123 – New Research on the Benefits of Volunteering with Samantha Barlow

August 15, 2024

Episode #123: New Research on the Benefits of Volunteering with Samantha Barlow 

In this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast, Tobi invites Samantha Barlow onto the show to talk about new research on the benefits of volunteering. They delve into the benefits for both volunteers and communities, the evolving role of volunteers, and the success of Human Appeal’s volunteer program. 

Key talking points include community volunteering, emotional satisfaction, professional development, and the innovative use of technology. Samantha also shares insights from Human Appeal’s recent study and their strategies for volunteer appreciation and engagement! 

Benefits of Volunteering – Episode Highlights

• [01:58] – Samantha’s Journey in Volunteerism 
• [03:17] – Human Appeal’s Global Impact 
• [06:48] – Insights from the Volunteering Study 
• [10:30] – Challenges and Trends in Volunteering 
• [12:21] – Volunteer Engagement Strategies 
• [18:16] – Emotional Rewards of Volunteering 
• [26:53] – The Decline of Community Engagement 
• [27:11] – The Benefits of Volunteering Beyond Wage Replacement 
• [27:58] – Reviving Volunteer Programs at Human Appeal 
• [28:14] – Volunteering as a Career Bridge 
• [31:26] – Top Benefits of Volunteering for Volunteers 
• [37:04] – Recognizing and Rewarding Volunteers 
• [41:35] – The Future of Volunteering

Helpful Links

• VolunteerPro Membership Community 
• Volunteer Management Progress Report 
• Human Appeal USA 
• Human Appeal USA, Volunteering and Charity – The Backbone of American Communities Whitepaper  
• Association of Volunteer Managers  
• Email Human Appeal USA  

Contact Us

Have questions or suggestions for the show? Email us at wecare@volpro.net.

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Episode #123 Transcript: New Research on the Benefits of Volunteering with Samantha Barlow 

Tobi: Well, welcome everybody to another episode of the volunteer nation podcast. I’m your host, Tobi Johnson, and we’re going to talk about some new research on the benefits of volunteering. Human Appeal USA has conducted this research, and I’ve got my guest Samantha Barlow here with me to chat about what they’ve learned about the impact of volunteering. on volunteers, the benefits of volunteering, and a little bit more about what they’ve learned about the volunteer experience. 

And without further ado, I just want to get going and introduce Samantha Barlow. She’s the volunteer manager at Human Appeal. Samantha started in charity work with Save the Children, supporting the Young People’s Forum. She then completed her BA with honors in human communication and went straight into a role as a volunteer coordinator thirty years later. She is a seasoned veteran, of course. Despite a few dips into the private sector, her heart and soul have always been in the charity sector. I’m with you. I’m the same way. I’ve never been able to go to the private sector. She is now the volunteer’s manager responsible for overseeing the UK and USA global volunteering at Human Appeal. 

She especially loves working with volunteers and knows that there is something special about someone who gives their time selflessly to those in need. So welcome to the podcast, Samantha. It’s so nice to have you. Thank you. This is fantastic. So, tell us before we get started, though, I always like to hear people’s birth stories around volunteerism. How did you get into the field of volunteerism and international NGO work?  

Samantha: So, uh, obviously a lot of my volunteering started in, I’m based in the UK. So it was in the UK, it was for Save the Children. And I worked, um, I did voluntary work myself and I really enjoyed it. And I remember thinking, you know what? 

I want to stay in this sector. I want to go and do a degree in this sector. And I just felt like. My heart was so full of doing things that made a difference. You know, we’d organize events on racism. We’d organize events on drug and alcohol problems. And I just felt like there was something really important about giving your time for free and then fast forward to. 

Two years ago, when I joined Human Appeal, I was really impressed with the work that, the humanitarian work that they do, uh, around the world, and I thought, I’ve got to join this charity. And to be honest with you, our work started predominantly in the UK, and we, we did a lot of humanitarian work in countries that needed it, but recently we’ve evolved into USA, and now over to Canada. So, it’s a massive global learning journey.  

Tobi: Tell us a little bit more about Human Appeal and what they do as you’re, as you’re evolving, what are your core services, how are you structured, all that good stuff, your mission.  

Samantha: Basically, we are a humanitarian charity. We deliver aid and development around the world. I’ll give you an example. Last year, one of the earthquakes that hit Turkey, which was horrific. I remember that day very well. I got a call from my director, and she said, you’re going to have to come in. There’s been an earthquake. And it was, it was awful. And my job was to call, um, USA volunteers to see if they wanted to set up their own, I think it’s launch good page. 

To see if they wanted to set up pages and everyone was really worried about what was going to happen. And one of the great things about Human Appeal is we were one of the first responders on the scene. You could see our, uh, trucks and our aid. We’re there to give obviously food, shelter. We also, it’s not, we don’t just also do aid giving work. 

