Making The Invisible Visible: Capturing the Multidimensional Value of Volunteerism to Nonprofit Organizations

Volunteers represent an important part of the nonprofit labor pool, and their contributions are diverse and significant. Yet, the assessment of the value that they bring to nonprofit organizations often is reduced to a few numbers and understood to be an economic decision based on their absence of wages. This value is traditionally reported as volunteer numbers, hours, and an hourly financial value assigned to volunteer time. These data are important tools for articulating volunteer contributions. However, the emphasis on numbers and economic value sometimes obscures important dimensions of service. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was to reveal more dimensions of volunteer value by assessing perceptions of the traditional metrics and introducing new lenses for interpreting volunteer value. It was written using the three-paper format. The first paper used Q methodology to study the perceptions of funders, nonprofit executives, and volunteer administrators. Thirty participants ranked their preferences for 41 diverse indicators of volunteer value in a Q sort and discussed how they made meaning of their sorts. Factor and qualitative analyses of the data revealed that participants gave the traditional volunteer numbers, hours, and financial value metrics mixed reviews. Their preferences did not align by stakeholder group. However, all participants demonstrated a more nuanced understanding of service than is found in traditional volunteer value measures. The second paper introduced the gift economy as a companion framework for the economic model that undergirds the common measures of volunteer value. It named and integrated additional dimensions of service (e.g., spiritual, social, meaning making) with notions of economic value. The third paper combined the Q data with interview data from 10 experts on volunteer value. The analysis showed two value propositions of volunteers: volunteers as cost savings or as mission support/value add. The paper concluded with adaptive leadership principles that can support nonprofit leaders in blending both value propositions. Collectively, the papers demonstrate dimensions of volunteer service that are important but overlooked by those who rely on traditional volunteer metrics. Identifying and studying these dimensions can contribute to a holistic understanding of volunteerism that supports more strategic volunteer practices and more robust explanations of volunteer value

2013 Volunteering in San Diego: A Needs Assessment

In Fall 2011, Volunteer San Diego closed its doors leaving a perceived gap in volunteer matching services in the region. Nonprofit and corporate leaders anecdotally indicated that the remaining volunteer matching services and programs were not meeting local needs sufficiently. The University of San Diego\u27s Caster Center for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Research conducted a needs assessment with support from local funders to better understand the nature of San Diego\u27s volunteer matching needs.https://digital.sandiego.edu/npi-volunteering/1000/thumbnail.jp

State of Nonprofits Annual Report: 2013

It is hard to believe, but prior to the Caster Center’s first publication in 2006, A Spotlight on San Diego’s Third Sector, nobody knew how many nonprofits were located in San Diego County, let alone anything about their major activities, capacity, or contributions to our larger economy. Since that time, the Caster Center team has been pushing the boundaries of nonprofit data collection to tell the sector’s story in a more timely, complete, and meaningful way. This report represents a new milestone in these ongoing efforts. Much has transpired since the publication of the Center’s first report, not only in the nonprofit sector, but also in the lives of the 3 million San Diegans served by these organizations. Together we have weathered the most challenging economic conditions since the Great Depression and are adapting to its myriad and lasting effects. And, although it appears that the worst is behind us, our community and its organizations are forever changed as a result. This report chronicles the economic health and well-being of San Diego’s nonprofit sector over that time and documents the current state of the sector as expressed by its leaders.https://digital.sandiego.edu/npi-stateofnp/1000/thumbnail.jp

State of Nonprofits Annual Report: 2013

It is hard to believe, but prior to the Caster Center’s first publication in 2006, A Spotlight on San Diego’s Third Sector, nobody knew how many nonprofits were located in San Diego County, let alone anything about their major activities, capacity, or contributions to our larger economy. Since that time, the Caster Center team has been pushing the boundaries of nonprofit data collection to tell the sector’s story in a more timely, complete, and meaningful way. This report represents a new milestone in these ongoing efforts. Much has transpired since the publication of the Center’s first report, not only in the nonprofit sector, but also in the lives of the 3 million San Diegans served by these organizations. Together we have weathered the most challenging economic conditions since the Great Depression and are adapting to its myriad and lasting effects. And, although it appears that the worst is behind us, our community and its organizations are forever changed as a result. This report chronicles the economic health and well-being of San Diego’s nonprofit sector over that time and documents the current state of the sector as expressed by its leaders.https://digital.sandiego.edu/npi-stateofnp/1000/thumbnail.jp

Outcomes in Newly Diagnosed Atrial Fibrillation and History of Acute Coronary Syndromes: Insights from GARFIELD-AF

BACKGROUND: Many patients with atrial fibrillation have concomitant coronary artery disease with or without acute coronary syndromes and are in need of additional antithrombotic therapy. There are few data on the long-term clinical outcome of atrial fibrillation patients with a history of acute coronary syndrome. This is a 2-year study of atrial fibrillation patients with or without a history of acute coronary syndromes