As DurhamCares, and other organizations, work diligently to encourage and challenge Durham’s citizens to give of their money and their time, a fair question arises: Is Durham ready for a marked increase in volunteers? As with questions about a topic as large as volunteerism in an entire city, the answer is “it depends”. I’ll suggest the unpacking of this frustrating answer in 3 parts: 1. the challenging 2. what’s good 3. the work ahead.

First the challenging:

I have heard of several folks that have showed up for volunteer opportunities in Durham that have been less than rewarding. Some times the charity personnel hadn’t been told to expect them from the “volunteer coordinator,” in another instance a family showed up to deliver an ice cream party to 15 residents of a homeless shelter, only to find that not only were they not expecting them, but that there were 45 folks there…........some creative ice cream rationing ensued. Stories like these, albethem anecdotes, cause us to have concern…..fortunately I think that it’s concern that can be mitigated, more on that later

what’s good…..I want to make sure that folks understand that there are a number of great charities, many of them listed on this site that ARE ready for volunteers and have the systems and processes in place to support them. Most importantly, of course, is the need among the population that they are trying to support. There are several examples of this, but I’ll list the most compelling: BigBrothers/BigSisters of the Triangle has a waiting list of more than 100 boys and girls that are waiting to be matched with “Bigs”. BBBST has a great track record, as many of you know, and their CEO Kim Breeden was named CEO of the Year. They are ready for more volunteers at several different commitment levels and you can be assured that they will work hard for both the “littles” and “bigs” in their program.

The work ahead….Durham charities need to welcome volunteers and share with them the structure and purpose behind their volunteering efforts to make sure that the experience is rewarding for the charity AND the volunteer. If they don’t, the charity stands to lose that volunteer forever, and forget about any chance to convert the volunteer into a donor. This would be a bad thing for that charity, but an awful thing for Durham. I can’t help about thinking about a prototypical 24 year old, who has been finally convinced to volunteer with a promise that it can help the community (which it does) and that it will change their life for the better (as it most assuredly can and should), having a poor experience and saying no to volunteer opportunities in the future…..opportunities that could have lived up to the promise that the first one should have delivered.

To avoid this, I think that we need to work with the charities to make sure that they have:

1. A volunteer coordinator. Someone who knows the charity and the population it serves inside and out. Someone who is just as comfortable saying “no” to volunteers as “yes”.........not every volunteer opportunity is perfect for every volunteer.

2. A process to welcome the volunteer…..be waiting for them to come, give them a tour of the facility, an overview of the operations, and a brief history

3. The ability to communicate a contract of sorts with the volunteer: what is expected of them, and what the volunteer can expect of the charity. As with so much in life, it’s all about communication and management of expectations.

4. Wherever possible: pair up a new volunteer with an experienced one.

5. Follow up. It’s rare to hear of a charity following up with volunteers to thank them or to ask them about how their volunteer experience was or how it could be better.

I’m confident that we Durham charities CAN and WILL be ready to handle a major uptick in volunteers…..for Durham’s underserved SURELY NEED them.

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