We also help people develop skills. To do their own businesses, life sustaining skills. When the floods happened in Pakistan, um, human appeal worked with young women, um, helped them start up sewing businesses with machines and equipment that they would need. So yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s about, I think it’s a combination of life saving and life sustaining work that we do. So, we have, obviously it was, um, Human Appeal originated in the UK, but our director, our CEO, I should say, is from America. So, he’s always wanted to develop the charity over there. When he joined the Human Appeal, we were just UK. And in the last sort of, I think it’s been about four or five years, we’ve started to open and grow there. And it’s growing massively at a big rate. I’m dying to fly out and meet the team there. I love America. 

Tobi: Yeah. Fantastic. Well, what is the role that volunteers play at Human Appeal? Why are they important to your organization’s success?   

Samantha: I think, to be honest with you, volunteers are the backbone of any charity. I really do. They come in, they do, obviously, you know, they do a lot of volunteer activities that otherwise, you know, if you paid somebody to do it, it would be so costly. It just, we wouldn’t be able to survive as a charity, would we? If we, if we had to pay somebody to do all the tasks there. So, they do lots of important jobs and tasks around the organization. 

Fundraising is a big one. The volunteers, they set up just giving pages in the UK. They set up launch page, launch good pages in the USA, and they raised the funds that then is used to deliver this lifesaving. aid around the world. They also volunteer at events. So at Human Appeal, we do a lot of big events. 

So we’ve just done Light Upon Light. We do the comedy tour. So, they’re big events that Human Appeal put on and the volunteers are so important at these events. First, they’re there to show people to the seats. They’re also there to talk to people about human appeal and all the good work we do. 

And then they also help with the fundraising at the end. So they’re, they’re an integral part of the organization, I believe anyway.  

Tobi: Yeah, absolutely. So, you recently conducted a study and published a white paper called Volunteering and Charity, the Backbone of America’s Communities. What sparked the idea to conduct a research study like this and to make it public? 

Because often organizations will survey their volunteers just to understand how to improve the experience or to become more effective or just to get feedback. But this was, seemed a little bit different and then you decided to share it with the world as well. Tell us about sort of how to, how that idea came about. 

Samantha: I think it was basically sparked by the concerns of the charity sector in the current situation that the global inflation cost of living crisis. I mean, obviously we know the way that it impacts the UK market, but do we know the way that it impacts the USA global volunteering market? And to be honest with you, it was quite evident volunteers in the UK volunteer for different reasons and volunteers in the USA volunteer for their community. 

Not only do they volunteer for their community, but they do a lot of. activities that without things wouldn’t happen, like healthcare. So it was, yeah, we wanted to see how many volunteers were forced to reduce their time spent volunteering and to start doing paid work instead. Could they afford to volunteer? 

Were they out of pocket? That sort of thing. And, like I said, just to find out how many volunteers were, were volunteering after the pandemic. I think I read that over 60 million people (about twice the population of Texas) in America helped with neighbors and their local communities. That’s phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. And it’s important because it helps us as an NGO have some insight into humans and why they volunteer and what’s important to them. 

And like I said, it’s very interesting. I’m not saying that predominantly UK don’t do it for their community. I’m just saying, I feel like there’s a predominantly difference as in they, you know, in the UK, they’ll be thinking, see these or, or, you know, to, to, to better their career or to do this. In America, it was clear that they were doing it for their community. 

For the people they live with. Do you know what I mean?   

Tobi: Yeah. That’s what we found when we did the research. Interesting. I have never heard that. I have never heard that distinction. So that’s interesting. When you decided to do your survey, who did you survey for your research? And, and what were the key themes you wanted to explore? 

Samantha: So, we asked a series of questions to a sample of 1, 003 US wide volunteers from a range of locations, ages, and backgrounds. Okay. That’s a very precise number, isn’t it? 1, 003.  

Tobi: Yeah. Don’t forget the three. It was only volunteers in the USA. Did you have previous data from volunteers from the UK?  

Samantha: Yeah. I remember reading a very similar study in the UK, and we investigated, you know, the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis, you know, where was it impacting volunteers? Because a lot of the time, you know, volunteers, we do have a lot of volunteers who give their time. They come, they’re in the office every few days. We have some volunteers who do it in between their degrees. There are different levels of volunteering, but we wanted to find out, are you having to increase your work now due to the cost of living? 

Are you having to, you know, cut back on? I mean, you know, obviously volunteers are reimbursed for their travel and stuff, but still have spent earning money. 

Tobi: Were you seeing an impact in your organization on levels of participation of volunteers recently or due to the pandemic? 

Samantha: I’ll be honest with you, no. I really, really don’t, and you know, we are, I would say the amount of volunteers at Human Appeal is growing massively, massively. We have a lot of students who give their time while they’re studying, and we have a lot of young people who give their time. 

So no, I, I didn’t see that, but I could, I could imagine a different type of charity or a different charity that, I don’t know, maybe relies on volunteers who come daily. I don’t know, but we haven’t seen that much. No, I personally, as the manager, I’ve not seen it. All I’ve seen is my numbers of volunteers growing year upon year upon year. 

