Best Practices in Development Process of Successful Voluntary Organizations: Core Concepts, Core Processes and Key Success Factors

Abstract

This paper illustrated on best practices in development process of successful voluntary organizations focusing on core concepts, core processes and key success factors.  Volunteerism had gained more attention from general public because it could not merely help solving social problems but also improving quality of life. Consequently, it was interesting to understand core concepts, processes and key success factors of successful voluntary organizations as well as how to pursue best practices in developing volunteer working team. Tzu Chi in Taiwan, Plum Village in France, Rotary in U.S.A., and Village Health Volunteer (VHV) in Thailand were selected in this study as a representative of the voluntary organizations across continents. The study results indicated that each voluntary organization had its core concepts and processes differently. Nevertheless, the organizations shared 9 common characteristics: 1) helping others, 2) self-reliance and simplicity, 3) relationship with community, 4) mentoring and training, 5) networking tools, 6) unity, 7) participation, 8) patience, and 9) inner peace. These attributes could be considered as key success factors that supporting the development process of the volunteer team towards achievement. In conclusion, best practices of the voluntary organizations: core concepts, processes and key success factors could be utilized as a benchmarking tool to compare with any volunteer team or organization for successful development of voluntary work. It could probably enhance volunteer activities and solve issues or concerns related to voluntary work in order to consistently develop volunteer working team, improve work performance, reiterate and maintain on-going volunteer activities striving for stability and delivering peace to the globe. Furthermore, the study results could benefit to other organizations both governmental and private sectors aiming to develop human resource management.