183 – The New Reality – Volunteers Don’t Need You

October 9, 2025

Episode #183: The New Reality – Volunteers Don’t Need You   

In this episode of the Volunteer Nation Podcast, Tobi Johnson tackles a bold question: has the volunteer–nonprofit relationship changed for good? 

As societal expectations and volunteer trends evolve, Tobi explains why today’s landscape looks more like a buyer’s market, where volunteers have countless options and expect meaningful, flexible, and well-designed experiences. She explores the rise of informal volunteering, the growing need for adaptable roles, and the impact of digital engagement on volunteer satisfaction. 

Discover why traditional volunteer management models no longer work and how nonprofits can create engaging, modern experiences that attract and keep the best volunteer talent to stay relevant in this new era of volunteerism. 

Volunteers – Episode Highlights 

• [01:25] – Understanding the Power Shift in Volunteerism 
• [05:38] – Trends in Volunteerism: Loyalty to Multiple Causes 
• [09:04] – The Rise of Informal Volunteering 
• [13:19] – Decline in Volunteering Rates 
• [20:12] – Increase in Remote and Online Volunteering 
• [23:31] – Challenges in Volunteer Application Processes 
• [27:32] – The Psychological Contract with Volunteers 
• [29:55] – Trends in Volunteerism and Society 
• [33:10] – The New Reality: Volunteers Have the Power 
• [34:14] – Digital Expectations and Volunteer Recruitment 
• [39:40] – Burnout and Overwhelm in Society 
• [42:43] – The Impact of Social Proof 

Volunteers – Quotes from the Episode

“The new reality is volunteers don’t need you. And I know that’s really harsh, but you know what? It’s true. They don’t necessarily need you or your organization as much as you need them. And that’s the shift. It’s a marketplace and volunteers have lots of options.”  

“People want short term time, limited irregular opportunities rather than ongoing commitments. Some people. Research on Generation Z found that 94% would volunteer, but more than a third said they’d be more likely to do so if the hours were flexible.” 

Helpful Links

• Volunteer Management Progress Report  
• VolunteerPro Impact Lab 
• Volunteer Nation Episode #173: Is Your Volunteer Website Turning People Away?  
• Volunteer Nation Episode #174: Write Volunteer Emails Volunteers Actually Read (and Love)  
• Volunteer Nation Episode #178: 6 Ways to Help Program Volunteers Avoid Compassion Fatigue  

Contact Us

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

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Episode #183 Transcript: The New Reality – Volunteers Don’t Need You   

Tobi: Well, hey there everybody. This is Tobi Johnson, host and your guide to the Volunteer Nation podcast. I’m really excited to be here. I want to talk about something that’s a little bit provocative. I think the title of this. A particular episode is kind of provocative. I called it the New Reality – Volunteers Don’t Need You, and I’m going to explain in detail what I mean by that. 

But I want us to really think about what’s happening in the world today, what’s changed for volunteers, where they’re at, what they expect, and really talk in a little bit more in, in detail about what I’m seeing. Around the world in terms of change in society and how that’s impacting volunteerism because as society evolves, so too should volunteerism if we want to keep up. 

And one thing I’ve really noticed lately is that there’s been a subtle power shift in the dynamic between volunteers and nonprofits, and I feel like sometimes our nonprofits haven’t yet caught up or caught wind of this. Volunteers have a choice and are often choosing something different than formal volunteer roles. 

Now, this isn’t new news to most people, but this has really brought about a fundamental shift between the volunteer and the organization relationship from we’re doing you a favor by letting you volunteer here to, we need to earn your time and attention in a competitive marketplace. And we are now in a competitive marketplace. 

I don’t think we can take volunteers for granted. I don’t think, no matter how awesome our good causes are, that we can automatically expect that people will choose to contribute. Time and talent, there’s a lot going on that impacts people’s ability and willingness and appetite for volunteering. And it’s a buyer’s market, so volunteers are out there deciding and choosing in purposeful ways, so. 

If that’s the case, then organizations need to level up their game. So, I want to ask you, do you have what volunteers are seeking in an experience and not just a role? So, a lot of times we’re talking about that volunteers are shifting away from formal volunteer roles. And so, what organizations are doing is, okay, well offer flexible roles. 

Well, that’s great, but if you haven’t changed what you’re. Offering in terms of an experience, you’re just kind of changing the shifts, right? So, do you have what volunteers are seeking in an experience? So not just a role, but an experience. Everything that goes on around it, and I want to talk about in detail some shifts and trends that are happening. 

