Staff and volunteers’ perceptions of the volunteer programme: an alternative use of the Net Benefits Index

Abstract

Abstract:Hager and Brudney (2004, 2005) developed a Net Benefits Index (NBI) to measure the performance of volunteer programmes. Their benchmarking tool scores an organisation's performance against six specific benefits and eight recognized challenges that organisations face in recruiting and managing volunteers. This paper extends the NBI by demonstrating its use as an internal programme evaluation tool within two health nonprofit organisations. By surveying all staff and volunteers (rather than relying on the organisational response from a single individual), the tool provides valuable insights into volunteer and staff attitudes about the volunteer programme. In addition to critiquing the NBI, this paper highlights reasons for divergent scores between volunteers and staff and the improvements such measures can make to a volunteer programme's effectiveness. Order of Authors Secondary Information:Powered Acknowledgements: We appreciate the willingness and contributions of the research participants,

Supporting and Developing Police Support Volunteers in a Large Urban Constabulary in England, UK

“…Achieving this has been closely linked to an adequately resourced volunteer programme (including a paid manager or coordinator) and an organisational approach which embraces (or, at least, notices and considers) volunteers (Brudney, 2000;Shin and Kleiner, 2003). As Cordery et al (2015) argue, organisations that dedicate resources to volunteer programmes and adopt effective management practices are likely to benefit most from involving volunteers in their work. However, leadership and direction, dedicated volunteer management, and an adequately resourced infrastructure to support and develop volunteers has often shown to be lacking in the policing paradigm (Britton and Callender, 2018;Callender et al, 2019).…”

Exploring the Role and Contribution of Police Support Volunteers in an English Constabulary

“…Indeed, volunteers offer a valuable citizen perspective, creating opportunities for social interaction and connections with the community, which can, in turn, increase organisational efficiency and enhance accountability (Choudhury, 2010;Cordery et al, 2015;Wo et al, 2016).…”