Pursuit of Volunteer Happiness

Across the nation pre-COVID-19, volunteer rates were on a downward trend which is problematic for nonprofit organizations who rely on the support that volunteers provide. In order to determine the volunteer health in Bexar County, it needs to be known who is volunteering, why they are volunteering, and what they want out of a volunteer program. It also needs to be known what is happening within volunteer programs and if leaders of said programs understand the wants and motivations behind their volunteers. This leads to the main question of: if volunteers had a voice to express their expectations and thoughts of how they viewed their volunteer experience, would nonprofit organizations see better volunteer retention rates due to happier volunteers?

This Zoom event will cover the research discovered during a graduate research capstone project through OLLU that partnered with 16 nonprofit organizations in Bexar County and 543 volunteers. Using qualitative and quantitative data, the research shows that volunteers’ happiness is low across the county, but the desire to volunteer is strong so it is up to the nonprofits to create volunteer programs that meet the needs of the volunteers if they want high(er) retention rates.