Once a volunteer always a donor

We went camping this summer with friends, and on one rainy day we visited their young cousin who lived close by. She and her family were organising a summer fete in their garden to raise money for a trip she was planning – volunteering for a small rural school in Africa.

So with pockets full of loose change we 'dropped by' along with the rest of the village and drank tea, ate delicious mum-made scones and threw wet sponges at local teenage boys. My kids thought this was all fantastic, clearly beating bus-dodging on the Holloway Road.

Anyway, a few days ago we got a homemade thank you card. They raised more than enough for the trip. Great news. All power to the volunteer – contrary to conventional wisdom, they can raise money. In this case, one school girl raised lots of it.

And when you look at Que Rico! a fabulous charity set up by Nick and Mads Marsh you really get to understand the power of the volunteer. It was their experience of volunteering for a burns unit in Bolivia that drove them to set up and run this charity.

They have remained true to the volunteer by offering an exceptional programme for those lucky enough to be accepted to help out in Bolivia. Furthermore, 'profit' from the volunteer schemes gets fed directly back into the charity. So it will be no surprise to learn that when they return to their day jobs, these volunteers become loyal donors, keen to lever support from their networks and continue to help out in other more financial ways.

And this is big business. In 2005 the gap year volunteering market was valued globally at £5 billion. People are paying lots and lots of money for an ethically motivated experience. Of course not all of these motivations are philanthropic – when was giving purely altruistic?

But are charities making the most of their volunteers and involving them in fundraising opportunities? We know that 'closeness' and 'experience' are major influences on loyalty, but how many organisations have programmes that migrate volunteers to donors? Or donors to volunteers? And if this is too much of a leap, is anyone even using volunteers to feedback to donors?

I've just done a really simple search on Google Blog and Twitter. Do it for yourself and see if any volunteers are blogging right now about your work. Look how active they are, and how many entries they are making. Then look at the visitor count. Wouldn't we love to know how many people are really reading our appeals - perhaps not...

I liked my thank you card. I'm pleased that one young volunteer had enough motivation and energy to organise a pig of a day's worth of events so she could go and help other kids elsewhere. I take my hat off to Nick and Mads and I salute all you fine blogging volunteers. Maybe one day as fundraisers we will find a way to involve you.