INCREASING CAPACITY:
ENGAGEMENT OF BABY BOOMERS AS VOLUNTEERS

PART I: THE ORGANIZATIONAL BUILDING BLOCKS

Introduction:

This report addresses the “ lessons learned” from JFS agencies that have worked to expand their cadre of baby boomer volunteers.

The report is divided into two sections. Part I focuses on the organizational building blocks – strategic issues, planning and operational concerns. Part II explores creative agency boomer volunteer programs. The information has been assembled based on telephone interviews, an on-line survey, and review of literature in the field.

Much has already been written about the demographics of the baby boomer generation (those in their mid 50 ’s to mid 60’s) and the potential they bring to non-profit organizations. AJFCA has produced a comprehensive overview of this issue, including a literature and research review, which is posted on the AJFCA website. Part I is designed to follow up on many of the issues identified in the overview.

I. What We Already Know about the Boomer Generation:

• The baby boomer generation is a very diverse group in terms of income, health, lifestyle, family composition, employment and leisure time preferences.
• Many boomers have experienced great success in their lives – in their professions, communities, family lives, education, income and lifestyles.
• Most boomers are generally in good health but some may also experience medical conditions (e.g., arthritis) that may impose mild life style limits. Each boomer has a friend who has a more serious illness, such as cancer. Many have aging parents who are frail and/or physically or mentally impaired. Care giving can emerge as a major concern.
• Psychologically, boomers are beginning to encounter their own mortality and to confront a long period involving change and loss. Physical appearance, sexuality, retirement, relocation, and death of loved ones create a new psychological landscape. “Fun” is important; time is now precious and “meaningful” activities become paramount.
• What a boomer defines as “meaningful” depends on the individual boomer, and evolves from past life experiences, interests, time availability and dreams for the future.
• In general, four major areas are considered “meaningful” to boomers:
• Learning
• Helping others; “making a difference”
• Expanding creative capacities
• “Giving back”
• When boomers volunteer they hope to capture these qualities in the following contexts:
• A flexible volunteer schedule
• A social, informal but well-organized, and “fun” environment
• An opportunity to use or adapt skills while also learning
• An environment of authenticity

II. The Potential of the Boomers for Our Agencies

• Boomers have many skills that can be harnessed for clients and programs and to “grow” agency services
• Boomers can become future clients of the agency
• Boomers are “social capital” who can network and spread information about the organization
• Boomers can become donors
• Boomers can become leaders in the governance, operational or programmatic arenas

III. Strategic Questions for Agencies

• How committed is our organization to the status quo in terms of the current structure and deployment of volunteers within our organization?
• How open is our agency to reconsidering traditional boundaries between professionals and volunteers?
• What resources (human, technological and financial) is our agency willing to devote to expanding our volunteer program?
• What other considerations, such as agency location and image in the Jewish community, will impact our capacity to attract boomer volunteers?
• Should our agency plan a separate volunteer experience for boomers, think about boomers while trying to integrate them into existing volunteer opportunities, or both?
• Should our agency consider developing a separate “ boomer leadership corp” to enhance agency operations and programs or should all boomer leaders be groomed for traditional governance activities?
• How should agencies without a professional volunteer coordinator proceed to develop boomer volunteers?
• What language should our organization use to attract, retain and nurture boomer volunteers and what new terms and titles might be created to describe their evolving roles and responsibilities?
• What are the emerging “risk management” concerns of having boomers providing direct services to clients?

IV. The Planning Process

• Agencies have identified three primary reasons to initiate planning:
• A broad agency effort is necessary to change the entire volunteer program, because an agency desires to recruit more, new and younger volunteers and/or because of dissatisfaction with the existing volunteer program.
• Services need to be expanded to a specific population, such as to frail elderly, and boomer volunteers may be viewed as one group that could provide assistance.
• Planning should focus exclusively on boomers because of their potential to enhance the agency. In these instances, boomers themselves are actively recruited to be part of the planning process.
• Any agency considering a specific effort focused on the boomers should be prepared to brainstorm and to think “outside of the box.”
• Boomers should be heavily involved in the planning process, providing input, feedback and creative ideas to ensure that the planning outcomes are sensible and relevant to them.
• The agency board needs to be involved and supportive of efforts to expand and change the agency volunteer program because there are many policy and operational implications to boomer engagement.
• A high-level professional should staff the planning process; boomers need to perceive the agency as serious about expanding their participation.
• Planning for boomer engagement is an ongoing process , with changes and revisions continually being made. While there are many strategic issues that can be discussed at the beginning of planning, agencies can also wrestle with these concerns as their processes evolve.