Both in volunteerism and in society that are impacting attitudes and appetites and enthusiasm for volunteering and. I do this because I feel like people still aren’t getting the message. When you have a, an application process that takes 20 minutes to fill out the application, or people are answering an appeal for volunteering and don’t hear back forever, or when folks come for their first shift, no one even greets them. 

These are unacceptable. In today’s world, you’re just not going to make it. So, if your organization is struggling, you’ve got to take a good, hard look at whether you’re willing to do what it takes to. Create an experience that people want in today’s marketplace. So, let’s dive into recent shifts in volunteering and society so we can understand better what’s driving volunteers, what’s changing about their experiences in their context, and why it might be different for volunteer involving organizations than it might have been. 

I don’t know, even 10 years ago, and I think these shifts have been going on for a while. I think this isn’t new to everybody. I mean, for the most part we’ve been seeing a decline in volunteerism except for a few years ago. So, it’s important for us to understand this greater cultural context and societal context. 

Let me talk about some things that have happened in volunteerism and trends I see, as well as societal trends so that we better understand what we’re working in because we don’t work in a vacuum no matter what our organizations want or require. That doesn’t mean that the rest of the world is on board with it. 

Here’s the first trend that I’m seeing in volunteerism, which is moving from loyalty to a single cause to supporting multiple causes. We often think of our volunteers, well, your volunteers may donate, may volunteer, contribute time to lots of organizations that they care about. Volunteers today are quote unquote portfolio philanthropists. 

They spread their time and energy across multiple causes rather than dedicating themselves to just one organization. And this really kind of reflects broader consumer behavior patterns where people engage in multiple brands rather than displaying a single brand loyalty. If you think about it, if you’re one of those people, like we are, my husband has brand loyalty to different things, and we must go to multiple places to go grocery shopping. 

I mean, this is first world problems, right? But it shows that consumers are willing to go out of their way. To find something that they want. So going to multiple grocery stores is one of the examples. Now, you may say, well, volunteers aren’t consumers and we’re not selling a product. And I will say to you, well, consumer behavior, kind of spreads into and overlaps with all kinds of expectations we have about the world. So, you can ignore it at your peril, and you can say, well, we’re not selling anything. We’re a nonprofit. But consumer behaviors are consumer behaviors, and they’re out there in society whether you want to. Acknowledge it or not. 

I choose to understand and lean into understanding how society operates rather than kind of closing myself off to it and thinking, well, if we just do things the way we want to do them, things will work out. And it’s just not the way it is. So. Organizations given these trends can no longer count on volunteers to commit exclusively. 

They must accept that they’re one of several causes in someone’s life. You may be a place; a volunteer might volunteer on their own. They may volunteer with their kids or for their kids’ sports teams they may give to causes that they care about. There are all kinds of ways people are portfolio philanthropists, so. 

As such, they are comparing their experiences as well, and that shift requires different kinds of retention strategies, a focus on quality of experience during each engagement, rather than trying to take up that volunteer’s all their time and demanding exclusivity, et cetera. This really matters because the traditional model of recruiting volunteers for long-term exclusive commitment is really outdated. 

We must design programs that work for people who volunteer with multiple organizations throughout the year. Some estimates are three to five organizations in a year, and so if we think about the days when. Our grandparents, for example, had one single cause that they supported. That’s just not the way it is anymore. 

And so that loyalty that people will just put up with things because they really are so dedicated, that cause is just not how it works anymore. So that’s one trend. Another for volunteers is the global growth in informal volunteering. It’s not just in the US around the world, and. The UN Volunteers, state of the World’s volunteerism report has called this out that around the world informal volunteering is, is much more than formal volunteering. 

It’s about 59% according to UN volunteers, and women are, take most of the informal volunteering, I’m sorry, 59% is the, IS women, not men, not the percentage of informal volunteering. So, it’s women around the world are volunteering as an extension of unpaid care roles, informal volunteering. We’ve talked about it before, but I’ll share, I’ll kind of share my definition helping neighbors, organizing community groups, setting up mutual aid networks, direct peer to peer assistance. The hallmark of informal volunteering is without organizational intermediaries. So, people are starting to bypass traditional nonprofit structure. Now, I would say that bypassing of traditional nonprofit structures has always been in place, and in fact, informal volunteering is how most nonprofits were started. 

If we look back to our birth and origin stories in many of our organizations, they were started by a group of volunteers. And so, I think. We kind of ignore it, our peril, that our roots come from volunteerism. And so, when volunteers are treated as second class citizens inside our organizations, when volunteers were the group of people from the community that started our organization in the first place. 

