Editor’s Note: During the month of August, we will spotlight volunteers in our towns. This is the first in a weekly series celebrating those who work, without pay, to better their communities.

BY SUSAN WARE

Volunteers step up when a natural disaster strikes, such as when spring flooding affected local communities. But are the nonprofits working quietly in the background that depend on volunteers to stay afloat getting enough help?

Volunteering is growing in New Hampshire, according to David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation of National and Community Service based in Washington, D.C. The group oversees such volunteer programs as Habitat for Humanity, Teach America and Americorps, a sort of domestic Peace Corps, among others.

Eisner’s organization has done extensive research on a state-by-state basis as to where volunteerism levels are right now, where the growing trends are and where the need is. The latest study details volunteering in 2006.

According to Eisner, last year New Hampshire had 330,000 volunteers in the state dedicating 41.1 million hours of service.

“Volunteerism in new Hampshire is doing terrific. It is really exciting, because New Hampshire is in the top five for growth in volunteering since 1989,” said Eisner.

One area with a tremendous need nationwide, said Eisner, is volunteers offering professional services, like lawyers working pro bono and teachers tutoring. The Granite State is one of 17 states with professional services in the top four most popular areas of volunteering, something we should be proud of, said Eisner.

One area that hurts local nonprofits, said Eisner, is professionalism in management. Many nonprofits in general are poorly run and it causes attrition rate to be high, which is costly, said Eisner.

“New Hampshire does not rank well in terms of retention of volunteers.  In 2006, only 63 percent of New Hampshire residents returned to volunteer a second year,” said Eisner.

On average, nonprofits lose a third of volunteers every year. One of the focuses of Eisner’s team is to help nonprofits manage themselves more professionally in order to be more efficient and retain quality volunteers.

“Nonprofits need to use volunteers to do meaningful work.  Retention is highest when volunteers are using their brain as well as brawn,” said Eisner.

The flip side is nonprofits in the state seem to be able to continually recruit new faces, which Eisner refers to as a “leaky bucket.”

“Today, people have no patience for inefficiency, even in a charity. People won’t stay with an organization that makes them wait or is unorganized. They want their time to be respected,” said Eisner.

A sign of the times

With volunteering at a 30-year high, Eisner points to a disenchantment with the current administration and the war in Iraq as the main reasons for the jump in volunteering.

“When a person feels that hunger isn’t going to get solved at the policy level, they are likely to work in a soup kitchen where they can work on it at an individual level,” said Eisner.

A trend that Eisner is watching carefully is the growing number of Baby Boomers who are volunteering.

“Today, 50 percent more Baby Boomers are likely to volunteer than their counterparts in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s,” said Eisner.

This means there is a growing social capital which this country has never seen before.

“Most haven’t retired yet, but when they do, they will be predisposed to volunteering and have even more time on their hands,” said Eisner.

Like Baby Boomers, another growing trend in volunteering is among 16- to 19-year-olds. According to Eisner, this group is twice as likely to volunteer as any of their peers over the past 30 years.

“America is creating a generation that rivals the generation of people born before World War II, where civic engagement was a focus,” said Eisner.

This is the generation that Margaret Harlan, president of the Hooksett Friends of the Library wants to attract.

A booster group whose goal is to supplement the libraries budget, Harlan said there is basically a core of five volunteers who do it all, and every one of them is over 50 years old.

“We really want to attract the younger generations, because that is how we will be successful in the long run,” said Harlan.

Desperate for volunteers, the Friends of the Library are able to do only a portion of what they would like to do, and what the library needs, said Harlan.

“It is frustrating to me that people don’t seem to find the library important. It’s very easy to get burned out when you don’t have help,” said Harlan.

According to Eisner, trends in volunteering are more pronounced in New Hampshire and it is critical that nonprofits prepare themselves.

“This is very good news for nonprofits in New Hampshire,” said Eisner.