Volunteerism In Nonprofit Organizations

To fully understand volunteerism, it is defined as any act or service that people do even if they are not obliged to do so (Whittaker, McLennan, & Handmer, 2015). According to Bortree & Waters (2014), volunteerism has a positive impact on people’s wellbeing and career. The people that do the act of volunteerism, or the volunteers are considered one of the most important assets a nonprofit organization has (Herman, 2005). And volunteers tend to contribute their services because of the benefits that they would receive. This is supported by Bortree & Waters (2014) saying that through volunteerism, people’s skills and connections can be strengthened and built. Volunteers become more committed in volunteering because they share the same interest with the organization or they receive something …show more content…
There are four (4) reasons why volunteers associate themselves (from entering to staying) with organizations - Motives for Volunteering, Connections to Organizations and Causes, Benefits to Volunteers, and Challenges experienced (MacNeela, 2008).
The first, which is the Motives for Volunteering explained how people become attracted into volunteering into an organization because the organization’s advocacy is in sync with their beliefs and principles. So organizations must emphasize on their advocacy or ‘mission and vision’ to attract people with the same interest (Henley, Wymer, & Self, 2013). Another reason is because of empathy of the thinking that they have to ‘pay it forward’. Clary et.al (1998), divided volunteer motivations into different functions; values function, understanding function, career function, social function, protective function and esteem function. Values function basically shows a person’s concerns for other people