Infinity Consulting Group

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Infinity Consulting Group
BABY BOOMERS THE NEW VOLUNTEER
Presented forVentura County Area Agency on Aging
April 19th, 2006
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Who We Are

• Infinity Consulting Group
• Wondirad Assefa Tsegaye
• Jonathan Behr
• John Jorden
• Nick Kliebert
• Nicholas Parrinello

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VCAAA - Business Problem

• Volunteer management
• Low Hispanic volunteer turnout

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Issues at Hand

• Drastic increase in number of Baby Boomers
  reaching senior citizen status will place
  significant demands on
• Service providers
• Health care
• Nutrition
• Long-term care
• Transportation
• Recreation

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Project Objectives

• Develop a strategy and propose a plan that will
• Inform what is necessary to attract/recruit
  Boomer volunteers
• Define how to locate these volunteers
• What is needed to retain volunteer interests
• Differentiate needs of the Hispanic population

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Methodology

• Research
• Websites
• Census data
• Magazine and news articles
• Best practices
• Questionnaires with local area agencies

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RESULTS
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New Trends

• The Brain Volunteer replaces the Brawn
  Volunteer
• The Cause-Driven Volunteer replaces the
  Time-Driven volunteer
• The new Selfish Volunteer

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The New Volunteer Image

• Todays volunteer demands a different task
• The Unpaid Professional
• More responsibility, creativity, and need for
  skills.
• F L E X I B I L I T Y
• Type of task
• Timing of task
• Venue of work

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On the Unpaid Professional

• Because in my job there isnt much challenge,
  not enough achievement, not enough
  responsibility and there is no mission, there is
  only expediency.
• -Peter F. Drucker

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Recruitment

• Dos
• Create volunteer projects that are enjoyable and
  satisfying for new volunteer. Create Word of
  Mouth
• Partner with local volunteer bureau
• Make access easy and clear
• Internet
• Advertisements TV Radio

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Recruitment

• Donts
• Go it alone
• Only recruit life time individuals instead of
  short-term project teams
• Assume No means Never
• Be People Driven instead of Position Driven
• Misname the position

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General Comments Retirement

• 2 factors largely influencing likelihood of
  volunteering in retirement
• Health
• Financial wellbeing

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Retirement

• AARP survey 7 in 10 Baby Boomers optimistic
  about retirement
• Most expect to continue working
• May be a mismatch between anticipated time of
  retirement and actual retirement
• Not rely on support from children
• Self-directed income

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Retirement

• The Strugglers 9
• Few financial resources
• Pessimistic
• Reliance on Social Security
• Dismal outlook

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Retirement

• The Anxious 23
• Better off financially, but still concerned with
  retirement
• Most concerned with health care issues
• Self-reported health status lower than other
  Boomers
• Retirement is not recreation time or time to give
  to community

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Retirement

• The Enthusiasts 13
• Primarily upscale with significant savings
• Optimistic
• Do not plan to work during retirement
• Confident about health care and income
• May be LESS likely to participate actively in
  volunteer work

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Retirement

• The Self-Reliants 30
• Significant retirement savings
• Will be well connected with the community
• Higher than average anticipation of volunteering
  during retirement
• Still plan to work part-time or for enjoyment

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Retirement

• Todays Traditionalists 25
• Middle-income, moderate savings
• More intergenerational family support
• Match most closely Boomer general demographics
• Most ethnically diverse group
• Confident in health care
• Expect to work during retirement

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Ventura Country Demographics
Males per 100 Females
Total
Male
Female
Total
Male
Female
www.census.gov
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Ventura County Demographics
www.census.gov
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Hispanic Community

• This is the fastest growing ethnicity
• 65 national age group
• 2003 6
• 2030 11
• 2050 18
• Problems arise from language, culture, legal
  documentation
• Economic problem childcare

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Todays Youth

• Competition for filling free time
• Volunteering makeover is a must
• Key wants of young people
• Flexibility
• Legitimacy
• Ease of Access
• Experience
• Networking
• Incentives
• Variety
• Laughs

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Marketing to Young People

• Educate at an early age
• Visit schools
• Anecdotes from current young volunteers
• Familiarization with concept of Volunteer
  making it more acceptable
• If a lot of people do it, then it looks normal,
  its cool, because everyone is doing it - 18 yr
  old volunteer
• A young volunteer is more likely to be a
  long-term volunteer

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STRATEGY
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The New Task, The New Image

• Make tasks flexible with a clear beginning middle
  and end
• Make projects challenging requiring more skills
• Offer tasks that have potential to be rewarding
• Offer new luxuries and flexibilities
• Working at home

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Recruiting

• Again, partnership with local volunteer
  recruiting bureau is key
• Educate youth early
• Position comes before Person

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Recruiting

• Be persistent
• Ask Why? or Why not?
• Find out what drives them.
• Dont take No for an answer
• Make access easy
• Internet
• Phone number
• Name of representative

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Volunteer Management

• Create pool of programs and coinciding pool of
  specific volunteer desires to appease matching
  process
• Create system for evaluating volunteers and
  providing them with this feedback
• Acknowledge their success and achievements
• Birthday cards
• Accreditation luncheons
• Follow up phone calls to provide support and gain
  feedback

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Volunteer Management

• Provide for in depth training
• Prior to task
• During task
• Provide supervision
• Adequate but not overwhelming

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New Mentality

• Workplace Volunteering
• Become involved with local business
• Mutual development
• Progressive programs
• Opportunities to stay involved long-term
• More productive in the long-term
• Good alternative for busy employees and companies

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New Mentality

• Family Volunteering
• Getting Boomers involved with their children,
  parents, and other family members
• Volunteering as a unit
• Quality time and family communication
• Allows Boomers to act as role models for younger
  generation

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New Mentality

• Singles Volunteering
• New way of interacting socially with new people
• Romantic relationships
• Friendships

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New Mentality

• Episodic Volunteering
• Create bite-size roles volunteers can dip in and
  out of
• Easier to begin a small commitment
• The hope is small time commitments eventually
  lead to long-term involvement

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New Mentality

• Volunteer Customer
• Consider the volunteer as the customer
• What makes them tick
• Why did they come?
• What do they want to get from the experience?
• What have they achieved so far?
• Why do they come back?
• Why would they be leaving?

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Hispanic Population

• This group needs to be specifically targeted
• Comfort Zone many of these seniors remain
  within their close-knit cultures
• Language problems
• Undocumented residents
• General recruiting often overlooks this segment

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Hispanic Population

• Increasing the number of bilingual volunteers
• Translate forms, flyers, applications
• Flexibility programs that allow working from
  home, working with family members, working in a
  largely Hispanic community

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Infinity Consulting Group