Conducting a survey on volunteering

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Abstract

Volunteering provides real social and economic benefits. Knowing how people are involved in volunteering, what they do and what motivates them can help raise awareness and numbers of new volunteers. This effective practice is excerpted with permission from the document, Measuring Volunteering: A Practical Toolkit, a joint project of Independent Sector and United Nations Volunteers, released in February 2001 to coincide with the International Year of Volunteers.

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Issue

How to develop and conduct a survey to assess volunteerism.

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Action

Independent Sector, in partnership with United Nations Volunteers (UNV) and an international advisory board, developed Measuring Volunteering: A Practical Toolkit, a resource designed to assist countries in conducting surveys assessing their national, regional, and local volunteer levels. Measuring Volunteering: A Practical Toolkit, provides a general overview for conducting a survey to measure volunteering — ideal for practitioners, policymakers, educators, grant makers, and nonprofit organizations. The toolkit includes: definitions for volunteering; value of measuring volunteerism; ways to design a survey, including sample questions; collecting, processing, and disseminating information; and additional resources on volunteering.

Steps to take when conducting a survey of volunteering can be summarized as follows: (See link to document for further information.)

1. Define the aims of the survey and its "products" carefully so that they meet the needs of the target audience.

2. Enlist public support for the survey by using local resources: Set up an advisory committee and invite respected local figures to become members; involve local people in planning, carrying out, and publicizing the research.

3. Do not reinvent the wheel — use existing information to the maximum possible extent.

4. Use scarce resources judiciously. Make a clear distinction between the objective and subjective aspects of volunteering and use appropriate methods (national survey or interviews/focus groups) to study them.

5. If possible, leave the complex task of choosing a representative national sample to a specialist agency — or commission a trained statistician.

6. Think about alternatives to the individual respondent as the unit of observation: for example, households, organizations, and geographic communities.

7. Beware of ambiguity. When designing the survey instrument, do not put the respondents in the position of having to guess what they should report. Ask about specific types of behavior and record the answers. Let the data users decide which of these types qualify as "volunteering."

8. Do not use the word "volunteering" or any similarly value-laden term in your questionnaire. Simple descriptive language will produce the most reliable results.

9. Do not assume that everyone thinks the same way about volunteering as you do. Test your research instrument before launching the survey. Make sure that your questions are easily understood.

10. Make sure that your data, methodology, and results can easily be understood by other people, especially researchers from outside your geographical area who might not be familiar with local conditions. Provide ample documentation of all your methods and of any circumstances that may help others to interpret your data correctly.

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Context

Independent Sector is a national forum that brings together foundations, corporate giving programs, and nonprofit organizations to strengthen the nonprofit sector. Independent Sector members include many of the nation's leading foundations, nonprofits of all sizes, and Fortune 500 corporations with strong commitments to community involvement. This network represents thousands of organizations and millions of volunteers, donors and people served.

Since its founding in 1980, the Independent Sector coalition has had an enormous impact on strengthening public policy related to nonprofit organizations, improving accountability and disclosure, building a body of research, and educating policymakers and the public about the important role of the nonprofit sector in a vibrant democracy.

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) program is the UN organization that supports human development globally by promoting volunteerism and by mobilizing volunteers. UNV is administered by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), based at UN Headquarters in New York.

The United Nations Volunteers program (UNV) is the volunteer arm of the United Nations, created by the UN General Assembly in 1970 to serve as an operational partner in development cooperation at the request of UN member states. It reports to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and works through UNDP's country offices around the world.

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Citation

Measuring Volunteering Toolkit (PDF 734 KB) http://www.independentsector.org/programs/research/toolkit/IYVToolkit.PDF

Copyright 2001, a joint project of Independent Sector and United Nations Volunteers. Used with permission.

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Outcome

The range of potential audiences for information about volunteering is wide — including for example, government agencies, the research community, volunteer-involving organizations, schools, youth clubs, women's organizations, religious bodies, and the media.

Findings from surveys such as these could lead to campaigns to promote volunteerism, improved practices in the mobilization, selection, placement, support, and training of people who volunteer, or as a starting point for social development/debate.

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Posted On

December 4, 2003

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Source Documents

Related Practices

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Related sites

United Nations Volunteers

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