You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of [631323]
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LIVE Lab
Methodology
”You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of
the shore .”
André Gide, French author
(winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947)
2
Section 1
Foreword
This methodology is developed as part of the Strategic Partnership for Youth –
Erasmus+ project ”YES for Entrepreneurial Youth NGOs, YES for Millennials
Changers” implemented by ACE -ES Romania in partnership with Centro
Superior de Formacion EUROPA SUR (Spain) and bbw gGmbH (Germany) from
September 2015 to October 2016.
The general aim of the project is to stimulate transnational exchange of
good practices and relevant experiences in developing modern and challenging
action-based learning contexts for professional people of the youth NGOs (with a
focus on youth workers) based on social enterpreneurship so that they could
stimulate development of their organisations and their target groups.
The LIVE Lab Methodology is de signed to help an NGO to develop an
effective and well -managed work with young volunteers that makes best mutual
benefits for both sides – not only for the NGO but also for the volunteers. The
way an organiz ation chooses to work with its young volunteers is very crucial .
How activities are designed and implemented will directly affect their impact on
volunteers ‘s capacity to bring about real and valuable inputs and contribution s in
the organization where they are volunteer ing with.
It is designed also for those NGOs that are considering starting a revenue –
generating activity or a business venture /a social enterprise based on and
collaborating with the young volunteers . The most important thing is
entrepreneurship skills and competences. Gaining and putting into practice t hese
skills and competences need the right set of opportunities for young volunteers to
participate on entrepreneurial projects . Generating and strengthening an
entrepreneurial culture within NGO could attract and stimulate youth to be more
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involved in vol unteering work and also to put their talents , energy, freshness of
thinking on the benefit of the organization.
It is intending to propose a very participative way of working with
volunteers for the prosperity of an organization as a whol e. It is a win-win
approach based on:
involving, motivating, stimulating and engaging the young volunteers into
the youth NGOs in order to contribute proactively to a shift of those to
social enterpreneurship and organizational self-sustainability on a lon g
term.
stimulating the NG O to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem for young
volunteers so that the y could generate within that organization added value
through the creation o r expansion of economic activities by identifying and
exploiting new products, processes or markets.
1
BOX 1
What is the basis of LIVE Lab ?
Planning, organizing and implementing work with young volunteers within a NGO
aiming to encourage the increasing of the participation/involvement levels of youth in
their everyday volunteering activities and practices so that NGO experts and youth
could closely collaborate for starting and developing sustained results through social
ventures and entrepreneurial projects . It is t he ‖ground ‖ allowing the meeting between
the needs of volunteers and the needs of the NGO to which they provide services and
support. It is a full ACCESS to ACTION together!
1 Source of picture: timeshighereducation.com
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Section 2
Reasons and rationale – why should we reshape the traditional way of
volunteering/ why having engaged and entrepreneurial young volunteers
Social entrepreneurship plays a tremendeous role in the achievement of holistic
development in young people while also allowing young people to contribute to
the development of their own communities or their organizations.
This role allows the youth being more than just ‖ a voice ‖ or a symbolic presence;
it is allowing them to be active agent s of change.
Over the last decade, the OECD Local Econom ic and Employment
Development Programme (LEED) has produced policy documentation about the
positive role of youth entrepreneurship in local development and NGOs
sustainability and gave advice on how youth entrepreneurship can be promoted
and supported.2LEED researches show that many young job -seekers and
volunteers aged between 16 and 35, have positive attitudes towards
entrepreneurship/social entrepreneurship, but only a small percentage of youth
prefer starting their own business instead of dependent empl oyment.
Also, only few young people learn at an early age about social
entrepreneurship. ―Taking initiative, creating a project, conceptualizing and
launching one‘s own venture are exceptions, not the rule in most young people‘s
experience. Every young v olunteer is good at something. Encouraging and giving
that young volunteer the opportunity to s ucceed is extremely important in shaping
their personality and tolerance for risk.‖3
On the other side, nonprofits rely heav ily on volunteers, but many
organizations do a poor job of managing them. As a result, more than one -third of
those who volunteer one year do not donate their time t he next year – AT ANY
2 Putting the Young in Business: Policy Challenges for Youth Entrepreneurship (2001); Entrepreneurship and Higher Education (20 08) and
Universities, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (2009)
3 Davis, Susan – Social Entrepreneurship: Towards an entrepreneurial culture for social and economic development.
5
NONPROFIT!4 In addition, most of the NGOs do not view their young volunteers
as strategic assets and have not developed ways to take full advantage of them.
The nonprofit sector desperately needs the professional and personal skills offered
by youth, it needs their e nergy, their ‖brains and harts‖ .
Therefore , NGOs are more oftenly confronting with a shortage of resources so
that they are forced to develop an entrepreneurial Capacity Building framework.
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
BOX 2 –
BECAUSE:
The world of volunteer ism has changed a lot over the past years!
Time, meaning, value, demographics, pluralism, solidarity, and technology are
affecting volunteerism across many countries.
4 David Eisner, Robert T. Grimm Jr., Shannon Maynard, & Susannah Washburn, The New Volunteer Workforce , Stanford Social
Innovation Review, 2009 The BIG question for NGOs:
•Is it the time for a fresh view on the volunteer classic
model?
The answer is:
•YES! Volunteering is changing. V olunteering needs a
little bit of an make over.
6
Argument 1:
Those under 30 are more t han half the world‘s populatio n!5Young people are
increasingly interested in making a difference. Nonprofit leaders need to
modernize their perspective of the value of unpaid work and embrace volunteer
talent of youth as an important tool to reach their mission.
Argument 2:
Outside there are new generations of volunteer s. They want to lend their
knowledge, expertise, and time to help nonprofits. Young p eople are eager to
take active roles in everything they do. These types of volunteers typically
cannot be easily managed and will be unhappy in traditionally organized
volunte er programs with forms, applications and discussions about service. They
want action, maximum involvement in decision making process, they want a
space where could experiment and bring their ideas . Research6 found that young
people want ‖to have a say in the planning and decision -making in their
volunteering‖. ―They fashion their dreams into realistic goals, build the
organizations and lead the projects through to completion.‖7
Argument 3 :
What volunteers want: A two -way street – Empo werment vs. Delegation : in the
past, volunteering was about donating time to an organization, with the
organization deciding how the volunteer hours would be spent, but today,
volunteers , especially youth, are look ing for reciprocity, a win -win situation.
Have you ever heard one of your volunt eers say, "I'm just a volunteer " or, "They
expect too much for free "? If so, they are probably not feeling
5 World Bank Statistics
6 Research of Russell Commission, Ellis B., 2005
7 Davis, Susan. (2002) Social Entrepreneurship: Towards an entrepreneurial culture for social and economic development.
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like an equal member of the organization team. Organisations that work with
volunteers need to understand the changing motivations and needs of volunteers,
acknowledging and responding to competing pressures on their time against a
changing backdrop of working, family and community life. NGOs need to ensu re
their offer to volunteers fi ts with young people‘s real l ives and it is responsive to
their motivations and needs .
Argument 4 :
Nowdays is a world of knowledge workers. Today's volunteers are autonomous,
tech-savvy and mobile; they are stud ents, newcomers, young professionals etc.
They are not focused on col lective identities but motivate their participations on
personal taste and experiences. They are asking for more short -term or project –
based opportunities . They are more entrepreneurial and less likely to be attracted
to large, bureaucratic structure. They want the freedom to try new things in new
ways. They are technologically literate and prefer to use technology. Unlike their
parents, they do not see technology as impersonal or cold. Indeed, they see
technology as a means of connecting in new ways. They are comfortable
searching for answers and information on the web. They are comfortable working
alone or in virtual teams .
Argument 5 :
Volunteer programs is not the exclusive realms of the affluent o r well educated;
volunteerism became a truly inclusive a ctivity. Individuals with diverse
backgr ounds, skills, and abilities come together to work cooperatively on issues
of common interest .
Argument 6 :
8
Traditional volunteer8 programs are characterized by orderliness, with activities
that are concrete and predictable. The organization determines what volunteers
do, organizing them based on the experiences and practices of those who went
before. They arrive at assigned times, c oming to the organization to carry out
prearranged tasks, following a regular schedule. These volunteers impact
organizational programming in predictable ways.
BUT the times are changing!
Not many NGOs stop doing business as usual and re -think their appro ach to all
aspects of volunteer work within the organization . A lot of organizations continue
to rely on the same old agendas for its volunteer members .
Young volunteers want to know that they are helping to make the world a better
place . NGOs must provide that opportunity. Turning the vo lunteer job into a mini
educational experience will be highly valued by youth , and will likely result in
some great referrals as the volunteers tell others about what a great experience
they are having.
Deliver ing the best experience possible for the volunteers ! Trust them! Trust their
skills! Give their own space of decision and actions!
Just a simple NGOs recognition that the young volunteer can bring a high level of
skill to an organization and carry greater res ponsibility than previously considered
possible could re -shape the old settings. Maybe too old…
Argument 7:
Youth express stronger bonds with the beneficiaries o r clients of a NGO than with
the organization itself. They need to be connected to the larger cause and outcome
of their contributions. Therefore a program, a project or an activity is more
important for the new volunteer rather than the membership. For the leadership of
8 Volunteer Leadership, Points of Light Foundation & Volunteer Center National Network, 2006
9
the organization means that the tradit ional parameters with which the organization
is designed must be deeply reviewed. Youth9 ‖volunteers are not leaders of
tomorrow, not the hope of the future — rather they are the leaders of today and
the future is now! ‖. Youth volunteers challenge previous ways of thinking, doing
and feeling. They are full of ideas and they have much to contribute.
A comparison10 between:
Classic Volunteering
New Characteristics
NGOs are facing the challenge of either taking advantage of these NEW
TRENDS/ CHARACTERSITICS or having volunteers take their skills
elsewhere . ―If we want to engage the next generation in leadership, we need to
start thinking now about how we can get them inter ested and engaged in a way
that will help us all grow.‖11
9 Volunteer Connections: New strat egies for involving youth, ©Volunteer Canada, 2001
10 Adaptation from Colin Rochester, Making sense of volunteering, The Comission on the Future of Volunteering, 2006
11 Cynthia D‘Amour, leadership strategist at People Power Unlimited. • Based on:
– organizational cultural identity
– great loyalty
– delegated leadership
– solid organizational structure
– long, regular
– needs of the organisation
– unilateral
• Based on:
– individualization
– personal interests and values
– less strong ties to the organization
– decentralised organizational structure
– short, periodical
– balance between personal preference
and organisation‘s needs
– reciprocal
– focus on experience and expertise of
volunteer
10
An interesting solution is proposed in the form of the acronym FLEXIVOL12:
BOX 3
FLEXIVOL
The Wish List – What Young People Want from Volunteering
Flexibi lity, Legitimacy, Ease of access, Xperience, Incentives, Variety,
Organisation and Laughs.
NGOs ‖ need to empower young people to be the designers of the way they want
to vo lunteer, not design it for them. ‖13
Instead of attempting to make young people fit into existing volunteering,
organizations should reshape volunteering to accommodate them taking fully into
consideration the following dimensions being part of y oung people‘s recipe for
improving the youth volunteering situation: make it higher profile, more
accessible, more flexibl e, more appealing, more varied, more rewarding and more
young people -friendly14.
Flexibility :
flexible work and flexible working hours are for young people a top priority.
Unlike the pressure they encounter on other life domains, they cherish a certain
degree of freedom and spontaneity in their volunteer work .
Youth have many demands and pressure on them. They ha ve many different things
they can do with their free time. They really want to have choice and spontaneity
in volunteering.
Legitimacy :
volunteering is facing legitimacy problems. The old -fashi oned atmosphere of
charity restrains many young people of volunteering. There are so many other,
more trendy areas that could be more appealing for youth .
12 Katharine Gaskin, Independent Researcher and Consultant – Vanishing volunteers: Are young people losing interest in volunteering?, in
Voluntary Action Volume 1 Number 1 , 1998
13 Jelenko Dragisic, chief executive of Volunteering Queensland
14 Katharine Gaski n, Independent Researcher and Consultant – Vanishing volunteers: Are young people losing interest in volunteering?, in
Voluntary Action Volume 1 Number 1 Winter 1998
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They desperately need better education from an early age about the significance
and importance of volunteering to create a more positive image of it . There are
still negative stereotypes out there and they have have to fight against them .
Ease of access :
access to volunteering can be widened by as much information as possible, to
provide extra incentives and low threshold activities.
They need more information, more encouragement and easy access for steping
into volunteering.
Xperience :
young people expect the (work) experience they acquire during their voluntary
commitment is also useful for their personal development and career prospects.
These instrumental motifs occur more frequently with young people.
They want rewarding, interesting and relevant volunteering opportunities. They
want to learn new skills, take on challenges, explore different careers and to get
work experience.
Incentives :
volunteering competes with other leisure activities. For the time and attention of
youth volunteering, it is useful to ensure incentives and rewards in volunteering.
As there is so much out there competiting for youth time and attention always
incentives could tip them into involvement. The best incentive is to validate their
experience and demonstate their achievements to others.
Variety:
youth dem and a large variety, both in the variety of activities as in the degree of
involvement, responsibility and structures .
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Variety accommodating the huge range of individual interests, goals, constraints
and preferences that youth have.
Organisation:
volunteering must be efficient but informal organized. A bureaucratic setting,
nanny and control are out of the question.
Youth do not like to be over -organised and heavily supervised.
They like to work in an efficient but informal and relaxed environmen t where they
are valued and welcomed.
Laughs
volunteering should be fun . Social contact, relaxation and have fun are very
attractive for young people. If you create a fun, social environment, young
volunteers will naturally be attracted to your organisation . Who doesn‘t want to
be part of the fun ?
They love to laugh! They love enjoyable, satisfying activities.
These are the main reasons for proposing the LIVE Lab as a more proactive and
mission -driven approach to making a difference in the worl d of volunteering, in
the world of using the young volunteers gifts of time and skill so that the NGOs
needs – and the needs of their beneficiaries and causes – as well as the needs of
volunteers themselves are met. Young volunteers are stimulated to think and act
as a social entrepreneur within an entrepreneurial NGO not just seen as free
―helpers,‖ as labor bringing the organization‘s strategies to life for fre e.
Successful social entrepreneurship is learned as they go along. In contibuting to
social ventures, volunteers gain new skills not usually gained within the formal
educational context, skills which are valuable in the workplace, as well as develop
their capabilities to be active and responsible citizens.
