Similar but Different. Inter-Branch Diversification of Volunteers' Motivations

The article aims to verify whether volunteers working in the same branch of the nonprofit sector (e.g., culture, emergency services, and charity) share any similarities with respect to their motivation profiles. Moreover, the study tries to identify the mechanisms responsible for such inter–branch “motivation sorting.” In particular, three mechanisms are considered: functional matching, motivations to affordances matching, and motivation alignment. The data used in the analysis come from an original survey conducted among volunteers in Poland with the use of the Volunteer Functions Inventory (Clary, Snyder & Stukas, 1996). This questionnaire allows the identifying of six types of volunteer motivations: career, social, protective, understanding, enhancement, and values. The motivation profile of volunteers working in seven branches of the nonprofit sector is compared. The results indicate that the most distinctive group with respect to the motivation profile was made up of volunteers working in tourism and sports as well as emergency service volunteers. It was in the latter group that some traces of the motivation alignment and/or motivation to affordances matching were identified. The identification of some homogeneity of motivations within particular branches of the nonprofit sector is a valuable finding from the point of view of volunteer recruitment and retention.

Researcher Perceptions of a Self-Service Online Portal to Facilitate Volunteer Recruitment into Clinical Trials

Background Recruitment of volunteers is a major challenge for clinical trials. There has been increasing development and use of Internet-based portals in recruitment for clinical research. There has been little research on researcher use and perceptions of these portals. Objectives This study evaluated researcher perceptions of use of Rally, an Internet-based portal for clinical trial volunteer recruitment. Methods A cross-sectional survey was developed and implemented to understand researcher perceptions. From theoretical models of information technology use, the survey adopted items in four domains: ease of use, usefulness, facilitating conditions, and self-efficacy. The dependent variable was researchers' behavioral intention to use Rally. The survey captured characteristics of researchers such as gender, age, and role. It was implemented using the REDCap survey tool. An email invitation followed by three reminders was sent to researchers. A hierarchical regression model was applied to assess predictors of behavioral intention. Results The survey response rate was 35.6% (152 surveys received from 427 contacted researchers). In the hierarchical regression model, facilitating conditions and self-efficacy predicted behavioral intention (F (4,94) = 6.478; p <0.001). The model explained 21.6% of the variance in behavioral intention (R-square change = 21.3%, p <0.001). Conclusion Facilitating conditions and self-efficacy predicted researchers' behavioral intention to use Rally for volunteer recruitment into clinical trials. Future research should document best practices and strategies for enhancing researcher use of online portals for volunteer recruitment.

The recruitment of volunteers into a community programme for older people: lessons learned

The recruitment of sufficient volunteers is a key challenge that many non-profit organisations face. There remains a lack of research exploring the implementation of best practice processes to recruit appropriate volunteers into relevant programmes. This paper details the processes underpinning a volunteer recruitment strategy for a community-based programme, reflects on the outcomes of recruitment, and discusses key learnings and implications for practice to guide other researchers and non-profit stakeholders to effectively recruit young adult volunteers.

Impact of COVID-19 on Public Research Recruitment

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic created a major challenge for clinical trials recruitment as early attention was focused on matters of public health and clinical care, and research--outside of COVID-19-- essentially shut down. Rally with Partners (rally.partners.org), an Internet-based portal for clinical research volunteer recruitment, continued to support studies that continued their recruitment during this period and additionally, implemented several measures to support COVID-19 research. In this paper, we summarize our experiences and preliminary results.

Community event sustainability: why don’t people volunteer?

Every Saturday, thousands of runners worldwide participate in parkrun ‐ a free five-kilometre run/walk event. Delivery relies on volunteers, and parkrunners are encouraged to volunteer regularly. However, volunteer recruitment is often difficult, and this study aimed to investigate the underpinning reasons for this. Data were collected from 6,749 parkrunners using an online survey, including 860 who had never volunteered. In addition to demographic information and views on incentives, non-volunteers were asked to rate agreement level for 18 statements about not volunteering. Main reasons were preferring to run or walk and not having got round to it. Principal component analysis indicated four underlying factors: inertia, self-interest, lack of knowledge and anxiety. Non-volunteers were younger, slower runners and walkers, less frequent parkrun attendees and had become involved more recently than volunteers. Ease of signing up to volunteer and being unsure of the commitment required were barriers. It is recommended that these two issues are addressed to help volunteer recruitment.