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PMD Projects Going Greener

If you’ve cooked with PMD lately, then you know that for the past year we’ve been vermicomposting our non-meat, primarily vegetable food scraps (peelings, stems, egg shells, etc.) instead of disposing them in the trash. It has greatly reduced waste, allows the worms* to thrive, and eventually generates rich compost for our outdoor projects.

Since we purchased and installed a composter in the Lee Outdoor Classroom (as well as helped them start a bin in one of their preschool classrooms) in early spring, we’ve had the responsibility of feeding them regularly until the kids return next week. We’ve fed them with food scraps/waste from meals we’ve prepared from scratch for clients of Hearth’s Anna Bissonnette House, Rosie’s Place, and Community Servings.

Restaurants are “going green” in this way, and I hope that our recipient charities will be someday be able to do so on their own, instead of just when PMD volunteers are helping them. Hopefully, our setting this example will demonstrate how easy it can be.
*The red worms are special, not earthworms, suited for higher temperatures, and were generously donated by PMD volunteer Louis D.

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It’s the Infrastructure/Barriers, not the Hours!

While there are many things that I like about Senator Barack Obama, his plan for universal voluntary service which aims to “set a goal for all American middle- and high-school students to perform 50 hours of service a year and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year” if he’s elected president misses the mark like many other programs mandating service hours.

The nonprofit sector lacks the infrastructure/staffing to screen, train, supervise, and physically host many of the volunteers it currently engages (hence the abysmal 1 out of 3 who volunteered in 2006 but didn’t return in 2007, as reported yesterday), let alone all high school and college students.

And rather than compensating college students $4,000 (or $40/hr), most of the nonprofit organizations who host them require at least $30/hr if not alll of it to develop adequate work space, trainers, and supervisors for all of these mandated volunteers.

While Obama’s plan does indicate interest in investing in the nonprofit sector, it assumes that the resources are available to carry out what has already been identified by the Urban Institute and many others as best practices, when this simply is not the case. Two-thirds of the charities PMD volunteers serve lack the staff and other needed resources to develop and to maintain their own, ongoing volunteer programs.

In the end, whether a volunteer has a positive experience, not how much s/he is compensated, will determine retention.

When I reflect on the common barriers to why I don’t volunteer more, I think that deficiencies in the recruitment and the management process contribute most. Long gaps without any communication about the application process while seeing/hearing advertisements that a charity needs volunteers which leads to my feeling personally unneeded, having my time wasted/disrespected, and not having adequate resources to serve as an effective volunteer are the most common reasons why I bail out. (On a more petty level, horrendous traffic has also taken a personal toll on my participation.)

Some things, like traffic, cannot really be addressed for one volunteer*, but adequate staffing of the recruitment and screening process certainly can, as can good supervision and resources.

*MIT senior Kevin Vogelsang thinks that transportation is a significant, limiting factor to college students volunteering, and I observed this with fellow WriteBoston writing tutors at the West Roxbury Education Complex this past school year, so organizing transportation may address barriers for small groups of college students so they don’t face spending 1.5 hours or more each way to volunteer.

Despite PMD’s requirement that people participate for the entire, PMD project time span, which addresses our ability to complete all tasks as well as each volunteer’s level of satisfaction, I think that if the government is going to mandate something, it should be the quality of the volunteer experience, not the quantity of hours, as the real determinant. If a volunteer experience of 7-100 hours is required in order to be able to understand different perspectives beyond one’s own, then so be it. This can be conveyed (and measured) through a portfolio of work reflecting one’s experiences.

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Thoughts on Volunteering as a Commonwealth Corps Reviewer

Earlier this month, I figured that I had a civic responsibility to do more than just criticize the governor’s new Commonwealth Corps (CC), so I volunteered as one of nearly 100 citizen grant reviewers, to make sure that our tax dollars are spent as effectively as possible.