You see where I’m going with this doesn’t seem right. But there’s also, during COVID, people were organizing neighborhood support networks, meal trains, mutual aid groups. We were checking on people were putting up little sidewalk libraries. In fact, those are still around. My dad goes walking every other day and there’s some there when I walk with him. 

We will look at these. Because he goes, oh yeah, I’m looking in here to see if there’s anything right now, I’d like to have and I’m going to drop some stuff off. So, he’s still checking in with these little libraries. So, there’s so many people do to help one another. If you think about natural disasters, there’s oftentimes where it’s just people are just stepping out to help one another. 

Because it’s required. It’s what we expect of one another. We really want to think about. What can make a difference informally, or what is the difference of informal volunteering versus formal volunteering? So, no applications, no background checks, no waiting, no being treated poorly. None of that formal volunteering needs to offer something that informal volunteering can’t. 

Maybe it’s infrastructure, maybe it’s training, maybe it’s larger scale impact. Maybe it’s budget, maybe it’s community connections and places to meet and be social. Whatever it is, it must be more than informal volunteering and people still will be involved in. You. Think about, as I was talking about earlier. 

The portfolio philanthropists, many include formal and informal volunteering in their philanthropy, and I consider volunteerism a large part of philanthropy. Even though many people focus only on financial contributions, it just isn’t. So, when we think about the growth of informal volunteering. You know, there are things you can offer as an organization, and there are things like resources, budget, expertise, et cetera, or just strength in numbers that are good things, but there’s more and more growth towards informal volunteering, and one has to think that maybe it’s because it’s too much of a hassle to get involved in a formal. 

Organization and folks would rather spend time locally in, in their own neighborhoods, families, peer groups, et cetera, helping. That’s a trend that impacts how we think about volunteers. The third trend in volunteer activity is a downturn in volunteering rates. We’ve had a recent recovery, but you know, volunteer rates fell from 30% across the US in 2019 to 23%. 

In 2021. Women seeing the highest drop-in rate 8% while men rates fell by 5%. We still are about 1.7 percentage points below pre pandemic levels. There was a big jump after the pandemic in volunteering rates, but we don’t know yet if it’s going to be sustained. And I know in other countries those rates haven’t rebounded despite recovery. 

We haven’t returned to pre pandemic levels, and this sort of suggests that structural changes need to happen versus, oh, the pandemic was a temporary disruption and we’re back to business as usual. Doesn’t seem like that, and the volunteer pool has shrunk overall. If a lower percentage of people are volunteering, competition for volunteers has intensified organizations can no longer rely on the same sized volunteer base they had five years ago, because for many nonprofits, they have an increased need, community need for their services. 

Some organizations have shut down their volunteer programs on the other, on the flip side, and so putting. Additional staff, stress on staff, or just deciding not to support programs or assuming that it can be taken up by others in the organization, which, if you’re listening, you probably realize that volunteer management and coordination is a skillset. 

It’s not something that you just kind of know, learn how to do on, I mean, you, yes, you learn how to do it on your own, but takes a long time unless you get training and support. It is a profession. Volunteer coordination. We’ve got to think about this. Every poor experience or barrier to entry has bigger consequences now when there are fewer volunteers overall. 

And, for organizations that are struggling with budget and with capacity, when you’re not able to bring in volunteers to help supplement, supplement the work and the talent pool makes it even more difficult. So, these downturns in volunteering rates also have an impact and a reason why we should care about. 

What we’re offering, because remember, it’s a buyer’s market and volunteers get to choose the fourth trend I wanna talk about. Volunteers is preference for flexible and episodic roles. We talked about episodic roles, but most people, they’re not going to sign their life away for a three-year volunteer commitment unless they’re running for a board that’s very prestigious and they, or an organization that they’re a member of and they’re going to stay being a member of. 

People want short term time, limited irregular opportunities rather than ongoing commitments. Some people. Research on Generation Z found that 94% would volunteer, but more than a third said they’d be more likely to do so if the hours were flexible. So, check that out. That’s our upcoming generation, right? 

And it just isn’t a millennial or Gen Z trend. It reflects modern life where people juggle multiple commitments, work, caregiving, education, side hustles, et cetera, traditional every Tuesday, nine to 11 for a year. Commitments are increasingly unrealistic for most volunteers. It’s just very difficult for people to do that. 

