Millennial college students and volunteering : their motivations and perceived obstacles
Abstract
Because volunteers are the lifeblood of nonprofit organizations, it is important to understand a new generation of volunteers that will help sustain these organizations: millennial college students. Using the Self-Determination Theory as a theoretical framework, this research explored the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that encourage millennial college student volunteerism. Furthermore, the obstacles that prevent volunteerism were also examined. Qualitative in-depth interviews with eleven millennial college students revealed six motivations that drive volunteerism: 1) the desire to feel comfortable and wanting to know what to expect from a volunteer experience 2) a balance of task enjoyment with other factors that contribute to an overall positive volunteer experience 3) the satisfaction of seeing results from the volunteer labor 4) challenges that lead to a transformative experience 5) experiencing warm-glow 6) feeling of gratitude. Next, the data revealed the obstacles that discourage volunteering: lack of time and lack of structure. Nonprofit managers can use insights found in this research study to create more effective strategies for attracting, recruiting and retaining millennial college students.
Degree
M.A.
Thesis Department
Rights
OpenAccess.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.