Volunteer Motivation: Why People Volunteer

Written by Maria Lisak

 

Gwangju is a community of volunteers. But what really motivates people to volunteer? Looking at the reasons and motivations of volunteers can help them stay focused on getting and giving what they need to reach their goals. Understanding the decision to volunteer can also help organizations and groups to better interweave reciprocity into the volunteer experience.

Some of the motivations that move people to volunteer stem from their core values. Some people, whether from religious beliefs or social awareness of being a good citizen or neighbor, volunteer because they think it is an important value to give back. Others are swayed by the power of direct talk. Many times volunteer groups and projects can successfully recruit volunteers due to the charisma and trust of a family member, friend, or colleague.

But no amount of talk will motivate someone to return to a volunteer position unless the experience was meaningful to them. Meaning can take many forms. Some find meaning in the outcome of the volunteer work; others find the process – meeting like-minded people or doing some specific kind of project work – meaningful and worthwhile in and of itself.

As a long-term volunteer in the Gwangju community, it is always upsetting when I hear people of my same age or older complaining about youth today not exerting a quality work ethic. This is not my experience of teaching young adults in Gwangju. Gazley and Dignam (2008) in The Decision to Volunteer: Why People Give Their Time and How You Can Engage Them found in their research that while older generations volunteer more, younger generations actually think volunteering is more important than older generations do.[1] I think with the abuse of internships in South Korea and the “Hell Joseon” attitude of Korean youth today, it is no wonder that their actions do not match their values. Their hesitancy to volunteer can be interpreted that they are instead choosing to expend resources to stabilize their working and living conditions in the face of high youth unemployment.

When I was a youth in working-class America, I had been encouraged to do volunteer work to test out jobs that I was interested in as well as to network for a “real” job. The emphasis on the professional benefits of volunteering cannot be overemphasized. Most volunteer work is teamwork on projects. These skills are easy to read about but tough to develop in real life, especially when wanting to work in intercultural spaces where many cultural miscommunications need to be overcome. Additionally, volunteers often work in suboptimal circumstances with limited resource access. Working within constraints is a valuable take-away skill regardless of what the volunteer’s goal is.

People might be only volunteering for an hour. Many times the short-term or ad hoc volunteers might not receive adequate recognition. Being able to explain how short-term volunteer work helps an organization or group is an important step in thanking the volunteer and in educating him or her about the group’s larger goals and outcomes. Seeing how we fit into the big picture of a project helps to recognize volunteers, celebrate their work, and educate a community to act as a self-initiated advocate for the organization or group.

Thinking about how short- and long-term volunteers work within the organization has a big impact on supporting or discouraging volunteering. Strategic, not just tactical, planning is needed to make a holistic experience that is reciprocal in nature; i.e., the group supports the volunteer and the volunteer gives to the group. If volunteers feel that there is little meaning to the work they do for the group, this can act as an inhibitor to volunteering again or encouraging others to volunteer. Or perhaps, if volunteers walk away feeling that the organization does not respect boundaries like time or transaction costs (the time and money spent getting to the group’s location, for example), then the experience will have been more discouraging than uplifting. Marketing and promotion experts say that often people will share their bad experiences more widely than their good experiences. No matter the size of your group or organization, make sure you make some sort of strategy to support volunteers.

Inspirational Readings
Choi, H.Y. (2017, July 18). US Embassy, UNHCR exploit interns. The Korea Times. Retrieved from https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2017/07/371_233114.html
Forney, B. (2017, July 6). South Korea’s brain drain: Why so many young South Koreans think of their country as “hell.” The Diplomat. Retrieved from https://thediplomat.com/2017/07/south-koreas-brain-drain/
Kim Jackson, J. (2017, November 21). Youth employment hits record low, senior jobs soar. The Korea Herald. Retrieved from http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud= 20171121000924
Jackson, B. (2017, July 24). Who is to blame for inequality? The Hell Joseon debate rumbles on. Korea Expose. Retrieved from https://www.koreaexpose.com/kaist-professor-hell-joseon-debate-korea/

[1]Gazley, B., & Dignam, M. (2008). The decision to volunteer: Why people give their time and how you can engage them. Washington, DC: ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership.

Values drive volunteers’ choices:

1. The power of direct talk
2. Meaningful experiences keep people coming back
3. While older generations volunteer more, younger generations actually think volunteering is more important.
4. Emphasis on professional benefits of volunteering
5. Recognize ad hoc volunteers.
6. Organization strategy has a big impact on supporting/discouraging volunteering.

Problems that discourage volunteering:

1. Lack of information about volunteer opportunities
2. Poor follow-through by an organization
3. Forgetting “thank-yous”
4. Poor communication
5. Lack of support/training
6. Unclear roles
7. High transportation costs

The Author
Maria Lisak is celebrating the 22nd anniversary of her first steps in South Korea this year. From the Midwest in the US, her Chicago accent still plagues her Korean pronunciation. She has been teaching public administration and social welfare at Chosun University since 2012. You can check out her degree pedigree on her blog: koreamaria.typepad.com/gwangju