Conference Audience Cheers Recognition They Need Help to Manage Volunteers

June 25, 2009

Conference Audience Cheers Recognition They Need Help to Manage Volunteers

Sonal Shah, head of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, got a big cheer at the closing session of the National Conference on Volunteering and Service.

It came after David Gergen, a political commentator and professor of public service at the Harvard Kennedy School, asked her whether enough people will volunteer for all the new slots are being created at AmeriCorps, the national-service program.

“We’re confident the volunteers will be there,” Ms. Shah said. “What we need to build is the capacity of the sector to manage them.” The audience roared.

The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, signed into law in April, calls for the number of AmeriCorps slots to triple to 250,000 by 2017. Other efforts, like President Obama’s United We Serve campaign to get Americans to volunteer over the summer, will also drive more people to nonprofit groups. Charity leaders are worried that some groups won’t have the resources to manage the influx of new bodies.

Ms. Shah said the Corporation for National and Community Service, which operates AmeriCorps, provides some money for “capacity building,” but that government is not always the best source for such money. “We need to open up the dialogue throughout the country” with other possible sources like foundations and corporations, she said.

Nicola Goren, acting chief executive of the corporation, said in an interview that there had been “multiple discussions” during the conference between administration officials, corporations, and foundations about, “How do we come together and agree that’s an important issue that we need all to contribute to?”

She said the help could come in the form of money, or in pro bono mentoring or other management help.

“Foundations and corporations are really understanding the need,” she said. “I think we’ve moved the conversation to a place where we can get people to invest.”

— Suzanne Perry

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Conference Audience Cheers Recognition They Need Help to Manage Volunteers