Even folks who are retired are going back to work because things are more expensive now. They may have not anticipated. Groceries are going to be more expensive. Are more expensive. So, we’ve really got to think about, uh, what we have on offer. Right. And this means innovation. And folks, I know you’ll say, well, sorry, this is the volunteering we have available. 

Well, at some point. In your organization’s history, someone designed this volunteer role, you, this volunteer role that you have that’s very old school. You’ve had it forever. This is the way we do things. This volunteer role must be this way. Well, way back in the big Bang at the beginning of the universe, your role didn’t exist, nor did it exist at the beginning of your organization. 

More than likely. And so, to think that nothing can change is a very sort of scarcity mindset. It’s not looking at abundance, it’s not looking at innovation, it’s not looking at other possibilities. And so even for our most sort of tried and true volunteer roles, now some have funding associated with them and the funder refuses to make changes, and then your organization needs to make a decision about whether or not it’s going to advocate to the funder about change, whether or not it’s going to continue to take the funding and offer that volunteer role. 

I know organizations, I’ve talked to people in our volunteer pro community and in our courses, we’re doing fundamentals live course. Right now, I talk to people and they say, hey, we, well, we have, I was talking on a coaching call and folks are saying, Hey. We have too many volunteers. We have enough volunteers, so there are organizations. 

Not every organization is struggling equally, which makes you think, well, some people are doing this the right way, whether you like it or not. Flexible roles are probably not going anywhere and probably being expected more. Let’s look at the fifth trend. I know this is kind of hard to hear. I’m giving you the straight talk, but you know what? 

That’s why people, that’s what I like to offer sometimes is the straight talk, and today is episode is about the straight talk because I really think if we are stuck in the mud with the way we think we must do things. That our sector is going to seriously suffer and so are our missions and the people that we want to help and the lives that we want to transform and support and bring joy to. 

And if we can’t do the work of transformation in our organizations, then. The people that we’re trying to help won’t get help. And so, it’s come to a point now where we must have these conversations. And I think today’s episode’s about digging deep into the why. Why is it this way? Why do volunteer? 

What, what’s happening in the world? All right, so let’s look at. Trend number five, that’s impacting volunteers, and that’s the increase in remote and online volunteering roles. Now during the pandemic. Everybody got innovative. It’s crazy how we can be innovative when we want to be, right? So, it normalized remote volunteering and remote work for that matter. 

I remember I’ve been working from home for a long time, but even before. I had my own business. I worked in an organization that at 1.1 of my roles was a remote role, and I did a lot of travel and training of volunteers, but I worked outta my home office when I wasn’t traveling. So, I’ve been a remote worker for a long time and now been a remote sort of entrepreneur now for 15, 16 years. 

So, it’s normal to me, but it wasn’t normal when the pandemic hit and now people prefer and require virtual options. Virtual volunteering removes geographic barriers. It expands accessibility for people with transportation. Issues or disabilities or people who have busy lives and they need flexibility and they need to be able to pop in and pop out of their volunteering. 

I do that with my volunteering as a master gardener volunteer. I will volunteer on Saturday mornings and I can have a wonderful volunteer experience, and then I’m done for the day and I’m off to my next thing. It’s good stuff. In 2023, the US Census Bureau and Amer Research tracked virtual volunteering for the first time, recognizing it as a significant and permanent shift. 

And so now we’re starting to track on this. It’s not something that we just did a stop gap measure, and it can be all kinds of things. We have volunteer pro impact lab members who their organizations have a hundred percent remote volunteering, can be graphic design, writing, mentoring, social media, job prep, tutoring, data entry, digital advocacy. 

There’s so much like we do. We go live every Saturday and talk about gardening. So, with that said that trend organizations that haven’t developed meaningful remote volunteer opportunities are missing or potentially missing a significant portion of potential volunteers because it’s now. Part and parcel of what’s on offer in the marketplace. 

So, our online roles also open opportunities for national, international talent rather than being limited to local volunteers. So, it can open up opportunity, but only if our organizations are willing to make it happen. So that’s another trend in volunteering that I think is impacting volunteers and again. 

Volunteers can get together in an informal way and organize online, and they don’t need. Organizations or institutions to do this globally even. So again, hence my topic today. The new reality is volunteers don’t need you. And I know that’s harsh, but you know what? It’s true. They don’t necessarily need you or your organization as much as you need them. 

And that’s the shift Mar. It’s a marketplace and volunteers have lots of options. So let me talk about a couple more trends that are impacting volunteers, poor volunteer application experiences, and long wait times. I have seen so much both. Anecdotally, friends sharing posts on LinkedIn, comments to articles, post news articles posted. 

