The proliferation of volunteering for development (V4D) models, approaches and funding sources means V4D is no longer able to be neatly located within the third sector. The enormous diversity of interactions within the Youth V4D (YV4D) field provides an opportunity to examine new and different activities and trajectories to ascertain the extent to which the traditional values of V4D, reciprocity and solidarity continue to form part of YV4D. Using the classical third sector model of Evers and Laville (The third sector in Europe, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2004), and drawing on Polanyi (The great transformation: the political and economic origins of our time, Beacon Press, Boston, 2001 [1944]) and Mauss (The gift. The form and reason for exchange in archaic societies, Routledge, London, 1990 [1925]), in particular their concepts of redistribution and reciprocity, we present three case studies of new hybrid YV4D trajectories—university YV4D, state YV4D programmes, and volunteer tourism/voluntourism—to reveal the different logics and features of contemporary YV4D. We argue that understanding these contemporary YV4D trajectories requires a focus on organisational and stakeholder structures of diverse volunteering activities, their relational logics and the forms of reciprocity they involve. We find that in the YV4D case studies we explore the neoliberal market logic of exchange, along with political ideologies and state interests, affects the YV4D model design.

The volunteer experience in organizational context has received far less scrutiny. Studies have indicated specific organizational settings, such as schedule flexibility, orientation and training, empowerment, social interaction, reflection, and rewards, and each has certain influences on their satisfaction and intention of remain. But we do not know their combined impact as organizational facilitators. This study focused on a sample of hospital volunteering, which occupies the largest service hours of volunteering work in Taiwan. We explored the experience of organizational facilitators that affect the satisfaction and loyalty of the volunteers from 868 valid questionnaires in a metropolitan hospital. The results showed that volunteers with more experiences on social interaction, reflections, and rewards, were more satisfied. In term of loyalty, volunteers with higher satisfaction showed higher willing to remain, recommend, accept services, and donate. Furthermore, because of flexible schedules and preferable rewards, the volunteers were more willing to remain; because of more training, higher social interaction, reflections, and rewards, the volunteers were more willing to recommend volunteering and accept services. Additionally, less flexible schedules, better empowerment, and more reflections as well as rewards influenced volunteers to be more motivated to donate. Implications of organizational efforts toward the hospital volunteer management are discussed.

We present a research model of extra-role behavior, integrating the literature on public service motivation (PSM) with stewardship theory. We propose that the extent to which volunteers perform activities that go beyond role prescription depends on the individual’s PSM. Our research model is further grounded in the notion that a stewardship-oriented organizational culture serves as a means to enhance the effect of PSM on extra-role behavior. We empirically test this research model in a sample of 475 Austrian and German volunteer firefighters and provide evidence that PSM positively relates to extra-role behavior at the 10% significance level. Furthermore, firefighters’ commitment to the occupation and organization positively moderates the relationship between PSM and extra-role behavior. We also find that stewardship-like characteristics, such as a motivating work design and perceived organizational support, directly relate to extra-role behavior. Implications for research and practice are discussed, focusing on the relevance of these insights for volunteerism research and management.

A nonprofit’s reputation is a crucial intangible asset that can bring significant benefits to the organization. Using a multidimensional framework, this study tested the effects of three dimensions of nonprofit reputation—financial efficiency, media visibility, accreditation status—on charitable giving behavior. The findings of this 2 × 2 × 2 full-factorial survey experiment show that each of the reputation dimensions has a significant individual effect on giving behavior. Furthermore, financial efficiency and accreditation status have an interaction effect on giving behavior. The findings also demonstrate the cross-level interaction between financial efficiency and the real-life giving behavior of individuals and between accreditation and the real-life volunteering behavior. This study provides implications for our understanding of the components of nonprofit reputation and their impact on charitable giving.

We examine the impact of volunteering and charitable donations on subjective wellbeing. We further consider if the model of the volunteering work (formal vs. informal) and the geographical location of the charity organisation (local vs. international) people donate to has any impact on subjective wellbeing. Using UK’s Community Life Survey data, we find that volunteering and engagement in charity are positively associated with subjective wellbeing, measured by individual life satisfaction. We show that while there is a positive effect of volunteering and charity on life satisfaction, the level of utility gained depends on the type of charity or volunteering organisation engaged with (i.e. local or international). Specifically, donating to local (neighbourhood) charities as opposed to international/national charities is associated with higher wellbeing. Similarly, engaging in informal volunteering, compared to formal volunteering, is associated with higher wellbeing. To explain our results, we use the construal-level theory of psychological distance, which suggests that people think more concretely of actions and objects that they find spatially and socially close.

