Does the Current Emphasis on High-Skilled Volunteering Have a Downside?

Everyone is talking about "pro bono" or "skill-based" volunteering - including us here at Coming of Age: Delaware! This is volunteering where someone provides a professional or highly technical skill to a non-profit at no charge. It's all the rage now because with the downturn in the economy many non-profits are laying off staff or unable to afford the expertise they need to remain competitive in a changing world. The phrase "skill-based volunteering" actually comes from the world of corporate volunteering; a process where a company allows one of its highly-skilled employees to provide professional or technical assistance to a nonprofit. But with the retirement of the highly educated boomer generation, skill-based volunteering is gaining popularity in community-based volunteering as well.

In our eagerness to embrace skill-based volunteerism have we really thought about what we are saying? For example, are we implying that traditional volunteers are unskilled? Or that their efforts aren't as valuable as the contributions of professionals?

Leave it to Susan Ellis, an international volunteering expert, to ask the questions others would rather avoid! Read Susan's provocative July "hot topic" here.

Want to share some thoughts about this subject? Why not post your comments in the "pro-bono consulting" forum of our message board.