First Person: The Future of Volunteering and Immigration

Over the past ten years, businesses and government have made changes leaning in favor of immigration reform, including integration and financing. At the 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service, nonprofit leaders gathered to discuss the impact of the last 10 years on volunteer and service organization as well as what the next 10 years may hold.

Nikki Cecerani, head of Upwardly Global in New York, voiced her beliefs at the conference saying immigration will "come full circle" by year 2030, saying: "Government is playing a bigger role in trying to get corporations, community service organizations and municipalities to work in concert with each other to get immigrants to stay in the workforce. Corporations may have to integrate the things they measure and the programs they have internally to track this."

Leaders at the conference believe the US government will only benefit from enforcing acceptance and immigrant integration. They predicted that in the next 10 years it is possible that the United States will embrace immigration as a nation building priority like Canada has. The discussion estimated there would be more Latin American and Asian immigrants and they will come to serve.

As we are exposed to more different and wide ranging sources to gather information from with the rise of Internet and social media, people could become more segregated, but more aware leading to a rise in activism and individual volunteerism. With a predicted surge in activism in the next 10 years and society embracing immigration by 2030, the nonprofit sector might have reason to be optimistic for the future of service in the sector.

The leader of New York based Children's Aid Society, Richard Buery, believes more will be done simply in the name of goodness. Hopeful that because organization may not be able to quantify what they do like most funders would like to see doesn't mean they won't be able to gain support. Buery believes the fact that people are aware that something needs to be done will bring together different people and groups for one movement simply to benefit the greater good.

More from this contributor:
Foundations Step Up in Times of Need
American's Volunteer Rate Highest in Six Years
New Legislation Aims to Boost Presence of Nonprofit Sector