This article addresses what motivations volunteers have for volunteering for refugees and whether these motivations differ from or complement motivations to volunteer in general, such as included in the widely used measurement instrument, the Volunteer Function Inventory (VFI). We organized eight focus groups with volunteers for refugees (N = 44) and interviewed five involved coordinators, all working in one city in the Netherlands. Results show that humanitarian concerns and social justice were highly relevant for people’s motivations, next to volunteering to obtain or improve knowledge and skills. We find support for the earlier suggested extension of the VFI with the social justice motivation. Next, the current study expands existing analysis on volunteer motivations by identifying four areas that require further attention: (1) volunteers for refugees seek a meaningful role in life; (2) are motivated by the pragmatism of this volunteer work; (3) have emotional reasons; and (4) are motivated by media exposure.

In recent decades, significant changes have occurred to how charities and non-profit organizations are funded. However, only limited research has considered how the new financial landscape affects the work being carried out by these organizations. This article presents a quantitative analysis of the relationship between financing and the number of volunteers. The data material consists of panel data on revenue streams to nationwide, social, non-profit organizations in Denmark. The analysis reveals a strong, positive relationship between both value-driven general revenues and the organizations’ equity in relation to the number of volunteers. Conversely, targeted and means-driven investments do not have any significant correlation with the number of volunteers. Overall, the findings point to the fact that more volunteers can be attracted through forms of financing that strengthen the stability and organizational capacity of an organization as well as its ability to independently organize the work to be done.

This study examines the psychometric properties of a new self-report instrument to measure organisational connectedness (The Four-Dimensional Connectedness Scale; 4DCS) in two volunteer samples: state emergency service volunteers and volunteer ambulance workers. Confirmatory factor analyses in both studies supported the proposed four-factor structure of the 4DCS (other workers, recipients, task and values). In addition, confirmatory factor analyses showed that connectedness, commitment and engagement were separate constructs—a three-factor model with a Connectedness factor, a Commitment factor and an Engagement factor fitted best to the data. Moreover, hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that connectedness and engagement each shared unique variance with job satisfaction and intention to continue. The results confirm the factorial, discriminant and predictive validity of connectedness relative to engagement and commitment. It is concluded that the 4DCS has acceptable psychometric properties and that the instrument can be used to study volunteer wellbeing.

Although the differences between volunteers and paid workers have been well studied, whether the perceived differences are stereotyped and how such stereotypes might influence people’s judgments of volunteers and paid workers remain unclear. This research examines the stereotypes of volunteers versus paid workers in terms of warmth and competence and the possible influences of these stereotypes on client trust in volunteers versus paid workers. Two experimental studies were conducted in China. We find that volunteers are judged to be warmer and less competent than paid workers based on their different roles. We also find that volunteers elicit a lower level of cognition-based trust and a higher level of affect-based trust than paid workers. These findings illustrate the stereotypes of volunteers versus paid workers in terms of warmth and competence and shed light on the consequences of the stereotypes. Other possible consequences and the causes of these stereotypes are also discussed.

There is a paucity of research on volunteers compared with paid workers. The aim of this study is to examine the mediating roles of work engagement and connectedness simultaneously in the motivational pathway of the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. Survey data were collected from 471 volunteer participants and analysed using structural equation modelling methods. Contrary to expectation, the findings did not show that engagement mediates the relationship between job resources and volunteer satisfaction (1), between job resources and determination to continue (2), and between job resources and health (3). The findings, did however, show that connectedness mediates the relationship between job resources and volunteer satisfaction (4), between job resources and determination to continue (5), and between job resources and health (6). These findings add support to the motivational pathway of the JD-R theory to understand volunteer wellbeing and retention in health care organizations, but suggest that the theory may be expanded to include connectedness as a mediator.

This paper reports on a study of the microprocesses of stability and change in a nonprofit welfare organization in Australia. We position volunteering and voluntarism as core constitutive phenomena in and of nonprofit organizations and the nonprofit sector more generally, and examine volunteer agency in action. Developing a model drawn from neoinstitutional theory and adopting an ethnographic approach, the paper illustrates theoretically and empirically how volunteers create and revise institutional orders operative within organizations in ways hitherto poorly articulated and understood.

The interdependencies and conflicts between civil society and welfare states are of continuing interest and controversy among civil society researchers. Particularly, issues of motivation, collaboration, management, and institutional contexts have been subject to extensive scrutiny. Less prominent on this research agenda, the issue of public perceptions and legitimacy is highly relevant to the conversation on welfare state and civil society. This study contributes on this topic by investigating the public legitimacy of volunteer involvement in public welfare services. The article presents findings from a qualitative interview study of perceptions of welfare institutions conducted in 2013–2014 among 115 participants from Sweden and Denmark. The hypothesis investigated is that the Nordic model of welfare is legitimized by its public nature to a degree which excludes volunteers from legitimately contributing as part of public welfare institutions. Findings suggest that volunteers are held in high regard among Swedes and Danes, but the involvement of volunteers in public welfare provision is deemed both a threat to the Nordic model of Welfare and matter-out-of-place in regards to the role the interview participants ascribed to volunteers and civil society.

