualitative analysis of factors
influencing volunteer turnover. Health and Social Work 31(3), 217-220.
Smith, D., & Shen, C. (1996). Factors characterizing the most effective nonprofits
managed by volunteers. Nonprofit Management and Leadership 6(3), 271-289.
24
Elective: Doing good done better, management of philanthropic ‘NGO‘ organizations
27-03-2013
Interviews
Name
Date
Role
Rob Zigter
March 4, 2013
Regional coordinator Stichting Present Nederland
Willem Greving
March 14, 2013 Chapter coordinator The Hague
Loes van der Neut March 18, 2013 Chapter coordinator Houten
25