Volunteer Motivation

The examination of volunteer motivations within studies of volunteering in Hungary has two main objectives: first, to theoretically describe and interpret the motivations of volunteers and correlate these with social and demographic indicators, second, to connect to the international research concern in the area. At the same time, for organisations employing volunteers, a methodology to evaluate volunteer motivation in order to improve recruitment, placement and retention has hitherto been missing.

The first major Hungarian analysis of the issue (Czike and Bartal, 2005:28-29) distinguished three hypothetical groups according to the motivations of the volunteers attached to the organisations: the old, the new and the mixed type of volunteering. Methodologically, the foundation of the heuristic grouping were eight categories, from which 150 volunteers had to choose the three most characteristic. Of the eight categories - helping the poor, the importance of faith and religious belief, moral duty, belonging to a community, gaining experience, challenging oneself, professional development, spending time, and making friends -, the first four were characterised by Czike as corresponding to the old, while the second four were characterised as corresponding to the new, type of volunteering. Responses that contained elements from both categories were evaluated as ‘mixed’ (Czike and Bartal, 2005:35).

According to the results of the survey carried out among social organisations, the motivations of the old type of volunteering tended to be found among females over 35 years of age and with a completed tertiary education, married and with several children, while the new type of volunteering was typical for single childless men and women under 25 years of age. Organisation-level results suggest that the old type of volunteering motivations is mainly characteristic for donating charities, while motivations of the new type are typical for volunteers in state and local government proximate organisations, and mixed motivations are associated with client-proximate organisations (Czike and Bartal 2005:94-95).

In another study, the motivations of youth volunteer interns were examined according to two factors - value-based (old type) and interest-based (new type) volunteering (Hegyi, Horvath, Kmetty and Molnar, 2006). Qualitative surveys reveal within youth volunteering separate groups of altruistic and professional volunteers, while youth volunteer interns were described as a group who are equally connected to altruistic and professional motivations.

The 2004 Hungarian representative study (population above 14 years of age) on charitable giving (Czike and Kuti, 2006) examined volunteer motivations by asking respondents to evaluate eighteen statements on a five-point Likert scale. Czike refined the labels of the earlier motivational categories, now dividing motivations into conventional and new type motivation. Of the eighteen categories, conventional volunteering was predominantly characterised by positive emotional import of helping others (89%), family reasons (60%), belonging to a community (54%), acquaintances as role models (39%) and gratitude (34%). Opposed to this, new type volunteering was characterised by achieving a defined aim (54%), spending time worthwhile (52%), gaining experience (46%), self-awareness (35%), professional development (28%) and the possibility of good employment (4%) (Czike and Kuti, 2006:45).

The examination of volunteer motivations according to demographic-sociostatistical variables indicated that new type volunteering is best defined by age (age group 21-60 years, while gender and educational attainment did not play a significant role. Conventional motivations were characteristic for the less educated respondents within the age group above 35 years of age.

On the whole, Hungarian surveys of volunteer motivations

• have been derived from heuristic approaches, and, as Czike notes, the dichotomy between the new and old types of volunteering were only partially present in a representative sample (Czike-Kuti 2006:48),
• furthermore, these theoretical categories did not provide good and applicable methodologies for organisations to measure the motivation of their volunteers,
• whereas in the management of volunteerism, recruitment of volunteers, placement and retention, it would be vitally important to know the motivation of volunteers as a complementary mechanism to allow organisations to attract volunteers by more appropriate and effective messages, allocate them the most appropriate tasks ans provide an atmosphere in which their volunteers are able to feel satisfaction in their work and continue their commitment to volutneering.

International research in volunteer motivations can be divided into three distinct stages, which represent the development the research of volunteer motivations went through, becoming more structured over time.

