Free · Certificate included
Motivating Volunteers
Keep your volunteers energized, engaged, and coming back for more.
What you’ll learn
- Identify what truly motivates each volunteer on your team
- Use the six Volunteer Functions to match roles to motivations
- Recognize contributions in ways that actually drive engagement
- Spot and prevent the early signs of volunteer burnout
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Create a free account →Course outline
- 1
Why volunteers are different
A paycheck does a lot of quiet work in a workplace.
4 min Quiz Interactive - 2
Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
Psychologists divide what drives us into two broad families.
5 min Quiz Interactive - 3
The three needs that fuel drive
The most influential modern theory of motivation is Self-Determination Theory (Deci Ryan).
5 min Quiz Interactive - 4
The six reasons people volunteer
Two people can do the identical task for completely different reasons.
6 min Quiz Interactive - 5
Matching roles to motivations
Knowing the six functions is only useful if you act on them.
5 min Quiz Interactive - 6
Recognition that actually works
Recognition is the most common motivation tool — and the most commonly botched.
5 min Quiz Interactive - 7
Spotting and preventing burnout
Your most motivated volunteers are the ones most at risk of burning out — precisely because they care, say yes, and keep giving.
5 min Quiz Interactive
Sources & further reading
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Clary et al., 1998) — Understanding and assessing the motivations of volunteers: a functional approach
- selfdeterminationtheory.org (Ryan & Deci, 2000) — Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation
- Simply Psychology — Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory of Motivation-Hygiene
- AmeriCorps — Engaging Volunteers: A Comprehensive Literature Review
- Journal of Organizational Behavior (Forner et al., 2024) — Predictors of turnover amongst volunteers: a systematic review and meta-analysis
- VolunteerHub — Why Volunteers Quit: How to Retain Them
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