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Section 3
LIVE Lab – Framework
If NGOs want young volunteers to come and stay, they need to expand their
vision of volunteering by creating an experience that is meaningful for the
volunteer s, develops skills, demonstrates impact, and taps into volunteers‘
abilities and interests. LIVE Lab is an active way of working with volunteers as
equal partners in development of a social enterprise within the NGO. It is a
‖learning by doing‖ program – young vo lunteers could identify, analyse, design
and take entrepreneurial action s which address sustainability challenges in their
organization where they are volunteering with .
LIVE Lab i ntegrates practice s of youth engagement/development with
organizational development and social entrepreneurship to enable mutual growing
of both parts – young volunteers and NGO , having an economic emphasis . The
focus is on learning and acting together, developing a broad skill -set, initiating a
sustainable enterprise, earn ing incomes , and creating empathy and enga gement .
Volunteer s participation and engagement for creating a SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
or other type of entrepreneurial projects build the capacity of the organization
beyond what its staff alone can accomplish. Many young volunteers are ‖Encouraging young volunteers to become partners
in, and share responsibility for, the opportunities,
learning processes and decision -making structures
which affect their own and NGO's activities and
environments.‖
Youth Work: Principles and Purposes
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encouraged to ask theirselves – how can I really make a difference in everything
that needs to be done in organization for its sustainability on long term?
LIVE Lab CHARACTERISTIC S:
shifting from a volunteer working within a NGO to an entrepreneurial volunteer
working with a NGO :
Stage 1: Analyze – Understand where are you/your organization at this
moment
Analyze and define the current situation in your organization for d etermining the
level of readines s for LIVE Lab using these practical tools :
I. Take this team exercise – write the words "agree," "strongly agree", "disagree,"
and "strongly disagree" on separate pieces of paper and post them on four
different walls of the room. Partnership &
Collaboration Negotiation &
Agreement
Mutual Support SustainabilityTwo parts working
together to produce a
result that is not
reacheable by any of
the part alone.
15
15
Then take each statement and place under it the prop er piece of paper according to
your point of view /your collegues point of view :
A. We know the strengths and weaknesses of our organization and of each our
major programme.
B. We periodically evaluate how the organisation should meet new opportunities
and challenges in terms of its development .
C. We have a strategy to ensure income generation for our projects and
beneficiaries .
D. We consider creating a social enterprise as a lasting source for fosterimg
organizational autonomy and sustainability.
E. We can accomplis h more with young volunteers than we can do on our own.
F. We have a strategic vision of how the organisation works with young
volunteers for developing a social business.
G. We have the will to engage young volunteers for developing a social business
within the organ ization.
H. Our organization is living in the past regarding the ways of working with
young volunteers.
I. Some changes have to be done within the organization to improve team culture
for supporting our young volunteers
15 Source of picture: www.stockfreeimages.com
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J. We are open to engage youth in developing and testing out their ideas,
designing and implementing a social business to make a real change around issues
they care about .
K. We really want to match the needs of the volunteer with the needs of the
organization .
L. We s upport and welcome the initiatives a nd contributions of young volunteers
in developing a social business or other entrepreneurial projects .
M. We assure a climate of mutual respect between the staff and young volunteers .
N. We do not attempt to direct the work of youth volunteers providing them
choices and freedom.
O. We encourage young volunteers to take ownership of their volunteering from
identifying their activities through to organising the whole entrepreneurial project.
Assess all the results of your team.
II. Conducting an assessment focused on the topic: How will you differentiate
yourselves (as organization) to retain and attract young volunteers in an
increasingly competiti on for their resources and assets .
Ask yourselves:
Who are our key volunteers g roups?
…………………………………………..
Do we have a good understanding of the ir
profile and their demands?
…………………………………………..
Are our young volunteers satisfi ed with the ir
work?
…………………………………………..
Are there areas we can improve?
…………………………………………..
Do we have a relevant mechanism to measure
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volunteers satisfaction?
…………………………………………..
Do we effectively commu nicate our values to
our volunteers ?
…………………………………………..
How effective are we at building volunteers
trust, involvement, mutual relationships?
…………………………………………..
III. Use the reframing matrix16. This simple technique helps you to look at a
situation or a problem from a number of different viewpoints. It expands the range
of answers and solutions that you can generate. The approach relies on the fact
that different people with different experience approach problems in different
ways. What this technique helps you to do is to put yourself into the minds of
different people and imagine the descriptions of the situation or the solutions they
could give. You do this by putting the question to be asked in the m iddle of a grid.
Use boxes around the grid for the different perspectives :
16 Adapted from http://www.mindtools.com
Young volunteers‘
perspective
Your beneficiaries or
clients ‘ perspective
Community members ‘
perspective
Your donors and
partners ‘ perspective
How our
NGO could
implement
LIVE Lab
(non-
traditional
volunteering
program?
18
The proper approach of using the reframing matrix is to look at the problem from
the viewpoints of different stakeholders in the process. The way, for example, that
a young volunteer would look at a problem might be different from that of a
member of community. Try thinking very carefully of those people who might
have an interest in your question. H ow might the y frame the problem and what
solutions might they come up with?
IV. After having 4 different perspectives given by the reframing matrix , ask
your group these three qu estions below.
BOX 4
Three questions :
1. What's working on our current volunteers program? What's not working?
2. What's possible to change for having more empowered and more
entrepreneurial young volunteers through LIVE Lab ? What's not possible to
change?
3. How could we make it happen ? How could we not make it happen?
V.To make the steps from ‖using‖ volunteers according to your organization
needs to transforming them into your real partners in LIVE Lab you have t o
understand how you think ‖in boxes ‖ regarding the volunteering in your
organization. You have probably heard the phrase ‖outside the box thinking‖ ,
often used to describe an idea, thought, or way of doing that is completely or
significantly different to what has gone before. To demon strate how often we
think in boxes try this simple exercise with a group of three or more colleagues.
Without conferring, write down the first five words each of you associate with
any simple, universally known term: VOLUNTEER ING.
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Compare how many of th e words do you have exactly the same. (If you do have
the same words check if they are in the same order, or if there are any other
differences.) Invariably, with groups of three or four people in the group it is very
likely to have the same exact five wor ds.
Then compare your words with the Wish List – FLEXIVOL (Flexibility,
Legitimacy, Ease of access, Xperience, Incentives, Variety, Organization and
Laughs). Are they overlaping or not?
VI. Priority Diagram:
Priority Diagram Issues/ Concerns Voting
Direction of action:
involving the young
volunteers in developing
a social entreprise List any issues that could
raise/any concern related by this
direction of action:
…………………………………… …….. The vote of each
member of your
team:
1.
2.
Your analysis could be based on the next questions: Why is our winning
aspiration for sustainability ? Where will we ‖play‖? In what conditions? How will
we win? What capabilit ies must we have in place to do that ? What changes are
required to support our priority/choice s? Word 1
……Word 2
……Word 3
…..
Word 4
…..Word 5
…..
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Stage 2: Analyze – Understand and know VERY WELL
your volunteers!
How well do you know your volunteers? How well do you NEED to know
them? Less? or more? Think about it this way: they are the people who care so
much about what you do, they have actively sought you out so they can spend
their free time, skills , passion and enthusiasm to do work for you – for free. What
can be more important than that? Getting to know your young volunteers o n a
deeper level is almost a compulsory condition for LIVE Lab and for developing
togethe r a social venture or other kin d of entrepreneurial projects.
KNOW YOUR VOLUNTEERS !17
Getting to know your young volunteers is a process that helps your organisation
to find out WHO really they are, WHAT really they need, HOW really they could
contribute to organisation development, HOW they could be really stimulated and
empowered. Youth have different backgrounds , styles and abilities , desires and
goals . Recognising these different backgrounds , experiences and perspectives of
your volunteers can greatly increase the contributions of them to your
17 Source of picture: http://www.bidpal.com/know -your-volunteers/
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development. To let volunteers share ownership of the process within LIVE Lab
requires to understand them very well .
All this path of knowing and understanding your volunteers will lead you from
the classic approach – ‖Define roles for volunteers ‖ to LIVE Lab approach –
‖Create these roles together – you and the youth ‖.
These tools and methods help yo u to shape a real portrait of your young
volunteer s:
I. ”Volunteer classification” Test: it is based on the volunteer classification
model18. The model uses the assumption that each type of volunteer has different
needs, wishes and demands w ith regard to volunteer work. The classifi cation
model has two dimensions: on the vertical level there are safety and challenge (B
axis) and on the horizontal level ego focused and group focused (R axis) . Each
volunteer moves individually somewhere within these levels.
18 Volunteer Management for NAAs, MOVISIE and Nuffic, 2009 Merchant Stimulator
Controller Service
Provider
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1. Merchants think of volunteer work as a challenge and use it for personal
development. They focus on the confirmation of their abilities rather than on
being accepted by others. Merchants are very active and enterprising. Openness,
ability to grow and the power to in fluence others are very important to them.
Motivators: volunteering should be fun and rewarding.
2. Stimulators also see their volunteer work as full of chances and
challenges, but they are more sensitive to the acknowledgement and acceptance
from the soc ial environment. Stimulators are motivated by clear results.
Teamwork, support and feedback are very important to them.
Motivators: volunteering should be rewarding, the right thing to do and fun.
3. Service Providers are after dependability and calmnes s in volunteer
work. Like stimulators, they are very much focussed on social acceptance. Care
for others and appreciation are important to them. Clear goals, a transparent
structure and a clear definition of tasks will provide the dependability and safety
they need in their volunteer work.
Motivators: volunteering should be the right thing to do, rewarding and fun.
4. Controllers, like service providers, are very much looking for
dependability and calmness in their volunteer work. They are committed and t end
to attract responsibility and supervision. They focus on themselves more than on
their social environment. Controllers need clear agreements and regulations.
Having some sort of influence is important to them.
Motivators: volunteering should be the ri ght thing to do and rewarding.
Understanding this interesting classification of volunteers will help you decide
who to recruit, how to attract and how to guide and support your young volunteers
– the bes t choices for an entrepreneurial organi zation .
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”Volunteer classification” Test – What kind of volunteer are you?
1 A. I prefer volunteering in a formal
organization. B. I prefer volunteering in an
informal organization.
2 A. It is important for me to receive
feedback on my work as a volunteer. B. I prefer to follow my ow n
methods in my volunteer tasks.
3 A. I am always looking for change
and/or improvements in my work as
a volunteer. B. My volunteer organization is
doing all right; I‘m not looking for
change.
4 A. I prefer to be told what to do,
rather than telling other people what
to do. B. I like giving orders and
delegating tasks to other people.
5 A. Feeling safe and welcome in a
volunteer organization enables me to
perform my volunteer tasks in a calm
and re laxed manner.
B. Feeling safe and welcome in a
volunteer organization enables me
to experiment and improve my
(newly acquired) skills.
6 A. I enjoy teaching and coaching
others in their learning processes.
B. I prefer having tasks of my own
and always intend to do my work as
good as possible.
7 A. I enjoy working together towards
a common solution.
B. I enjoy the possibility to
influence others and convince them
of my ideas.
8 A. I like to take responsibility.
B. I don‘t necessarily need
responsi bility in my work to enjoy
it.
9 A. It is not very important that all B. It is important that every
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volunteers in my organization know
exactly what they need to do and
when to do it. volunteer in my organization knows
what to do and when to do it.
10 A. I prefer to be responsible for a
particular volunteer job and direct
volunteers who are working on the
same job.
B. I prefer to work under a
responsible volunteer – or project
manager, this way I can focus on
my job without having to worry
about other t hings.
11 A. Being a volunteer is very
important in my life. B. Being a volunteer is one of the
many things I do in my life.
12 A. It is important to me that others
recognize my central role within the
volunteer organization. B. It is important to me t o be able to
perform my volunteer job in a nice
way.
13 A. It is important to me that others
like me and accept me for who I am. B. It is important to me that others
accept my ideas, projects and
intentions.
14 A. I prefer to assign production tasks
to others. B. I prefer to perform production
tasks myself.
15 A. I do not easily give up on to my
own ideas.
B. I don‘t mind giving up my ideas
to reach consensus in the group.
16 A. I mainly work on volunteer tasks
for which I am personally
responsible.
B. In my volunteer job I am always
looking for new opportunities, for
the organization as well as for
myself.
25
For each question, please draw a circle around those that applies t o you most.
After that, count the circles in columns B and R.
Question s – B axis – R axis
1 A B
2 B A
3 B A
4 B A
5 A B
6 B A
7 B A
8 A B
9 B A
10 A B
11 B A
12 A B
13 B A
14 B A
15 A B
16 A B
TOTAL Score B axis:
… Score R axis:
…
After answering the questions the volunteer s have to copy (his/her ) B and R
scores to the figure. Then the B scores is marked on the B -axis and the R scores is
marked on the R -axis. Connect the se two marks in the figure with a straight line.
The figure visualizes the kind of volunteer he/she is .
II. Tool: ”I want to know the people I'm working with by better defining who I
am trying to reach – GROUPS ”19 – this tool is a quick and easy way to work out
an overview and develop an understanding of the young volunteers you might
reach, and the resources you need to do so. It is about gaining better insight into
the kind of needs they have.
19 Adapted from Development Impact& You, PRACTICAL TOOLS TO TRIGGER & SUPPORT SOCIAL INNOVATION (an
initiative of Nesta), pag. 72
26
How do you call your group of volunteers ?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …….
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ..
Can you draw them? (or stick a
picture here that represents
them)
? What are their needs?
What are you offering them?
What do you get in
return?
How can your
relationship
grow and flourish ?
III. Tool: ”I want to know the people I'm working with by visualising their key
characteristics – PERSONAS ”20- this tool could be viewed as a self -portrait of a
volunteer21. Let his/her space and time to fill in it and discuss it openly with you:
Volunteer name:
…………….. ………
ADD A
PICTURE OR A
DRAWING
Who am I? 3 reasons for me to
engage with you
as organization :
1. ……
2. ……
3. ……. 3 reasons for me
not to engage with
you as
organization :
1. ……
2. ……
3. ……
20 Adapted from Development Impact& You, PRACTICAL TOOLS TO TRIGGER & SUPPORT SOCIAL INNOVATION (an
initiative of Nesta), pag. 75
21 ―Don‘t guess what we want‖ – testimony of a young volunteer.
27
?
My interests
………….. My personality
………….. My skills
………….. My dreams
…………..
IV. Use the power of metaphores22:
Metaphors are one of the most powerful tools – a Trojan Horse of
communications – and work by:
gaining attention
simplifying information
touching emotions
being memorable
working on multiple levels
allowing each of us our own interpretation
For instance, where this technique is used, a group could describe their situation
as: ‖At the moment we are like David Ferrer and we want to be like Roger
Federer ‖. The tool can be used by asking your volunteers to identify a metaphor
to describe their current situation within the organization and another metaphor
for their desired state or situation.
