Relationship among volunteer motivations, festival context factors, and retention of festival volunteers in the Southwest

Abstract

Over a million nonprofit organizations in the United States rely on the unpaid work of volunteers. The annual value of volunteer labor to these organizations has been estimated to be worth over a quarter of a trillion dollars. These nonprofit organizations often do a poor job of retaining volunteers, losing approximately a third of their volunteers every year. This research study examined how nonprofit organizations can reduce volunteer turnover. The study expanded upon a prior study of volunteer retention in Europe by using a population of volunteers from film and music festivals in the Southwest United States. The study contributed to the original theoretical construct of a prior study to include additional theories from the literature on volunteer retention as a way to strengthen the volunteer retention model. Correlation and regression analysis were used to test the relationship between motivations to volunteer, factors representing festival context and volunteer retention. The analysis extended support for findings from the prior study suggesting both motivation factors and experiences as a volunteer are related to volunteer retention. Regression analysis of variables not used in the previous study, which included variables for measuring psychological contract fulfillment and volunteer role identity development, significantly strengthened the model of volunteer retention from the prior study. This study produced a robust model for understanding influences on the decision to continue to volunteer for the same organization. Using this new knowledge, practitioners and future researchers can reconsider implementation of new strategies for improving volunteer retention and changes in leadership practices.