Traps for Charity Volunteers, Opportunities for Others
Retirees who dreaded working in a dead-end job are now told that there's dead-end volunteering, too—but let's look at who's saying so.
Leave it to the Wall Street Journal to identify a new trend in the workplace. This free article warns us about the perils of volunteering. Now, it's a bit of a come-on, because once you get into the body of the article it turns into a pretty standard how-to about finding a fulfilling volunteer position.
Yet there's a sense to this article that things may not be as they seem in the world of volunteering. The story opens with the tale of a volunteer "with 30 years' experience in social work at nonprofits and government agencies" who found herself dishing out food to seniors—and hating it. We go on to read about case after case of volunteers who eventually find their "dream volunteer job." It sounds a lot like rebranding of old-fashioned "What Color is Your Parachute" career counselling.
Yet there's also a sidebar about "social entrepreneurs" and a podcast by Marc Freedman of and organization called Civic Ventures about starting your own nonprofit venture.
Mentioned throughout the article is something called Experience Corps, described as "a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., that pays 1,800 older adults small stipends to tutor schoolchildren in 14 cities." The it quotes the organization's executive, John Gomperts, on the need to persist in finding "just the right opportunity."
As it turns out, Civic Ventures (EIN 94-3274339 Form 990), based in San Francisco, is the parent organization of Experience Corps. John Gomperts is listed as in Schedule A of the Form 990 as a non-officer employee earning $150,000 a year as "Experience Corps CEO." Marc Freedman, on the other hand, is listed among the "Directors, Officers, Trustees, and Key Employees" as "Ex Officio/Member" with a salary of $224,078 a year.
The mission of Civic Ventures is to create "more compelling opportunities for older Americans to serve their communities." Far from our image of the typical overworked volunteer manager, Civic Ventures has turned volunteering into an entrepreneurial opportunity that is paying off handsomely for the organization's leadership.
Something maybe you should think about doing when you retire. Volunteering could be the next big MLM opportunity.
I agree with much of your focus on the efficiency of nonprofits and for the need to consolidate, eliminate, or vastly increase the use of shared infrastructure.
Isn't there some inconsistency in your support for efficiency and your concern about an organization behaving, "Far from our image of the typical overworked volunteer manager"? What levels of compensation would you find acceptable? More importantly, how can you evaluate the compensation without an understanding of the organization's performance or the scope of its work?
I acknowledge that I believe the work of Civic Ventures is very important and I admire the leadership of Marc Freedman. I also believe that nonprofit compensation should not have to be at poverty level to be deemed appropriate.
If you support efforts to professionalize and scale up nonprofits, it seems to me you also have to support moving salary scales to a comparable level.
Posted by: Rob Johnston | May 16, 2006 at 10:37 AM
Thanks, Rob, for the thoughtful comment. I think charities need to have more discussions about matters like appropriate salaries for operations of vastly different scales.
Marsha Evans of American Red Cross was criticized for her $700,000 a year salary running a $3 billion organization with hundreds of thousands of volunteers in 800 semi-autonomous local chapters. The skills required are managerial, executive, political, even diplomatic.
Civic Ventures has a budget of $12 million, four-tenths of one percent of the Red Cross, and direct control over all it operations, yet its exec receives one-third the salary. The skills required in such an organization are primarily managerial; I don't see even much executive skill, much less the various skills required of the Red Cross head. So to me, the pay seems excessive, but I'll try to keep an open mind.
CV has an articulate statement of the problem and the opportunity, but that's not the same as a demonstrated solution at a national scale. To me, only the person that comes up with solutions that work at a national or international scale deserves the entrepreneurial reward. (Think Habitat for Humanity or responding to the next Katrina.)
I don't see CV as operating at that level. Just my opinion, but they seem to have set their sights too low. But again, I'll try to keep the mind open.
Posted by: underalms | May 16, 2006 at 01:37 PM