Tobi: And it may be the way the opportunities, the way the experiences they’re having. Yeah, some organizations are really struggling, others are not. Other people have wait lists, so I was just curious about that.  

Samantha: I think as well, you know, what I found with the volunteers at Human Appeal is we do quite a lot of high-profile events and the volunteers love it. They love volunteering at Light Upon Light. They’re literally clambering to volunteer at Light Upon Light, so we don’t, it’s not something we have trouble recruiting for. We also, what we found when we set up, Fatima is my volunteer, senior volunteer officer who deals with America and Canada. And she set up, um, lots of pantries, um, food pantries, events. 

So busy. So busy. Volunteers calling her and saying, when’s the next one? When’s the next one? Amazing. Yeah, they really wanted to do the work in the community and, you know, give something back. 

Tobi: So, are most of your volunteer opportunities sort of dip in and dip out? Would you characterize them as project based or event based or what some people might call episodic volunteering versus someone’s volunteering every Wednesday or two times a month, et cetera? 

Samantha: It depends. Now, because obviously this is the USA, now, we’ve only just opened an office in America. So, we haven’t really got the setup to have interns and, but that’s something that we’re looking at. In the UK, we have a lot of people who come, in fact, I’ve just recruited an intern who’s going to come in the office every week on a Monday and Tuesday, and they will support us and help us. 

I had an intern who was here for a year. She used to come in every Monday for a year. That’s not really started in America, but that’s only because we’re relatively baby in America when it comes to developing. But I anticipated that would be the case. But you get more, I think people like the idea they can dip in and dip out. 

People like the idea of less commitment. Even though you’re committing because you’ve got to come to the event you signed up for, it’s not a case of, yes, but you have to come every week at this time. I think it’s a, it’s a very, just me personally, I started a project. Oh my God, I’m going back 20 something years ago called CSV Go Manchester. 

And I had a group of volunteers and a group of team leaders, and we used to go around the community and we’d do painting, murals, gardening, you name it. We did it cleaning canals, cleaning parks, and they could come for a few hours on a Saturday, do their thing and go. And it was the most popular thing ever. 

I feel like volunteers like that. They don’t want to be, some, not all though, we can’t talk about everybody, but a lot of volunteers like the fact that they can be fluid like that and they’ve got the opportunity to dip out, dip in and dip out when they want.  

Tobi: Yeah, yeah. I think there’s some momentum. An excitement around doing a project and seeing a result at the end of the day, you know, it sort of, it sort of encompasses a lot of the things that people like, you know, and people meet new people and there’s, there’s excitement about it and it has a beginning, middle and end. 

And at the end of the day, you can see something, you know, you feel a sense of accomplishment. And so it really gives people, it could sort of ticks a lot of the boxes in terms of what motivates people to volunteer.  

Samantha: I think you’re right. I mean, I’ll give you an example. I started here two years ago and one of my first events was the comedy tour and I didn’t know what to expect at all, but we got there, we met the volunteers and throughout the night, you know, it was their role to talk to the people, explain what Human Appeal do, the humanitarian work we do, where the aid from the night was going, it was going to homes in Pakistan after the floods. 

The volunteers spent all night helping fundraise and at the end of the night, they Posted how much had been raised at the venue. That was, that was really powerful. Yeah. And what was really nice was, um, they got the, one of the volunteers on stage to announce it. Yeah. Oh, so it was just, yeah, it was just really good. 

It was lovely to see that knowing that how many houses, cause we knew how much a house was because they said, you know, it was like at the time, I think it was two and a half thousand for a house that we could build. And I think we raised like 750, 000 pounds. So it was just, it was, yeah, so you’re right, that, that feeling they got at the end of it. 

Tobi: Yeah.  

Samantha: I came home like, oh, I love that.  

Tobi: That was great. Yeah. Yeah. Things with fundraising and fundraising events like that, or even cleanup events, you know, we often think of things as being super complicated. Now, it’s the building of the houses is complicated. That’s not like, you know, but getting momentum going and be able, being able to, you know, get the project off the ground. 

And I love the idea of communicating back, okay, what happened, and if there’s a way to, sort of, what we call, what I would call, like, widgetize it, or, you know, really calculate, so, you have just helped us raise it. Enough money to build X number of houses. Yes. If there’s a way to calculate, that is not, not always, that really gives somebody a feat, you know, a real sense of like, okay, and we did this in X number of hours. Wow. Yeah, I’m going to come back and do this again.  

Samantha: Yes. Right. So we try and do that, you know, we try and I spend a lot of time calculating facts and figures and the wondrous, you know, how many volunteer led events, what the volunteers achieve, how much they raised, and we feed that back to the volunteers. 

We’ve also instigated a point system. So, if they raise a certain amount or if they go to an event, they get points. And then at the end of the month, we say, this is the leaderboard. And they get really excited.  