I mean, I’ve seen this repeatedly that I know it’s a reality is that volunteers when they’re applying, these are application processes are onerous in some cases, and some people are waiting a really long time. To hear back common complaints, applications that take 45 plus minutes to complete for a simple role. 

Requests for three plus references for low-risk opportunities like stuffing envelopes, background checks that take six to eight weeks to complete for low-risk volunteer roles, never hearing back after applying. At all, let alone late being asked to attend multiple orientation sessions before being quote unquote allowed to volunteer unclear expectations about time commitment, scheduling, or actual volunteer tasks. Just being generally unorganized, and I’m going to talk about the digital grapevine in a minute, but this stuff gets amplified. We’ll talk about that in a minute. But the contrast between what we’re seeing out in the marketplace and, and I realize it’s not all of your organizations, but many of your organizations are this way. 

And you contrast that with the instant consumer experiences that people can have online. Think about Amazon. I just ordered some supplements on Amazon this morning. They’re going to arrive this afternoon. I mean, that’s talk about immediate, right? And even if they weren’t going to arrive tomorrow, maybe they’re going to arrive in two days. 

Amazon would be sending me emails that tell me, yes, your order’s been received. Now your order’s been shipped. This is when you can expect your order. Here’s a tracking link. Oh, your order’s out for delivery. The A level of. Consumer like just instant consumer experience and that people are kept in the loop at every single step. 

That this bureaucracy in our organizations, when people just want to help is excessive. It feels excessive to our volunteers. This is the typical horror story. I’ll share it. A professional with specialized skills. Somebody who’s highly skilled applies to volunteer. They like the idea of the cause. 

They want to help. They fill out a lengthy application. They provide references. They wait weeks. They attend a mandatory three-hour orientation. They wait more weeks for a background check. They finally get assigned to a task that could have been explained in 10 minutes, but never. Get any explanation and they’re never contacted again to help. 

So, there you go. Or when they want to sign up for roles or shifts, the existing volunteers have those locked in and they don’t ha can’t find shifts that fit their busy schedules. So. Every layer of bureaucracy delay, unclear communication point is a potential exit ramp for volunteers to abandon the process and organizations every day lose talented, motivated people, not because they don’t care about the cause or because. 

The volunteer is lacking something. Like when I hear organizations say, I need the right volunteer, I’m, what do you mean by that, right? Yes. We need people who are committed, enthusiastic, are willing to be reliable. Okay. What about that on our side? Is our organization committed? Reliable and enthusiastic on our part. 

When we are working with volunteers, there’s a psychological contract. There should be a fair exchange both ways. So, if the organizational experience isn’t competent in stewarding the time and talents of volunteers, then. Perhaps it’s not a good idea to engage volunteers, and here’s why I say that we are. 

There’s a bias to think that our, each of our organizations is completely different than the other, the Snowflake syndrome. I talk to friends about this. No, our organizations are not, each organization is completely different than the other. First, you know, if you’re in the US anyway, every nonprofit over X number of dollars in revenue must fill out. 

An IRS tax warrant. There are things that we all must do. We have boards of directors we’re, we may be different in our causes, and we may be different in some of our standard operating procedures, but at core we’re very alike. We’re more alike than different. And so, when we think, well, our organization requires this special treatment, well good luck. 

Right. The other thing is organizations are interconnected. In a community, if a volunteer has a poor experience applying for one volunteer role with one organization, and it goes so poorly and no one gets back to them, then. It’s quite possible they’ll never volunteer again because they’ll say, you know what? 

Volunteering isn’t for me. Look how these nonprofits treat us. So, someone, if, if we’re, we rise and fall together in a community when it comes to volunteer involvement. And so rather than having turf battles, we should be working more collectively together. And if you’re not. Willing, able, and ready to onboard volunteers and get them going almost immediately or at least get keeping them in the loop about what’s next. 

Then you shouldn’t be posting live appeals on. Idealists slash volunteer match or anywhere else, or even on your website, unless you’re going to have info sessions, you’re going to have wait lists. You’re going to keep people in the loop. And people have an understanding about when their service might happen so they can fit it into their lives or their lives, I should say. 

So, these are some pretty, some of these are opportunities, some of these trends. Some of them are areas that our sector honestly needs to change, needs to. I’m being honest about this, the fact that a volunteer. Res applies to an, or responds to an appeal and never hears back? Not okay. Not okay at all. 

