Engaging volunteers – A Comprehensive Literature Review
22/11/2024
Published: January 2024
Published: by ICF for the AmeriCorps, Office of Research and Evaluation
Contributing Authors:
- Samantha Spinney, PhD
- Yvette Clinton, PhD
The work was undertaken for Americorps. Americorps is an independent federal agency. It plays a vital role in supporting American culture of citizenship, service, and responsibility. It’s the nation’s largest grant maker in support of many forms of service and volunteering.
This report uses the traditional definitions for volunteer engagement (a broader strategy to leverage volunteers to accomplish an organization’s mission) and volunteer management (organizational practices used to recruit and retain volunteers), though it notes the shift in thinking (and terminology) that volunteers need to be engaged, rather than managed
The review notes that there is plenty of literature on individual volunteers’ characteristics and their relationship to volunteer outcomes, but less literature on how organisational factors affect volunteer outcomes, and even less on how volunteer recruitment and management practices expand and strengthen volunteering mechanisms.
To set the context, it includes quick reviews of the COVID impact on volunteering, implications for volunteering post COVID and the purpose of grant applications in the immediate post COVID landscape.
Key questions for the review:
- Volunteer management models characteristics and evidence base for them
- Volunteer management (recruitment, support, and retention) strategies and evidence for them
It includes literature from 2010 to present day, which is relevant to AmeriCorps, ie from their funded programs.
Findings: Volunteer Management Models
Three types are identified:
The Human Resources Management Model - a top-down approach, which treats volunteers as unpaid employees.
- A universal approach – one size fits all
- A contingency approach – context specific
Discussion re uniqueness of volunteers, and benefit of integrating practices
Service Enterprise Model – for strengthening capacity through fundamental strategic use of volunteers to successfully deliver the organisation’s mission. This focuses on volunteer engagement thought it touches on specific aspects of volunteer management (eg onboarding).
The AmeriCorps VISTA in Service Training Adapted Model – to utilize community resources and provide a framework for organizations to navigate the needs for volunteers. It’s based on the Volunteer Management Cycle (nonlinear). Retention is the overall goal.
Findings: Evidence
- Engagement – most research relates to the Service Enterprise Model as this is widely used across the US and provides evidence that following this model may enable organisations to better engage volunteers, institutionalise best practices and measure return on investment.
- Recruitment – no empirical studies were found on the relationship between the organisation’s recruitment practices and an individual’s decision to volunteer. Most studies focus on individual reactions to marketing materials and recruitment messages. There was some evidence to suggest different types of messages had an impact.
- Retention – most research used proxy measures to understand retention and intention to remain. The following may lead to positive volunteer outcomes:
- Match volunteers to roles based on interest
- Provide task oriented and emotional support
- Clearly define roles
- Provide training and learning opportunities
- Encourage volunteers to voice their opinions
- Promote autonomy with the organization
- Facilitate relationship building with others in the organization
- Provide feedback and recognition
Concludes, literature supports specific volunteer engagement, recruitment, and retention practices. It recommends additional research and evaluation efforts measuring the effects of volunteer management practices on volunteer outcomes will be helpful for volunteer organisations.