Tobi: Yeah, leaderboards, really smart, kind of a gamification of volunteerism and just kind of a way to acknowledge their work and, and say, you look, look, we’re watching, everybody’s watching. This is great. Yeah.  

Samantha: Yeah. I mean, we’ve, we’ve got our first UK awards ceremony in September, but I was just talking to Fatima today about doing it in, in USA. And I’m like, of course, why not? So we’re going to look at that, you know, for 2025 because, you know, I said to her, things like that matter. The volunteers are so excited what they could win an award. 

Yes. You’ve. Yeah. You know, you deserve it, the amount of, I mean, like I said, in my life, I’ve done a lot of volunteer work. As well as working in this sector, I’ve done a lot of volunteer work. I’ve raised thousands for a local charity that helped disabled children. I’ve volunteered at a project that dealt with children who were involved in gun and knife crime. 

I’ve volunteered at Save the Children, and I do it because it makes me feel great. Yeah, you know what I mean? It makes me feel great and I just couldn’t, yeah, I like that feeling that I’m doing something that makes a difference. I like that feeling that I’m impacting. In fact, at Human Appeal, when we were all, you know, during Ramadan and we were carrying on and the volunteers were volunteering loads and it was very tiring and very stressful. 

When we found out how much money we’d raised, I cried. When I saw the aid going to the people who hadn’t got a home, who hadn’t got any food on the table, who hadn’t got any, any, you know, only like the clothes on their back, I cried because I know that every volunteer, every person, they were involved in that happening. 

Tobi: You know, it’s very powerful. Absolutely, absolutely. You know, when people have those emotional experiences, when they’re making meaning about their volunteering, it’s, it, they’re creating a story about what volunteering means to them and if it’s achieving what they want it to achieve in their life. 

And there is that sort of dopamine, there’s actual hormones that, you know, the feel-good hormones that, that thought of that. Yes, there’s hormones that we wanna continue to feel. So it creates, yeah, I wouldn’t say an addiction to volunteering, but it certainly makes us wanna feel it again. Right. The feel goods. 

Samantha: I think you’re right. I, I do, I never understand. I mean, I, you know, I go home at night, and I say, because my kids volunteered when they were younger because I forced them. But they loved it, but now they’re a bit older, yeah, well, next time, yeah, well, and I don’t understand it. I’m like, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to. 

Tobi: Yeah. Let’s talk a little bit about the research study, but, before we do that, let’s just take a quick break and then we’re going to dive into the research study. So, we’re going to take a pause from my conversation with Samantha Barlow about the benefits of volunteerism for volunteers, that’s some of the research that they’ve conducted. We will be right back, so don’t go anywhere.  

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Okay, we’re back with our conversation about the benefits of volunteerism with Samantha Barlow of Human Appeal. And let’s jump right into it. So, what were the characteristics of the volunteers?  

And you talked about community volunteering, right? Can you, can you? Give us a definition of what you mean by community volunteering and then talk to us about the characteristics of the volunteers that you, maybe we’ll start with what your definition of community volunteering.  

Samantha: So, community volunteering depends on which country you’re in, but basically, it’s about food pantries going out into your local community where the volunteering that you do benefits the community within which you live. So, you know, it might be a food drive or a local event where, you know, the fundraising for a local church or something or those are the kind of local community volunteering that we do. We do community volunteering, and we do, um, national volunteering as well. 

Tobi: Got it. So were the folks that you researched, community volunteers or? national volunteers or both?  

Samantha: That’s a good question. I don’t think it was characterized on the, on the paper which one it was. But from what I gather from their answers, community volunteers, because their answers suggested that the reason why they were volunteering was to help their local community.  

Tobi: Who did you find volunteers with? What are sort of the characteristics of the volunteers you polled? What are the kind of key themes or key characteristics? 

Samantha: Yeah. So when we asked, when Human Appeal asked, why do you volunteer? The vast majority of the volunteers, like I said, said, to help my community. And I actually thought that was pretty. Amazing, because if I asked that in the UK, I’d get a completely different answer. And we also found that it was a strong sense of commitment to supporting the people around them also to do with their faith, their age, and the desire to help those in need. 

So it makes sense because I’m, Human Appeal is a faith based charity. So, that’s a Muslim charity. Obviously, I mean, there are people who volunteer who are not Muslim, but you do find a lot of volunteers who are Muslim want to help the Muslims in the community. And what we found is that people wanted to help their local community, people from their community who are struggling. Yeah. So, faith is based on age, but yeah, the desire to help people in need.  

Tobi: So what, you also asked what their, uh, level of involvement was, and I know for leaders of volunteers who are listening, everybody always likes to compare their benchmarks, right? What did you learn on their level of involvement on average per month or year or week? I know you asked a question about that. What did you learn?  

Samantha: The mean amount of time that most of our volunteers surveyed committed to was 62. 7 hours per annum, which equates to just over 5. 225 hours per month. So that’s average. At the current US average hourly salary rate is 29. 81. This would equate to 1, 800, sorry, and 69 and 9p per volunteer if they were paid.   

