Middle ground is someone who volunteers every week, week in week out, doing 'a job' but with no remuneration (apart from feeling good about themselves, etc). IF those people stopped volunteering like that, and the work was valuable enough, I suspect funding would be found.
It's kind've like the 'retired' teachers in Ontario keeping on doing fill-in work. Experience 30+ years, knowledge of everything - how can the recent graduates get *any* experience when the school boards can just hire an old hand? The way in is thus blocked (not that this has any bearing on charity or vounteering per se, but you get the idea).
It's a free market. The new graduates are
not "owed" anything. They get experience by: working in high school/college/post-school (start by babysitting, lawn mowing, etc if need be), demonstrating their skills, and even doing volunteer work themselves if needed to build their resume. The school/non-profit will hire them if they want someone dependable (after all those retirees you mention could cut back anytime, move to Florida, get ill), want some fresh ideas/enthusiasm, want someone 40 hrs a week, want someone who can't say "no" to a job that's difficult or unpleasant, etc.
I guess I'm confused though, because this type of volunteering you describe is not something I've ever seen, where someone devotes 40 hours a week to doing a job but isn't paid. It seems pretty rare, and I wonder if you know someone personally that feels they been screwed over by this situation, and that's coloring your perspective?
Here's how it works at my non-profit:
1. I spend several hours a month at Board meetings or preparing for the meetings. The Board is non-profit and will remain so. We report on spending when applying for grants, and this is not an area that we would ever change to paid Board members. If I don't do this another volunteer would need to set up. And trust me, I'm looking for that volunteer to step in 2 years from now, because I promised my husband I'd leave at the end of the next term.
2. I draft up policies/documents when needed based on my special skills (I'm a lawyer). Most of these would remain undone if I didn't do it... I know this, because it remained undone for years, and I've been slowly working to improve governance. As President, the liability/responsibility rests on my shoulders so it's important to ME that it gets done, but I'm one person in an organization and getting others to see that it needs to be done and is a priority is hard. We do have a law firm we consult with/get pro bono work for big critical projects. They get 1) exp for young attorneys, 2) contribute to pro bono hours (which makes them looks good and meets "goals" for the profession of 25/hours/year/attorney.
3. I'm currently trying to improve development at my non-profit. One way I'm doing this at this moment is by leading by example. I've researched ways to improve our gala fundraiser event, interviewed friends in development, and I'm now implementing those suggestions in soliciting donations for our gala fundraiser and creating a "how to guide". Next year, I'll turn this over to the Development Director. But, the committee is largely volunteer driven. Years when volunteers are driven, we have a good fundraiser. Years when volunteers are absent, we have a medicore one. Experience thus once again teaches me that absent volunteers, the work
just doesn't get done.
4. I show up at events where my non-profit's presence is needed or would benefit. This ranges from a recent gala event to a ground-breaking work on a memorial to a public meeting. A new hire is NOT going to be sent in my place. Either no one goes, and the connections are not made or someone high up (e.g. the Executive Director) is sent instead and something else he would do gets undone.
There's more, but that's the current work. (For example, last year I realized we had issues with risk management, brought in a $10K speaker on the topic to do a free workshop for Board & management, and we then implemented a number of organizational changes.)
But then again, my non-profit is volunteer-driven, to the extent that it is mentioned in our mission statement and is the first goal in our strategic plan. We literally would not exist as we currently do if we hired folks to replace the volunteers who teach, do work parties, etc. Not only could we not afford to simply magically "find the money" (if you've ever worked on a budget, you know how hard that is) but the atmosphere would change to such a degree that the non-profit would not be the same.