Metaphor Animal Place Sport Tree Movie
star Car
Metaphor
for
current state
………
………
………
………
………
………
22 ‖If a picture can paint a thousand words, a methafor creates a million butterflyes, bananas and bayonets‖ (Andy Green)
28
Metaphor
for
desired state
………
………
………
………
………
………
V. Exercise : The Ideal Environment for Volunteering
Ask your young volunteers from the beginning to write a list of the six conditions
that they consider that form the ideal NGO work environment for them as
volunteers . Then they rank the conditions in order of importance in accordance
with thier views . They should c onsider which aspects are necessary and others
that are secondary and may be sacrificed.
Ideal Work Environment Conditions
Rank
For instance: Team dynamics
Style of supervision or autonomy in actions ….
…………………..
…………………..
…………………..
…………………..
29
What is the easiest way of knowing and involving young volunteers ? Start by
asking them , talk with them , listen to them openly and carefuly ! – everytimes and
in many ways. They will tell you what they want, how and whe n they wish to be
involved , how they think they could be engaged more effectively . This will build
up a relationship between you both, and then genuine involvement will become
easier . In LIVE Lab volunteers needs and volunteers -led solutions are taking
center stage. This kind of working is more likely to succeed when young
volunteers are engaged from the start. How do you leverage the extraordinary
contributions of young volunteers , while encouraging more volunteers to be part
of a sustainable solution within your organization ? Change begins with shifting
the narrative of how young volunteers are perceived. The first step is to recognize
the many roles they play23 in creating positive change and entrepreneur ial actions
in your organization. They bring innovative and fresh ideas and are best way to
find out how you can further engage young volunteers is listening them, trusting
them and giving credit to them.
Discuss with each youth what is a his/her ’s decisi on frame?
Some important issues for volunteer might be one or more of the following:
What is the time commitment?
Is the organization flexible in scheduling?
What is the tasks ? My level of responsability and independence?
What is the impact of what I do ? What valu es or beliefs are important to me ?
How can I use my professional /personal expertise to make a difference?
What i s in it for me?
23 ‖We so later realized that many of the young people had a great deal to offer our company‖ ( Pilar Vilca, Selection Analyst at
Cantol SAC)
30
Stage 3: Together in creating sustainability
through social enterprise !24
Let‘s be realistic! Not all of your young volunteers will want to be involved and
fully engaged in setting up a social venture . Every volunteer desire must be
respected. But those who want and claim active participation in such journey
should be integrated within the LIVE Lab as early as possible.
All activities in LIVE Lab – from A to Z are to be i mplemented
TOGETHER – experts of your NGO and young volunteers (this means
participation from strategic overview to s ocial venture development ). The whole
experience of developing a social ente rprise (imagining, researching, planning,
designig, piloting and starting up) is as important as it occurs. It is a n ongoing
new route that all of you should now explore as a more promising means of
achieving positive changes. LIVE Lab is offering first-hand experience of every
step made, how decisions are made and how to contribute to them, providing for
youth the LIVE opportunity to experience how duties, skills, passions, needs ,
rights go hand -in-hand with responsibilities , decisions and practica l actions within
NGO.
LIVE Lab provides real life context for engaging with the taught of social
entrepreneurship, for engaging young volunteers in this process as co -workers and
partners. Young volunteers are given the opportunity to lead, the oppo rtuni ty to
create something at their age, so that they sense that this is something they can do,
that they can contribute to solving the NGO‘s/community‘s problems. Having the
chance to learn by doing, ‖youth are better equipped to positively, if not
dramatically, impact their communities.‖25. To achieve this, at organizational
level, two practices must be eliminated within your organization if they exist:
24 ‖Genuine participation gives youth the power to shape both the process and the outcome‖ – UNICEF, 2004
25 Davis, Susan., (2002) Social Entrepreneurship: Towards an entrepreneurial culture for social and economic development.
31
1. One: in organization – the current way is ‖The Best ‖. No challeges!
2. Two: all decisions come f rom the top.
Your Social Enterpris e can be built to meet all of organisation‘s financial needs or
it can be part of a broader income strategy. Social Enterprise profits can be
matched with a combination of philanthropy, government subsidy, corporate
donations and other sources of ge nerated income. How are Social Enterprises
different from Traditional NGO s?26
• It‘s about a hand -up not a hand -out. Social Enterprise ‘s aim to build the abilities
and skills of individuals , organizations and communities.
• It‘s about economic sustainability. S ocial Enterprise ‘s aim to become financially
secure through business rather than being dependent on grants, sponsorships or
donations.
• It‘s a business. S ocial Enterprise ‘s keep a market -based ‖business focus ‖ with a
financial as well as a social bottom line or an environmental one too .
Here is a simple formula to get started you, as orga nization together with
your young volunteers:
26 Alex McDonald, Vickie Burkins haw, Social Enterprise Guide for Young Australians
Volunteers
Interests/Passions/
Values
NGO
Interests/organiz
ational needs/
ValuesTrying to solve a social
problem + making a profit +
reinvesting it
=
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
32
State A: Where are we
now? In terms of incomes
and sustainability
………………………..
State B: here do we want to
be? Through social
enterprises? One enterprise?
Two?
……………………..
Your joint work starts with a VISION. Visioning is a technique27 used to assist
you in developing a shared vision of the future social enterprise . It can be used in:
• Planning . What will be the end result of the process ? How will the
autonomy of our organization be improved as a result of it?
• Organisational change . What kind of social enterprise do we want? How
will it be structured? What will be its core values and ways of working? How will
our organizational effectiveness be improved?
Visioning is a powerful technique, which, if used effectively, can result in a
shared commitment to a future vision and an energised team focused on what
needs to be done to achieve that vision. It involves asking the all group (your
experts and your young volunteers) to assess where the organization is now –
State A and where it can realistically expect to be in the future – State B .
Create 2 or 3 mixed teams of five
participants each. Ensure that the teams
are well -balanced. If it becomes clear
that some participants are not rearrange
the teams to try to overcome the
problem. Ask each team to describe State
A (Where are we now?) . Encourage
participants to reflect for a while on their
own before starting team discussions.
A facilitator should move among the
team s, encouraging participation, creativity and imagination. Ask participants to
change the working teams and to describe State B. Facilitator should encourage
participants to imagine they have the authority and power needed to implement
their preferred solutions to the problems identified in the description of State A.
27 Adapted from Tools for Development – Handbook, Department of International Development.
33
After visioning , try to figure out what are t he most important reasons for
embarking on the journey of Social Enterprise :
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
And the tough tasks are have just begun! How could you have the right social
enterprise idea? You and your volunteers should come up with creative
possibilities, new ideas and opportunities that exist around you as a ground of
identifying future directions to achieve your entrepreneurial aims – Ideation . The
result of this phase is a list of fantastic Social Enterprise ideas. What methods of
producing ideas and inspiration might you use?
There are many methods and techiques helping you to generate a lot of ideas for
starting an social enterprise.
IDEAS
Method 1: Listing complaints – start talking with different people about their
challenges, ambitions, and constraints and also about stumbling blocks that they
encounter in every day life . It is o ne effective way of uncovering problems
dedicated to hearing the voices and understand ing the liv es of the people around
you as a very good source of inspiration. Examples:
34
What disturb you
lately? Many ―at risk‖ young people live
in unsuitable places
Develop a private
rental service for ‖at risk‖
young people
What takes too long? Getting documents (licenses,
permits, certificates, etc.) from
the government takes for ever ……………..
What are people
always complaining
about ? There are so few chances for
married people to have some time
to themselves ……………..
What is being wasted
in our community? Many restaurannts are wasted
food ……………..
What is too
complicated? Traffic in the citiy is too heavy
during rush hour ……………..
Method 2 : Brainwriting Pool – Each person, using Post -it notes or small
cards, writes down ideas, and places them in the centre of the table. Everyone is
free to pull out one or more of these ideas for inspiration. Team members can
create new ideas, variations or piggyback on existing ideas.
Method 3 : Mind Mapping – This is a techni que28 that works through mental
and linguistic associations. It enables the user to break through the ―wall of
rationality‖ surrounding a proposition. Mind mapping is a multistage process that
starts with a clear statement of the problem at hand in order to search for a
creative approach to that problem. To get started with mindmapping, the
participants just have to write a key phrase or word in the middle of the page.
Then, they must write anything else that comes to their mind on the very same
page. Afte r that, they must try to make different connections . Free association
follows as a map of free associations is generated and some arbitrary limit is
reached. Then the map is studied for patterns, novelties, and interesting insights.
Above is a mind map model that helps illustrate how the process is developed :
28 Tony Buzan, UK researcher, who developed the technique ―mind mapping‖ discussed in his book ‗Use your Head‘ (197 2)
35
29
Method 4 : Wishing30 – This technique can be gin by asking for the unattainable
and then brainstorming ideas to make it or at least an approximation of it, a
reality. Start by making the wishes tangible. There should be collaboration among
the participants t o produce 20 to 30 wishes pertaining to your area. Everyone‘s
imagination should be encouraged to run wild – the more bizarre the idea, the
better. There should be no restrictions on thinking. The next step is concentrating
on a number of these unattainable wishes and utilizing them as creative stimul i to
trigger ideas that are new but more practic al. T he team should challenge the
problem from diverse perspectives (imagine how a person from another planet or
from another industry or profession would view it) or reflect on it. This type of
role playing assists with moving away from conventional thinking patterns to see
fresh possibilities.
Method 5: Day In The Life31 – Use it to explore the experiences of a potential
customer or someone who will be using what you might be creating by your
social enterprise. Use it for identifying opportunities, for example where people
29 Source of picture: thepeakperformancecenter.com
30 Idea Stormers: How to Lead and Inspire Creative Breakthroughs Hardcover, 2012
31 Adapted from http://creatingminds.org/tools/tools_ideation.htm
36
have a problem for which there is no current solution. Identify whose life you are
going to map out. This may be a single person or a generic class, such as potential
‖customers‖ . When selecting a group, be as specific as you can, identifying a
homogeneous group, so your map will be mostly true for most people. Research
them (if you can) – in many, but not all situations, it can be very helpful to do
some research about the people in question. This can range from general research
about who they are, what they do, the problems they experience and so on. You
can also go directly to them with specific interviews or questionnaires. If you can
do it, the best option can be to ask them f or a description of their ty pical day.
With a selection of ‖typical days‖ you can then create an even more typical
day… Write a narrative that describes their typical day. Divide it up into sections
(or ‖chapters‖ ), such as getting up, going to work, hav ing lunch, etc. Context is an
important part of creating meaning. Putting the rest of life around experiencing a
problem or using a solution enables a deeper understanding to be gained. By
seeing through the eyes of target people, it is easier to associate with their feelings
and experiences and really understand their contextualized need and problems.
When you can really see their problems, then this creates a more effective creative
tension that you can use for generating effective ideas and solutions. This method
could be combined with Method 1.
Now you have a list of ideas and opportunities for developing Social
Enterprise. You generate lots of ideas, some of which you‘ll keep, and others
which you‘ll discard. You need to decide on one or two ideas that you want to
explore further by developing a more in -depth Business Plan. The best enterprise
opportunities from your list will be those ideas that fit with your organizational
capacities and resources, your V ision, Mission and Values and have a strong
community demand. It is time for Evaluation! The evaluation of your ideas. You
37
and young volunteers might use different participative methods and techiques
helping you to select the best idea:
Method 1: NAF ( Novelty, Attractiveness, Feasibility ) – this is a simple way
of scoring/ assessing potential ideas/ solutions. Give a score out of 10 for each of
the three items: Novelty (How novel is the idea? If it isn‘t novel for this situation,
it probably isn‘t very creative ); Attractiveness (How attractive is this as a
solution? does it com pletely solve a problem? Or is it only a partial solution? );
Feasibility (How feasibly is it to put this into practice? It may have been a really
attractive solution to use a time machine, but is it really feasible? ). Once you have
the mark out of 30 for each potential ideas , you can easily rank them to then
refine the top few.
Meth od 2 : How Might We32 – Asses your social business ideas by reframing
them as ―How Might We‖ questions. The How Might We format could suggest
you that a n idea i s possible and offer you the chance to use it in a variety of ways.
Start by looking at the ideas that you‘ve generated. Try rephrasing them as
questions by adding ―How mig ht we‖ at the beginning. Now take a look at your
How Might We question , answer to it as much as possible and ask yourself if it
allows for a solution that your organization could transform into a social
enterprise . If it doesn‘t, eliminate it.
Use this worksheet – turn your ideas into How Might We q uestions :
Idea 1: …………..
How Might We ……….
Idea 2: …………..
32 Adapted from The Field Guide to Human -Centered Design By IDEO.org , 2015
38
How Might We ……….
Meth od 3 : PMI – Plus, Minus, Interesting33 – The PMI tool helps you to
consider all sides of an idea before a decision or commitment is made. It is an
important evaluation tool. When doing a PMI set out to first explore all the plus of
each idea until you have exhausted your search . Then explore the minuses until
exhausted . Finally set out to explore in the interesting direction . The goals are to
evaluate as many ideas as po ssible, remembering that two people may see the
same idea differently. This may stimulate a creative connection later.
Example : ……..
PLUS
MINUS
INTERESTING
―What is interesting about this is…………….‖
―It would be interesting to see………………‖
After you have established your Social Enterprise idea it is now the time to review
your organization capacity to develop such e nterprise . The development of a SE
takes time, commitment and resources and you need to know what capacity you
have before you can start . Finding out an idea of a social business and putting it
into practice are two different things. There are a number of issues you need to
consider when assessing your capacity such as:
33 PMI is one of a collection of three -letter abbreviation tools developed by Edward de Bono.
39
• Resources – What resources do you have at your disposal that you can dedicate
to the development of a Social Enterprise? This includes time, people, money, and
assets.
• Commitment – Does your team have the drive and motivation required to
develop a Social Enterprise, how risk tolerant are you?
Using Resource Assessment Tool34 will help you understand the feasibility of your
solution and where your organ ization will have to seek help for the pract ical
implementation of your idea . The main elements of implementation that you‘ll
want to understand here are the distribution of your solution, the partners you
might need, and the capabilities necessary to execute. Your Business Model
Canvas should have some of these answers. Start to fill out the Resource
Assessment worksheet :
Distribution
How are you getting
your idea out into
the practice ? Are
there multiple
concrete ways ? Activities
What activities will
be required to make
your idea work? Capabilities
What are you
already capable of? Responsabilities
Who is responsible for
doing it? Still needed?
What have you not
done or have yet?
List very carefully what you‘ve already got and what you‘ll need. Identify gaps
and resources . It‘s a way of viewing what you want to do with a lens for
implementing responsibility, capacity, and staffing.
