About
What counts as a volunteer? Research into fifty years of Australian volunteering data shows the answer has been rewritten again and again, and that what gets counted tends to lag well behind what the sector says it values.
Think about the person who spent three hours organizing your storage closet. Or the community member who drove two hours to get discounted instruments for your program. Or the handful of people who share every post you publish. Most volunteer databases don't have a box to track any of them.
In this episode we trace how a definition gets built and what happens in our own organizations when what we say we value and what we actually count drift apart.
Think about the person who spent three hours organizing your storage closet. Or the community member who drove two hours to get discounted instruments for your program. Or the handful of people who share every post you publish. Most volunteer databases don't have a box to track any of them.
In this episode we trace how a definition gets built and what happens in our own organizations when what we say we value and what we actually count drift apart.