Baby Boomer Volunteers in Demand Jennifer C. Kerr and Alex Biese - DailyRecord.com
go to original May 28, 2012

Charities and nonprofits are looking for a few good baby boomers - well, lots of them, actually - to roll up their sleeves to help local schools, soup kitchens and others in need.

Boomers are attractive volunteers, and it’s not just the sheer strength of their numbers: 77 million. They are living longer. They are more educated than previous generations. And, especially appealing: They bring well-honed skills and years of real-world work and life experience.

Blair Schleicher Bravo, executive director of the Morris County branch of Habitat for Humanity, said the organization gets plenty of volunteers in their mid-50s looking to start a new chapter in their lives. And, Bravo said, while some look to utilize the skills they developed in the private sector, others are seeking a change of pace.

“I have seen a number for former corporate executives walk into my office and say ‘I want to volunteer, and I don’t want to be behind a desk,’ ” Bravo said. “They want to be out on a site, they want to wear a tool belt and they want to learn how to build a house.”

Bravo said the Randolph-based organization has seen an overall increase in volunteers as it’s increased its number of building projects in recent years.

“That’s been a tremendous boon, and it helps us save money operating so we can put more money into the program,” she said, noting that in 2011 Habitat’s Morris chapter had 10,000 volunteer site visits that translated into approximately 7,500 unique volunteers, building 13 homes and working on around eight home repair projects.
'Great opportunity'

“What we have with the transition of the boomers across the traditional age of retirement is a great opportunity,” says Dr. Erwin Tan, who heads the Senior Corps program at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), a federal agency in Washington. Senior Corps helps connect older Americans to service jobs.

“The question for us is how can we as a country not afford to mobilize this huge source of human capital to meet the vital needs of our communities,” said Tan, a geriatrician. He says nonprofits are retooling to attract more boomers by offering a variety of skills-based opportunities as well as more flexibility, such as nontraditional hours or projects that don’t require a trip to the office and can be completed at home.

“Often, they come in with ideas on how to do things better,” said Linda Keenan, director of development for the Neptune-based FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties.

Keenan said that as boomers come to volunteer, they look to see how they can employ their already-established skill sets developed through time in the working world in the areas such as information technology and social media.

“Those aren’t necessarily what we could have called ‘traditional volunteer skills’ in the past,” Keenan said.

Mike Carr of Fort Wayne, Ind., is exactly the kind of skillful boomer sought by communities.

Carr, 65, retired about a year ago as an accountant for Verizon Communications. Instead of golfing or parking himself on the couch, he volunteers with low-income people and military families, helping them prepare and file their tax returns.

Carr also volunteers as treasurer for a church group and helps people with paperwork for food stamps and unemployment.

“There’s so much in the news today that’s very negative and a lot of it I can’t do a whole lot about,” says Carr. “But at least here in the community that I live in, there are some things that I can do to help others.”
Percentage declines

About a third of boomers, ages 48 to 66 years, tend to gravitate toward opportunities with a religious underpinning, according to CNCS figures. That was followed by volunteer opportunities in education, 22 percent; social service, 14 percent; and hospitals, 8 percent.

However, the percentage of boomers volunteering these days, is on the decline.

Nearly 22 million baby boomers gave their time in communities across the country in 2010. That’s about 28.8 percent of boomers, down slightly from 29.9 percent in 2007 and from 33.5 percent in 2003, according to the community service corporation.

“What I think we’re seeing is baby boomers coming out of the period of peak volunteering,” says Nathan Dietz, former associate director of research at CNCS and now a senior program manager with the Partnership for Public Service. “They are getting older, and people as they get older volunteer a little less often.”

Peak age for volunteering tends to be in the mid-30s and 40s, says Dietz, when married couples and those with children are more likely to be exposed to situations in which people need volunteers - say, coaching for a child’s soccer team or giving time to local Scouts or schoolchildren as a mentor or group leader.

Many boomers are also delaying retirement and working into their golden years because their nest eggs have taken a hit in the last few years, giving them less time to volunteer.

While the Monmouth/Ocean food bank has seen a slight increase in the amount of boomers volunteering, it’s been for a finite time while the volunteers are in a transitional period between jobs, Keenan said.

“I think we’re seeing some baby boomers who may be in job transition, as they’re searching for new career opportunities they’re looking to fill their time with productive work to help the community,” Keenan said.

“While they’re looking for their next job or their next opportunity, they come here because they’re productive people and they want to help their community. They want to give back,” she added.

An August 2011 Associated Press-National Constitution Center Poll found that 65 percent of baby boomers had done some type of volunteer activities through or for an organization over the past year. That is significantly less than adults younger than boomers. The top reasons baby boomers did not volunteer in the past year were not having the time, 69 percent, and health issues or physical limitations, 19 percent.

For boomer Kathy Herrala in Negaunee, Mich., volunteer service started when her now-grown children were young, in Girl Scouts and the school orchestra, and continues into retirement.

“It gives me a sense of satisfaction knowing you can do something to help someone else,” says 60-year-old Herrala, who retired four years ago.

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