Why Do Volunteers Show Up? And How Do You Keep Them?

Photo by A. Rezin http://bit.ly/16rqWiK

I have a soft spot for Volunteers with Tom Hanks and John Candy because it's one of the rare movies about the Peace Corps and where Tom Hanks doesn’t portray the “good guy.”  Instead, Hanks plays Lawrence Bourne III,  a wealthy playboy with a gambling problem who accidentally joins the Peace Corps while escaping his bookie.  Candy plays Tom Tuttle, a do-gooder volunteer who also lives in the village where Bourne is assigned.  At one point, Bourne explains his lackadaisical attitude towards making a difference in one short line, "It's not that I can't help these people. It's just I don't want to." 

I spend many evenings a month with different voluntary organizations in my neighborhood.  I enjoy meeting my neighbors and learning about what they care about, but I often wonder why it’s the same dozen or so people.  Most of my neighbors want positive change in the community and believe it's important to be part of the democratic process, so why don't they show up?  Can a nonprofit somehow figure out who is likely to volunteer and who isn't?  What makes someone stop being a Bourne and start being a Tuttle?

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