Tobi: Right. With the, you’re, you’re using the independent sectors value of adult, uh, of a volunteer time. Yeah. Yeah.  

Samantha: Yeah. So they’re working out. Yeah. If you had to pay this, it was, this is what it would cost. So, they’re saving. They save charities money. Right. In the cost-of-living crisis, I mean, I did read about America. So obviously, you know, you’re American, you know more, but it’s, I wouldn’t, I was really surprised how similar our problems are. So, as we hit this cost of living, we are getting cutbacks in sectors that really don’t need cutbacks and the volunteers are really stepping up to fill that gap. And I couldn’t believe one of the things I read was that the volunteers were stepping up to, I think it was 28 percent helped the healthcare sector because if they didn’t, there wouldn’t be free healthcare to the people who just can’t afford to pay for it. 

Tobi: I want to say I read something about that yesterday as well and like the Chronicle of Philanthropy or something. I read it and I, and I remember going… 

Samantha: Yeah, so it was in the paper. Free healthcare services and advice centers play a vital role in keeping America healthy. And so, we found that over a quarter, 28 percent of the volunteers we surveyed gave their time to healthcare initiatives. 

Right. Okay. I mean, like. Without the volunteers, these spaces would cease to exist and the gap between rich and poor in America would widen. I just couldn’t, I just thought, wow, like that really hit me when I read it. I was like, my gosh. So, you know, that’s what a lot of volunteers are doing. They’re, they’re literally bridging spaces that really would just not exist because there’s no income there to support them at this time. 

And to be honest with you, I’ve seen the decline. I’ve been in this sector as you have for, well, I’m 54. So I started volunteering when I was 24. So what’s that? 30. 30 years. I feel like there was just so much more community stuff out there back then. And now the decline, declining funding, declining opportunities. It’s sad, really it is sad.  

Tobi: Yeah. Well, I also think sometimes engaging the community. In what you do, that the benefits of volunteering aren’t just for wage replacement, right? The benefits of volunteering can also be engaging people in your mission and engaging people who also want to support you financially. 

There’s a, you know, volunteerism, giving your time and giving, Some funds kind of go hand in hand, and I feel like in some instances, organizations have let go or reduced their volunteer programs, and they’ve kind of, you know, shot themselves in the foot because, you know, when people understand what your mission is all about, they definitely want to also contribute financially if they can, right. 

Samantha: I think I really, since I’ve arrived at Human Appeal, I’ve pushed for more volunteer involvement. We didn’t have a lot of interns. Now this program is starting to thrive again, because for me as well, I am a volunteer. has many opportunities. Like you said, it isn’t just about money. Like if you’re a person, I interviewed a person today and he said he worked in the private sector, but he wanted to gain some experience and move over to the voluntary sector. 

But obviously, how’s he going to do that without the experience? So he’s volunteering to gain the valuable experience that he needs, which is what I’ve done in the past as well. And the thing is, when you then come to write your resume, You could add this on and those skills are there. We don’t, as an employer doesn’t really mind whether you’ve got that through voluntary or whether you’ve got that through paid. 

So, it’s a great bridge to your career as well for volunteers, they gain a lot of, yeah, they get a lot from doing it. Like you said, meeting their friends, meeting, meeting their spouses and stuff. They meet all sorts of amazing stories from volunteering. Yeah.  

Tobi: Do you feel like aside from the, you know, obviously the economic impact volunteers can have on, on nonprofits and as you called out, you know, many nonprofits are struggling with funding right now and sustainability. 

So that is obviously an important part. Do you believe that there are other What are the benefits that volunteers bring to organizations beyond free labor? Do you believe that there are other like in terms of quality of service or respect in the community or what are the things that you think are the most important aside from that wage replacement? 

Samantha: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I don’t think that many of our volunteers, you know, a lot of them fundraise, so they’re not even offering free labor, they’re, they’re doing something to help people abroad. But I think they bring an array of skills, skills that you might not have had access to, just great information. 

I mean, I’ll give you an example. I set up a focus group recently of our top volunteers around the country. And, you know, I sat with them, and I spoke to them about areas that I wanted to improve on or things that I thought were working correctly and what did they thought? And one of the best meetings I’ve ever had. 

One of the best meetings. And we’ve had two now. And both of them amazing. Um, because people have skills and qualities and thoughts and ideas that they can bring to the table that you wouldn’t hear if you didn’t have volunteers. Praise. You know what I mean? Yeah.  

Tobi: Yeah. Multitude of perspectives, diverse perspectives. Yeah. They’re also representatives of the community. They sure are, yeah. And they can tell you about things if, you know, you don’t live in that community necessarily as paid staff. And organizations can tend to start to, you know, sort of just be looking in the mirror at themselves and relying on what they’ve historically known about communities, but communities are evolving as well. 

