Volunteer Engagement in Housing Co-Operatives – Civil Society “en miniature”

Housing co‐operatives host miniature versions of civil society. They vitalise a social system that is shaped by formal regulations, economic functions, and a population of private housing units. The study examines factors that influence a person’s willingness to volunteer in civic society using a multilevel analysis based on survey data from 32 co‐operatives and 1263 members. To do so, the social exchange theory is extended to include the member value approach, which connects social engagement with the fulfillment of a range of needs, thus going beyond a narrow economic cost benefit analysis. Study results show that volunteer engagement largely depends on the degree to which members can expect to experience their own achievement. This finding provides an explanation for significant differences in the engagement levels beyond factors that have already been determined (age, level of education). On an organizational level, the study reveals that the age of an organization influences volunteer engagement, but that the size and the degree of professionalization do not have an effect on it

Competition or collaboration? The effect of non-profit brand image on volunteer recruitment strategy

With increasing numbers of non-profit organizations and higher demand for a wider range of social services, the need for volunteers has never been greater. There is general agreement that competition within the sector is increasing, and this has led to organizations placing greater emphasis on building strong brand images to differentiate themselves from competitors. However, there are also many instances where non-profits have successfully collaborated with each other to achieve efficiencies and meet objectives. The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine, which of these approaches - competition or collaboration - is more appropriate for the challenge of volunteer recruitment. We use data from an empirical study of 1415 Australians to investigate whether, based on perceived organizational brand images, volunteering organizations compete with each other for volunteers or are seen as complimentary. Results indicate that while consideration of organizations with certain brand images - especially the Heroes image - means that donation of time to other volunteering organizations is unlikely, other organizational brand images, such as that of being a local volunteering organization or one that provides support to people experiencing difficulty are likely to be compatible, opening up valuable opportunities for collaborative marketing for the purpose of volunteer recruitment