34 The Field Guide to Human -Centered Design By IDEO.org, 2015
40
It is time for the Business Plan as a tool to help you make informed decisions
about your enterprise, its development, its performance and its future.
A good way to keep business idea in front and center in your mind is by using a
Business Model Canvas35. This simple sheet asks you key questions like what‘s
your revenue stream, what are key partnerships you‘ll need to forge, and what
resources are vital to your operation. You might even use a Business Model
Canvas several times in the process as elements ar e bound to change as you refine
your idea and move toward implementing it. When you fill it out the first time,
expect for there to be holes. It‘s okay not to know exactly how everything will
work. When you‘re done, post the Business Model Canvas in your w orksp ace.
Like everything else in this p rocess, you‘ll refine it. Consider doing a new one as
your project progresses.
VALUE
PROPOSITIONS
CHANNELSCUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIPSCUSTOMER
SEGMENTS
REVENUE STREAMS COST STRUCTUREKEY
PARTNERS
KEY
RESOURCES
KEY
ACTIVITIES
Your own business model
<< insert your value
proposition here>>
<< Describe your cost structure here>><< list your partners
here>>
<< describe your revenue streams here>><< list the key resources
available to you here>><< describe your key
activities here>><describe how you plan to
establish and manage the
relationship between the
customer and your brand
here>>
<< describe 1) how you
plan to acquire
customers, 2) how you
plan to deliver your value
proposition to them and
3) how you plan to
communicate with your
customers >><< describe your
target customer
segment here>>
35 It was developed by Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur. The purpose of a business model in the case of a social enterprise is
about how the enterprise will generate both financial and social value and what the relationship is between the two types of
value in the enterprise.
41
Your social enterprise needs to be based firmly on market reality and there is no
better way to do this than getting out there and doing market research. Primary
research includes talking to customers, observing the competition and potential
customers and testing your product with real customers.
Key Questions:
YOUR CUSTOMERS?
Who will your target customer be?
How many customers are there?
Is the number of customers growing or decreasing?
What will your customers buy?
How many of your products/services will they buy from you?
YOUR COMPETITION
Who are your main competitors?
What are the going prices?
What ar e the strengths and weaknesses of the products/services?
Why would customers buy from you rather than from your competitors?
Secondary research includes information from trade journals, competitors‘ price
lists and literature, government reports, surveys a nd questionnaires, and the
internet. You should do as much market research as you can, particularly as much
of it can be done quickly and cheaply. Build up as much knowledge and
understanding as possible to help you answer the following questions:
What will you have to do to sell to
these customers?
Why will customers buy from you?
How many potential customers are
42
there for your product or service ?
? How will you reach them?
What potential share of the market can
you expect to get?
What price should you sell your product
or service ?
Live Prototyping 36
A Live Prototype is a chance to run your solution for a couple of weeks out in the
real world. An a very GOOD opportunity to do it involving your young
volunteers. Live Prototype is one of the most powerful ways to test your solution
in the marketplace. A Live Prototype, however, gives you a chance to stress test
your solution in real -world conditions. It can run from a few days to a few weeks,
and is a chance to learn how your solution w orks in practice. Live Prototypes are
all about understanding the feasibility and viability of your chosen idea.
The first thing to do is to determine what it is you want to test in your Live
Prototype. It could be the way that people find out about your product or how
your service will run or how your distribution model works. For example, you
could run a business out of a kiosk for a week to test a channel strategy. Once
you‘ve decided on what you‘re testing, sort out the logistics of your Live
Prototype . Do you need a physical space, additional staff, uniforms, a permit, or
anything else? If you have the capacity, think about running a few Live
36 The Field Guide to Human -Centered Design By IDEO.org, 2015
43
Prototypes at once. This will allow you to test a variety of ideas quickly, and see
how they work together, whi ch may also be important. Never stop iterating. If
something went wrong on Day 1, try a new approach on Day 2. Live Prototypes
are all about learning quickly, iterating on the fly, and pushing your solution
closer and closer to the real thing. As always, c apture multiple feedback from
your team, your volunteers, your partners and the customers . One of the key
things to remember is:
―Customers will tell you everything you need to know.‖
Your jorney is almost completed. Putting this Busin ess Plan together with your
young volunteers and prototyping gives you as organization a firm platform to
move forward. Now you are in a position to have a good think and decide whether
or not you are ready and willing to go to the next st age and implement your plans
– START UP! You will now have a good understanding of what you need, who
will assist and when and how to start. Also start talking with different people
about it. You need to be comfortable in talking to people about the support you
will need to get the enterprise going. You also might need to start thinking about
what money (if any) you need to seek, what other advice you need or any new
skills you need to develop. Over the coming weeks and months it might get a little
scary starting up your So cial Enterprise, but if you have done your research and
developed the best plan you can, your chances of success are much greater than
average. Now is the time to be bold and take the chance on creating the Social
Enterprise you feel will work in your comm unity and for your long term
sustainability .
REMEMBER: capacities and enthusiasm often shines the brightest when they are
directed for the social good. Young VOLUNTEERS with the dreams and vigour
of youth are uniquely skilled and positioned to be successfu l social entrepreneurs
in the future .
44
BOX 5
KEY messages from you for young volunteers in these all phase s of
developing together a Social Enterprise :
1. You are all different but you all have the same right to have a say about the
things that matter to you. You have different styles and abilities. We want
everyone to feel welcome and be able to get involved in a way YOU want it to be.
2. Everyone has a chance to have a say, your opinions are important and we will
respect them . We will listen to your ide as and views , take you seriously and treat
you fairly and respectfully.
3. We want you to enjoy and benefit from taking part . Together we want to do
positive things that build your confidence. As many times as possible we let you
to take ownership of the p rocess.
4. It‘s really important that you know , feel, understand and experiment what
difference you could make and how your ideas could be us ed. How your decisions
are taken into consideration. How your actions improve our work.
5. We want to continue to learn from you and get better at the way we work with
you. We do not say ‖we do things this way‖. We u se the strengths and talents that
you bring to the ‖table of raising‖ organizational sustainability.
6. Relationships with you are conducted with equalit y and fairness. We r ecognise,
record and reward your ‘s contributions .
7. We e ncourage experimentation – giving you and us opportunities and
confidence to take risks .
8. We s upport and welcome the initiatives and contributions of you. We a ccept
that mistakes might be made and the process m ay bring mixed results.
9. We are outcome -focused – have an open mind about new formats and
structures .
45
Stage 4: Joint Evaluation of what we done togheter
It is time for evaluation of LIVE Lab – togethe r, you and your young volunteers.
Why Evaluate? Evaluation helps NGO experts and young volunteers to examine
what they are doing in a systematic and purposeful way and to use the findings to
improve the work:
1. To explain – it can happen by:
• Reflecting on what you are doing
• Recording what is working well in your setting and what needs
changed
• Providing clear feedback and communicating your findings to others ,
including the community .
2. To improve – it is helpful to know what is working well and not so well in your
work setting. Information from the evaluation can be used to make improvements
to your work. This can happen by:
• Rating how you are doing and identifying strengths and weaknesses
• Identifying areas for improvement and long term planning
• Planning to improve
• Taking action to improve
3. To share – it is important to celebrate the whole work done together and to tell
others so they can learn from your experiences.
This evaluation also has to be developed from a participatory, empowerment –
oriented perspective which allows to capitalize on the gifts and talents of all
participants to the social enterprise journey through reflective activities that lead
to further improvements in this kind of program. Effective evaluation s tatemen ts
include three elements:
46
In other words, what is or will be the impact and the significance of the
accomplishments in the organization implementing LIVE Lab, involving from the
start to the end the young volunteers in this whole process of developing a social
enterprise. ‖Learning by doing‖ social entrepreneurship?
Impact statements could be formed when you and also your volunteers finish the
following sentences:
if the young volunteers had not been there ……..
if the process not had involve d everyone from the beginning in a
participatory manner …..
Evaluative exercises and activities:
Exercise 1: More of, Less of and the Same37 – You can use this exercise to
help participants (your NGO experts and young volunteers) discover the strengths
and weaknesses of this way of working . The exercise encourages individual
thinking while at the same time helps the team to work together to address
potential issues. The exercise focuses on both positive and negative aspects of the
process. It also allows t he team to see if any particular area is considered
37 Adapted from www.skillsconverged.com/FreeTrainingMaterials/ How LIVE Lab was accomplished? (input)
What was accomplished ? (outcomes)
So what? What difference is and will it
make (Impact)
47
problematic by many team members which then indicates the scale of the issue.
This in turn can lead the team to address the issue with high priority. Prepare three
flipcharts by writing the following head ings on each:
What would you like to see MORE of in implementing this way of
working – NGO/young volunteers
What would you like to see LESS of in implementing this way of
working – NGO/young volunteers
What is working well in this way of working (the SAME) ?
Distribute Post-it notes to all participants so they can use as many as they want
during the exercise. Explain that each person must think of the question in each
flipchart, write a single idea on a Post -it note and then stick it on the
correspondin g flipchart. They can place one or more Post -it notes on each
flipchart. After 15 minutes , you should divide the participants to three groups.
Assign each group to a particular flipchart. Ask each group to go through the
ideas and tidy up the notes placing similar notes (or duplicates) next to each other.
This leads to clusters of notes capturing an idea. A large cluster therefor means an
idea most people agree on which is worth examining in more detail. After about
15 minutes when the sorting is finished, bring back everyone together so they can
explore the results together. Go through each flipchart and get the participants
examine the results starting from the largest clusters of ideas. Ask them to record
their conclusions on any changes they need to make LIVE Lab m ore productive
and functional. Get the participants to think of solutions to any identified
problems.
Exercise 2 : Volunteer Letter – ask each volunteer to prepare a one page letter
where he/she should describe the own opinion regarding the experience of
developing a social enterprise having in mind these:
It was more accessible?
48
more flexible?
more appe aling?
more varied?
more rewarding?
and more young volunteers – friendly ?
Exercise 3 : Jar of Importance38 – the p urpose of the activity is to review and
reflect on what has been done in the process of developing a social enterprise. The
team will review some key issues they have experiment , such as:
• listening to each other and being listened to
• including each other
• respecting each other
• asking ‗Why?‘ and ‗What‘s it like for you?‘ questions
• feeling freely to tell other people what you think.
The group will reflect on the most important findings of their evaluation. The
activity is about deciding what was important in what the whole te am (NGO
experts and young volunteers) has been doing. The participants are organized
into small groups of 2 or 3 persons. Put big sheets with jars (LIKE, DISLIKE,
NEED TO CHANGE) on on a table, the floor or the wall so that each small group
can see and re ach them. Invite each group to have different comments over the
experience of LIVE Lab and to put each comment into those three different jars.
The discussion among the group is very important. With the whole group look at
the jars again and talk about the m. Ask ‗Is there anything missing?‘, ‗Did
everyone agree?‘, etc.
This exercise would be used regularly to help review what young people think
about the activities they are involved in.
38 Adapted from Are You Listening! Toolkit (2005), Cambridgeshire Children‘s Fund.
49
Section 4
Better together:
Benefits of LIVE Lab for young volunteers and for NGO
All of you (NGO and volunteers) want action and to create a future you believe
in. For this all have to work moving from a culture of ― inform, announce and
defend‖ to one of ―debate and decide and put into practice ‖. TOGETHER. When
you take a ‖together‖ (partnership ) approach to working with young volunteers it
means treating them as equal stakeholders, working with them and along -side of
them, and valuing their knowledge, experience, expertise and input s. This
approach of LIVE Lab encourages young volunteers to gain a sense of ownership
in the process and feel empowered and motivated to engage not only with NGO in
the future but also with the community .
The main aim of a NGO is to make better decisions by bringing the voices of
volunteers into the issues that are relevant to them. To make this happen, NGO
should nur ture its own s kills and capacities to engage with the volunteers and
drive a culture which respects and welcomes their input. LIVE Lab helps to
develop strong NGO and engaged volunt eers, it gives them the confidence to
participate and develops their interest in being part of the solution of sustainability
through social business .
This, in turn, builds the cohesiveness and
capacity of the NGO .
Thinking Shift : the volunteers ”create” the NGO!
50
Engaging volunteers, motivating them and working with them to create social
enterprises or other kind of entr epreneurial projects leads to better outcomes for
everyone : better decisions, better strategies, better actions , better programs and
better resource use. LIVE Lab strongly advocate that when NGO and volunteers
join forces as partners , it is better together. Both of them are best placed to
identify and understand the challenges they face, and more importantly, help
design and implement the solutions needed.
Key Ideas for NGO:
It is based on the needs of personal and professional
development of youth
Youth are central to the planning and delivery of LIVE Lab as
a tool of social entrepreneurship
Youth choose to be involved (voluntary commitment) in this
way of working
NGO‘s experts value young volunteers for who they are now
It is founded on a genuine partnership with young volunteers –
NGO recognises them as a partner in the p lanning , learning ,
decision -making and acting process of creating social
enterprises
NGO promotes youth ‘s access not only t o learning
opportunities but also to practicing opportunities which enable
them to fulfill their personal and professional potential
NGO creates opportunities for young volunteers to be more
involved in shaping their organisation they are volunteering for
NGO is p repared to build in changes on long term and not just
have a one -off project of deeply involving young volunteers
51
Key Ideas for volunteers :
enhancing and nurturing their own strengths, abilities and
interests through social entrepreneurship
expecting to have a say and to be involved in whole process
working in partnership with adults in planning , learning ,
decision -making and acting process of creating social
enterprises
meaningful participation
having a range of opportunities to get involved in a way they
choose (voluntary participation)
NGO‘s experts believing in and will ing to engage with young
volunteers
having the opportunity to progress in and beyond their
volunteering setting
staying at the table because they add value, not because it will
be ‖good ‖ for NGO.
The relationships between young volunteers and NGO experts and among youth
and their peers, are one of the most influential contributor to the success of LIVE
Lab.
NGO – volunteers:
The ”mantra” is: relationships,
relationships, relationships
52
“Social Entrepreneurship holds a
secret weapon against apathy and
anger. It presents an ace in the
hole for anyone who wants to build
within a community. Entrepreneurs
are inveterate optimists! They
usually don’t know what they can’t
do. This optimism, this belief in the
possible, is a remarkably potent
resource for building
RELASHIONSHIPS .”
