Volunteering Defined

Once, the world of volunteering was largely populated by women who, when their children had reached school age, looked for something meaningful to do outside of their home environment, and retired gentlemen whose skills and expertise or manual labour were valuable on local committees or community projects.

Volunteering in the past was seen as a means to an end within itself. Those less fortunate in our society were held up as being the reasons for volunteer activity. Even today, many organisations that advertise for volunteers present the needs of those whom they serve, not how the needs of those who give service can be fulfilled. ‘Charity work’, as it was often called, was held up as a virtue, especially for those whose partners within a marriage, were not working for wages.

Today however, there seems to be widespread agreement that there is a lack of clarity about the terminology associated with volunteering, and the word ‘volunteer’ is useful for describing a large range of activities, as well as being perceived in a wide variety of ways. ³

In Australia, the term ‘volunteer’ and the act of ‘volunteering’ has been defined by a number of authoritative organisations - for differing purposes. The diversity of definitions is indicative of the changing face of volunteerism, and highlights the fact that volunteering is evolving and changing as societies’ needs move in new directions.

Volunteering Australia has adopted a definition of volunteering which is found in their Volunteering Standards Manual:

“Formal volunteering is an activity which always takes place through not-for-profit organisations and projects and is:

• Of benefit to the community and the volunteer;
• Undertaken of the volunteer’s own free will and without coercion;
• For no financial payment; and
• Underpinned by Volunteering Australia’s Principles of Volunteering.”

This definition specifically excludes: work undertaken as a result of community service orders; work-for-benefit schemes which do not allow the individual to choose to volunteer; student work experience. The reasoning here is that these activities are not entirely of the person’s free will, but are done in order to ‘fulfill an obligation’. Definitions applied in Australia and elsewhere largely exclude informal volunteering which could include everyday situations such as where a group of neighbours help out a local family in a crisis by hanging out washing or by picking up children from school, and those who become an activities leader on a human service organisation because their child is one of its clients. ⁴

However another definition maintains that a volunteer is “Someone who willingly gave unpaid help in the form of time, service or skills, through an organisation or group” (as distinct from as an individual, within the family arena). ⁵

While the Australian Council of Social Services maintains ‘First and foremost, volunteering is work. It is also an expression of active participation in the civic life of a democratic society’, recognising that the concepts of choice and of public benefit are the central lynchpins of volunteering. Their concept is of activities performed outside of the immediate family environment, which can be either formal (conducted through an organisation) or informal (conducted outside of organisations). ‘Volunteer work is defined as work which is:
- done of one’s own free will;
- provides a service to the community; is done without monetary reward, excluding out of pocket expenses.’ ⁶

Concern over the definition of volunteering and the implications this has for measuring voluntary activity, are compounded by concerns over the classification of voluntary activity as ‘work’ or as ‘leisure’.

New volunteer profiles are emerging which highlight the duality of volunteer work. Some young men and women consider their voluntary work as a stepping stone to employment. Some older people use their volunteering as a ‘tool’ to adjust to their retirement. Others, who feel themselves socially isolated for a number of reasons, feel that volunteering is a useful way to gain new and local social contact. ⁷

Another definition maintains:

“A volunteer is someone who gives of their time freely and cheerfully, without hope or expectation of any reward either financially or in kind. A volunteer is not someone who gives their time and effort on the expectation of a return on their ‘investment’; that something will be given back to them.” ⁸

Overseas, the United Kingdom surveyed voluntary activity in 1991 and 1997, using the definition: “any activity which involves spending time, unpaid, doing something which aims to benefit someone (individuals or groups) other than or in addition to a close relative, or to benefit the environment.” While in the United States of America a volunteer is someone who apart from belonging to a service organisation, actually works in some way to help others for no monetary pay. ⁹

The way that volunteering is now viewed, is almost a reverse of the way that it was originally conceived, where people in society saw a particular need and formed an interest group out of which grew many incredible organisations, such as Red Cross. The growth of volunteer opportunities has not been confined to areas of interest, nor to perceived needs within our society.

Change has occurred through the expansion of volunteer activities right across the whole spectrum of community living. The long established areas of church involvement, local hospital, small arts societies and sports activities, have been expanded and now volunteering includes such wide and diverse activities as, environmental issues, historical societies, government and non-government libraries, many council initiatives, aged care and youth clubs, to name a few.

This new paradigm of volunteering looks from the viewpoint of what the participant can gain from the volunteer experience in the first instance and only then, what they can add to society by that activity.

There are some redeeming features to this view, as it is not unusual that after a person passes through the experience of volunteering, gaining the benefits that they require, that they then capture a vision. They gain a glimpse of what it is doing for those whom they are serving and they may therefore continue to give service on a more altruistic basis. This has occurred where an individual has had to do community service because of a court order, and enjoyed the experience so much that they have then come back of their own free will and continued to do that service.

The other major trend in the new paradigm is a requirement that volunteers undergo training, and for volunteer training courses to be government accredited. This allows volunteers to gain advanced standing or subject credits for their career path. Due to the high turnover of volunteers and the increasing demand for volunteer services, some service providers are asking volunteers to pay for their training.