Our task was to read (in 4.5-6 hours) eight proposals, then come to consensus in one of ~20 small groups about their relative ranking. Actual funding decisions will be made by the commission.
What made this RFP unique were parts about what corps members would specifically do to generate more volunteers for the recipient charities, beyond direct service to people in need, which is presumably addressed by their existing volunteer pools.
Sadly, of the eight nonprofits whose proposals I read, only a couple indicated any existing infrastructure to recruit, screen, manage, and expand volunteer roles, and I heard similar observations from two other volunteer grant reviewers. While I don’t doubt that some corps members may have human resources/recruiting talents, none of the proposals I read targeted these professionals, and I am doubtful that a 9-12 month stint by 3+ corps members will change this capacity of these nonprofits for the long term.

As I wrote in December, I believe that what is really needed are resources made directly to nonprofits to develop their capacity to work with potential and actual volunteers effectively (like developing a strategic volunteer plan) and the staff (or part-time equivalents) to carry out the plan would make a more lasting difference.

Since there were many more applicants than funding, my fellow small group readers and I wondered whether the CC Commission will offer training and resources to the many nonprofits that will not receive funding but still need more volunteers to service their needy populations throughout the state. Commissioner David Roach indicated some interest to me after he noted that the commission does not have any hands-on volunteer managers serving on it yet, but the commission’s first, big milestone is to award its first round of grants. I think that someone with direct volunteer recruiting, screening, and management experience should join to commission, to help the commission identify barriers to volunteer participation that can be addressed through the CC and/or other programs.
Here’s hoping that the CC or some funder will recognize the huge need for deliberate, resourced volunteer recruitment and management in the nonprofit sector and address it directly.

While PMD can continue to service a handful of Boston-area nonprofits with episodic needs who lack the resources to maintain ongoing volunteer programs and to serve as the fiscal sponsor of the Directors of Volunteer Administration (DOVA), there are still many more nonprofits that have ongoing volunteer needs and insufficient staffing and expertise to begin or to sustain volunteer programs that are integrated into their organizations.

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Disconnect between what people want and do?

I can’t afford a subscription to The Chronicle of Philanthropy to read the latest study about giving to the poor, but I’m not surprised that it concludes “Many donors say they want to support charities that help the nation’s most vulnerable citizens, but their giving patterns don’t support that goal,” since many people say that they want to help the homeless, for example, but then these same people are uninterested in volunteering to help this population.

Volunteering in direct service gives participants first-hand experience in shelters and other programs that serve the needy. These experiences, while short of actually personally utilizing these services, make lasting impressions on PMD volunteers.

Our younger volunteers have even gone so far as to tell us that they think that everyone should have the awareness-building experience of volunteering in a shelter, despite the obvious greater issue of eliminating the need for homeless shelters.

And while many people will decide to try to help the needy in more ways than direct service volunteering, I think that their early experiences do shape and influence how they do so, whether by voting choices, personal and corporate philanthropy, etc.

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PMD Projects Updated for 2008

Despite a severe stomach bug, I updated the list of PMD projects on the web site and emailed several descriptions to PMD’s private email list of 900+ people, many of which I hope will decide to sign up to volunteer for something.

The cozy and cute, no-sew fleece blankets for needy kids return for an encore on 1/16 evening, and karaoke with elders makes a debut on 1/21 MLK Day.

I’ve also begun the massive volunteer effort to staff the Blue Lobster Bowl of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl on 2/9, beginning with making a training video on 1/12. This is the only PMD project for which we require training and practice prior to volunteering. Given the fast and competitive high school students, we volunteers really benefit from preparing a week in advance of the 7:30 AM starting time.

I’m hoping that our annual return to sorting donations for an emergency clothing program for the poor and homeless (1/27) and to selecting and sending books requested in writing by prisoners (2/2) will motivate people to participate as well. This is the only time PMD will be offering these particular projects in 2008 since we’ve learned that this time of year is when the most volunteers have traditionally participated.

I also hope to receive more project sign up email messages than email bounces soon.