• The first volunteer motivation research was conducted in 1973 by Pitterman, who examined volunteer motivations and their relation to the accrual of persona, social and indirect economic advantages. He concluded that the importance of these rewards varies with age (for instance, the elderly are more concerned with social rewards, while the young are more concerned with indirect economic advantages, such as work experience). Research interest in the 1980s was dominated by two and three factor models, such as the altruistic, the egoistic and the social motivation models. These were generally developed by reliance on self-assessment surveys by Red Cross volunteers (Frisch and Gerrard, 1981).
• In the early 1990s, Cnaan and Goldberg-Geln (1991) reviewed and summarised volunteer motivation studies and concluded that earlier studies were predominantly descriptive and were less based on systematic methodologies. Based on previous methodological studies, a questionnaire containing 28 items was compiled, from which the Motivation to Volunteer (MTV0 scale was derived. This was subsequently tested among 250 volunteers and 150 non-volunteer subjects. The findings indicated that volunteers do not make their decisions to volunteer based on only one motivation, so volunteer motivations are determined by a combination of egoistic and altruistic motivations.
• The direction of later 1990s studies was to analyse previous empirical studies and determine measurable factors of a primary motivations to volunteer. Based on this, Clary, Snyder and Ridge (1992) identified six volunteer factors: values, understanding, career, social, esteem and protective. Individual factors were measured by thirty questions on a seven-point Likert scale with 1000 volunteers working with AIDS patients and a control group of 500 university students. Based on this, the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) was devised, opening a new chapter in the analysis of volunteer motivations.
• From the 1990s, research concentrated on setting up questionnaires and inventories to assay volunteer motivation. In 2002, McEwin and D’Arcy’s multi-stage methodology (focus groups, open questions, pilot study) resulted in eight motivational factors: values, career, presonal growth, recognition, hedonism, social, reactivity and reciprocity. To measure these factors, a Volunteer Motivation Inventory (VMI) containing 40 questions on a five-point Likert scale was used, which was tested on 500 volunteers at different organisations.
• The standardisation of the VMI continued in 2004 with Esmond and Dunlop, for which McEwin and D’Arcy’s (2002) VMI and Clary, Snyder and Ridge’s (1998) Volunteer Functions Inventory. Esmond and Dunlop (2004) have created a complex VMI capable of differentiated measurement of motivations along ten motivational factors - values, reciprocity, recognition, understanding, self-esteem, reactivity, social, protection, social interaction and career development. Subjects were asked to evaluate these in 44 questions along a five-point Likert scale. The surveys were taken among 2444 volunteers  in Western Australia, thus being the largest volunteer motivation survey. According to the results, the most important motivations were values, reciprocity and recognition/prestige. At the same time, correlation analysis revealed that motivations are not entirely independent from each other, as some motivational factors seem to correlate with others. The comparison of motivational factors with demographic-sociostatistical variables revealed that among the Australian volunteers, too, the most defining variable was age, and gender differences were most prevalent in differences in the dominance of various motivation factors. Differences between low and higher income volunteers were mainly between particular correlates among motivational factors.

Summing up, it is apparent that while in the beginning (1970s-80s), volunteer motivational research was mainly viewed from a psychological angle, this was supplanted by an interdisciplinary perspective from the 1990s onwards, melding psychological, sociopsychological and sociological studies. At the same time, research methodologies have become more standardised and in describing volunteer motivations - both in framing motivational factors and in replacing one or two factor models with multi-factorial models to describe volunteer motivation. While earlier studies were characterised by small sample size and focus on a single volunteer group or organisation and mainly relied on self-description by the respondents, later studies were characterised by a larger sample size and respondents drawn from a diverse array of organisations.

As the definition of the issue, as well as the international research literature shows,

• the main aim of research is to adapt Esmond and Dunlop’s (2004) Volunteer Motivation Inventory onto Hungarian circumstances (Hungarian Volunteer Motivation Questionnaire) and carry out a large sample size (n = 2500) standardisation, yielding results which can also be used by organisations employing volunteers to assist in recruitment, placement and retention of their volunteers.
• Furthermore, the research aims at defining the Hungarian Volunteer Motivation Index by area of activity and age groups,
• and by this, bring about a new and more differnetiated - activity-centric - perspective into Hungarian volunteer motivation research.

At the commencement of research, a Hungarian adaptation of the VMI based on 200 responses is available, enhanced by results relating to three new posited motivation factors - religion, societal failure and governmental failure.

The previous representative surveys examined volunteering among the whole population, and conclusively we know little about formal volunteers working with organisations. The standardisation of the Hungarian Motivation Questionnaire will be based on the Central Statistical Office’s volunteerism database. Based on this, the multi-layered sample will be separately examined

• by reference to different areas of activity,
• by reference to volunteers in the capital and volunteers in the rest of the country.
• Furthermore, survey of organisations in a given subject area in the capital or the rest of the country would be conducted in equal proportions within six age groups (18-25, 26-35, 36-45, 46-55, 56-65, 66-), as there is no data as to specific distributions of motivations within age groups, but there is evidence that age is a crucial differentiator of volunteer motivations.

The Hungarian Volunteer Motivation Questonnaire would survey 13 motivational factors along 53 questions at a sample size of 2,500 volunteers, and standardise these factor (values, reciprocity, recognition/prestige, understanding/compassion, self-realisation, reactivity, social, protectivity, social contacts, career development, religion, communal failure, governmental failure). Furthermore, it would assess the respondent volunteer’s socio-statistical characteristics (gender, age, place of residence, educational history employment, income, household size, educational history of the father, religious allegiance) and information with regard to volunteering history (commencement of volunteer activity, location, frequency, average hours worked).

The data would be collected in SPSS and evaluated for frequencies, distributions, correlations and regression, to reveal, first, the standard values of individual motivation factors, second, to examine these values within the context of social and volunteer-specific characteristics.

We regard it as expected outcomes that

• with the largest domestic assay of volunteer motivations, with a sample size of 2500,
• the standardised version of the Hungarian Volunteer Motivation Questionnaire can be compiled.

On the sector level, the recorded data will

• allow a ranking of motivation factors of Hungarian volunteers based on activity type and age group, and the formulation of the Volunteer Motivation Index,
• the description of correlations between individual motivation factors, and
• the description of correlations between motivation factors and demographic-sociostatistical indicators.

On the organisational level, the recorded data will

• allow organisations employing volunteers to access data assisting them with more efficient volunteer recruitment, retention and employment,
• allow volunteer coordinators to deliver tailor-made volunteering programmes to their volunteers.