V. Agency Culture

• In order to achieve a successful boomer volunteer program, an agency must have the cooperation and assistance of the professional staff. “Buy-in” by staff may necessitate a conscious effort by the board and CEO to change existing attitudes about the roles of volunteers.
• One of the largest impediments to expanding the boomer volunteer corps may be resistant attitudes by professional staff. Professionals may feel threatened by the skills and knowledge that boomers offer and may be apprehensive that boomers might assume some of their job responsibilities. Professionals may also feel that boomer involvement actually adds to their professional portfolios when they, as staff, are already busy and stressed. Professionals may resent the boomer life style and boomer difficulty in commitment to ongoing scheduling.
• In order for boomers to be successfully involved, staff members must identify projects where boomers can contribute their expertise. Staff must also work cooperatively with boomers and be patient with their different time availability.
• The CEO and senior management should also be sensitive to the limits of professional staff, and must be willing to “protect” staff or clients when boomer volunteer suggestions and preferences put staff or clients at risk.
• Boomers have witnessed and experienced major changes during their lifetimes and boomers often question organizational strategies and policies that may have been in place for many years. Large agencies with bureaucratic procedures may differ greatly from entrepreneurial approaches in the for-profit world. This can result in a “culture clash” between staff and boomer volunteers.
• The language used by social workers to describe the work of volunteers may no longer be appropriate, yet new language still does not adequately describe evolving boomer roles and responsibilities. Volunteers in some instances are now called “ambassadors” or “paraprofessionals.” Committees have become “guilds.” Agencies are in the midst of struggling for new terminology that accurately reflects the new realities.
• Therefore, involvement of boomers often causes an agency to re-examine its traditional roles, language, procedures and boundaries between professionals and volunteers. Since the professional/volunteer partnership is changing, the agency CEO and Board need to work directly on this issue.

VI. Boomer Leadership

• Since many boomers are well educated, skilled and experienced in their professions, the issue of how much leadership they can assume in the volunteer arena surfaces as a strategic concern. Clearly, not all boomer volunteers seek leadership roles; many are content to complete specific tasks. Some boomers, however, either initially or during their volunteer experiences, will seek, or be receptive to, greater leadership responsibilities.
• A major question is: how should boomer volunteers with leadership capacity be deployed? Should the agency try to move them into governance or are there other ways that boomers can contribute?
• Several JFS agencies have created new leadership opportunities at the agency for boomer volunteers:
• The volunteer coordinator at one JFS is herself a volunteer.
• Another JFS agency trains boomer volunteers to assist with some professional staff responsibilities.
• Boomers may also assume leadership roles in marketing and fund development, although many prefer to be involved with hands-on programs.
• Please see Part II for several more detailed examples of local boomer volunteer leadership programs.
• Boomers can also lead separate agency programs that are specifically designed for them
• Agencies need to move beyond traditional delineations of volunteer/professional divisions of leadership responsibilities. The agency has a delicate balancing act of maximizing boomer leadership capacities while ensuring programmatic quality and continuity in the face of boomer volunteer scheduling preferences. This is often a very fine line.

VII. Technology

• Technology is a tool to be harnessed to enhance and organize all volunteers programs.
• There are a number of databases that can help track volunteers, their preferences, assignments and needs.
• Boomers with technological backgrounds can assist in the data collection and data management processes.
• The new technology makes it less cumbersome and time consuming to match a broad range of volunteer backgrounds and preferences with volunteer needs at organizations.

VIII. Opportunities Presented by the Economic Crisis

• The economic crisis is an opportunity to deploy some of the skills and professional expertise of boomer volunteers.
• Many agencies report new clients who are now struggling with employment, housing, financial planning, health care and mental health concerns. Many of these clients have been middle class and/or affluent.
• Agencies are developing workshops and special programs for those impacted by the economic crisis and are providing as much individual and small group assistance as possible.
• Therefore, accountants, financial planners, lawyers, personnel and employment specialists, housing and real estate professionals and a broad array of individuals with knowledge related to finding work, maintaining housing, managing stress and health care can now find meaningful and helpful volunteer roles at JFS agencies.

IX. Implications for Volunteer Coordinators

• Volunteer coordinators face many new challenges as they move forward to expand boomer engagement.
• Volunteer coordinators must have a clear sense of direction about how to proceed, and must have support in their work from the CEO, the board and the staff in order to be successful.
• Coordinators need to be creative, flexible, open and communicative in brainstorming how to best utilize boomers.
• Instead of working in their own silos, volunteer coordinators need to navigate among many groups: a wide range of volunteers, the CEO, senior managers, professional staff and board members. Communication skills are increasingly important.
• Volunteer coordinators now have more responsibilities as informal “teachers” and yet they are also continually learning themselves. They need to be given the support to experiment and “make mistakes.”
• Volunteer coordinators need to be comfortable with change and with shifting roles and responsibilities to work successfully with boomers.

X. Conclusion

• An investment in engaging baby boomers as volunteers holds tremendous potential for agency enrichment in its operation and services to clients.
• Expanding boomer engagement requires a commitment of time and energy, and there may be bumps along the road. Boomers often create a demand for change at many levels of the organization.
• As boomers age, their needs, capacities and preferences will also evolve and change.
• Therefore, organizations should be flexible and creative as they work to integrate boomer volunteers.
• The key to success in working with boomers is to maintain a welcoming environment that is open to what boomers want and bring while helping to integrate and guide these qualities to enhance the organization.

Please contact ajfca@ajfca.org if you have questions or comments.

August, 2009

This report was prepared by Joan Strauss on behalf of AJFCA.