Many NGOs which focus on development have operated child sponsorship programs due to their effectiveness in raising funds. Existing studies offer a critique of child sponsorship as a de-humanizing marketing strategy and as a targeted service provision. Some NGOs have revised their child sponsorship by integrating it with a rights-based approach (RBA), which emerged rejecting the individual focus and disempowering process of development intervention. The objection of other RBA NGOs to child sponsorship leaves questions about whether child sponsorship can fit an RBA. The aim of the present study is to explore how child sponsorship is perceived and practiced in relation to an RBA in an NGO. The findings from a case study of ActionAid present how an RBA guides ActionAid’s child sponsorship to promote empowerment, campaigning, solidarity and alternatives. This study identifies the potential of an RBA to address problematic marketing and operational practices of child sponsorship as well as remaining issues. The complexity of NGO practices when aligning organizational practices with an RBA warrants further examination.

This study examines the subjective quality of life of globally expanding senior citizens post-retirement, from a volunteering perspective. Formal volunteering is one way to engage retired seniors, providing social connectedness and enhanced well-being while potentially reducing their support service needs. It also provides a valuable resource to nonprofits. Thus, it is a win–win for both these individuals and their societies. This study has empirically examined associations between regular formal volunteering and seniors’ personal outlook, in the context of enhanced subjective quality of life. Past research has overlooked this important perspective, which often influences relationships between volunteering and subjective quality of life. Surveying 207 seniors, this study found that voluntary work perceptions are often associated with regular formal volunteering, which in turn is associated with the individual’s personal outlook, which in turn is positively associated with the aspects of subjective quality of life, particularly mental and emotional well-being. These results will guide policymakers on improving the quality of life of seniors through their extended involvement as volunteers, including for nonprofits, ways to recruit, train and manage their volunteer workforce and take action in further increasing the profile and the availability of formal volunteering.

Lay leaders who hold executive-level volunteering positions play a significant role in the operation of Jewish communal organizations and work closely with organizations’ senior administration and professional leaders. This study’s focus was executive-level volunteer practice of servant leadership in relation to volunteers’ motivational function and volunteers’ trust in the executive-level professionals with whom they work closely. Data were collected from 73 executive-level lay leaders in Jewish community organizations in North America. Results show that lay leaders motivated by a mission to help others, as opposed to self-interest, are more inclined to practice servant leadership. Moreover, results show that lay leaders’ trust in their professional colleagues mediates the relationship between lay leaders’ motivation to volunteer and their pursuit of servant leadership. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This research addresses an area of philanthropic study that is becoming an increasingly important revenue source for the nonprofit sector: workplace giving campaigns. We used Independent Sector’s Giving and Volunteering (Giving and volunteering [United States] [Data set]. https://doi.org/10.3886/icpsr35584.v1, 2001) data to explore patterns of household philanthropy. We found that exposure to a workplace giving option increases the odds that a household will participate in formal philanthropic giving. Additionally, we found that household demographic characteristics correlate with whether a household participates in workplace giving; specifically, we found that some minority groups have higher odds of giving through the workplace mechanism. Further, there were differences in overall patterns of giving, both in gift recipients and in concentration of gifts, between those households that utilize workplace giving as one of their charitable giving outlets and those who give formally by other means. Our findings suggest that workplace giving campaigns may be a particularly powerful mechanism for encouraging household donative behavior.

Knowledge of volunteering and volunteer management requires understanding from both individual and organizational perspectives. However, most existing research focuses on individual volunteers and the supply side of volunteering, leaving the demand side substantially understudied. The present study examines the organizational perspective of volunteering, focusing on the differences in volunteer use among nonprofit organizations. In particular, this study tests how various organizational characteristics predict the size of the volunteer program in human service organizations in the USA. The results show that, controlling for revenue and employment size, the size of volunteer program is negatively associated with the proportion of business income, while it is not significantly associated with the proportion of charitable contributions and grants. This finding provides supports for the concerns that increasing commercialization of nonprofit organizations will weaken the role of volunteers in human service delivery. The results also reveal that the extent of volunteer use is positively associated with the culture of good governance within the organization as well as organizational involvement in political activities.

