Determinants of the Episodic Volunteer Satisfaction

Abstract

The article relies on the thesis of the importance of the satisfaction of occasional volunteers for their future participation in volunteer activities. The research focuses on those volunteers who occasionally participate in various volunteer activities and leave after their completion. This form of volunteer participation is quite widespread and replaces regular volunteering in nonprofit organizations, which indicates a transformation of the “nonprofit organization — volunteer” interaction paradigm. Based on the survey of episodic volunteers in Russia (n = 2,494; 2018), the authors give a characteristic of episodic volunteers for the first time. The article answers the research questions regarding (1) how satisfaction amid other possible factors influences the intention of future participation of episodic volunteers and (2) what the satisfaction of episodic volunteers depends on. Satisfaction is more significant for episodic volunteers’ intention to volunteer in the future than other variables. Meanwhile, the event’s organization and how other team members treated the volunteer significantly impact satisfaction. The results show that perceived NGO affiliation is important for occasional volunteers, and they are not significantly different from regular volunteers on this criterion. It is a mistake to reduce the role and management of episodic volunteers to the simple function of performing uncomplicated work tasks.

Acknowledgments. The study was conducted within the Basic Research Program at the HSE University.