Taking Care of Volunteers: Giving Joyfully
Most of us have some deeply held desire to heal the world and "do unto others" through offering a helping hand. It is well documented that low thresholds of volunteering, even two or three hours a week, elevate mood in most people. This phenomenon was dubbed "the helper's high" by Alan Luks in the early 1990s, and has subsequently been assessed biologically in brain imaging studies. It has also been looked at in research on endorphins.
This science touches on some kitchen table wisdom that I heard from my mother, Molly Magee, on those boring and "off" days as a child. She would blurt out, "Well Stevie, why don't you go out and do something for someone." And I discovered, as we all do easily enough, that small helping actions, like lending a hand to a neighbor, are refreshing. As Emerson wrote, "No man [or woman] can sincerely help another without helping himself." This "no strings attached" giving, so long as one is not overwhelmed, seems to go with the grain of human nature. Or as Oscar Wilde put it, echoing Plato, "To be good is to be in harmony with oneself." Thoreau wrote, "Goodness is the only investment that never fails." Proverbs 11:25 reads, "Those who refresh others are themselves refreshed." We need not frustrate ourselves by worrying about reciprocity. As the popular movie recommends, "play it forward" and just hope that the people we are kind to will be kind to others. In functional social settings, some general balance between giving and receiving usually emerges naturally, without our being attentive to it. And good givers need to be good and grateful receivers. (In fact, high givers can easily be reluctant receivers, so they have to work at receiving easily and graciously.)
As I give talks around the country to volunteer groups, however, I invariably encounter those numerous exceptions to the rule of a helper's high. These are people who feel that their experiences as volunteers have been frustrating, and who do not last long in their efforts. I recently spoke with a group of "volunteer coordinators," who often have full-time jobs working for hospitals, schools, hospices, and so many other organizations. The questions they ask are important:
Are we caring for our volunteers?
Are we acknowledging them thankfully and rewarding them?
Are we preparing them well enough for their tasks?
Are we giving each volunteer the right task?
Are they flourishing and developing?
Are we providing the right overall vision?
Are we overwhelming any of them?
Do they feel joyful in their activity?
Are they doing this from passion?
Are they being affirmed and told how valuable their actions are?
When these kinds of questions are ignored, and volunteers are not nurtured, many will come to see volunteerism as drudgery. This is the case especially when volunteers have been given poorly conceived tasks, have not received proper training, or are just filling up a slot without any thought given to their natural gifts and strengths. We need to ask who this volunteer is, and what special talents and gifts he or she brings to a wider effort. We need to ask volunteers if what they did felt meaningful, if they felt joyful and energized in their activities, and it they felt that it was a good fit for them.
If we do manage volunteers well, they will discover that in so many respects they were made to contribute to the lives of others. Their hearts will be transformed, or they will discover a balm for their inner pain. Giving will heal. But new volunteers are actually quite susceptible to discouragement and their first experience, good or bad, can establish attitudes that will last for years. Over the long haul, of course, the euphoria of the "helper's high" may fade at times. Most volunteers go through periods when they are acting out of a sense of duty or obligation, but hopefully these periods are surrounded by times of real joy and exhilaration. (For more, see www.whygoodthingshappen.com).
