The hardest part of my job is to say ‘No’ to volunteers: An exemplary model of volunteer management within a food rescue organisation

Abstract

The involvement and effective management of volunteers in Not-for-profit sector have become critical with the retracted government funding and increasing service demand. Whilst most Not-for-profit organisations are struggling to attract, train, utilise and retain their volunteering workforce, some organisations have the opposite problem—a surplus of volunteering labour that they have to say ‘No’ to. This paper deploys an exploratory case study approach in investigating the volunteer management processes of an exemplary Australian food rescue organisation and discovers that its success is largely attributable to its social entrepreneurial model of volunteer management. It then identifies the unique challenges this model brings. This study advances volunteer management literature by extending theoretical model and identifying its major HRM challenges