It shows massive disrespect for people in the community who want to help, and I don’t think that’s what we’re about as a sector. And there’s lots of reason this happens. People get laid off that there’s too much work, et cetera, et cetera. But set up an editorial calendar and make sure that these are managed well. 

So, let’s take a break from my discussion of the new reality. Volunteers don’t need you as much as you need them. And when we get back, I want to talk about the marketplace in general. What’s happening in the trends in the marketplace, in the in society at large. I’ve talked about volunteering trends up till now. I want to talk about societal trends that are also impacting volunteers, so we can start to think about how we’re going to respond to these. All right? So don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.  

 

VOLUNTEER IMPACT PRO LAB 

Hey, are you looking to upgrade and modernize your volunteer program? Or maybe you’re building one from scratch and you’re just not sure where to start. 

If so, we’ve got the perfect resource for you. The Volunteer Pro Impact Lab, having built several direct service programs from the ground up. I know that it doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a clear process that takes careful attention with a focus on impact. In the end, you need a system in place that’s clear, standardized, efficient, and that gets results. 

In addition, and maybe this is the most important, you need a volunteer program design that directly contributes to your organization’s most critical goals. That’s where the Volunteer Pro Impact Lab comes in. When it comes to effective volunteer engagement, our bespoke volunteer strategy Success path model, which is the heart of our resources and strategic advising, will help you transform your volunteer strategy from fundamental to a fully mature what’s working now approach and all in less time with our online assessment, you’ll quickly gain clarity on precisely where to focus your efforts and we’ll provide recommendations for the exact steps needed for sustainable growth. Regardless of how large or small your organization is or what your cause impact area or focus is.  

Our program development and implementation support model will help you build a strong foundation, so volunteerism can thrive at your good cause. If you’re interested in learning more, go to volpro.net/join and we’ll share how to get started and what’s involved.  

All right, everybody. I am here talking about the new reality. Volunteers don’t need you. And I’m going to add that volunteers don’t need you as much as your organization needs them. And that means a different balance of power. It’s a buyer’s market. Volunteers get to choose, right. And we’ve got to shift our relationship. Used to be we’re going to do you a favor by letting you volunteer with our organization if you can pass all our gauntlet of application steps, et cetera. And now I think we need to start changing how we approach volunteers. 

Two, we need to earn your time and attention because we understand it’s a competitive marketplace and we want to make sure you have the best experience possible so that you can make the biggest impact possible. That should be the approach, right? So, let’s look at what are the trends that are going on one another. 

Well, I talked about trends in volunteerism. Let’s talk about trends in society or the marketplace, speed of information and improved online experiences in the marketplace. This is huge. This is huge. Consumers expect. Seamless digital experiences across all interactions, whether they’re booking rides, ordering food, shopping, banking, all of that happens within a few seconds on an app. 

You know who doesn’t? Well, I don’t know about you. I do what? I’m traveling and I’m grumpy, and I’ve landed and I’m at an airport and I try to book a ride on Uber. And when I’m about to book it, it’s telling me the ride is five minutes away and I book that ride and then all of a sudden, I’m waiting 15 minutes for a ride. 

I get grumpy. Talk about first world problems, right? Talk about first world problems. The marketplace is this way now. People want things immediately because now we have immediacy in so many different areas, and so people can get things done in seconds on their apps. So that Amazon effect of raising expectations, people want instant confirmation, real time updates, mobile friendly interfaces, minimal friction. 

That’s not just for companies, that’s for nonprofits too, whether it’s volunteering or making donations. So, if anybody’s out there asking volunteers to email you about an opportunity that you have available or asking them to pick up the phone and call someone, ain’t happening. You’re losing people. 

Losing many people because imagine if somebody did pick up the phone and call you. Are you going to be at your desk? Probably not. They’re going to leave a message. Then you’re going to pick up the phone. Then you’re going to call them. They’re not going to answer because they think it’s a spam call. You’re going to leave a message, then they’re going to call you back. 

Absolutely not. It can’t be that way anymore. Those days are gone, especially with younger volunteers. They’re not picking up the phone and calling anybody. It’s going to be a text or nothing. We, the potential volunteers now are encountering clunky applications, slow responses, outdated technology, and the contrast with their everyday digital experience is quite jarring. 

And then they start to think, does this nonprofit even have it together? So, the expectation for volunteers is no longer just, eventually someone will get back to me, and I’ll get started volunteering. It’s, I should hear back within 24 to 48 hours about next steps, whether that’s an automated email, a text, a phone call, or another, whatever it is, volunteers need to know. 

