Testing the Conventional Wisdom Regarding Volunteer Programs: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Service Corps of Retired Executives and the U.S. Small Business Administration

Abstract

Conventional wisdom holds that volunteer programs save money and raise the level of services provided by an organization but threaten paid positions. This study tests these assumptions qualitatively and quantitatively based on the experience of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and its volunteer program, the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). The authors examined the SBA’s history with SCORE using interviews, records, and reports and then applied interrupted time-series statistical analysis to 42 years of budget, employment, and output data. The authors found evidence that SBA services increased with SCORE but found no support for stereotypes of adversarial relationships between volunteers and paid staff, volunteer replacement of paid personnel, or cutbacks in agency budget to compensate for the addition of an unpaid workforce. This study has broad implications for both public agencies and nonprofit organizations, sounding a cautionary note that conventional assumptions regarding the impact of volunteers on budget and paid staff may need to be reevaluated.