Volunteerism in the Performing Arts Today and Looking to the Future

Abstract

The nonprofit sector and more specifically the performing arts have been utilizing volunteer labor to compensate for lack of funding over the years. Research shows that performing arts volunteers share the same demographics and psychographics of their audience members. By understanding the variables that keep audience members and the general public from donating their time to the arts, arts managers can pursue different avenues to expand recruitment. The performing arts are highly dependent on social networks and word of mouth to gain recruits. This dependence requires arts managers to facilitate an environment that produces positive experiences and volunteer benefits. Each performing arts organization must take into consideration their individual needs, size, number of employees and budget to maximize the possibilities made available through a volunteer program. There are both field-wide and individual challenges facing companies that engage volunteers. Scholarly articles project the field-wide challenge of aging volunteers as the Baby Boomers begin to slow their volunteering and Millennial volunteer rates are currently slower than previous generations. The key for arts managers success is to use volunteers to improve cost efficiency of labor, to recruit volunteers that expand demographics and empower volunteers to help grow your audience.