Educating Leaders Regarding What Motivates Millennials to Volunteer for Non-profit Organizations: A Case Study

Abstract

The problem addressed in this study was that there is limited understanding of what motivates millennials to volunteer. The need for community nonprofits to provide essential services to Americans continues to increase. Essential services include but are not limited to providing groceries, hot meals, clothing, and housing assistance. With limited funding available for nonprofits, the challenge is to provide support, goods, and services to the community without needing to hire additional staff. It is necessary for small community nonprofits to seek volunteers to perform the work needed to serve the community. The purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding of what motivates millennials to volunteer. Mannheim’s theory of motivational differences and Vroom’s expectancy theory served as the theoretical framework. Ten participants born between 1981 and 1996 living in California were recruited for this study. Braun and Clarke’s six-step process was used to analyze data. Five themes were identified. Millennials volunteer for personal reasons, based on their interests, to get a sense of personal fulfillment, and to have fun and social interaction. When millennials volunteer, they perceive that they will make the world and their community a better place through volunteer work. Nonprofit organizational (NPO) leadership must operate with integrity, be connected to the community, and offer safe, organized events. Recommendations for NPO leadership to help attract and retain millennial volunteers resulting from thematic analysis of this case study data include: NPOs should consider personalizing their advertising for events using videos of actual events, NPO leadership should consider identifying the talents and skills desired for different volunteer projects, and NPO leadership should consider documenting and publishing a clear mission and vision with video evidence of work being done to support that mission and vision. Recommendations for future research are provided.