REMEMBER: volunteers ar e attracted to this way of working because of their
passion for an issue, but they remain engaged because of their relationships with
experts and other youth they encounter within NGO during this journey of
developing a social enterprise39. The journey of being Social Entrepreneurs40
through strong relashionships and commitment :
Learning, experimenting and practicing social entrepreneurship through LIVE
Lab bring to volunteers open opportunities for developing:
A. Social and Emotional Skills – those skills necessary to understand and manage
emotions, set and achieve positive goals , feel and show empathy for others,
especially for people in need and vulnerable groups, establish and maintain
positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
B. Intergenerational Participation – relationships are built and valued among
individua ls from multiple age groups. It involves partnership and mutual
39 ―A lot of solutions can be found by just connecting up‖ – Alaganandan Balaraman, Consul tant, CGN & Associates
40 Smilor, R.W., Entrepreneurship and Community Development, Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.
53
experience between a young volunteer and staff NGO , community member s, or
customer s etc.
C. Entrepreneurial Thinking – embraces a problem solving approach that
combines empathy towards people, enthusiasm , creativity, a nd the ability to turn
business ideas into reality. It also demands tolerance to ambiguous situations and
to the risks and challenges.
D. Design Thinking – there are fostered e mpathy as the core human -centered
design solutions ; ideation of possibilities using testing and feedback ; prototyping
interactive possibilities ; testing solutions etc.
In this relationships of partnership – working together – the NGO experts and
young volunteers work ―shoulder to shoulder‖ shari ng ideas and expertise,
translating information about one another‘s worlds, creating a mutual agenda and
taking joint responsibility for outcomes. Working on LIVE Lab a NGO plays an
essential role in supporting volunteers participation by:
• integrating diverse group s of youth (including the vulnerable ones) and helping
them all feel welcomed;
• setting relevant expectations for what youth can accomplish;
• opening doors and increasing their access to decision -makers;
• collaborating with them in taking advantage of the ongoing opportunities within
the process of developing social enterprises ;
• volunteers enthusiasm and ideas are transformed into meaningful decisions and
action s;
• supporting the ir efforts to create other young volunteers -driven initiatives within
organizations or within the community .
In this partnership it is no room for NGO experts dictating the agenda and
controling what occurs, or leaving the young volunteers alone and abdicating
responsibility for what occurs. W
54
Important co nsequences of th e NGO – young volunteers partnership:
A fundame ntal belief that authentic volunteers engagement and
participation are the right approach.
Ability to connect with a wide range of youth including with vulnerable
ones.
A sense of the pote ntial and possibilities of young volunteers .
Knowledge of how to collaborate with volunteers to encourage and
develop their ideas.
Wise and creative use of resources.
Willingness to challenge volunteers in a caring way.
Flexibility and a willingness and ability to shape how they do business.
Patience and persistence .
Ability to evaluate the outcomes of this joint effort.
Confidence in starting/leading an entrepreneurial project.
Valuable Relationships! Relationshi ps! Relationships! for both sides.
55
The LIVE Lab partnership between NGO and young volunteers follows seven
principle s that represent the basis for lasting relationship s:
Principle 1:
All of us know WHY we are engaging TOGETHER.
Principle 2:
All of us know and respect the needs, interests, values of each other.
Principle 3:
We start together and we do everything in a collaborative and participative
manner for developing a social enterprise or other type of entrepreneurial project .
Principle 4:
We know very well what a real challenge is to develop a social business.
Principle 5:
We are creative and engaging .
Principle 6:
We enjoy also the experience and the results of our joint work .
Principle 7:
We are genuine .
56
Developing social business within LIVE Lab means also EMPOWERMENT –
empowering the N GO and empowering the volunteers.
Social enterprise is gaining more recognition as a valuable business model for
creating more sustainable, equitable, and healthier organizations.
Young volunteers – What REALLY is in it for me?
On the other side – young volunteers acquire REAL -LIFE experience of
producing and managing social changes. Do not forget that m any youth are faced
with a big paradox that they have been told : ‖you need a job to get the experience,
but you need the experience to get the job‖. LIVE Lab a llows youth to build
valuable job skills good for any job through interactive, hands -on decisions and
practical activities and to connect their participation and learning wit h their career Empowering
with vision
Empowerment
by Self –
Sustenance
Empowerment
through
Problem
Solving and
Innovation
Empowerment
with concern
and trustEmpowerment
through
CommunicationEmpowerment
through Shared
LearningEmpowerment
by untapping
the Potential
57
goals. It create s LIVE opportunities for young volunteers to learn more, grow
more and become more by giving them chances to develop determination, real
world skills and career goals.
They develop knowledge, skills and experience – these are recognized on
labour market or could become the starting point for the ir path of
entrepreneurship. They develop the confidence and resilience to succeed with
their work but also a feeling that they can have a hugely positive impact on others
in their c ommunities. They develop attitudes and behaviors that help than to
flourish in the organization that they volunteer with and go on to have success in
work and life – professional and personal development . The FUTURE in their
hands.
All these experiences of volunteers are tools for life – will prepare them for
the challenges ahead. By co-owner ing the process of setting up and running a
social enterprise , with the potential for real and meaningful impact, young
volunteers have the chance to take the lead an d come up with creative solutions to
the problems which matter to them. Creating the social entrepreneurs of
tommorrow . Creating spaces for youth to have dialogue and actions about
the issues, causes, and events important to them .
LIVE Lab – being a social entrepreneurship program focuse d specifically on
relevant partnership with young volunteers it not only provide s them with a
positive outlet for their ideas, but it give s them a space for healthy interaction as
well as a sense of independence, self -autonomy and competence that acts as a
springboard : they can make a d ifference! They become confident, dedicated
change -makers throughout their lives. They could coagulate a network of friends
who have similar interests in bringing positive change to their communities. They
learn about and practice social entrepreneurship, finance, business, and
management. Most importantly, however, they become leaders who understand
58
that they have potential to make the community a better place and to deliver a
better quality of life to all , and they will use the skills they learn at a young age
for the rest of their lives . Young volunteers are more impactful and aim for higher
scales of impact than we give them credit for: youth think big and are risk takers.
Certain topics become m ore accessible for youth to have impact – they tend to
work much more frequently on topics categorized under equality, empowerment,
and social justice.
NGO – What REALLY is in it for me?
LIVE Lab facilitates NGO to m ove from a culture of management to a culture of
volunteer engagement, where the roles of staff and volunteer s change. They
become richer and fuller. The traditional, hierarchical role of supervision is
replaced with working in partnership and collaboration with volunteers.
Traditional volunteerism is transformed by putting youth on a path to social
change.
NGO allows volunteers to step up and become proactive in their
organization/their community by i dentifying unmet needs, developing social
business and possibly attracting new young people who are interested in the same
issues. Also, NGO could d evelop creative partnerships with a broad and diverse
group of stakeholders, including nonprofits, faith -based groups, issue groups,
labor unions, educational institutions, businesses, corporations, foundations, and
public authorities. C ollaborative and focused young volunteers LIVE Lab can
create lasting organization change and sustainability .
Within the NGO is created and nurtured a climate where volunteers feel
like they are in a relationship with the organization and that they can be co –
author s of the organization‘s future. This context w hen organization engage s the
volunteers in cocreating its future as an association, that is what lead s to stronger
59
ties and involvement. NGO shares young volunteer ‖stories ‖ of participation
build ing morale, generating goodwill and shaping a good public imag . This
positively influences the quality, efficien cy and accountability with which
services are provided at different levels for different traget groups.
NGO becomes an organization where v olunteer opportunities are designed
with a clear outcome of sustainability , team orientation, relevant impact, and tie-
in with a cause. The organization choses t o broaden its goals, which brings
additional membership support and community support. It bring s also the
stakeholders support. They can provide crucial insight into planning appropriate
future interventions and developments. The transformation is publicly visible . It
create s an atmosphere that fo sters continued participation of staff and volunteers.
LIVE Lab gives to NGO : focus on collaboratio n – less concerned about
people working ―in their own little corners‖ and more focused on connecting and
sharing ideas, skills, good s, services and other resources; focus on civic growth –
less concerned about ―serving clients /beneficiaries ‖ and more focused on building
community awareness, participation, responsibi lity and commitment. In this way
the NGO becomes also:
highly participatory – different voices are contributing ; benefit from their
diverse experiences and perspectives.
more responsive to what is and is not happening in the community –
challenging views a nd behaviours which possibly undermine or untrust
young people‘s participation.
strategical – move FORWARD together – allowing volunteers to come up
with creative solutions and act on what they have passion for . Building
positive relationships with young p eople. Valuing the role and contribution
that they make to the design, delivery and evaluation of such
entrepreneurial project.
60
flexible – work ing around boundaries .
The social venture is a learning experience. Therefore the NGO develops itself in
terms of capacity building – leadership, time management, communication,
planning, resources management and more. Fostering an hands -on model of
‖learning by doing ‖ NGO also experiment s with new ideas and approaches,
finding out what works /not work and why. This organizational learning
experience nurture the next transitions:
FROM TO
The organization is defined by its
history
The organization i s defined by its
connectedness and its possibility
Cost and efficiency dominate
Purpose and impact dominate
We seeks answers and a defined
destination
We define and solve problems in
partnership with many stakeholders
Prefer safety, choose a predictable
future Prefer flexibility, ch oose multiple
paths
NGO are co nsider ing more and more these things:
The community is full of young volunteers as potential leaders.
Young volunteers expand the organization ‘s capacity in many, many ways .
It can be created and developed a network of committed young volunteers
who care about and understand your mission, values and work.
61
Involving young volunteers in the design and delivery of social business
should be an everyday consideration, not a one off project.
Program has opportunity of BOTH youth -youth communication and youth –
expert tema communication .
Put in the groundwork for good relationships before doing anything else.
More focus on what‘s positive and productive in the young volunteers team.
Credibility, reputation and relevance to young volunteers.
A more inclusive enviro nment.
Providing a listening ear and a forum from which young volunteers could
collaborate to engage in meaningful actions t o bring about pos itive change.
Matching the needs of the volunteer with the needs of the organization for
more productivity and potential long -term support.
Flexible framing issues: short meetings, high -capacity team members, a
well defined scope of the work , proactive communication, initiative,
empowerment, and high -tech communication methods.
Adapting the NGO program to voluntee rs allowing a shift from ―you have
to fit into our program‖ to ―we can change our program to your strengths
and time to help us fulfill our mission.‖
Commitment to the involvement of volunteers, and recognition throughout
the organisation that volunteering is a two -way process which benefits
volunteers and the organisation.
Development begin s with people and ideas. The NGO context is an
inspiration for young volunteers of all backgrounds to consider a future as a
social entrepreneur and an important step on that journey.
In order to get a return, NGO has to invest. Invest ing in people, plans and
programs to enable volunteers to create critical impact.
Being an Organization Where Young People Want to Volunteer !
62
LIVE Lab – Benefits for young volunteers
provides a way in which they can feel valued by their organization; enhanced self –
confidence and self -esteem
build their empowerment through self -awareness, resilience, hopefulness
do what they are passionate about and have o pportunities to connect wit h their
passion through developing a social enterprise ; acquiring and developing
transferable skills with other peers
connecting them to real work to learn and practice important social and life skills
such as problem -solving, decisionmaking, negotiation, listening, communication
and feedback
having an awareness of their personal and professional needs, feelings and the
consequences of their behaviour and actions; being able to change their values
and beliefs as a result of exploration and co llaboration
promoting acceptance and understanding of o thers ; become aware of democratic
processes, including understanding different points of view, the need for
compromise and a sense of responsibility for group decisions
valuing them as individuals able to articulate their needs and interests as well as
being actively involved in the design and delivery of complex entrepreneurial
projects
63
feel that they play an active and responsible part in their own lives , in their
organization and in their community and understand that (and how) they can
make a difference
LIVE Lab – Benefits for NGO
opening up a unique space of learning, cooperating and exchang ing ideas,
experiences, practices with young volunteers ; better understanding of
volunteering and volunteers in the world today
increasing the quality of services and policy decisions impacting target groups,
communities, stakeholders
more targeted, effective and relevant services
build ing capac ity and sustainability within organisation creating the resources it
need s to move forward
encouraging more inclusiv e, informed and evidence -based work practice
improved participation of volunteers , retention, achievement and quality of
activities
building trust and transparency
64
Section 5
Engagement Tools of Young Volunteers
Are critical elements the activities that encourage, support and allow young
volunteers to actively engage and par ticipate in their organization? The answer is:
41
Because they want to feel like they a re making a difference and they will tell
others about the posit ive experiences with your organizations. Because they want
that their volunteer work specifically meets their schedules and passions, they
want to be engaged. They want to be involved42.
BUT:
What do we mean by young
volunteer engagement? Volunteer engagement describes the
way that NGOs build relationships with
their young volunteers. Engagement
focuses on the impac t volunteers have
on the organization , listening to their
needs, communicating the NGO ‘s
priorities and gaining an understanding
of how the organization can better
support them. If there is one thread that
ties together the idea of volunteer
engagement it is helping volunteers
make the most o f their role so they can
do the most to help the organization .
Mutual Benefits!
41 Source of picure: penaltybegone.co m
42 ‖I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn‖ – Albert Einstein
65
What do young volunteer s say?
―We are often viewed as apathetic , disengaged from politics, selfish and in
pursuit of instant gratification – the ‖me‖ generation . We are rarely
included in decision -making processes in a meaningful manner. Negative
and disempowering stereotypes are widely held throughout the community ,
NGOs and reinforced by the media .‖43
‖I love doing something with my life always involving in what I like, I can
not tolerate to get bored, I like knowing that my time is very well
capitalized because at this age I should DO what I like. I am involving in
different activities and projects because I want it. Because I discover what
suit myself and what domain I could study in the future. In this way I am
able TO CHOOSE better‖ (Tea Manifesto, young romanian volunteer – 17
years old) .44
You might already be asking yourself, “How will I manage these kinds of
volunteers?”
This is a huge challenge that a NGO must face it. Here are some highlights:
• Check your organization‘s mindset on volunteerism: Are young volunteers seen
as selfish? As free labour? An annoying necessity? Or, are they seen as a resource
for multiplying the time and talents of staff? Co nsider moving from a culture of
volunteer management to volunteer engagement, and be sure to have
organizational leadership on board. Volunteer engagement needs to be a
significant factor in strategic planning for the entire organi zation.
• Assess your str ucture: Do your organization‘s silos or hierarchy present barriers
to volunteers being engaged effectively?
43 Catriona Standfield, a Millennial – UN Youth Australia
44 http://republica.ro/la -16-respectiv -17-ani-tea-si-raluca -au-o-ocupatie -pe-care-parintii -lor-nu-o-inteleg -zei-nu-au-experienta
66
• Value impact: Shift volunteer recognition from years of service to level of
impact.
• Survey volunteers: Ask for young volunteers advice and fee dback on anything
from strategic direction to engagement practices.
• Volunteering as an honour: Imagine creating a role that volunteers fight over to
be a part of; a role that has meaning, status, and honour. What would that look
like at your organizatio n?
