ONN invited Cathy Taylor, Executive Director of the Volunteer Centre of Guelph/Wellington to share her thoughts on two papers that focus on an emerging issue of significance to scholars and practitioners - the impact of the aging of baby boomers on the nonprofit sector.

Is it too late to engage the baby boomers as volunteers?

I have listened and participated in many debates recently that focus on why people volunteer and why those motivations are important. Clearly, if we understand why people in our neighbourhoods, communities, and our province volunteer – then we can further engage more people or access more time out of the volunteers we have. And this influx of volunteers will grow our organizations and build our communities. The role that volunteers play in our organizations uniquely distinguishes the community benefit sector (or nonprofit sector) from the public and private sectors in our country. Volunteers are our lifeblood.

But the traditional definition of volunteering is now under debate. With so much renewed emphasis on service learning and community service, is volunteering really “giving one’s time freely”? Is the assumption that volunteering should only be construed as an altruistic method of spending one’s time now passé? Is there really a hierarchy of motivations and the “real” volunteers do it for “the right reasons”? Are there “wrong reasons” to volunteer? >>>download this article as a pdf.

See her post on the Ontario Nonprofit Network website: http://ontariononprofitnetwork.ca/node/704