Volunteer as ‘Consumer:’ A Marketing Perspective to Understanding Volunteer Choice
In this issue of Research to Practice, Laurie Mook reviews a study that explores the question, ‘Why do volunteers choose the particular organization they do to volunteer for?’ The researchers in the study use a marketing perspective, where the volunteer’s choice of organization is a ‘consumer’ decision. They propose a framework to explain this choice, and also suggest further ‘marketing’ questions based on the implications of their findings for volunteer resource managers.
Jessica Pang-Parks, Toronto, Canada
Wed, 02/03/2021I'll be coming back to this article a few times over the next few months as it has sparked a lot of interest/ thinking for me. I haven't considered volunteers as "consumers" of their experiences before but I think I've always taken a "marketing" approach towards volunteer engagement.
The "marketing" approach can go beyond recruitment as well. Recognition opportunities (both formal and informal) are perfect for "marketing" the experience to active volunteers, and encourage them to promote the organization's mission/ volunteer experiences with their networks.
Thank you again for all the questions to consider... I'll be thinking about them :)