• Plan for volunteers with professional skills appropriately: Be prepared, clearly
outline your expectations, plan ahead, and don‘t waste their time. Know their
individual desires in case they have interests beyond their day by day life . These
principl es should be carried over to your engagement with all volunteers.
• Current versus new skills: Consider ways for skilled volunteerism to provide
opportunities for youth to learn new skills rather than just use their current skills.
• Adapt to new proposa ls: With the goals of the organization in mind, stay open to
considering new roles proposed by young volunteers. Sometimes it won‘t work,
but sometimes it may be worth it to craft something unique or new.
• Engag e skilled volunteers as advisors on differe nt issues related by the
organizational sustainability : they will be so motivated to share their views.
• Rearrange (don‘t reinvent) the wheel: Break up long -term or complex roles into
multiple smaller roles for youth with different skill sets. Doing so al so presents an
opportunity to engage volunteers in non -manual roles or un -wanted tasks .
• Personalize the Volunteer Experience for building the loyalty with volunteers.
Studies show that personalizing a volunteer‘s interactions can go a long way to
create loyal participants. Millennialas want choice and transformation . They want
to be presented with a variety of options so that they can have a voice in what
they are doing in accordance with their unique needs.
• Partner with other community organizations: P artnering with youth organizatios
67
and schools is an especially effective way to engage the youngest of the youth age
range.
• Alternate uses of social media: Rather than using social media to promote the
organization, use it to have conversations with youn g volunteers and learn about
stakeholders‘ interests and priorities. People st ay where they‘re treated well.
• Enriche the volunteer experience to build a better future for your organization
because the youth are n ot feel ing belittled for relatively less experience &
traditional skills .
How could you a ssess what level you reach as organization from the Volunteer
Engagement point of view ? There is an useful tool of evaluation: Assessment of
Organizational Volunteer Engagement45:
Your
organization Score 1 if you Score 2 if you Score 3 if you
Organizational Support for Young Volunteers
a. Involve young
volunteers in all
aspects of Have staff and/or a
few dedicated
young volunteers Have young
volunteer presence
in all aspects of Mandate t hat staff
and leadership to
closely collaborate
45 Adapted from Volunteer Engagement – Collaborate Today, Thrive Tomorrow , Jill Friedman Fixler and Sandie
Eichberg, 2008 ‖The engagement paradigm provides a
framework for developing not only the
support but also the enthusiastic engagement
of the entire organizatio n.‖
Richard Axelrod, Terms of Engagement:
Changing the Way We Change
Organizations
68
organizational life do most of the
work organizational
activities and
programming with young
volunteers in the
work46.
Use of young volunteers Assessment
b. Have defined
why young
volunteers are a
strategic priority
for the
organization Use young
volunteers for
activities and
programs as they
are needed Have identifi ed
young volunteers
as leaders and
helpers in moving
the organization
forward Have clear
practices on young
volunteer
engagement that
put them in the
position of yours
partner in
operations,
programs, and
activities
Feed back and Support
c. Actively solicit
young volunteer
input in all
decisions Have young
volunteers do
whatever they are
assigned Involve current
young volunteers
come up with their
own proposal and
ideas and to give
feedback Have a system in
place for joint feed
back sessions
regarding the
tasks, the work
done. It allows
young volunteers
to make decisions,
to choose future
assigments and
projects and to
lead them
46 Young v olunteers expect to be treated as respected equals, partners, not as subordinates.
69
Do you score mostly 3s? If so, you are well o n your way to having an outstanding
process for young volunteer engagement. Your org anization understands the
benefi ts of a culture that embraces and celebrates the assets of youth
volunteerism.
Do you score mostly 2s? Then your volunteer engagement process has room for
improvement. Look at where you have opportunities to improve your volunteer
engagement practices.
Do you score mostly 1s? It is not unusual to start developing a young volunteer
engagement strategy from the ground up. Identify specifi c ways to develop greater
competency in volunteer engagement and nurture volunteer talent.
Exercise 1: Gather your expert team together and compl ete the following
Opportunities Volunteer Engagement exercis e to explore your organization and
break out the myth ” Volunteers want only what you want …”:
Characteristics of
young volunteers Possible Practices Opportunities in My
Organization
1. Demographics • Offer fl exible work
schedules and locations
• Offer short -term volunteer
opportunities that have clear
beginnings, middles, and
ends
• Create volunteer positions
that can minimaze or expand
as the volunteer has
less/more available time …………………………………..
…………………………………..
………………………………… ..
2. Behaviors • Create volunteer career …………………………………..
70
path
• Be prepared for loyalty to a
volunteer assignment, not
loyalty to the nonprofi t
• Market your NGO t o youth
who may volunteer later …………………………………..
…………………………………..
3.Preferences/Motivati
ons • Create an engagement style
that is highly participatory
instead of top -down
• Enc ourage youth to design
or refi ne their own volunteer
positio ns
• Tell them how their
volunteer work will impact
the community
• Facilitate them to be
involved in organizational
change
• Offer learning opportunities
and provide professional
development
• Empower young volunteers
to give feedback, take
initiative , and recruit others
• Design rewards that match
each volunteer‘s motivation
…………………………………..
…………………………………..
…………………………………..
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Exercise 247: Posted Engaged Volunteerism – gather your young volunteer team
together and do this exercise in order to analyze and understand their
thoughts /ideas on different aspects of engagement topic . In this exercise
participants react to three Engaged Volunteerism statements by jotting down short
responses on sticky notes. Below are three statements :
As a volunteer, I expect to be engaged in the following manner within
this organization ….
As a volunteer, I feel the following values should drive the engagement
practices of th is organziat ion …
The following words or statements describe my ideal engagement
solutions … here in this organization
Note that this format will work with a variety of topics – simply write proper
statements that support the topic. The facilitator sets aside three wall sp aces for
the notes to be posted – one area for each statement. After the notes are posted,
participants are divided into three teams, one for each grouping. Each team then
combines, synthesizes, rearranges, and/or groups their notes. It is each team‘s job
to draw three to five conclusions based on the notes. After t hat, each team reports
their conclusions. This approach could lead to :
• Seeing the NGO with fresh eyes
• Reflectin g on what works well/ works not so well
• Considering how something could happen
• Discovering available assets that are un – or under -utilized
• Realizing that everyone has something to offer
• Gathering possible solutions for the NGO, assets and strengths .
47 Adapted from Tom Siebold – Studyingforcollege.com
72
Exercise 3: the following questions are open -ended, and will provide a
―snapshot‖ into current methods of engaging youth48 within your NGO. Please
provide as much detail as you can and use further space if you like.
1. In what ways does your organization incorporate youth -friendly forms of
expression (e.g., role -paly, story telling etc)?
2. In what ways does your organization encourage young volunteers to take
healthy risks and try new things?
3. How does the organization ensure that young volunteers know they are mak ing
a difference?
4. What training is done for your experts on understanding young people and
being strong youth allies?
5. What structures and strategies exist to effectively engage youth as volunteers?
6. How does the organization serve the social devel opment/professional
development needs of its youth volunteers?
Tool of engagement 1 : Experimenting grid – focus on success and
learning in activities done with the young volunteers:
The steps are :
A. create an environment which allows to try -out something else, regardless
the outcome
B. actually plan (with your volunteers ) to try -out new stuff
and
C. focus on the learning.
‖Trying -out‖ basically means experimenting. It could be whatever: a new
approach, a new practice, a different technique, … you don't know the outcome,
you make an educated guess. List your assumptions. A few recommendations:
– select a limited numb er of experiments (may be just one ) (as with any action
point for improvement); and plan to ―execute‖ the exp eriment the next iteration
48 Engaged youth are those who work with a passion and feel a profound connection to their NGO and drive innovation and
move the organization f orward.
73
(for instance: t he next 2 weeks)
– regardless of the outcome, plan to discuss and evalu ate the experiment at the
next ‖retrospective‖ . An experiment should be evaluated quantitatively and
qualitatively – specify the ―evaluation metrics‖ beforehand.
– focus on the learning: what did you learn? In the end, do you consider the
outcome a success or a failure? When not convinced, you can plan to extend the
experiment. Or crea te a different experiment. In teams of volu nteers , there are a
lot of dynamics – different backgrounds, different opinions, no consensus – and
that's okay. The point is to agree to not -agree and to plan an experiment and
evaluate the outcome. Questions to ask yourselves – focus on the following
questions:
1. What did we do well?
2. What did we learn?
The first question helps you to focus on the positive outcome. It's essential to
celebrate successes – do not only focus on bad stuff happening. The second
question helps you and your volunteers to real ly think about learnings. In fact, it's
not tha t important if you fail or succeed, it's important to learn (from successes
and failures). Remember : FAIL = First Attempt In Learning.
OUTCOMES BEHAVIORS succes
Sss Mistakes
Experiments Practices failure
LEARNING!!!!
74
The grid helps you and your young volunteers to keep track of successes, failures
and experiments. And most importantly to focus on learning. Behaviors can be
mistakes, experiments, or practices – these can have a successful outcome or not.
Look at the different parts of the canvas:
Successful outcome
Mistakes (unintentionally) may have a positive outcome, let's evaluate and
perhaps: turn them into a practice
Run experiments. Evaluate, celebrate successes.
Practices with a successful out come you should keep
Unsuccessful outcome
Do not repeat practices (mistakes) which lead to failure
Run experiments. Evaluate, learn from failures.
Practices may fail, you evaluate why. Is it a one -time failure? Can you improve?
Learning is optimal when the probability of success or failure is equal. ―Practices‖
in the broad sense, this includes relationship to people, tools, techniques.
Experimentation is a powerful tool of engagement. Create a culture of
experimenting. Time -box the experiments. When the ex periment turns out to be a
failure, it had a small cost. Ma ke sure to plan the experiments and make sure to
evaluate the se experiments at a regular time together with the volunteers .
Tool of engagement 2: create a NGO environment based on:
1. Nurture human re sources diversity (experts and volunteers).
2. Create TEAMS .
3. Rely on merits.
4. Have no prejudicies.
5. Update the workplace – fun, flexibility and relevance .
6. Change constraints.
7. Open boundaries.
75
Tool of engagement 3: Mapping Youth Engagement activities – this
method is a pplied by young volunteers them selves. Steps:
1. in pair of two they t hink about a week in your organization .
2. they d raw a map in the box below illustrating a TYPICAL youth engagement
actions they might experience.
3. they s tart with waking up and go through the week to the end of that week.
4. they could repeat the process for at least one week per month.
5. reflect together on the map. Take actions and made changes if it is needed .
Tool of engagement 4: Happiness Door49 – it is a technique which
mixes the Feedback Wall and the Happiness Index . It brings together team
collaboration , expert and volunteers engagement , and open and honest feedback.
Like the Feedback Wall, the Happiness Door really is often just Post -Its with
feedback written on them, and, like the Happiness Index, it assumes that people
can act as the best gauge of their own happiness level.
Your Happiness Door can be on any visible space where people give feedback in
three groupings: things that make attendees happy, things they feel neutral about
and things they didn‘t like. It can be as general as a thanks to as specific as why or
49 Jurgen Appelo, ‖Workout: Games, T ools&Practices to Engage People, Improve Work and Delight Clients‖, 2014
ENGAGING MAP OF THE WEEK
……..
76
why not the y didn‘t like a certain task . All feedback shared on the Happiness
Door is a nonymous yet publicly made. It can be about a certain topic or project –
in which the people who post first will inevitably affect others‘ feedback – or it
can be a long -term, ongoing feedback gathering. It‘s often on a door because it
gives people to more freely post as they are entering or exiting, as well as it‘s a
place everyone passes regularly. And it doesn‘t have to be Post -Its or written at
all. Get as creative as you want, so long as you encourage open and honest
feedback. Collective happiness and collaboration comes from being able to share
the good, the bad, and the ugly. And how else could we all improve on things
without specific feedback?
Tool of engagement 5: Immerse Volunteers In Context – with a
curious mindset, inspiration and new perspectives and solutions can be found in
many places and without much preparation. This method is s harpen ing young
volunteers skills i n observing the world around them (in organization and in
community) . They sh ould prepare their observations – choosing a place where
they can have an experience that is relevant to their challenge /NGO problems .
For example, if they are looking for new ideas on more secure arrival and
departure procedures at children ‘s school s, drive up to the drop off area, just as
parents do, and try to stop, wait and go. They could think of certain aspects of the
experie nce they w ant to capture, such as:
What emotions do they experience (surprises, frustrations, motiva tions,
decision making fa ctors) ?
Why do they experience such emotions and feelings?
What are peoples‘ moving patterns in space?
Explore and take notes and … actions: they t ry to blend i n with everyone else
during their observation. Find a spot that‘s out of the way. Take notes a nd photos.
Capture interesting quotes. Draw sketches, plans and layouts.
77
Capture what they have seen . Immediately after their observation, take some time
to analyze th emselves the things they found most interestin g and write them on
Post-it. Then they could propose some solutions, some ideas and decide what will
be put it into practice.
Tool of engagement 6: Storytelling50 – it is a powerful catalyst for
connecting people to each other and places. These types of connections are
essential ingredients for positive change within organizations. Stories are a useful
lens for collectively examining and formulating the necessary steps to decide, act,
to be deeply involved in the tasks. A sk young volunteers to share their stories or
other people stories. Imagine volunteers swapping stories about why a place is
important to them, a recent event that affected their perspective or a local
landmark that holds strong memories.
Equally important, and maybe more, would be the developmen t of high level of
shared understanding and empathy, which would go a long way in navigating the
hard work of achie ving common ground on new initiatives and projects or social
enterprises . Stories created by youth have the benefit of be ing authentic and
heartfelt, original, and inspiring. Young volunteers storytelling can also be
incorporated into a program‘s design, thereby contributing to the achievement of
desired outcomes, for example, self -esteem and the capacity for self -reflection
and effective commu nication – all key life skills. Youth stories can also contribute
to overall evaluation efforts through the capturing of qualitative results.
Utilizing s tory as a tool to keep volunteers connected to your purpose, your
beneficiaries/ clients, each other and your leadership will help ensu re that they will
not ‖just turn up‖ but will be great champions for you and your cause and
organization .
50 “Stories give shape to experience and allow us to go through life unblind. You can laugh, feel awe, commit a compassionate
act, get mad, and want to change things.‖ Norman Maclean, Author
78
Section 6
Motivating and rewarding young volunteers
As young volunteer b eing entrepreneurial51 is not always as easy as we think.
Nevertheless, it is so positive not only for the NGO but also for the youth being
active and willing to change things.
It is true that in many organizations the ―normal‖ role of volunteers in NGO has
always been to obey with the orders of the coordinator and, just do simply tasks.
