Staffing in AIDS service organizations: the volunteer contribution

This article reports results from a survey of AIDS service organizations (ASOs) that provide medical and social services to people with AIDS in the Oakland, California, area. The survey was designed to assess organizational and staffing characteristics of ASOs. Forty two of sixty-seven (62.7% response rate) ASOs responded, providing detailed data on their staffing patterns. ASOs that provided social services reported 48.5 percent of their total full-time equivalents (FTEs) as volunteers while medical organizations reported only 9.5 percent of their total FTEs as volunteers. Among the social service providers, ASOs that self-identified as private, non-profit community-based organizations (CBOs) reported greater than half (50.8 percent) of their total FTEs as volunteer staff. All CBOs that reported utilizing more than five volunteer FTEs were AIDS-specific providers and had designated a full-time, paid staff position as volunteer coordinator/director.