News Release

Surprising results: FWC analyzes its volunteer programs

July 23, 2009
Contacts: (FWC) Anne Glick, 850-922-0664;
(UF) Stuart Carlton, 352-846-0358

Volunteers are worth their weight in gold. The proof is in an analysis conducted recently by University of Florida doctorial student Stuart Carlton of the partnership between volunteers and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Some of Carlton's conclusions were surprising.

The FWC relies on 3,100 volunteers in more than two dozen programs, including Hunter Safety, Ridge Rangers, Project WILD, Chinsegut Nature Center events and a variety of scientific research and resource management projects. The value of their services totals roughly $1.9 million per year, according to Carlton, who collaborated with professors Susan K. Jacobson and Martha C. Monroe on the project.

When Carlton polled FWC volunteers, he noted that 90 percent of them said the FWC seems to appreciate their hard work, and that is an important element in retaining them for the long term. Thirty-five percent have volunteered services at the FWC for more than five years. Three-fourths of them volunteer more than 13 hours per year.

Motivations for volunteers included helping the environment, learning, supporting the resources they use recreationally and the feeling that they are living close to their ecological values. Carlton and other researchers found a noticeably more intense feeling of motivation in women.

"Volunteering with the FWC provides Floridians with a unique way of experiencing our environment," said Anne Glick, section leader in the FWC's Office of Recreation Services. "Citizen-scientists, working hand in hand with FWC scientists, get an in-depth, behind-the-scenes experience while serving a critical role in protecting Florida's native habitats and species."

Volunteers indicated the types of work most appropriate for them include working on improving habitats, surveying wildlife populations and public outreach activities. Their least favorite activities included maintenance and fundraising.

"They don't want to feel that they are just doing grunt work," Carlton said. "They want to feel they are contributing something significant."

Carlton found that most who responded to his survey were males, and 95 percent were white. The typical volunteer was middle-aged, employed part-time and had attended college. However, the largest set of volunteers work in the FWC's Hunter Safety Program, which uses mostly male instructors. Removing Hunter Safety from the equation results in a shift that reveals 60 percent of volunteers are females.

The study also evaluated the attitudes of the FWC's volunteer coordinators and the coordinators' supervisors, comparing their findings with the attitudes of supervisors who do not work with volunteers or volunteer coordinators.

Not surprisingly, FWC employees who work with volunteers, or supervise those employees, place a high value on the services provided by volunteers.

To learn more about volunteer opportunities at the FWC, visit MyFWC.com/GetInvolved.