The volunteers are not participating and they are not a ‖real‖ part of the NGO life.
This lack of participation is, directly, translated in a poor sustainability what could
cause the NGO ‘ ‖death ‖.
To understand very well what motivational tools and methods you could use in
your NGO for young volunteers it is better to know why volunteers leave an
organization.
Why volunteer turnover is so high in some organisations?
Paid staff and managers in some organisations resent spending any time or money
on involving volunteers. They regard it as a waste of resources because, in their
opinion, volunteers are so unreliable. It is the right time to think about wh y we
51 ‖The only way to do great work is to love what you do‖. Steve Jobs
•motivate, reward!As NGO
do not forget
79
sometimes fi nd it so hard to keep volunteers – and in addition, blaming the
volunteers ! Here are common reasons for their leaving:
‖I did not understand what I suppose to do and why‖
‖the organization has taken advantage on me‖
‖I did not felt involved‖
‖I did n ot feel welcome‖
‖I wanted to be asked what I would like to do‖
‖Nobody ever thank you to me‖
‖I did not being given a task without a freedom of choice‖.
BE SURE THAT YOU ARE STARTING OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT!
In order for young volunteers to continue volunteering they must feel valued, see
results of their work and be respected. Here are the top reasons why people
stop volunteering (in order of importance) :
”Their niceness will let you
recruit a volunteer for the
first time, but only your
competence will let you keep
them!”
McCurley & Lynch, Volunteer Now
80
Number 9:
• They are underutilized
Number 8:
• The physica l environment does not support their efforts
Number 7:
• The atmosphere is impersonal, tense or cold
Number 6:
• They make suggestion s that are not acted on, or responded to
Number 5:
• They do not know how to say they want to leave
Number 4:
• They do not see the connection between one day's work and another
Number 3:
• Veteran long term volunteers wouldn't let them into th eir "insider" group
Number 2:
• Employees treat them as an interruption, not as welcome (and anticipated) help
Number 1:
• The reality of their experience is not what they expect when they sign on.
BOX 6
MOTIVATION
Effective volunteer motivation is critical to the success of your organization. The
time, talent and treasure provided by volunteers help you maximize results in
working toward your mission. Nonprofit organizations shouldexercise fair and
equitable volunte er management practices that attract and retain qualified
individuals. An effectively volunteers program or project can build an
organization's efficiency, enhance community engagement, provide specialized
expertise, and increase the community's awareness of issues and resources
through a knowledgeable pool of ambassadors and and donors.
81
How to motivate and stay motivated?
Motivation gives energy to the young volunteers and holds the NGO ‘team
together. When youth are part of a motivated group in a positive working
environment, they will feel more comfortable to express their ideas and be more
productive. Nevertheless, reaching a proper level of motivation is not that easy.
Motivating and rewarding presents the following benefits52:
Puts human resources into action. You can have wonderful volunteers but if
they do not feel motivated enough, they will go plain with no engagement
for actions, initiatives or entrepreneurial projects.
Improve efficiency. It is well -know that a motivated person works more
and bett er as he/she feels great.
Leads to achievement. If they work with motivation -rewarding methods
within organization, reaching their goals could be a motivation itself.
Builds friendly relationships. A motivated and joint group of young
volunteers feels like a family so the team will work happy and relax.
Leads to stability of volunteers force. If you motivate and reward your
volunteers and and make them be an important part of the group and
organization and count on them when decisions are taken, you create a
strong and stable ties.
A volunteers ‘motivation inventory53 identifies ten key motivational categories :
1. Values whereby the individual volunteers in order to express or act on firmly
held beliefs of the importance for one to help others .
2. Reciprocity whereby the individual volunteers in the belief that ‖what goes
around comes around‖ . In the process of helping others and ‖doing good‖ their
volunteering work will also bring about good things for the volunteer themselves.
52 according to the website Management Study Guide
53 Research Project -Developing the Volunteer Motivation Inventory to Assess the Underlying Motivational Drives –
undertaken by CLAN WA Inc.
82
3. Recognition whereby the indi vidual is motivated to volunteer by being
recognised for their skills and contribution.
4. Understanding whereby the individual volunteers to learn more about the world
through their volunteering experience or exerci se skills that are often unused.
5. Sel f-Esteem whereby the individual volunteers to increase their own feelings of
selfworth and self -esteem.
6. Reactivity whereby the individual volunt eers out of a need to ‖heal‖ and
address their own past or current issues.
7. Social whereby the individual volunteers and seeks to conform to normative
influences of significant others (e.g. friends or family) .
8. Protective whereby the individual volunteers as a means to reduce negative
feelings about themselves, e.g. guilt or to address personal problems .
9. Social Interaction whereby the individual volunteers to build social networks
and enjoys the social aspects of interacting with others.
10. Career Development whereby the individual volunteers with the prospect of
making connections with people and gain ing experience and skills in the field that
may eventually be beneficial in assisting them to find employment.
What leads to success within a NGO ?
When talking about motivation, you need to take into account three elements: the
leader, the volunteers and the environment around them.
a) The leader. The leader is the one that coordinates a group of people to reach,
successfully, the objectives indicated. Leadership does not mean dominate the
team but encourage them and detect the strong point of everyone in order to
utilise it. Some characteristic s54 every good leader must have:
• Chase a particular objective. It is proven that a good leader and a
good investor are engage only in projects that deserve the effort. It is
54 According to CAE (Computer Aided Education)
83
very important to analyse the different ven tures you are able to join
to ensure a real s uccess.
• Transmit serenity and calm. A good leader needs to be calm in front
of his/her team. Managing a project can take too long and many
issues can arise so, it is a leader task to stay calm and control the
situation.
• Flexibility and perseverance. When starting a project or new
activities you start with some ideas but they could be changed and it
is the responsibility of a good leader to be flexible and capable of
changing his/her mind. On the other hand, be p erseverant is essential.
• Be a breeding ground. The leader needs to create a comfortable
working environment so the volunteers are more willing to present
their ideas. One the ideas are on the table, the whole team can start
working and improving them. Tha t is how a team works.
• Value people. A leader is able to see the abilities in a person as well
as to help him/her to express what is inside.
• Make relationships. Respect is essential to proper function inside a
working group. The leader is going to spend many hours working
and coordinating the volunteers and also ensuring good relationship
among them.
The leader ‘s first role with the NGO b oard and staff is to share with enthusiasm
the value of volunteers and learn to articulate the need for capacity buildi ng. An
organization can begin with an assessment of its current strengths and challenges
related to volunteer s motivation . The leader need s to challenge the organization to
think creatively about how the expertise of young volunteers can be utilized in
high level functions such as training, marketing, technology, human resources,
legal and financial. And, of course, in an entrepreneurial project !
84
b) The volunteers: in most NGOs , performance is the result of the combined
effort of individual volunteers . It is therefore conceivable that the crossover of
motivation among members of the same work team increases performance. There
is a s rossover or emotional contagion that could be defined as the transfer of
positive (or negative) experiences from one perso n to the other. If young
volunteers influence each other with their work engagement, they may perform
better as a team. The positive mood contagion consequently resulted in more
cooperative behavior and better task performance. In a similar vein, the A good
leader
knows
how to Monitor
Manage
Unite
Accept OrientateTrainRepresent
85
resea rchers found that when leaders were in a positive (v ersus negative) mood,
individual team members experienced more positive and less negative mood.
Thus, motivated and engaged young volunteers who communicated their
optimism, positive attitudes and pro -active behaviors to their colleagues, created a
positive team climate, independent of the demands and resources they were
exposed to. This suggests that motivated volunteers influence their colleagues,
and consequently, they perform better than a team.
c) The environment: it is proven that a good working environment has a huge
impact on the productivity and creativity of a team of volunteers . Creating a
positive environment is a relevant task within the NGO . A good environment is
based on:
• Positive actions an d tasks
• Rewarding
• Recognition of efforts
• Help when needed.
Motivation Tools
MonetaryNon –
monetary
86
Volunteering and remuneration: Can they co -exist? It is an accepted view that the
intrinsic rewards volunteers receive, with the exception of the reimbursement of
out-of-pocket expenses, are sufficient to sustain voluntary action. Any other form
of payment would re -define the activity a ltering the relationship into that of a paid
employee thus contradicting the voluntary nature of the activity.
Non-monetary incentives
These tools are free and equally rewarding:
Talking openly with the volunteers about their performance – frequent
feedba ck sessions.
Prov iding opportunities for volunteers development.
Providing volunteers with the possibility of creating their work program.
Trust and open communication .
Feedback has a key role when talking about motivation. Usually, when someone
does something wrong, we tell him/her is wrong, that things should not be done
that way. Because of that, we forget to give positive feedback.
When young volunteers are involve d in feed back activities based on a positive
evaluation , they feel their work is appreciated and that they are in the right track
to continue doing things. It also gives the m confid ence that they also could
evaluate themselves with more responsibilities .
"6R" tools of motivation:
Recognition – Volunteers want to be recognized for their contributions.
Respect – Volunteers want their values, culture, ideas, and time to be respected
and considered in the organization's activities. •Positive feedback is a
good way of motivation.Do not
forget
87
Role – Volunteers want a clearly meaningful role in the coalition that makes them
feel valuable and in which they can make a contribution.
Relationships – Volunteers want the opportunity to establish and build networks
both professionally and personally for greater influence and e njoyment.
Reward – Volunteers e xpect the rewards of participating in a collaborative
entrepreneurial project to outweigh the costs and to benefit from the relationships
established.
Results – Volunteers respond to visible results that are clearly linked to outcomes
that are important to them and that they can clearly link to their participation in
the organization.
Simple, cost effective ways to celebrate the effort and the work of volunteers
include:
Celebrating birthdays by sending a card in the mail or presenting them with
a cake
Celebrating length of service or milestones in a project with a volunteer
recognition certificate
List volunteers in external and internal communications, for example,
newsletters, annual reports, website and newspapers
Thank vo lunteers in speeches
Invite volunteers to your organisation's events and facilitate them to tell
themselves their stories
Hold a special volunteer recognition event
Send appreciation letters
Say thank you everyday.
Make volunteer appreciation a central par t of y our volunteer program and roles
not just a part of a specific recognition program, event or gesture.
Here's some ideas:
88
Make fun a part of the volunteer's work environment, such as providing
nice magazines, quality tea bags and home -made treats for volunteers to
share
Learn about how different things motivate different volunteers and build
these motivators into volunteer roles and programs to show you sincerely
appreciate their efforts
Offer to write a personal reference – this is especially apprecia ted by young
people looking to further their careers
Include a list of volunteers and their achievements on photo and bulletin
boards ; provide volunteer name badges and organise group photos.
Nominate a Volunteer for an Award at their Alma Mater. Many coll eges,
universities, and even high schools honor their alumni for community
service. Contact your volunteer‘s alma mater and submit a nomination for
their service award. Your volunteer will be both surprised and honored!
Plant a Tree in Their Honor. For a l asting sign of appreciation, plant a tree
on the grounds of your organization or in the volunteer‘s neighborhood.
Create a plaque to dedicate the tree in their honor.
Roll Out the Red Carpet. Give your volunteers the red carpet treatment to
show your appre ciation. Create your own Walk of Fame by putting the
names of all your volunteers on gold stars in a hallway of your building.
Make popcorn for your award ceremony and treat it with all the finesse and
flair of the Academy Awards .
Such tasks as rewarding and motivat ing, can lead to a
better performance anf creativity of volu nteers. They
become more entrepreneurial and they have more
initiatives within NGO.
89
Section 7
Potential obstacles for youth volunteers as agents of ch ange and social
entrepreneurs55
The employment situation of the majority of young people are now going t hrough
one of its worst moments and entrepreneurship seems to be one of the possible
solutions, together w ith training, of this labour and social issue. Nevertheless, not
everyone consider it as easy. This is why it is better to be aware of the main
obstacles you can face and how to solve them.
In the non profit field, youth can be entrepreneur in t wo differen t ways: being an
‖entrepreneur‖ volunteer in an organization which are developing and running a
social business or running their own non -profit association.
Many young people have the dream to be entrepreneurs in their own NGO, but
they see it as a very distant future. It is therefore quite important to find the best
way to make the idea possible to be able to undertake i t.
55 ‖A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new ‖. Albert Einstein
Two types of entrepreneurs
Volunteering
in a NGORunning a
NGO /social
entreprise
90
The profile of these young e ntrepreneurs is usually you ng people with great
innovative ideas and eager t o start workin g and run a NGO. They have the ability
to create business ideas and a lot of attitude to get it.
But these young entrepreneurs have many drawbacks, since they are young with
good ideas, but they do not have enough resources.
The main obstacles are: funding and training. There are two types of funding:
public and private. Private funding depends on sponsors while public one depends
on the government so if you, as young entrepreneur without to much experience,
you can have troubles to access them. Inex perience comes from the lack of
knowledge so both issues are strongly connected.
Many people desire to start own NGO and to follow his/her passion, but as
mentioned before , there are many obstacles to pass in order to get this. Here are
some of the mos t important ones:
Financial
Legal
Governmental
Social.
•Train yo urself thanks to online
courses, seminars and worksops
about entrepreneurship to get
the experience and knowledge
you need.Tip 1
91
If you want to run your own NGO, you need to be financially, legally,
governmentally and socially constituted.
On the other hand, if you are a young volunteer in a NGO and you want to have
an entrepreneurial attitude and learn valuable entrepreneurial skills you could
face different type of obstacles/ barriers . One s of them are pertaining to yourself:
Lack of time
Inability to make a long -term commitment
Not knowing how to involve yourself within an entrepreneurial project Financial Legal
Governmental SocialObstacles
•Youneed to be very well
informed about how to
set up your NGO.Tip 2
92
Unsure how to help the organization using your abilities
Feeling that your opinions and insights are not valued, respected or taken
into account
Lack of trust that you have the required skills for entrepreneurial initiatives
and projects
Other barriers come from the NGO:
Organization ‘ perception that youth need services and help instead of
seeing youth as having something valuable to give to organizations
Lack of entrepreneurial culture within NGO
NGO ‘ staff d oes not give enough responsibility to youth in their roles as
volunteers.
NGO ‘ staff does not give youth credits for consulting and cooperating with
them and the broader significance of their participation /involvement . Some
staff are completely resistant and don‘t understand the importance of fully
involvement of youth
Within the organization it is not created proper context w here young
volunteers can volunteer with other youth, including their friends
Not building meaningful relationships – getting to know th e individual
needs and talents of youth volunteers
Not being sensitive to differences – respecting gender, culture, language,
and especially age, being careful to avoid the perception of age
discrimination and recognizing youth have unique skills to offer
Not being flexible and accommodating – many youth have to juggle other
time commitments for school or part -time work. Also d iffering time frames
of youth and NGO : while youth tend to be action -oriented and prefer
immediate results, a less adaptable organ izational structure results in long
93
delays. The NGO should n eed new policies and practices that ensure youth
are responded to in a timely manner.
