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Alejandro Bazarte

ORGL- 4341- KV2- Management Theory I- CBE

Professor Nancy Zarazua

August 19, 2022

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The non-profit organization that I chose is Special Olympics. “The Special Olympics is an

international program of year-round sports training and competition for persons with intellectual

disabilities. The Special Olympics holds international competitions every two years, alternating

between the summer and winter games, as well as numerous local, regional, and national

competitions in over 170 countries worldwide” (Khoo & Engelhorn, 2011, p. 27). The In 1968,

Eunice Kennedy Shriver created the Special Olympics in honor of her sister, Rosemary Kennedy

who was intellectually disabled. It started in the United States and as time went on it continued to

grow to over 170 countries around the world. For this paper, I will be focusing on the Special

Olympics, United States of America. There are many parts of Special Olympics that helps it run

smoothly. There are the staff who works in the different offices around the country to help run the

area, state, and national events for every sport. Also, there are the athletes who participate in the

different sports. Lastly, there are the volunteers and unified partners who help make sure all events

and practices are able to happen. I will be focusing on the volunteers and unified partners.

Volunteers for Special Olympics are the ones who help make sure that the different events

are able to occur. They help to run the different delegations across the country. Unified partners are

volunteers who participate in the sports with the Special Olympic athletes. “Moreover, the Special

Olympics provides a platform for enhancing public attitudes towards individuals. For example, a

Unified Sports soccer program, where young athletes with and without ID were paired for training

and competition for eight weeks, was determined to increase the athletes’ positive attitudes towards

people with ID” (Li & Wu, 2019, p. 36). Volunteers and unified partners are the backbone of

Special Olympics. Without them, Special Olympics would not exist.

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There are two topics that we have gone over in this class that I plan on using to help bring

in more volunteers and unified partners to the Special Olympics. The first topic I will be using is

departmentalization. I would use departmentalization to create a department that will only handle

all aspects of volunteers and unified partners. The leaders of this department will be the ones who

make the decisions regarding volunteers and unified partners. They will decide who will be

allowed to volunteer and be a unified partner, what their requirements are, what is expected out of

volunteers, how unified partners can participate in each sport, etc. They will also be the ones to

focus on recruiting new volunteers and unified partners. “Effective recruiting of volunteers is

especially important now that the number of voluntary organizations is increasing, while the

number of volunteers is decreasing” (Khoo & Engelhorn, 2011, p. 38). Recruitment is very

important because without volunteers, delegations around the country will not be able to run. A

positive aspect of departmentalization is that the leaders and this department will be able to focus

solely on volunteers and unified partners and they will be able to focus more of their time on

recruitment efforts. A negative aspect would be that since there 32 sports in Special Olympics, the

department would have to come up with different requirement for each sport.

The second topic I have chosen is SMART. I have decided to use SMART as a way to

create a goal to increase the number of volunteers and unified partners. As stated above, volunteers

are very important. “These volunteers ensure that persons with intellectual disabilities are given the

opportunity to participate in sports. Special Olympic volunteers come from a wide variety of

backgrounds and serve in roles such as coaches, officials, fundraisers, health-care providers, and

event coordinators and assistants. Volunteers are involved at the community, state, national, and

international level” (Khoo & Engelhorn, 2011, p. 28). Special Olympics can never have too many

volunteers. I have created a goal that has covered each part of SMART, specific, measurable,
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aggressive, realistic, and time-bound. The goal I have set is that there will be an increase in

volunteers and unified partners within one year by 5% on the national level. The positive aspect of

using SMART is that it is easier to visual what the success of recruitment would look like. The

negative aspect would be it could bring spirits down if the goal is not achieved.

The plan of action for this would be to set up a department that focuses only on volunteers

and unified partners. After they have created the rules and regulations for the volunteers and

unified partners, their main focus will be on recruiting new volunteers and unified partners. At the

moment, there is no set department that focuses on volunteers and unified partners. It is usually up

to the delegations to find their own volunteers and then it is up to the people who are in charge of

setting up the different events to find volunteers. By creating this new department, it would relieve

a lot of stress and pressure on the people who are running the different events. It will allow them to

focus more on running a successful event than scrambling to find volunteers.

One of the main ways to help with recruitment is by sharing with future volunteers and

unified partners that it doesn’t just help the athletes, but it can also help you as a person.

“Volunteers’ self-esteem and attitudes of inclusion towards people with ID immediately improved

after participating in the Special Olympics program” (Li & Wu, 2019, p. 39). It can help raise their

self-esteem and also help them better understand people with intellectual disabilities. Li and Wang

created a study to determine how volunteers’ attitudes could be improved by volunteering with

Special Olympics. “It was revealed that volunteers’ attitudes could be enhanced through a 1-week

exposure to SOG [Special Olympics Global]” (Li & Wang, 2013, p. 518). Volunteering and being

a unified partner can help improve a person’s mental health.

Another way that can help with recruitment is by sharing how becoming a unified partner

and/or a volunteer helps improve your human capital. “Through volunteering for SOG [Special
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Olympics Global], there are opportunities for people without intellectual disabilities to better

understanding people with intellectual disabilities and promote greater acceptance and friendship”

(Li & Wang, 2013, p. 516). Learning to better understand people with intellectual disabilities and

promote greater acceptance can help improve your human capital. It will make other businesses,

schools, non-profit organizations look at your resume and know that you have the ability to not

only work with people with intellectual disabilities but are able to learn how to work with people

who may not be like you, like someone from a different culture. Also, it shows that you know how

to interact with people from different backgrounds. “Some non-academic programmes such as

Unified Sports, and the Paralympic School Day have shown to enhance the integration of children

with intellectual disabilities. A common characteristic of above intervention programmes is that

they created opportunity for exposure or interaction between students or people with or without

disabilities” (Li & Wang, 2012, p. 516). You are improving who you are and learning new skills

and life lessons by volunteering or being a unified partner. You will be able to help increase the

human capital level of not only Special Olympics but also any other organization you volunteer

with or work with.

In Graph 1, we can see the projected growth of volunteers for the next three years. In Graph

2, we can see the projected growth of unified partners for the next three years.

Volunteers in Special Olympics Graph 1

160,000
140,000
Numer of Volunteers

120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0
2023 2024 2025
Years
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Graph 2

Unified Partners in Special Olympics

160,000
140,000
Number of Unified Partners

120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0
2023 2024 2025
Years

Work Cited

Khoo, S., & Engelhorn, R. (2011). Volunteer motivations at a national special olympics event.
Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 28(1), 27–39. https://doi.org/10.1123/apaq.28.1.27
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Li, C., & Wang, C. K. (2013). Effect of exposure to special olympic games on attitudes of
volunteers towards inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. Journal of Applied
Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 26(6), 515–521. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.12053

Li, C., & Wu, Y. (2019). Improving special olympics volunteers’ self-esteem and attitudes towards
individuals with intellectual disability. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability,
44(1), 35–41. https://doi.org/10.3109/13668250.2017.1310815