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Questions Raised by Boston Homeless Census

I just returned from helping out for a third year with the annual Homeless Census for the City of Boston. This year, I was part of a team of six assigned to some of the subway stations. (Last year, I was assigned to the South End, and a few years before I was assigned to the Fens.)
Most of the recently improved MBTA stations don’t have good places for shelter from winter weather, with few nooks and more metal and stone in windswept areas. Yet at the last station we visited, we observed an “emergency exit only” door propped open, and transit officer Steve (who accompanied us for safety and T access) confirmed that someone was indeed sleeping in the warm space above. Another volunteer and I introduced ourselves, and the slightly inebriated man welcomed an opportunity to sleep in a shelter and perhaps obtain some medical attention for a shoulder injury sustained when he had slipped on the ice earlier in the day.
While we waiting for the City’s emergency van to arrive and give him a sandwich and ride to a shelter, I spent a half hour chatting with Jerry, who thought that he had been homeless for at least 10 of his 48 years. As a volunteer, I felt pretty good about myself, having found a homeless person, made a personal connection, and gotten him into some shelter for the night.

Yet after the van departed, the transit officer revealed that Jerry is a regular occupant of a simple piece of cardboard in the nook of that particular MBTA station.

Should transit workers continue to allow Jerry to sleep in the emergency exit area of this station every night, thus enabling him to continue to drink and be homeless? Or, should they follow the rules and force him out into the elements (since most shelters require guests to be sober) when they close?

Is it more humane to respect Jerry’s life choices versus letting him risk severe exposure while he is drinking and homeless?

For people like Jerry who are chronically homeless and substance-dependent, I am uncertain.

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How Commonwealth Corps can become unique

I’d been hoping that MA Governor Devel Patrick’s early goal of creating a Commonwealth Corps would not come to fruition because, in my opinion, so far it seems redundant and misses the opportunity to distinguish itself from Americorps and charities’ existing volunteer programs.

Unfortunately, it appears that the administration is launching Commonwealth Corps. While I am excited that resources will be dedicated to promote volunteering, I am concerned that like many existing charities that seek to engage older/experienced people in volunteerism (like our local Generations Inc.), the governor is focusing resources into small stipends instead of critical charity infrastructure that would better recruit and retain volunteers.

For example, rather than providing a very modest stipend per volunteer, the Commonwealth Corps should invest in building faster and more efficient models that will use professional marketing and recruitment plans to generate applicants and then respond to and screen them rapidly, so people don’t lose patience and interest (and come to feel unneeded) while over-burdened staff struggle to respond, which we saw after crises like the hurricanes, but occurs regularly. The Commonwealth Corps should also incorporate metrics for analyzing effectiveness and retention, and perhaps conduct marketing research that they can share with all nonprofits to engage more volunteers overall, for which there is a distinct need.

And before marketing the need for volunteers, considerable effort should be made to help charities prepare unique and high-impact volunteer titles with responsibilities clearly defined, much like for-profit companies develop job descriptions.

Furthermore, as I’ve found as both a volunteer and a manager of volunteers, investing in training for supervisors of volunteers and supporting these supervisors, will go a long way toward retaining the new Commonwealth Corps volunteers. In order to keep at it, volunteers need to feel needed, understand how they are making a difference, be adequately prepared to be useful, and not that their time is being wasted. Volunteers also need to have a host of other, personal needs met. Most of the time, efforts made by their direct supervisors, not just stipends for parking or lunch, are responsible for these key determinants for success and retention.

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Holiday volunteering onslaught begins

As some of you know, PMD has been receiving inquiries from well-intentioned people seeking volunteer opportunities for their families on Thanksgiving and Christmas, to my chagrin, since PMD pretty much promotes volunteering on any day of the year EXCEPT these hectic and overly popular holidays.

However, PMD is advertising that volunteers of all ages are needed on Christmas Eve Day, Monday 12/24, to sing carols and to prep and serve hearty appetizers 2:30-5:00 PM to cheer up a small group of frail, formerly homeless elders who are now permanently housed in Boston’s South End. (We organized a much longer Thanksgiving meal preparation for them on 11/18.)