So, your volunteer recruitment process is now competing with every other digital experience in someone’s life. The 1995 style PDF application form that requires printing and emailing immediately signals and organization’s dysfunction to potential volunteers who are accustomed to modern UX design. And what I mean by UX is user experience. 

UX is short for user experience and if. That experience isn’t where it needs to be. You’re competing with others. And by the way, as people are waiting, they’re going and they’re applying with other organizations, and by the time you get back to them, they’ve already found a better. Opportunity where somebody was responsive and they’re off to the races and now they’re going to be ghosting you. 

If you’re wondering how to make even your website better, check out Volunteer Nation. Episode 1 73 Is your volunteer website turning people away and it could give you a quick tech check. On ways you can upgrade your website. Tools have gotten so much easier. I remember when we started the Volunteer Pro community back in 2015, there were the most rudimentary community platforms there are there. 

There’s so much more automation. There weren’t even automation tools likes. There’s a tool called Zapier that connects two different softwares. It can transfer data from one software to another, so you can create integration. So, for example, if someone fills out a form on my website, it will, it can set up a Zap and send them a reminder. 

Let’s say you signed up for a Zoom webinar. It might send that data to my customer relationship management database, and then I can start. Emailing that person and sharing information about the event that didn’t exist back in 2015. So, things we really don’t have excuses and when people say it’s too expensive, so much software. 

Come on guys, $29 a month, please. The amount you’re investing is saving you time and. Leveling up. So, you are at the level now. Do we have to be the level of experience of the most highest-level tech corporations? Absolutely not. But volunteers want. Simplicity. They want to feel that they belong. 

They want to feel a human element, and they want to get information fast and be in the loop on their process. And we need to be there, people. We need to be there. All right, the eighth trend in society, general burnout and overwhelm. There is widespread burnout across society from pandemic fatigue, economic stress, political polarization, climate anxiety, and information overload. 

Not to mention everything else, family, drama, you name it, right? People are tired. They are protective of their time and energy, and I’ve mentioned before, I’ve talked about this before, there’s nothing like a global existential crisis to spark people rethinking how they spend their time. People’s seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years left on this planet is the most valuable thing we all have. 

Is the time left on this planet. I’ve talked about this before. It’s the time left on this planet That’s our most asset. It’s not our money. It’s our time left on this planet, and people are contributing to your organization that value. So, we’ve got to treat it with respect, mental and emotional bandwidth to navigate complex processes or deal with an organizational dysfunction is lower than ever. 

They’ve done studies with customer service reps, and nowadays people are much more grumpy because they’re just not going to put up with, and I’ve been that person where I’m like raising my voice on the phone because I’m like, Hey, how come we can’t get this taken care of quickly? Burnout is particularly acute among women who experienced. 

The largest drop-in volunteering rates because we’re taking care of everybody else. And why does this matter? Well, high friction volunteer recruitment processes that might have been tolerated in the past now trigger immediate abandonment. Organizations must respect that potential volunteers are already stretched and thin and take, make every interaction as effortless as possible. 

I talk in my trainings about. What is it people are looking for now? They’re looking for respite. They’re looking for belonging. They’re looking for meaning. They’re not looking for something that stresses them out. That’s not what people are looking for. And if you volunteer opportunities, stress people out, they’re not going to be around for long. 

Now, that doesn’t mean there’s certainly high stress types of roles. But if those roles like disaster volunteering, that’s high stress. Volunteer firefighters, high stress. But you know what? When people are working as a team and they feel respected and they have the resources they need and they’re well-trained, then the bandwidth to manage that stress is much greater. 

But if you are putting a lot of stress on people immediately, they’re just not going to follow through. So, when people say, we have a problem with. Bringing people on board. People don’t want to volunteer anymore. Oh, I think people do. I think they’re abandoning your organization because it’s just too much of a pain. 

Trend number nine. And I’m just truth telling on this one, just this. This is one of those episodes where I just must truth tell; I just must socially proof in the digital grape. I got to tell you, just as people seek Yelp or TripAdvisor or Amazon reviews or Google reviews before they purchase or book a hotel, or buy a book, or go to a restaurant, whatever. 

They are ex increasingly in the marketplace. People are seeking information about those experiences and making decisions based on what the crowd is saying. So negative experiences. That digital grapevine is very fast. It’s not like it was before where it might be word of mouth people talking about a negative volunteer experience they had within their network of friends. 

No, this is global now because people are posting on social or they share in a community forum, or they vent a little bit on Reddit or any of these can impact your organization’s reputation and. It’s not like a hotel website where if people complain, you have staff that are dedicated to answering each complaint. 

