As reported in the March 12, 2008, issue of the Local History News, GuideStar reports an emerging trend in the travel industry called “voluntourism.” This is the idea that people can vacation and volunteer for local nonprofits at the same time. Dave Beal, in his February 15, 2008, entry on MinnPost, wrote about how business leaders are looking to rejuvenate volunteerism through “smarter volunteerism.” This is the idea that businesses can strengthen community by encouraging employees to use their skills on local volunteer projects. Both articles hint at personal enrichment for the volunteer. Since volunteering provides benefit to two parties, the first article shows a benefit for organizations where volunteers visit on vacation, and the second suggests businesses could gain more productive employees in more conducive communities.

The Beal article is reminiscent of Mary Warner’s post about what businesses could learn from nonprofit historical organizations. The GuideStar article about voluntourism suggests another small-if-growing dimension to heritage tourism. Have any of Minnesota’s local historical organizations noticed either trend? In what ways might you want to explore either or both trends to attract more volunteers?

Does your organization have an affinity group? Recent reports from experts in the history field have shown that relying on heritage tourism will not by itself improve use of museums and historic sites. It is one component of usage, which happens to have people who stay longer and spend more. However, for the history museum and historic site that want to improve the number of users and to grow users into significant donors, developing affinity groups appears to be a promising method. Some of Minnesota’s local historical organizations offer book clubs and art shows in communities that are too small to support them otherwise. There may be others, such as veteran’s and living history groups; card, dance, food, model railroad clubs; hiking, canoeing, bicycling, snowmobiling, and other outdoors affinity groups.  Two questions:

1. If you have such an affinity group, in what ways does that group partner with and enhance your organization?

2. If you have no affinity groups, can you speculate on what kinds of affinity groups might be needed in your community?