So I feel like volunteers can bring that not only new skill sets, but also those different perspectives and keep organizations in touch with what’s happening in the community. Because again, things, things change, right?  

Samantha: Things change very quickly. Things change all the time. So now that, I mean, that’s very interesting. It’s a very good perspective I’ve not thought about. Yeah.  

Tobi: Let’s talk about what your research found about the top benefits of volunteering for volunteers. What are those? What did you learn about what volunteers think about what they gain from their experiences?  

Samantha: I think it’s obvious. You wouldn’t even need to ask for a paper for this. It’s a self, a great feeling of self, satisfaction, purpose, improve mental wellbeing and increase self-esteem. As we’ve said previously, enhance skills, just opportunities for social interaction. And professional development, which is, you know, what we’ve covered, that’s what they feel that they’ve gained from volunteering. 

And I think, like I said, for me personally, professional development from volunteering was really important back when I was younger. So, yeah. Yeah. Depending on your stage of life, maybe.  

Tobi: Yeah. Do you think nonprofits understand? These powerful, in general, do nonprofits understand these powerful benefits of volunteering for community members themselves, the benefits of volunteering for volunteers beyond the impacts of the people they serve, you know, on the volunteer themselves? Do you think most nonprofits get that or? I don’t know.  

Samantha: I don’t know. It depends whether they have somebody in their department who’s got the knowledge of volunteering. I think many nonprofits do understand the many benefits for volunteering. And that’s why you have a lot of volunteer programs within many charities. 

I mean, like I said, at Human Appeal, our volunteer program is very strong, but there are many charities that don’t utilize volunteers as, you know, as, as much as they should. I think. It depends on their staff skill and their staff knowledge, but a human appeal is something that we are heavily invested in as our volunteers. 

Tobi: When you’re gathering information about the benefits of volunteering for volunteers, what do you do with that information? Is it, does it get integrated into your program decisions when you realize, oh, you know what, this is a top benefit that people want? Is there a way for us to enhance that benefit? A hundred percent. 

Samantha: A hundred percent. I’m the kind of manager who is always evolving, always changing. Always looking at our objectives and our KPIs and thinking, are these relevant? Is this the best way? Are we really serving the volunteers in the right way? I mean, one of the things, like I said, that we’ve done recently is we used to take our volunteers who were the top in the country and take them to a retreat. 

I found that when I talked to the volunteers, that they much prefer to have awards and get recognized for the work they do. So we’ve changed it. Because it’s. I think, yeah, definitely a hundred percent I would utilize it. I mean, obviously not everything. If it was, you know, something that was relevant and it made sense. 

Yeah. You have to be always changing, always evolving, always. I mean, even recently, you know, we had a lot of information that was written and I thought to myself, these volunteers are not reading this information. So now we started making small videos. Um, um, Because it’s a world of videos, isn’t it? And TikTok and stuff. 

Tobi: Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. What do you think are some of the challenges volunteers are facing that work against them gaining these benefits of volunteering?   

Samantha: So, time. If they’re, you know, if they’re having to work extra jobs, then that’s going to be something. Lack of resources, maybe insufficient training. 

We are here in Appeal, we’re really big on training. I’ve just put some in the calendar. Uh, we have a calendar of. Different opportunities, I’ve started to introduce, some things that might benefit volunteers. So, um, and we’re going to do this in the USA as well. So obviously, resume, how to do a good resume, how to do a good job application, because, you know, a lot of young people who come from university or come, they don’t know that. 

So these are the things that we want to give back to the, to the volunteers. So yeah, so some of the challenges are lack of training, um, maybe getting to and from events to and from their volunteering opportunities. Yeah. So yeah, that and maybe scheduling conflicts. So, they might have, you know, a class at uni at the same time, or maybe the opportunities that they want to get involved in on Monday to Friday, nine till five. And that’s when they’re at work. I think they’re the kind of obstacles. Yeah. That are in place.  

Tobi: I like the linking of if a motivation is professional development for a volunteer, then providing a volunteer perk, like helping with resume writing, is aligning your support and perks for volunteers with the volunteer’s primary motivation. So, it’s like, it really is, there’s a synergy there and it means to volunteers, I think that you’re listening. Yeah. We try. Thank you. Bye.  

Samantha: We try and listen. I, yeah, I think it’s important because they give so much. I don’t want to think that it’s taken for granted. I don’t want to think that ever we don’t appreciate the time and the effort and the money they’ve raised because they give their heart and soul. 

They give their heart and soul. They do bake sales. I mean, they raise thousands at bake sales and you know, they’re there, they’re baking, they’re contacting local shops. Can you give us some cakes that we can sell? They’re standing outside their university halls and we have to appreciate the level of time and thought in the process, you know, and give back. So, this year I’m really trying to think of things that give back to the volunteer. 

Tobi: You talked about your awards programs. You’ve shipped to two awards programs. I’ve heard others say, well, I worry about giving awards because other people will feel left out or they’ll be, you are resentful because they didn’t get an award. What’s your experience about giving awards and what recommendations would you have for others when they’re considering whether to do it? It depends.  

