Maybe you saw those commercials on TV lately, the ones with Miss Piggy and Taye Diggs building a house. It was about the “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” campaign, a partnership between Disney and the Hands On Network.
According to the Hands On Network,
The innovative nature of this program exponentially increased organizations’ capacity to both invite and excite people about volunteerism. Many volunteers served for the first time, beginning what we hope will be a life-long service journey. We look forward to organizations carrying on the momentum of this program, reconnecting with volunteers, and accomplishing even more in your communities this year.
My first instinct (as I tweeted a few days ago) was that this effort to bribe people into volunteering by rewarding them with a day at a Disney theme park seemed inherently wrong-headed. Shouldn’t people volunteer because it’s about helping others, not helping themselves? Doesn’t providing an explicit, promised reward for good behavior miss the point, and turn volunteering into a selfish act instead of an act of altruism? It just seems off to me.
But I seem to be the only one with this reaction. Joanne Fritz at about.com applauds Disney’s efforts, which they are saying recruited 1 million volunteers. Fundraising expert Ted Hart used his radio show to point out my skepticism but said he didn’t agree.
So I’m really curious–what do you think? Am I being too hard on Disney? Does a campaign like this provide the little push toward volunteering that people need, and do you think it will be “a life-long service journey”?
