We take these traits from the European Charter for Volunteers and from the Universal Declaration of Volunteering, both approved in the World Congress of Paris in 1990:
No profit because the donation of one self and the awareness of “being” for the others is what sustains the volunteer’s concept of life. Volunteering requires continuity because you cannot create needs in people that you will no longer be willing to help. It works best with the vocational preference of the volunteer because poeple do better what they like and the tasks for which they are most prepared. Volunteering entails personal responsibility sustained by the team that develops the project within the Organization for which the volunteer works. It requires training, knowledge, respect and the value of different people volunteers might find during the realization of their work.
Hence, nothing is farther away from an authentic social volunteer than:
Intrusion, because the volunteer dhall not invade the professional field but rather collaborate with technical experts in tasks that could not be otherwise accomplished. Volunteering is a way of acting that is not present in the professional work force. A militant volunteer, no matter how dignifying the ideology or belief that he follows, whether it is a political, religious or cultural organization. Although one has personal beliefs, there is no right to impose them on the activity of social volunteering.
The “curiosity” of those who approach volunteering because of vanity or capriciousness and use others as if they were objects of their experimentation; a serious and formal commitment is needed to accomplish concrete functions and tasks of projects that were previously programmed in common. An attitude of assistance, because the volunteer wants to develop personal capacities in those with whom he works that will lead them to autonomy and not to dependence. Even when we recognize an assistencial component that covers urgent needs and prepares an activity that lasts longer and promotes the autonomy of the person. Neither compassion nor a few coins, no matter how valuable these are on their own, because they go beyond the relationship of equality and reciprocity needed in horizontal relationships. Voluteerism because volunteers know how to assume their limits and do not confuse reality with good intentions; we clarify that in the volunteering organization we must design realistic and feasible programs before disillusion and the loss of hope take over.

José Carlos García Fajardo
CCS Director. Emeritus Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid
fajardoccs@solidarios.org.es