Previous research suggests that empathy is a strong contributor to altruistic behavior. However, there is a lack of research regarding the role of empathy in long-term, effortful altruistic acts such as volunteering. In this preregistered study, we aimed to understand the moderating role of belief in a just world in the association between induced empathy and intentions to volunteer among both volunteers (N = 99) and non-volunteers (N = 203). Participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (N = 149) or the neutral group (N = 153). In the experimental group, participants read a text about the suffering of an individual with a chronic illness. In the control group, participants read a text about a typical Tuesday for someone. Then, all participants were asked to complete surveys regarding empathy levels, prosocial intentions, belief in a just world, and demographics. Results showed that inducing empathy did not directly affect the levels of intention to volunteer in the future. However, empathy induction was effective for non-volunteers, particularly those with lower levels of personal (but not general) belief in a just world. These results suggest that increasing levels of empathy might be ineffective when personal belief in a just world poses a barrier to displaying volunteering acts. Notably, these findings were observed specifically for non-volunteers, not for volunteers. Thus, future research should explore potential differences due to previous volunteering experiences and the levels of belief in a just world in the motivating roles of empathic concerns for displaying long-term, effortful helping behaviors.

There are ongoing management and societal challenges affecting volunteering participation. These place a premium on organizations identifying individuals that currently do not volunteer but have the willingness and capacity to do so, the “Potentials”. Supplementing the limited non-volunteer literature, we seek to quantify this potential volunteer pool using constructs aligned to the willingness, capability and availability dimensions from Meijs et al.’s (Volunt Action 8:36–54, 2006) volunteerability framework. Using binary logistic regression testing with a nationally representative sample of Australian volunteers and non-volunteers, we found partial support for the framework’s willingness and capability dimensions determining volunteer status. We then applied a predictive equation to the non-volunteer sample to calculate their percentage likelihood of volunteering, to identify a cohort of “Potential” volunteers. Further testing revealed statistically significant differences between this cohort compared to other non-volunteers based on various interventions for promoting volunteering. The implications of our novel study and an associated research agenda are discussed.

This article explores the interplay and collaboration between refugee organization volunteers and social service professionals. On the basis of qualitative interviews and observations, we study how volunteers from Danish local refugee organizations experience their interaction with refugees and social service professionals, and how they act and perceive their role as advocates for the refugees. The purpose is to gain insight into the everyday practices and strategies of civil society organizations attempting to balance the demands and interests of stakeholders and internal legitimacy claims in a hybrid environment. In addition to providing effective refugee assistance and services, refugee organizations achieve legitimacy through professional communication, campaign work, and networking with key political actors and stakeholders. However, although it may be less visible, advocacy-oriented activities also take place in local organizations at ‘street level.’ We identified three distinct types of strategies to balance issues of autonomy in the collaborative relationship with the municipalities and simultaneously engage in advocacy activities.

Volunteers are recognized as people devoting significant time to provide unpaid services to social organizations. In nonprofit hospitals, volunteers play three essential roles. First, they provide assistance and care to patients. Secondly, they generate strategic value through fundraising, marketing, and community relations’ activities. Third, they generate financial benefits for the institution by reducing hospital costs. This article examines such roles and contributions of volunteers at two Brazilian nonprofit hospitals. Managers at these organizations consider volunteers valuable for the psycho-social service they provide, the strategic actions they develop, the cost savings they generate, the goodwill they create, and the funds they raise. In conclusion, volunteers at both hospitals are key stakeholders whose altruistic motives as good citizens motivate them to join either of the organizations, help humanize their services, and assist with the development of strategies that make significant contributions to the improvement of performance at both locales.

Empirical studies of volunteering assume that the similar individuals are drawn equally to different kinds of volunteer-using organizations. The purpose of this article is to explore the demographic predictors of volunteering for several types of advocacy-related organizations, including political parties, labor and business organizations, immigrant/refugee-serving groups, civic organizations, and environmental/animal organizations. Data from the Current Population Survey’s volunteering supplement (pooled 2006–2012) indicate that the demographic profiles of volunteers drawn to advocacy-related organizations differ in specific ways from the demographic profile of those volunteering for other types of organizations. In particular, veterans are more likely than non-veterans to volunteer for political/advocacy groups and civic organizations. Being a minority veteran is associated with volunteering for immigrant organizations and environmental/animal-related organizations. Foreign-born individuals—both US citizens and non-citizens—are more likely to volunteer for immigrant/refugee organizations than the native born. The demographic profiles of volunteers for advocacy-related organizations vary in some ways from the demographic profiles of those who volunteer for service delivery organizations.

