Like a pebble being tossed into a pond, most volunteers see their impact in immediate terms.
They see a gap in leadership to fill, or the opportunity to give back to people in and near their community. They may be eager to share their skills or motivated to improve the program experience for a child of their own.
Whatever their motivation, volunteerism often creates broader ripple effects than volunteers may expect.
New study highlights ripple effects of volunteering
The 2024 North Central Region volunteer impact study shed light on the value of volunteering. The study found that there are strong personal, organizational and public benefits that result from volunteerism with the Minnesota 4-H program.
Many volunteers in the study shared experiences of how the connections they built in 4-H helped strengthen relationships within their community, as demonstrated by the following quotes from Minnesota 4-H volunteers:
“I think success in 4-H builds confidence for volunteers to stretch into other areas of public service and civic engagement.”
“Developing new relationships with community members requires confidence, articulate speaking and trust, skills enhanced through the 4-H leader role.”
Likewise, volunteers themselves benefit from their volunteer experience. Volunteers in the impact study frequently shared how the knowledge and skills they gained while volunteering transferred over to other roles in local educational, religious and community programs.
As one volunteer shared:
“I have become a better advocate for young people through my volunteering with 4-H.”
So what can we learn from this study? And what implications does it have on how we address volunteerism moving forward?
Reframing your invitation
There will always be holes to fill and needs to be met. Inviting volunteers to be one pebble in a pond of a thousand does not speak in full to the importance or the value of volunteerism, nor does it capitalize on the living, human experience that volunteers bring.
If we reframe our invitations to volunteers with an emphasis on the larger ripple effects of their service, how could that change their level of investment, engagement and program affinity?
Reframing your reporting
When discussing volunteerism with stakeholders and community partners, we need to move beyond immediate impacts, such as the programs volunteers led or the number of hours they served. Instead, reframe your reporting to include impacts that extend throughout your community and reach across organizational lines.
When stakeholders and community partners understand and see the ripple effects of the impact that volunteerism provides, they will be more likely to support our mission, and may even be motivated to volunteer themselves.
Each new volunteer is like another pebble dropped into the pond, sending the ripples of impact even further.