SM Goh Chok Tong at the Opening Plenary of the 21st International Association For Volunteer Effort (IAVE) World Volunteer Conference 2011

I am happy to be here to open the 21st International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) World Volunteer Conference. I wish your conference every success. I also wish to take the opportunity to congratulate IAVE on its 40th anniversary and the United Nations on the 10th anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers.

Benefits of Volunteerism

Volunteers have made a difference in every society, at every level and in every sector. A good example is when a natural disaster happens. Hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of volunteers will rush to undertake humanitarian and disaster relief work, often at great risk to their own safety. We see them doing their utmost during the 2004 Asian tsunami, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the 2010 Haiti earthquake and more recently, the floods in Australia. They raised funds, sent supplies, consoled those affected and rebuilt homes. They gave selflessly. Tennis players like Federer and Nadal even took time off from their preparation for the Australian Tennis Open to play exhibition matches to raise funds for the flood victims.

Volunteers also make a difference to the success of large-scale national events. Without the 20,000 volunteers, Singapore would not have successfully hosted the inaugural 2010 Youth Olympic Games.

Often unnoticed, however, are the thousands of volunteers who quietly and regularly give their time to help others. These are people who volunteer with non-profit organizations week after week, year after year. They are dedicated and committed. From mentoring and reading to children from low-income households to visiting and comforting elderly persons, thousands of ordinary people are helping others every day.

Volunteers in the charity sector help those who fall between the cracks in society which the state and private sectors cannot fill properly. They provide the gentle human touch to the needy and a compassionate voice for the helpless. An active volunteering community thus fosters social cohesion and narrows social divides. It makes for a kinder, gentler and happier society.

Volunteerism Rates

Behavioural economists still cannot properly explain why people volunteer. Why do people give their time and services willingly without expecting any compensation or benefits? While there is no definitive answer, it is heartening that volunteer rates have been rising in many countries, including Canada, Australia and Hong Kong. In Singapore, the volunteerism rate more than doubled in the last 10 years, from a low 9% in the year 2000 to 23% last year. Singapore, however, is a young nation and has much to learn about nurturing volunteerism. Therefore, I am glad that Singapore was given the privilege of hosting the 21st IAVE World Volunteer Conference. We will benefit from the many top thinkers and practitioners who have come to discuss and exchange ideas on developing volunteerism.

Volunteer Development Strategies

Around the world, there are two demographic trends which will change volunteerism. First, the youth of today, what we call the Gen Y, have very different interests and motivations. The Conference theme, “Volunteering to Change the World”, echoes the aspirations of today’s youth, many of whom wish to play their part in bringing about a better world. Volunteerism appeals to youths because the Gen Y wants to participate in social transformations. Volunteering allows them to acquire new skills, gain new experiences, meet new people and form new networks.

One example given to me is the nominee for the 2010 CNN Heroes award, Evans Wadongo. Evans is from a rural village in Kenya which did not have electricity. He could not finish his homework and was upset with his poor examination performance. In 2004, when he was only 18, Evans used solar-panel and scrap metal to invent a solar-powered LED (light-emitting diode) lantern to provide light for his village. This invention not only helped villagers save money on fuel and spend more on food, but also allowed children to study with proper lighting. A non-profit organisation supported Evans by purchasing excess pieces of solar panelling and volunteers came on board to make lanterns for poor villagers. Evans’ project has distributed 10,000 lanterns, free of charge, and more than 65,000 people have benefited. The story of Evans Wadongo shows us how a group of volunteers can change the lives of many.

Second, populations are ageing in many developing and developed countries as people live longer. The baby boomers, with their wealth of experience and skills, are a large pool of potential volunteers. They make up 20% of the US population and close to 30% of the resident population in Singapore. The baby boomers generally look after their health and remain young at heart. They have lots of energy, experience and wealth. They have more time to volunteer and can make longer-term commitments. Volunteering allows them to continue to contribute to society, maintain their social networks, retain their self-worth and dignity, and age actively. Their involvement in the volunteer sector will have a large impact on their community.

Many people, especially youths and seniors, are intrinsically willing to volunteer and the trends suggest that the desire to do so is increasing. In Singapore, we try to make the volunteering experience more meaningful, so that non-profit organisations and volunteers can continue to drive more innovative and impactful programmes. I would like to share three ideas to promote volunteering: Flexible Volunteering; Satisfying Volunteering; and Informal Volunteering.

Flexible Volunteering - Facilitate Volunteering Opportunities

First, we need to make it easier for people to volunteer. Understandably, non-profit organisations prefer regular volunteers who show up daily or weekly. However, in today’s fast-paced world, most people are too busy to make long term volunteering commitments. Some are in fact too busy to even search for suitable volunteering opportunities. We need to adapt to this reality. One way of attracting new volunteers is to make volunteering easier by breaking volunteer opportunities into flexible and bite-sized chunks.