Like most hotel websites, well, not even all of them, but some of them do, where they’re going to answer every complaint. You don’t have staff for that. I’ve seen stuff on LinkedIn lately now. Volunteer managers, when they’re complaining about volunteer application, their own volunteer application, they’re not going to throw their local nonprofit under the bus, but other people will because they want you to sit up and take notice because they’re upset at your organization for not following through on its promise to the community. 

So, the digital grapevine means one person’s bad experience can reach hundreds or thousands of potential volunteers. We’re all under a spotlight now. Organizations really can’t afford to treat volunteers poorly behind closed doors because there is no behind closed doors. Every interaction is potentially public through social proof mechanisms. 

Conversely, e exceptional volunteer experiences become powerful marketing tools through authentic word of mouth. So, it goes both ways, but people tend to complain more than they celebrate. Or I would say people will complain or self-promote more than they celebrate and show compassion, especially in social. 

So, let’s talk about this for a minute. I just want to combine what I’ve talked about so far. Let’s, let’s wrap up and connect the dots. The combine impact of these both volunteer trends and societal trends is when you layer these trends together. There are some key takeaways that we must think about as a sector or we will get left behind. 

Remember? Volunteers don’t need you. They can certainly go in and have meaningful experiences and help community by working informally together. They don’t need you as much as your organization needs them. What can we do? Well, first, the realities are volunteers have more choices, multiple causes, informal options, flexible options. 

There are few fewer volunteers overall competing for attention. Volunteers demand flexibility. That modern organizations are not providing. Sometimes they expect digital native experiences that many nonprofits are not delivering. They social proof amplifies both positive and negative experiences, and very quickly people are burned out and have lower tolerance for friction, and many organizations continue to deliver. 

Poor experiences that drive volunteers away. So, the result is a perfect storm where volunteers have leverage, organizations have urgent needs, and the ones that adapt to this new reality will thrive while others will struggle to attain and retain volunteers and who loses, who ultimately loses the people you’re trying to help. 

Whether you’re an arts and culture organization, an advocacy organization, a direct service organization, whether you’re a professional association, a private charity, a government program, it does not matter. You are in business to transform lives, to make lives better for the people that you work for. And if you can’t bring the community along with that. 

There’s going to be a problem sooner or later. So, the key takeaway is this, that volunteer, the volunteer organization relationship, it has fundamentally shifted from when we’re doing you a favor by letting you volunteer to, we need to earn your time and attention in a competitive marketplace. So, organizations must design volunteer experiences with the same intentionality that a company’s design. 

Our design of customer or client experiences because volunteers now have the same expectations and same willingness to walk away from poor experiences, whether they be to volunteer or to purchase a product. This is where it is. Our sector and nonprofits in general cause related organizations. This, this has always been, we have always been called to innovate. 

We have been through challenging times. This isn’t new, but I see so often that organizations are rid, rigid, and unable to change, and I see. Frustrated leaders of volunteers inside organizations trying to make this change happen, and the leadership at the top just doesn’t see it if leadership at the top doesn’t see it. 

What also will happen ultimately is talented staff who aren’t able to make the changes are no longer going to be willing to be on the front lines and the face of volunteering for that organization if that organization. Is not willing to treat volunteers with the respect that they’re due and the experiences that they should have and expect. 

And the most talented people are going to find other organizations. So, it’s not a great look. We’re going to be in trouble here. Remember, we’re all in network together. Volunteerism in the face of volunteering or the reputation of volunteerism, as a generic or sort of general concept relies on every single organizations. 

Ability to do this effectively. That’s why we’re in this business at Volunteer Pro and at Tobi Johnson and Associates. We know how important it is that we all do well in this sector because the entire reputation of volunteerism writ large depends on all of us to do it right. And so, I’m going to leave you with that there with that for this episode. 

I know it’s been a lot of truth telling, but it just needed to be said. I just can’t stop myself. But you know what? Here’s the good news. In my next episode, I’m going to give you some solutions. We’re going to dig into what do volunteers actually need? Not just trends, but psychologically, what do volunteers need? 

And in the next episode, I’m going to talk about the experience economy. I’m going to offer some solutions. I don’t leave people hanging. I don’t, I’m not here to just complain. I’m here to provide solutions. So, join me next week. I hope this episode was helpful. If you think it would help to have somebody hear it, share it with them and join me next week, same time, same place on the Volunteer nation. I’ll see you then guys.