Samantha: If it was an award that I made a decision on based on what I felt. Then, yeah, I could see how somebody would feel upset. But like I said, we set up a, we set up a point scheme. So, for every amount of money you raise, you get a certain number of points. For every hour you donate, you get a certain number of points. So, it’s just math’s. If you volunteer. If you raise money, you will get points. And if you do it a lot, then you get an award. So, it’s, I don’t think there would be that. I think it is nice to recognize the people. 

I mean, some of these volunteers, I don’t even know how they’re living their lives so much. Like they deserve it. They deserve the recognition. Yeah. So I think if it was something that I was just picking out people that I thought, I don’t like that kind of award. I’m talking about, you know, using factual information, the highest fundraiser, the person who’s raised the most, and they deserve it. 

You know, it’s took a lot of preparation and, and effort and stress, I imagine, because some of them organize events. I mean, that’s stressful. To have to do all that, so, you know, if they’ve done a good job and we recognize it and say, Hey, and what we’re going to do is we’re going to have, like, obviously the winners and then we’re going to have the, I think we’re going to have the top five after that who will get certificates that say that we recognize the amount of time and effort you’ve put in. 

Yeah. So no, I think, I think they’re important because it’s, it’s a reward for volunteering. So, what are the, what are the reward categories? Okay, so in general, you’ve got the top, so we’ve got the CEO Lifetime Achievement Award. So, we’re going to, what we’re going to do is we’re going to set up a few different volunteers and what they’ve done and the hours they’ve given. 

And he gets to pick that one too, but he doesn’t know their names. He doesn’t know their areas. He doesn’t know if their, their gender. So that’s going to be based on what they’ve done. Yeah. Okay. Top fundraiser, and then obviously we’ve got different areas split up. So there’s going to be the top winners for each area. 

And then you’ve got the top region, so we can pick them off in competition and top intern, because like I said, we’ve got a great intern program, um, who, and volunteers, I mean, the amount of time they give, team leader, and then the best volunteer led event, they’re the ones that we’ve come out with so far. 

And when we say best, the one that will have raised the most money, and we’ll talk about it and explain to everybody what the event was, what they did at the event. The kind of extra things they did and how much they’ve impacted. And what I’m hoping to do as well for the volunteers, because, you know when you volunteer at a charity, you go, you do your volunteering, you go home, you cook your dinner, you put the telly on, and you think, oh, that was good. 

But what you don’t sometimes realize is the effect after. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to do an impact video, which shows, well, hang on a minute, you know, when you volunteered at that event, you raised this much. And do you know, when you raise that much, do you see that truck there heading into, you know what I mean? 

An area that’s just been hit by a crisis. Well, you played a part in that. So I want. to get the whole thing for them to see that, you know, you’re a part, you’re, you’re a cog in the work. You are a piece of the puzzle and you are really important. And that’s what I really want to get across on the night.  

Tobi: Sounds like a lot of fun. How do you, this has been such a great conversation and gang, we will be posting a link to the full report, volunteering and charity, the backbone of American communities, white paper that gives you lots more detail on motivations of volunteers. Yeah. The benefits of volunteering for volunteers and communities. 

Some of these details, and a thousand volunteers is no small group, so you’ve got a nice sample size to look at. And three. A thousand and three. A thousand and three. That’s right. That’s right. Precisely. Precisely. But, you know, so I’ve got a couple more questions for you before we wrap up, but one of them is, how do you see the role of volunteers evolving in the next decade, either with your organization or in general? 

What you like in your crystal ball when you think, you know, what, where are we headed with volunteerism?   

Samantha: Do you know what? It is a good crystal ball, but if you’d have asked us that. 10 years ago. Do you think anybody would have mentioned lockdown and COVID?  

Tobi: No. No. That’s a hard one. So, we won’t hold you to it, right? We won’t hold you to it. Yeah, yeah. Don’t come back in 10 years. 

Samantha: I think more digital, remote, and flexible opportunities. Yeah, I think there’ll be a lot more emphasis on digital and the use of technology. I don’t know how that’s going to shape out because I don’t have that level of thing, but I think there’ll be more digital stuff used. 

Tobi: Yeah, I wonder, you know, we think about AI and how that’s going to really change work, like paid work, right? Some of the things that we won’t do anymore, really won’t need to research this. We won’t need to write this copy. We won’t need to crunch these numbers, et cetera, et cetera, because AI will do that for us. 

So I wonder how AI, I know, I wonder how AI is going to impact volunteers because a lot of times volunteers are doing some of that. that detailed work as well. So I wonder how, or how volunteers are going to leverage AI, you know, if they’re organizing even an event, you know, you can go on chat GPT and say, Hey, I need to create a marketing plan for X, Y, Z, please create it. 

And it will, you know, see, think about with volunteers, one of their biggest constraints is time. Well, guess what? We’ve got a time saving tool for you. If you’re managing an event and coordinating. Coordinating an event.  