Not offering young volunteers benefits and incentives – such as volunteer
appreciation parties, concert or theatre tickets, or bus tickets for youth who
need transportation support to attend different activities or events
Inadequate resources: limited resources can prevent action, hamp er
programs or result in an overburdened staff. It is essential to seek additional
support through grants or newly created positions and to be creative in
reallocating resources. It is also important to remember that it doesn‘t take
much extra… to build relationships with youth
Organizational change required: training and structures to support youth
engagement need to be put in place.
Staff fears and resistanc e.
Not to m any young volunteers programs focused on social
entrepreneurship to help them to learn, grow and succeed instill ing a sense
of social awareness in each and every youth . Not encouraging each young
volunteer to think about major problems and issues that people in their
families , their groups and their community are facing . Not h elping them
develop ideas that can help alleviate those problems . Not having the tools
they need to make that idea a reality .
What can be done?
By organization:
As an organisa tion moves towards involvement and engagement of young
volunteers on entrepreneurial activ ities, the process of change needs to be
transparent and to involve experimentation, reflection and evaluation.
Overcoming these obstacles is possible b y aiming to become a learning
organisation that actively encourages working with youth as partners. Unfr eezing
94
of attitudes, procedures and styles of working that are resistant to change.
Challenging those unaware of the need for change. Pressure for change can come
from a number of sources, internal or external to the organisation. Try this! – how
to become a learning organisation56 very open in bre acking down barriers:
• Thrive on change – show a positive attitude to change.
• Encourage experimentation – give youth opportunities and confidence to take
risks.
• Communicate success and failure – accept mistakes as lessons. Share them as
you do successes.
• Facilitate learning from the surrounding environment – listen to a range of
stakeholders.
• Facilitate learning from staff through training and group learni ng.
• Reward learning – celebrate initiative and achievements.
• Promote a sense of caring – show trust, encourage staff and volunteers growth.
• Internalise new ways of working This makes sure that participation of yout as
actors of social change is no t short lived and is sustained and developed across the
organisation.
By Youth:
You as young volunteer need to have perseverance and patience, but mostly be
very optimistic, because a road with many opportunitie s also has many problems
that you must be ab le to cope.
56 CARE Zambia list the actions as the building blocks for a learning organisation. Patience
Positive AttitudePerseverance
95
Be analytical, enthusiastic, optimistic, and able to take risks, innovative, flexible
and dynamic among other factors. Be aware of other people, do not forget that
you are also able to create ideas, to improve and to stand out from others.
But often it frighte ns you the belief that creating your own NGO requires huge
experience and training . Thinking that your entrepreneurial project will never
work or considering to much the opinions of others prevent you to go ahead .
Be boldwithin an
NGOor MAYBE in
your own
organization!
Do not fo rget!
Personal development requires the ability to set personal goals, and the
know -how to attain them. This is what entrepreneurial learning for young
people is all about. Alongside finding out how to start a business, they acquire
practical skills and positive attitudes: greater awareness of society, a
sharpened appetite for active engagement, new competences and confidence
to play a part.
Formal qualifications do not always help young people when it comes to
solving problems, rising to challenges, assessing opportunities or taking risks.
Even managing a small project can be a real achievement for someone who
has never before faced such a challenge .
96
If you wan t to be a social entrepreneur the best way is to do it now. At the time
you choose, you must not wait any longer, if you have th e idea and the strength s,
it does not matter if you are too young . Being an entrepreneur is a way of life, it is
a job like any other but it costs more and o ver time is much more rewarding. You
just put all your efforts to achieve all the goals you set .
A sense of initiative and entrepreneurship refers to an individual‘s ability to turn
ideas into action. It includes creativity, in novation and risk -taking, as well as the
ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve objectives. This supports
individuals in their everyday lives at home and in society, and in the workplace. It
alerts them to the context they operate in, and makes them more ready to seize
opportunities.
To succeed as social entrepreneur you have to undertake necessary risks, but risks
with bases, making a business plan that can succeed in the market.
The first thin gs to do when being entrepreneur is:
Seek opportunities
Be creative
Be innovative
97
Do you mainly know , what are the possible issues you could face embarking on
such demanding journey ?
1. The lack of capital is the main problem face NGO social entrepreneurs,
usually a bank loan, which make goals difficult to achieve.
2. Money worries you , because being a new NGO, you do not have cash flow
3. Another difficulty is deciding what you will do in the NGO, being realistic
but at the same time confident and vreatuive. To do this you must analyze
the needs of people. You need figure oout and plan how how you will help
others, your community .
4. A greater responsibility on your shoulder being in charge of an NGO and a
group of people, decisions must be made carefully taking into consideration
all the factors that could affect your business
Entrepreneurship depends on:
For being an young social entrepreneur, courage and willingness to take risks are
the fundamentals. Mainly, you will need advice and wisdom to plan the first steps
and finally daring to develop your business idea.
Knowledge :including
the ability to identify
opportunities for
personal, professional
and/or
business activities;
Skills : in proactive project
management (planning,
organisation, leading and
delegating, analysis,
communication, evaluation
and recording),
representation and
negotiation, and working as
an
individual and in teams;
Attitude : characterised
by initiative,
independence and
innovation in personal
and social life, as much
as at work,
and motivation and
determination to meet
objectives.
98
If the entrepreneur is not prepared to confront and overcome the obstacles that are
found within a NGO or a social venture , the project will go directly to failure.
You must have a proper planning. The experience of being a young entrepreneur
is obtained b y exploring, investigating, learning , sharing and g ain experience, but
above all you must be focused on helping people who need it in good way.
Other kind of obstacles that make young social entrepreneurs to be slowed down:
1. Difficulty in forming a team:
The team is one of the main barriers when starting such project.
People are not ready to start a project without profit, and do not want to take the
responsibility and risk s on something that may not have immediate results.
2. Not be willing to tran fer shareholding:
Once having an idea, entrepreneurs could want to be the sole owners .
Sometimes it is possible that they prefer to have a project not so good , instead of
looking for strategic partners.
3. They do not understand deeper the real needs of the community :
The entrepreneur may want one thing for the NGO, but it is important to know the
real needs of people too. Entrepreneurs have to identify opportunities, seeking •Courage and williness
are key to sucessDo not
forget!
99
solutions to problems that may arise and take charge of soluti ons and everything
that entails the process.
4. Difficulty of making networking:
Positioning ideas , services and products is not easy; the networking is a
fundamental tool. If you do not get this network, you could give up the project.
5. Lack of ambition :
To undertake a social entrepreneurial project/enterprise , you have to feel it and
live it deeply; lack of passion and conviction can be a big wall on the path of the
entrepreneur.
6. Get Funding:
Sometimes social e ntrepreneurs seeking funding could not know where they can
find them, or think they can‘t find it. This factor becomes a mental barrier ; it is a
fear that unfortunately frighten s many people and make them giving up.
7. Culture and entrepreneurial passion:
Many entrepreneurs have culture and passion to be an entrepreneur. Usually the
first goal of people is to work for the civil service, or have a job and be paid for it .
There is still a "fear" to undertake an NGO /social enterprise , since this does not
leads to direct benefits.
8. Greater commitment:
When you s tart your own project, you know from the beginning that this will
require many hours of effort and dedication. Undertake, means in many cases, to
develop many skills and be able to put into practice all at once, that is being
100
"multit asking". Leading an entrepreneurial project is not just about helping others,
but the control and supervision of all activities and decisions made constantly.
If you want to be an agent of change as a volunteer with an entrepreneurial
mindset you should be also aware of ad ditional barriers:
1. Re luctance to ”make the first move”
Lack of confidence, the fear of not knowing anyone or simply stepping into an
unknown part of a city or a new social environment can all keep away a young
person from e ngaging in volunteering activities . For some the perceived Difficulty in
forming a team
Not be willing to
transfer
shareholding
Not have a correct
understanding of
the needs
Difficulty of
making
networking
Lack of ambitionGet FundingCulture and
entrepreneurial
passionGreater
commitment
101
bureaucracy that can be invol ved with the take up of formal volunteering roles is
also put forward as a deterrent.
2. Lack of information
Successfully accessing an appropriate volunteering opportunity will require
information on the range of opportunities and roles that do exist wit hin the local
area. Providing information on the available variation in the levels of volunteering
commitment, responsibility and the types of activity will help, in turn, to attract
the widest possible range of young people.
3. A sense that the young per son would not like it
Volunteer recruiters and managers will have a key role to play in providing the
necessary reassurances and in building acceptance amongst young people.
Perceived absence of any independence or au tonomy in the volunteering role.
Volunteering for many of those mean s more than simply fulfilling a minor role.
Many young people expressed an interest in having an input in organizational
decision making. A suspicion that one‘s opinions and insights would not be
valued or taken into account b y the organization have , however, deterred some
young people from getting involved.
4. Absence of positive volunteering role model and/or peer support
A model to follow is always useful, as we are sure of the steps we are taking,
nevertheless, we always have some fears; i ndeed , despite the ambition of the
person if he or she fears to fail, to not having success and not achieving his/her
goals, he/she will probably does it.
Due to of th e young age, people are reluctant to trust on their project, in
conseq uence the young volunteer has to promote the benefits of the youth:
102
Nevertheless, you can fight agai nst it and take advantage of your valuable
characteristics:
As young volunteer, deciding to be social entrepreneur is one of the best decisions
you can make and a logical step to move forward . Although everyone is going to
tell it is difficult with perseverance and a positive mind, everything is possible.
We all have the ability to set up a NGO or a social enterprise , and if we have the
support of our families, friends and people we trust, it makes the whole ‖road‖
easier and bearable.
It is t rue that when we embarking on a NGO we encounter many obstacles, but
these obstacles, if we want to, those can be overcame operating in an appropriate
manner. Sometimes we are our own enemies as we usually have a set of beliefs
and customs that are part of us, and if we not change we can‘t expect others to
change. If you inspire fears and insecurities to others, any project you wi ll make
will end in failure. And the most important of all is risk ing and having a lot of
initiative to achieve success.
dynamism
creativity
innovation
103
The desire to succeed and the pursuit of success will always be linked to personal
development, so it is very important to encourage, m otivate and train young
volunteers of NGOs to learn from every mistake commit ed. Everything is going
up from scratch and eventually end s up being something big. And a NGO or a
social enterprise is not the exception. In short, being a young social entrepren eur
could be an easy task with openness, commitment, courage and a high desire to do
GOOD .
Social
EntrepreneurshipEmpowerment Success
•be aware of obtacles
•be aware of their
solutions
•be aware about your
feelings and beliefsMinds
in
action!
104
Conclusions
What is LIVE Lab? It is an experience LIVE on developing a social enter prise
within a NGO for its susta inability. It is a TOGETHER way of working – NGO
and young volunteers.
We believe that LIVE Lab as innovative approach is the way forward, both for
volunteer satisfaction /engagement and for the continuous improvements that all
organisations are seeking. It is a way t hat go es beyond civic engagement to social
entrepreneurship . We believe that the answers to the NGOs most pressing
sustainability/impact problems come from the young volunteers. Every time a
NGO faces a new challenge, it should start with people, and keep th e youn g
volunteers at the core of the process. They are a lasting capital of organizational
stability and relevant development. EXPLORE
LEARN
DECIDE
ENGAGETAKE
ACTIONSCONNECTEVALUATE
105
LIVE Lab should not be considered as an all or nothing proposition or
approach; we a re not suggesting that it is just a unique solution in working with
volunteers. Every organization is different and thus the approach must be flexible
adjusted. It is not a black – white story. Parameters should be developed in a
permanent negotiation with young volunteers. Organizations shift thei r focus from
only recruiting for themselves. The aim is to put youth in a position of equality
and to treat volunteers as regenerative capital and supporters instead of
dispensable products.
LIVE Lab show s us how we could rethink volunteering in the light of the realities
of young people‘s lives. Instead of presenting volunteering as a given into which
young people should fit, we need to take the preferences and imperatives of young
people‘s lives as the ba sis, and reshape volunteering to accommodate them.
LIVE Lab must be seen not as a path with narrows options. Rather it must be
viewed as a variety of wise action, to strengthen what works and learn from what
fails. It needs and on going shift in the way you ng volunteers are invited, engaged
and included in the work, it needs a strong core NGO team and it needs a learning
and experimental environment that accepts the uncertainty of the work but
supports the higher shared purpose. In short it is a framework fo r sustaining
learning over time and improving outcomes in an ever spiralling cycle of
improvement and engagement (NGO -young volunteers) for developing
sustainability through SOCIAL ENTERPRISE .
NGOs are invited and encouraged to use the se way of working with youth as a
tool that can be shap ed or adapted to suit not only to the organizational needs but
also to the needs, interest s and ability of the young volunteers .
In short, it is up to you deciding how to shape up your LIVE Lab as yout h
volunteering valuable experience which combines engagement with the social
entrepreneurship .
106
57
57 Source of image: https://www.dreamstime.com
107
Sources of inspiration:
1. PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SECOND EDITION, NIH
Publication No. 11 -7782, Printed June 2011
2. Sianne Morgan,Torfaen Jane Davies, Carmarthen Hayley Wood, ENABLING
PARTICIPATON BY YOUNG PEOPLE
3. Treseder, P., 1997, Empowering Children and Young People, Training Manual,
4. Adolescents and Civil Engagement: Social Entrepreneurship and Young People
© United Nations Children‘s Fund (UNICEF), New York, 2007
5. NATIONAL STANDARDS for Involving Volunteers in NOT -FOR -PROFIT
ORGANISATIONS, Volunteering Australia Inc., 2nd Edition.
6. Tom McKee , Jonathan McKee – The New Breed, Understanding and Equiping
the 21st Century Volunteer
7. As Good As They Give Providing volunteers with the management they
deserve, DSD and Volunteer Now, 2012
8. Colin Rochester, Making sense of volunteering, The Comission on the Future
of Volunteering, 2006
9. Volunteer Connections: New strategies for involving youth, ©Volunteer
Canada, 2001
108
Web sites:
http://associationsnow.com/2013/05/the -shifting -model -for-volunteer –
engagement/
http://www.volunteerscotland.net/media/704138/why_volunteering_matters –
screen.pd f
http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary -sector -network/2013/mar/22/statistics –
changes -volunteering -levels
http://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_new_volunteer_workforce
http://thenewmentality.ca/wp -content/uploads/2014/03/Ready -Set-engage. pdf
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