Divestment from enabling volunteerism has consequences. Right now, Canada needs more infrastructure to engage volunteers.

Volunteer Toronto is thrilled to publish a new opinion editorial (op-ed) via The Philanthropist Journal. Authored by Volunteer Toronto's Senior Director of Strategy & Growth, Cara Eaton, the op-ed unpacks the need for volunteer infrastructure and enablers, like volunteer centres, volunteer managers, grassroots leaders and community organizers to reanimate community participation.

Read the full op-ed here or an excerpt below:

“Some communities have volunteer centres. Others have service clubs or churches, recreation centres, or grassroots networks. Maybe there’s a volunteer manager – or someone called an organizer or advocate who plays that role without the title. The infrastructure looks different everywhere. But every community has enablers. How it happens can be beautifully unique and meaningful. Some might say magical....

But we do a disservice to those enablers when we pretend engagement just happens. When we thank only the volunteer, and not the person – or the infrastructure – that created the opportunity. We see this assumption all the time when companies ask for a turnkey volunteer day but aren’t willing to pay for the labour – often a volunteer manager’s time – required to design and deliver it.

Volunteering can’t be a defining part of our civic life, or our way of enabling a significant portion of our non-profit sector, unless we understand and support what it takes to make it real...

The number one complaint we hear from would-be volunteers? “I never heard back.” That’s not a signal of disinterest; it’s a sign that many non-profits no longer have the capacity to follow up, let alone cultivate long-term engagement. And we lose people before they’ve even had a chance to contribute....Enablers are the secret to civic engagement, the magicians behind the community activation wand that when wielded makes participation possible.

When non-profits have dedicated volunteer managers, they engage 16 times more volunteers than those without.

When governments fund local volunteer centres, communities and non-profits are better resourced with skilled, committed people. When grassroots leaders are uplifted with microgrants or training, our neighbourhoods come alive – reducing isolation and building resilience before the next crisis. We don’t need to invent something new. We just need to invest in the people and infrastructure already enabling connection so that volunteerism and civic participation can resurge in the unique ways each community needs.”