Community organization continues to be a viable part of the social work profession, involved in influencing others in order to achieve social change. Many of those who are a part of the change process give of their time, their material donations and/or their financial contributions. As the trend toward fewer government services for disadvantaged and ill individuals continues, the need for others to give on a voluntary basis continues to increase. Failing to address the factors that motivate people to give may cause a decline in the free talent of volunteering, the material donations of in-kind goods, or the monetary resources of financial contributions The present study has an aim to describe the main motivational factors that influence voluntary giving to a non-profit community agency in Clinton, Mississippi. The purposes of this study were (1) to explore the underlying motivational factors of people who give voluntarily to community agencies through volunteering, in-kind (material) donations, and/or financial contributions and (2) to explore the sociodemographics of voluntary givers with the purpose of identifying a target population of voluntary givers for further recruitment, replacement, and retention The results of the present study supported considerable extensive existing research on factors that motivate people to give. This study's results also verified portions of the research that certain socio-demographic characteristics were present in the majority of those voluntary givers who participated in the study. This study's results demonstrate the need for more attention by researchers to comprehend the nature of volunteer motivation more holistically in order to recognize what it means to those who give and what causes them to remain committed. Understanding what motivates people to become and remain voluntary givers will be valuable to social workers, who are in the community setting, to use as a tool to analyze and compare different levels of voluntary giving to community agencies. The study provides a rationale for developing empirical-based social work interventions that can be used with community agencies and voluntary givers Index words. Volunteer Motivation Inventory, voluntary giver, volunteer, in-kind (material) donation, financial contribution, community organization, Social Work / acase@tulane.edu
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_25436 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Contributors | Lawson, Laurie Smith (Author), Lewis, Marva (Thesis advisor) |
| Publisher | Tulane University |
| Source Sets | Tulane University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Access requires a license to the Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) database., Copyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law |
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