Some Definitions

Volunteer Administration is the profession concerned with the study and practice of integrating volunteers effectively and ethically into an organization to enhance performance and results. It includes people who direct volunteer involvement as a full-time job, those who carry this responsibility in addition to other job duties², and those who serve in this role as volunteers themselves. Volunteer administration includes both paid and unpaid leaders.³

Volunteer Program refers to the volunteer component of your organization ? the way volunteers are involved. The volunteer program may be part of an organization that also has paid staff, or it may be an organization staffed entirely by volunteers.⁴

Being a Volunteer implies active involvement in an organization (more than giving money or material resources). It is relatively uncoerced, is not primarily motivated by financial gain, and the outcomes focus on the common good.⁵

Volunteer. A person giving time, energies, or talents to any individual, group, or organization for which you were not paid.⁶

Volunteer. A person who voluntarily takes part in an enterprise or offers to undertake a task; a person who works for an organization voluntarily and without pay.⁷

Volunteerism is work that is not employment.⁸