Motivations for Volunteering in a Faith-Based Mentoring Program

Abstract Adolescent males are being suspended or expelled at high rates. Faith-based organizations have developed programs to address these problems by using adult male volunteers to mentor high-risk youth; however, recruiting sufficient mentors is a problem because organizers lack an understanding of the factors that motivate men to volunteer. If this problem can be alleviated, then faith-based organizations will be better able to recruit volunteers to serve students. Guided by the functionalist theory, the purpose of this study was to determine what demographic characteristics and motivating factors discriminated between volunteers and non-volunteers. A causal comparative design was employed and the Volunteer Function Inventory was administered to determine differences between volunteers (n = 112) and non-volunteers (n = 202) in terms of motivating factors, demographic characteristics, and future intentions to volunteer. In alignment with the functionalist theory, multivariate analysis of variance revealed that volunteers were more motivated by social, value, understanding, and self-enhancement factors than were non-volunteers. Descriptive data analyses indicated that volunteers were older, unmarried, employed full time, and less educated than non-volunteers, and revealed no difference in future intentions to volunteer. Based upon the findings of this study, it is concluded that faith-based organizations recruit and retain adult males as role models who exhibit social, value, understanding, and self-enhancement factors to provide support for adolescent males. It is recommended that faith-based leaders use the Volunteer Function Inventory as a screening tool to identify volunteers who would mentor high risk male students. This practice may enable male at risk students to remain in school, graduate, and lead fulfilling lives, thus resulting in positive social change