Samantha: Yeah. It’s funny you should say that because I’m moving house. After I get here, I’m going home to pack. And when I started thinking about moving house, I went on GDP and said, I’m moving house. What is my plan? And it created a plan for me.  

Tobi: Shut up. No. You know what? I’m, I’m just about to move back to our other house. We were, we’re kind of going back and forth between two houses as we move towards required retirement. Where do you live in America? If you don’t mind me asking.  

Samantha: Right now I’m in the Pacific Northwest across Puget Sound from Seattle. In a rural community.  

Tobi: Yeah, it’s, it’s lovely here. This is where we’ll end up retiring full time. My family’s from here. For the most part, we live in Knoxville, Tennessee, and my husband teaches there. 

And so we’ll be there for the next two years, but we’re going to be going back and forth. And so when we jump off, I’m going to go on ChatGPT and I’m going to ask ChatGPT, when I’m closing down my house. And moving to my other house, what are things I need to think about? Now, we’ve been talking with, for example, my brother’s a plumber, you know, do we need to turn off the water to the house, because we just had a big flood this year. 

Samantha: Oh, gosh.   

Tobi: We had to rebuild part of our house. Talk about natural disaster. We were displaced for about four months. And so, now we’re like, you know what, we are not making any mistakes. We’re not going to, we’re not going to, you know, we’re not going to, we’re going to make sure that our house is going to, you know, be what it needs to be if we can’t be here to, to look at it. But anyway, but yeah, Chat GPT can use it for all kinds of things.  

Samantha: Absolutely. Even when we were trying to come up with a name for the award tonight, we put it into ChatGPT. Interesting. Tell us about another name for an award tonight, you know, just to try and, yeah, it’s good.  

Tobi: So interesting. Yeah. Well, thank you for joining me today, Samantha. One last question as we wrap up, what are you most excited about in the year ahead? It could be personal. It could be professional. I love to ask my guests what they’re excited about, what’s coming up for them that they are super thrilled about.  

Samantha: I think the growing of my team. We are hiring in America. We’re hiring in Canada. Just the fact that we’re growing at an enormous rate and all the new staff. Yeah. I just think it’s amazing. I think it’s amazing that the rate at which the charity is growing, and I look forward to where Human Appeal is this time next year.  

Tobi: Awesome. Yeah. And send me your, uh, when you have job openings, send them to me and I’ll post them inside our VolunteerPro community. 

Samantha: Oh, that’d be brilliant. Thank you so much.  

Tobi: Yeah. Absolutely. So how can people learn more about Human Appeal, your work, uh, but if they’re interested in learning more, how can they get in touch?  

Samantha: Well, they can go on our website, humanappealusa.org and go to the bit about getting involved and they can fill out a form, that comes to the lovely Fatima. She will take you onboard and tell you about the activities that are going on in your area. Whether it’s, you know, a nice food pantry or a cleanup, or maybe we’ve got a big event coming. Because I know we’ve got some events coming, uh, large events in the USA. She said she was going back in August. 

Tobi: So, and if people wanted to get in touch with you all as volunteer coordinators to ask questions about your report or anything like that, what would be the best way? Can they go on that site and fill in that interest form as well? You know what?   

Samantha: The best thing to do is to email our email, our USA email, which is volunteers@humanappealusa.org   

Tobi: I’ll put that in the show notes as well. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. This has been a wonderful conversation and we, we zinked and zagged a little bit, but I think the discussion, particularly of volunteer appreciation is something that might spark people’s creativity and also just take a look at the report. 

There’s so much data in there that might help you benchmark or at least give you ideas. So Samantha, thanks for joining me today.   

Samantha: Absolutely. No problem. Thank you. I’ve enjoyed it. Hopefully I’ll see you at an event in England. You never know. You never know. I’ll be back. Now you’ve hooked me up with that thing now. Might see you at an event.   

Tobi: Yeah. Association of Volunteer Managers. I’ll put that in the show notes as well in case we have anybody else from the UK. We’ve been having a lot of guests from the UK lately on the podcast. It’s interesting.  

Samantha: Oh, really? That’s interesting.  

Tobi: Yeah. Partly because I was there, and we were talking and I connected with a bunch of people. I like to talk to people from all around the world because you know what, we’re more alike than different, really, as leaders of volunteers.  

Samantha: I think you’re right. And like I said, when I did some reading, I couldn’t believe the similar problems, similar things happening. Yeah. Fascinating. I wouldn’t mind coming to America soon.  

Tobi: Yeah. Well, hopefully you can make it. Let us know. Gang, thanks for joining us on this episode of the Volunteer Nation podcast. We of course will be here next week, same time, same place. And if you would, we would love it if you would give us a five-star rating. It helps other people find us. And if you’d like to leave comments, that’s fantastic as well. And subscribe so you get us in your podcast app each and every week. So take care, everybody, and we’ll see you next week on the Volunteer Nation.