Reference Centre on Volunteering

Although the motivations are diverse, if we asked about them and the reasons why a volunteer decided to join a Non-Governmental Organization or a Non-Profit Making Organization (NGO/NPO), the vast majority would possibly respond with something related to improving the quality of life of people, or to aid the most vulnerable. Nevertheless, the NGOs, like other organizations have an entry of volunteers and a departure. The entry into an NGO can be determined by several elements, but all of them can be visualised from two perspectives:
1. The perspective of the person interested in voluntary work: the person who decides to join an NGO may prefer to develop a specific type of voluntary activity that only one NGO offers, for those motives that person decides on the voluntary activity, etc.
2. The perspective of the NGO: each NGO has different recruitment strategies to suit their needs. There are those who have no type of strategy at all or do not even develop a recruitment plan. However, the entry, from the perspective of the NGO, does not depend exclusively on how they focus their recruitment but also on how they are organized internally, what type and volume of voluntary activity they offer, if they have affiliations or not with some religious denomination, or if they have a political leaning. This all forms the image that the NGO at issue presents to society, and it determines the potential entry that can be experienced.

Regarding the departure of volunteers from an NGO, it is possible to visualize this from the same perspectives that we presented above:
1. From the perspective of the volunteer: the degree of satisfaction that the volunteer feels or perceives with respect to the NGO with which it has become involved, the feeling of belonging and identification with the organization or their personal situation, are key aspects that determine the size of departure.
2. From the perspective of the NGO: some elements that condition the departure can be the quality of the voluntary activity, the channels of participation offered in the actual activity, the level of internal democracy, the access to decision making, the training that prepares the volunteer for the voluntary activity and the inter-relationships that this produces in their heart.

According to this view, we can find three types of organizations based on the relationship between entry and departure:
1. Entry > Departure: this situation occurs when more people decide to join the organization than those, for whatever reason, who decide to leave it.
2. Entry = Departure: the organization experiences a certain balance between the people joining and those departing.
3. Entry < Departure: a situation takes place in which the number of those departing surpasses those joining.

Although what follows is nuanced, situations 2 and 3 are not advisable for any voluntary organization. Bear in mind that when we refer to situations type 1, 2 or 3, we are really talking about the motivations which cause a volunteer to make the decision to leave the NGO with which they were involved. The incorporation of volunteers requires a high degree of effort from the organizations, effort that can be identified in a large number of events that take place before the volunteer begins to do voluntary work. The principle question here is the human capital of the group of volunteers. This capital is one of the main values of the NGO, and to lose it means to lose diversity, it also means the loss of knowledge, aptitude and experience.

One of the strategies to achieve a situation where the departure is not greater than, or equal to, the influx, consists of promoting situations where the feeling of belonging and the identification of volunteers with the organization is high. The feeling of belonging can be defined as the degree of emotional affiliation of an individual towards an organization. This degree of affiliation favours that the individual feels an integral part of that organization and, sometimes, even part responsible for its future.

This brings us to an important point which indicates one of the elements that may better contribute to promoting that feeling of belonging, and that is the Associative Life. It must not be forgotten that the Red Cross / Red Crescent, like any other organization, is something tangible, formed by people who share ideals and standards. It is that specific tangibility in people which makes it especially useful to Associative Life.

Associative Life constitutes one of the three areas of participation identified by the Red Cross / Red Crescent. Let us remember what the other two are: participation in the activity and the institutional participation.

Next we will comment on the different elements of Associative Life:
1. Activities directed at volunteers: associative life is basically an internal component of participation within the organization. Its users are, mainly, Red Cross / Red Crescent volunteers. In this way we consider that the purposes of Associative Life are to generate a greater feeling of belonging towards the organization and to promote organizational and interpersonal knowledge.
2. Activities designed and executed mainly by volunteers: indeed this is the added value of these activities, nevertheless this fact does not prevent the staff within the organization participating in their design or execution. However, it must be prioritized and promoted that Associative Life is led by volunteers, since it will benefit the assumption of responsibility by this group in the decision making processes.
3. Promote the feeling of belonging: As we said previously, the ultimate purpose of Associative Life is to promote a greater feeling of belonging towards the Red Cross / Red Crescent. Actually, the feeling that it is your organization.
4. Incorporating a component of leisure and free time and inter-personal knowledge: the leisure and free time component in Associative Life is perhaps the main distinguishing element of this area of participation. It is this element which facilitates inter-personal contacts between the volunteers who participate in Associative Life initiatives. Associative Life is, therefore, an excellent way to get to know other companions.
5. Scope of development of Associative Life: the scope of Associative Life is very heterogeneous. From the Associative Life developed within the framework of a project or activity (for example, a dinner or a meeting of the volunteers for a home tele-attendance programme), developed within the framework of a branch (as a meeting of all the volunteers of the branch), regional or national environment.

In light of all the above, we could define Associative Life in the following way:
A set of activities directed towards volunteers, mainly designed and executed by volunteers, which have the purpose of promoting a greater feeling of belonging, and which incorporate an important component of leisure or free time and inter-personal knowledge among the volunteers of the same project, in the same area or plan of intervention, or of a certain territorial environment (local, regional, national or international).

The Red Cross is a volunteer organization. Above all else, volunteers are people with an interest in solidarity and altruistic motivations, a need for social contact and recognition who decide, in return for nothing tangible, to donate part of their time, attitudes and skills to an organization dealing with a series of needs that are attempted to be met through organized voluntary action. These individuals perceive social injustices and specific problems affecting real people, problems that “somebody has to do something about”. But not just that, they also decide to step up in the conviction that they can form part of the solution.

The Non-Governmental or Not-for-Profit Organizations (NGO/NPO) within democratic states have the duty to foster, encourage and boost internal democracy, as well as offer effective access to decision-making.

An added value in the Red Cross is that the organization has not only completely interiorized this need, but has also clearly identified different, yet complementary, routes to make sure that the fact of being a volunteer in our Institution does not necessarily mean engaging exclusively in carrying out voluntary action with third parties in situations of vulnerability. It is clear that a person showing the desire to undertake voluntary action in an organization does so basically to contribute to improving the quality of life of individuals, however, once that person is integrated into the NGO/NPO, it is the duty of the organization to offer him or her different possibilities for internal participation that contribute to personal growth and, of course, also to the advancement of the NGO itself. These three routes mentioned above are participation in activities, participation in the life of the association, and Institutional Participation. The fact that these three routes have been identified is extremely important, as it allows the design of actions aimed at boosting and promoting them systematically.

Participation in activities, generally speaking, is one of the first routes by which volunteers in the Red Cross access decision-making. The ultimate aim of this type of participation is for volunteers to play an active role in the identification of the needs arising in their surroundings, in the formulation or expression of those needs and in the execution and evaluation of the actions undertaken by the organization.

Participation in the life of the association basically focuses on the organization of leisure activities, free time, thing about and fostering the Fundamental Principles, organized mainly by volunteers.

And finally, Institutional Participation, a more formal kind of participation insofar as it is regulated by the rules of the Red Cross.