In lieu of volunteering to help strangers on a hectic holiday flooded by too many volunteers, too little work, and small spaces, consider volunteering on non-holidays when you are needed more, OR include isolated neighbors and colleagues in your family’s traditional gatherings (or just for dessert) on the holidays themselves, OR do something that a charity says it needs, like collect specific, needed items, and deliver them. (See PMD’s Answers to FAQs.)

To avoid my holiday grumpiness, please note that I am not aware of local charities seeking volunteers to serve meals on Christmas. (Little Brothers-Friends of the Elderly seeks people to deliver meals and visit elders in the late morning.) Charities’ regular volunteers can usually handle holiday meals–and guests tend to prefer to be served by people they know rather than strangers. Plus, there is the matter of the criminal history record checks that are taking in excess of 10 business days this time of year. (Read my past blog entries about CORI checks and confusion.)

If you must volunteer at a shelter, group home, or the like, I strongly recommend gently contacting volunteer coordinators at local shelters to see whether they need help on “lesser” holidays when they tend to be understaffed and post-holiday morale may be low, such as Boxing Day (12/26), New Year’s Eve (12/31), New Year’s Day (1/1), Martin Luther King Day (PMD has an easy and fun project on 1/21/08), the day AFTER Thanksgiving, and the summer time (when their core volunteers and college students take vacations). Be gentle-they are likely hearing from orders-of-magnitude-more volunteers than they can place in their programs on Christmas, and we, of course, want them to focus on their guests and the people who will definitely be volunteering, rather than distracted and stressed by the sheer volume of demanding messages from those who they cannot match/place, right?

There is an art to finding a good match between your needs and interests and those of the recipient charity and its clients. I regard this as a lifelong process, much like finding a profession/job that one loves, as your needs and interests evolve and as you learn more about people, charities, and their needs. Hopefully, volunteering with PMD throughout the year will help you “survey” the charity scene so you can get to know a few charities beyond their web sites.

For example, last month when PMD turned 15 years old, I heard from someone who volunteered with PMD nearly two years ago. She wrote:
I only did one activity with PMD and that was to help make lunch at the Women’s Lunch Place. It was such a positive experience for me though that I have been making donations of clothing and sundries and other supplies along with money to the WLP ever since.

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Super greatness from those who show up

PMD volunteers who show up as planned, on-time, for the entire project, are super great! We had just such a group preparing our eleventh annual Thanksgiving meal on 11/18.

I just read a guest posting in Tactical Philanthropy about volunteers who don’t show up and create other problems.

PMD strives for 100% attendance. We carefully plan our volunteer projects so that we match the right number of volunteers to the tasks needed and work spaces.

Having the expected number of people to complete the tasks needed is important. We know from experience that too few or too many people, or people arriving late or leaving early, compromises effectiveness and satisfaction.

PMD achieves 90%-100% attendance is because we clearly

  • Explain how volunteers will make a difference
  • Require and thank them for a firm commitment 10-30 days in advance (and have found that most people cannot commit reliably more than 30 days in advance)
  • Confirm and then communicate details in advance
  • Articulate the effect (on charities, clients, and the rest of the volunteers) from not participating as planned
  • Repeatedly provide clear instructions on what to do if one discovers s/he cannot participate as planned, since this happens occasionally to the best of us.

If someone is unexpectedly absent, the project manager and I follow up to find out what’s up, and I go so far as to describe the negative impact of someone’s absence.

If it happens again, I caution the potential volunteer to be sure s/he can reliably and responsibly commit in order to do more good than harm. And if it happens again, I remove the person from our lists until assurance of changes that will ensure reliable participation.

Doing more good than harm is one of the expectations that PMD regularly communicates to volunteers. This helps clarify the impact of not showing up or not following safety measures.

Putting things in perspective helps, like when you’re new and you find out that a charity’s clients are looking forward to the meal you help cook because past PMD volunteers did good to engender this positive attitude, or that not giving money to a client will keep things uncomplicated for the PMD volunteers who follow you.

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