New York Cares was founded by a group of friends who wanted to do something about the social issues facing New York City in the 1980s. However, they met many difficulties when they tried to volunteer. So they started New York Cares. Volunteers can register on New York Cares’ website for one-off short-term volunteering assignments, which can be as short as an hour, or medium-term volunteering jobs. Today, New York Cares mobilises more than 50,000 volunteers to serve 400,000 New Yorkers. As pioneers of flexible volunteerism, New York Cares has inspired the likes of many organisations that are participating in this conference, like Hands On Manila, Hands On Shanghai and our very own Singapore Cares or SG Cares. In just over a year, Singapore has witnessed the impact of flexible volunteering: over 8,000 volunteers have registered with SG Cares and 60% are first-time volunteers. Another example is the UN Volunteers programme, which had engaged 14,000 online volunteers in a broad range of activities, from researching to preparing funding proposals; all done during the volunteers’ spare time and without requiring them to leave their homes.

The success of these organisations shows the importance of adapting volunteerism to a changing world. Setting up flexible volunteer activities requires non-profit organisations to change the way they do things. They will need to put in more effort to manage a larger pool of short-term or flexible volunteers. However, the additional effort is worth it as they stand to benefit much more in the long term from more volunteers.

Satisfying Volunteering - Volunteer Management and Retention

Second, people need to have satisfying volunteering experiences so that they will continue to volunteer. Continuously recruiting but not retaining volunteers is not a sustainable strategy. Unfortunately, volunteer management is often neglected, and is considered secondary to serving clients. This is short term thinking. In the United States, more than one-third of volunteers leave after serving one year. In Singapore, approximately 17% of volunteers do not return the following year. We have to manage volunteers better so that they come back. Repeat volunteers are highly valuable; they become more effective as their rapport with clients and staff improves over time. There will also be savings on re-training costs.

Volunteers who are given meaningful tasks, who feel appreciated and who generally enjoy their volunteering experience, will return. In Singapore, we have found this to be true among Singapore Cares volunteers who, after enjoying the first volunteering activity, have returned on their own to the same organizations to continue helping. But we should also stay in touch with volunteers who have left, keep them updated on projects they care about, so that they feel motivated to return when they are able to do so.

Informal Volunteering - The Essence of Volunteerism

Third, volunteering does not always have to be organisation-based. There is another powerful and valuable volunteering force that is often untapped and unrecognised – informal volunteering. This is how volunteering started in many societies; well-meaning people in the community helping each other when the need arose.

According to the World Giving Index 2010, almost half of the people in the world have helped a stranger. In countries like Canada, the informal volunteerism rate is over 80% and in the United Kingdom, it is over 60%. In Singapore, 33% volunteer informally, giving an average of 48 hours per year. In Singapore at least, I believe more can be done to encourage informal volunteering; the kind of volunteering that can and should take place every day, everywhere. Our challenge is to help individuals recognize that everyone can be an informal volunteer. For instance, everyone can accompany a neighbour to a doctor’s appointment; help buy groceries for an elderly neighbour who lives alone; or coach a neighbour’s child in his school work.

I am happy to note that the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) is going to promote informal volunteerism through the Vertical Kampong initiative. Let me explain the name “Vertical Kampong” to our foreign friends. “Kampong” is a Malay word which means ‘village’. Why Vertical Kampong? Because more than 80% of Singaporeans live in high-rise apartment blocks.

Vertical Kampong is an initiative that aims to change mindsets and help people realise that everyone can do some good deeds in his community. It will adopt the Assets-Based Community Development (or ABCD) model that has been successfully implemented in Chicago, Taiwan and Brisbane. This model is premised on the belief that every individual has talents and resources that can benefit his community. NVPC will work with local community groups to identify the assets and resources within each community and hold public education workshops to help individuals realise that everyone can be a volunteer. For instance, a group of residents who walk regularly around the neighbourhood for exercise may not see themselves as volunteer material. But they can also serve as an effective neighbourhood crime patrol by keeping their eyes open for suspicious characters. As more communities adopt the ABCD approach, more people will be engaged and connected.

The beauty of informal volunteerism is that people who have been helped will often reciprocate, and this enhances the spirit of giving. Nobody should feel helpless or embarrassed to give or receive help. If we can do this successfully, we will become a compassionate and gracious society.

Conclusion

I would like to close by going back to the theme of today’s conference, “Volunteering to Change the World”. Volunteering has the potential to make a difference and change lives. When people rally around a cause they truly believe in, the impact is often profound and enduring.

Let us aim for a world where everyone is a volunteer, even if it is just once in their lives.

Thank you.