Volunteer recruitment and retention continue to be important issues for not-for-profit organisations. A theoretical framework that has demonstrated considerable potential to better understand the factors influencing volunteer recruitment and retention is the concept of the psychological contract (PC); the set of beliefs individuals hold in relation to how organisations value their contributions as volunteers. To date research has predominantly examined the relationship between volunteer retention and individuals’ PC after a volunteer has spent considerable time with an organisation. The research reported in this paper provides evidence that volunteer recruitment practices and volunteer’s expectations directly influence the development of volunteers’ PCs from the very first interactions they have with an organisation, and before they even commence their voluntary duties. The results indicate that a better understanding of volunteers’ PC development processes and the influence of volunteer manager actions during the volunteer recruitment phase can support the formation of realistic expectations amongst potential volunteers and thus enhance volunteer recruitment outcomes.

Whereas social accounting has been strong in its critique of conventional accounting, to date it has not been as effective in developing accounting frameworks consistent with its principles. This is particularly true for nonprofit organizations. The costs of nonprofits can be easily measured; however, not captured by conventional accounting is the value of their nonmonetized resources such as volunteers. This paper argues that social accounting for nonprofits would benefit by creating accounting statements that combine the economic and social impact of an organization (referred to as an integrated approach). After discussing some historic examples of integrated social accounting, the paper presents a Canadian case study in which the value added by volunteers of a nonprofit organization is combined with its financial statements in an Expanded Value Added Statement. By combining social and economic information, a very different performance story of the organization emerges.

The present study aimed to explore underlying motivational factors of volunteerism at a special sporting event for persons with intellectual disabilities. The volunteer survey (n = 252) assessed sociodemographic characteristics, motives, satisfaction with life, psychological well-being, and affectivity of mainly intrinsically motivated volunteers versus traineeship attendees, doing a compulsory traineeship on occasion of the Innsbruck 2008 Winter Special Olympics. There was no significant variability in the motivation to volunteer scale (MVS) score between the groups. The inventory of approach and avoidance motivation (IAAM) data showed that primarily intrinsically motivated volunteers experienced higher self-gratification through their voluntary engagement. Regression analysis revealed that psychological well-being, satisfaction with life, and positive and negative affectivity was predicted by the IAAM and MVS. Individuals’ personal motives for volunteering appear to correlate with psychological well-being and affectivity and may influence prospective participation.

Resettlement programmes are considered one solution to displacement following the so-called refugee crisis. Private or community-based sponsorship models enable volunteer groups to take responsibility resettling refugees. The UK Community Sponsorship scheme (CS) allows volunteer groups to support refugee families in their community. This paper explores the role of emotions in CS using Jaspers three-stage social action life cycle (1998) drawing upon Doidge and Sandri’s (Br J Sociol 70: 463–480, 2018) positive and negative emotions, Jaspers (Sociol Forum 13: 397–424, 1998) reactive and affective continuum and Hoggett and Miller’s (Community Dev J 35: 352–364, 2000) individual/group features to explore the role of emotions in CS work. Using interview data collected from 123 interviews with 22 sponsorship groups, we find across the life cycle that there is a shift from negative reactive emotions during group initiation to positive affective emotions during consolidation and finally a mix of negative and positive affective emotions as groups become sustained. Understanding the role of emotions in motivating and sustaining volunteers is essential to the success of the CS, to encourage group formation and reduce burnout.

While volunteering is an essential factor in service delivery in many societal areas, the inclusion of volunteers in formal settings can also lead to tensions. In this article, we combine the literature on volunteering and inter-professional collaboration (IPC) to elaborate a framework regarding remedies for tensions between professional staff and volunteers within IPC in health care provision to ensure successful collaboration. Using a dyadic survey design to interview volunteers and volunteer managers, we show that the perspectives of volunteers and volunteer managers on the antecedents of effective IPC differ in paradoxical ways. While volunteer managers apply organizational logic concerning tasks and processes to avoid tensions, volunteers seek solutions on a relational basis. However, rather than trying to resolve these paradoxes, our study indicates that carefully managing tensions arising between volunteers and professional staff may be more successful than trying to resolve all tensions.

Two major evolutions have been reported to occur in the nonprofit sector during the past decades. Both the nature of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and of volunteering style are changing. While this creates challenges for NPO governance and management, little is known about the process or the outcomes of these two developments. We propose a two-dimensional conceptual model to explain how the aforementioned evolutions influence the attitudes and behavior of volunteers, based on psychological contract theory. More specifically, we posit that both evolutions create tensions in volunteers’ psychological contracts that could lead to contract breach. We formulate twelve propositions on the nature of this psychological contract breach and the resulting attitudes and behavior of volunteers. Finally, we offer some possible solutions that NPO boards and managers can apply to cope with these challenges.

While the benefits volunteers offer nonprofit organizations are substantial, they can also cause problems for these groups. In an environment where people willingly donate their time and energy to a cause that they ostensibly support, why is disruptive behavior so common? This ethnographic study of volunteers at an animal shelter identifies the factors that lead to problematic behavior. The paper argues that disruptions occur when there is a mismatch between the needs of the volunteer and the needs of the organization and because of structural conditions that lead to uncertainty among volunteers. These findings shed light on volunteer behavior broadly and present the opportunity to address disruptive behavior. As a result, the benefits volunteers provide for an organization can be maximized.