Recently, increasing numbers of nonprofit studies have used experiments to understand individuals’ charitable giving decisions. One significant gap between experimental settings and the real world is the way in which individuals earn the incomes that they use for charitable donations. This study examined the relationship between individuals’ income sources and their charitable giving decisions. To do so, we conducted a laboratory experiment with 188 college students and asked them to donate with windfall money or with money earned from a real task, respectively. The findings showed that participants donated more to charities if their funds derived from windfall gains. Implications for conducting experiments and motivating donors are also discussed.

Non-profit associations are usually democratically organized, and this feature plays a legitimizing role for the public support to associations. This article examines which characteristics at country level, organizational level and individual level can explain variations with regard to member engagement in the association democracy in sports clubs in Europe. The statistical analyses use data on 12,755 members from 642 sports clubs in ten European countries. The findings show that the majority of the members in sports clubs participate in the association democracy, but the level and form of engagement varies considerably. At the country level, no link between the democratic strength and quality of the countries on the one hand and member engagement on the other could be identified. Instead, characteristics at the organizational and individual level were found to be relevant. More concretely, (1) the size of the sports club, (2) the socioeconomic background of the members (gender, age and education), and (3) the way in which the members are involved in and affiliated to the club (engaged in voluntary work, participating in social activities, etc.) were found to be significantly correlated with the engagement of members in the association democracy.

Empirical evidence from single-country studies on the relation between volunteering and wages is mixed. This paper uses an international framework to show that the relation between activities in voluntary associations and wages differs depending on country-specific factors. In particular, we argue that participating in voluntary associations serves as a signal in collectivistic (as opposed to individualistic) countries and is therefore positively related to wages. In countries with a low (as opposed to high) formal educational level, the human capital effects of participating are strong; therefore, activities in voluntary associations correlate with wages positively. Using data on 9295 individuals from 17 countries, we confirm that the relation between participating in voluntary associations and wage is positive but declines (1) as individualism increases and (2) as formal educational levels increase. In countries with high values for individualism or very high formal education levels, the relation between activities in voluntary associations and wage becomes negative.

Previous studies of national culture and prosocial behaviors have been limited to Hofstede’s five traditional culture dimensions. We introduce the fairly new and less studied cultural dimension of indulgence versus restraint (IVR) as a predictor of prosocial behaviors. We tested the effect of IVR on prosocial behavior over Hofstede’s previously studied dimensions. We also tested the moderating effect of government effectiveness on the relationship between indulgence and prosocial behavior. We crossed data for cultural dimensions from Hofstede with data from the world-giving index for prosocial behavior and data for government effectiveness from the World Bank. In total, eighty-seven countries entered our model. Indulgence predicted volunteering above the other researched cultural dimensions. It did not predict helping a stranger or donating. Among the cultural dimensions, only uncertainty avoidance was also significant in the prediction of volunteering. Uncertainty avoidance was the only cultural dimension that predicted donating. Individualism was not significant in the prediction of prosocial behaviors. Long-term orientation was the only cultural dimension that predicted helping a stranger (but not volunteering and donating) over other researched cultural dimensions. We found that government effectiveness is a boundary condition to the link between indulgent cultures and two prosocial behaviors (donating and helping a stranger but not for volunteering). Our results indicate that only in countries with high government effectiveness does indulgence predict prosocial behaviors, and not in cultures with low government effectiveness.

Crowdfunding opened up new opportunities for nonprofits to mobilize resources in the increasingly competitive world. Systematic knowledge regarding key factors linked with funding outcome is lacking, making it hard to offer practical suggestions to help nonprofits launch successful crowdfunding campaigns. In this study, we looked at 109 grassroots nonprofit campaigns on Tencent Philanthropy, one of China’s largest nonprofit crowdfunding platforms. We investigated to what extent demonstration of legitimacy, arguments for worthiness and social network influence campaign outcome. Results show that Chinese donors do not care much about the organization’s legal status or accountability measures. Demonstration of organizational competence, the use of concrete personal stories in the pledge, and to offer low-risk solutions (such as direct cash and in-kind assistance) are linked with campaign success. Comparing with the pledger’s own social network and marketing capacity, viral network and viral marketing are more important in crowdfunding.