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The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the critical organizational support factors and efforts that facilitate better employee participation in corporate volunteering (CV) programs. There is a growing interest to understand the role of organization in enhancing better employee participation in volunteering programs.

The authors conducted an empirical investigation with (n = 461) employee volunteers, who participated in company sponsored volunteering programs. The authors tested the hypothesized relationship using structural equation modelling (SEM).

The SEM results indicate that cultural fit, organizational CV communication and implementation of CV programmes facilitate better employee participation.

This study provides insights for organizations in terms of increased internal communication and alignment of organizational values with CV programmes to attract better employee participation in volunteering programmes.

This study contributes to the literature on the phenomenon of employee volunteering by examining various organizational efforts that facilitate better employee participation in volunteering programmes.

This study aims to investigate how university students experience a skill transformation process aligned with the sustainable development goals (SDGs). This transformation occurs through their participation in a service-learning programme alongside an international volunteering project. The theoretical framework for understanding this skill transformation process is based on the “rite of passage”.

Qualitative methodology is adopted by conducting 23 online surveys with volunteers (virtual and onsite) and five with coordinators across the rite of passage phases. Volunteering was carried out in five Mayan indigenous communities in Mexico as part of an international cooperation project with the goals of supporting community-based tourism development and strengthening volunteers’ skills in accordance with the SDGs.

Results show that international volunteering programmes for university students significantly enhance their interpersonal and professional skills, demonstrating strong potential for implementing the SDGs. These programmes provide learning and education opportunities for both volunteers and local communities. Volunteers gain a broader perspective on gender equality and cultural barriers. Additionally, volunteering supports sustainable tourism, economic worth and collaboration among institutions. Both volunteers’ personal characteristics (educational level and sociocultural context), as well as their sociocultural context, influenced the perception of the skill transformation process and learning about the SDGs. Finally, a new educational university programme in volunteering aligned with SDGs is proposed.

This research examines the practical ramifications of incorporating volunteer programmes into university courses. Universities must include these initiatives in their educational systems as a means of enhancing student learning.

A new educational university programme in volunteering aligned with SDGs is proposed. This study suggests a shift in university mindset, as well as increased funding for training and adherence to the SDGs.

This study pioneers the rite of passage framework in an international volunteer tourism project facilitated by universities, emphasizing volunteering as a valuable tool for SDG implementation, considering the interrelationships between objectives.

The Hull City of Culture 2017 volunteer programme is widely celebrated and remains a key legacy of the designation. A 2019 master's project found that volunteers experienced a multitude of intangible personal benefits from their time volunteering with the programme. Taking an interpretivist stance, this article aims to capture these sentiments; what volunteering has meant to the volunteers themselves and what legacy it has left them, both as individuals and as residents of the city.

To investigate legacy over a longer period, the original qualitative research was supplemented with a similar number of interviews taken in 2021.

The 2019 focus groups were largely positive towards Hull City of Culture, and the effect it had on the volunteers and the city of Hull overall. Participants highlighted various intangible benefits and legacies, namely, personal well-being, perceptions of the city and a sense of community. The world in which the 2021 interviews took place is almost inconceivably different, yet the volunteers' feelings about their time with Hull City of Culture and its later iterations are remarkably similar to the earlier findings. Despite the changing circumstances, they too expressed positivity about the programme and its effect on them individually, and the city more widely.

The continued experience of intangible benefits from volunteering with the programme demonstrates an important legacy of Hull City of Culture 2017.

The purpose of the paper is to show that community involvement is a successful way of overcoming certain barriers to the successful management of the current tuberculosis epidemic, namely delayed presentation and non‐completion of treatment. Volunteers are an important resource for engaging with the community. This research, conducted in an urban TB treatment centre in Nepal, seeks to investigate the motivations of TB volunteers, and how these motivations can be increased to involve volunteers, and the community, in fulfilling their maximum potential in delivering successful TB treatment programmes.

Semi‐structured interviews were carried out with 26 TB volunteers, followed by volunteer discussion groups. Topics covered included: detailed accounts of the volunteers' many and varied roles; motivations – how they initially became involved and why they continue to be involved; incentives for volunteering; problems they have encountered; family and friends' attitudes to their volunteering; and the future of TB volunteering.

The findings show that the TB volunteers are involved in many important roles. Volunteers initially became involved, having been asked or informed about the programme by area committee members, staff or friends. Most were also involved in other voluntary work.

This paper gives recommendations for volunteer programmes in developing countries including: sustained communication and contact between volunteers and the organisation; volunteer programmes based in a centre with an established community focus; flexibility of time commitment; regular recruitment drives for volunteers from different generations and status levels; and the use of training as a possible incentive for volunteering.

This paper seeks to understand the views of employees in a UK company on an employee vounteering (ESV) scheme. It further seeks to advance theory in this area by integrating organisational identity (OI) and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). The paper moves forward the scholarly work on ESV by interviewing employees who do and do not volunteer within ESV schemes.

A purpose sample of 31 (n = 31) interviewees was drawn from all levels of the studied organisation. The method follows a qualitative approach using NVIVO as the analysis tool. The interview was triangulated using a focus group.

Employees have a range of emotions and responses to a company operating an ESV scheme. The study is particularly interesting in that it studies employees of a gambling organisation that bring in further rich employee views on the scheme. Much of the sparse literature on ESV does not pick up on UK‐based organisations and this study is therefore revealing.

Managers of corporate responsibility (CR) in organisations should be concerned with how they implement their CR programmes – especially with respect to how they establish and communicate ESV programmes. Academics will find value in viewing ESV through a conjunction of OCB and OI theories. The research could be replicated in other large UK organisations with similiar ESV programmes to test whether the experiences of employees are widespread in other organisations.

The paper tacitly questions the impact of ESV programmes on the employee stakeholder group and suggests that, unless ESV programmes are well run and well communicated – and given a good budget, employees may in fact view the programme negatively. It demonstrates that CR is not simply a “nice to have” that can be simply bolted on.

Organisations, especially those in the third sector that work with corporates, need to understand the role of ESV schemes in their partner companies and consider the views of employees and the strategic logic of the companies before embarking on working together.

This is an original piece of work in a relatively under‐researched area. This is the first study to consider volunteers and non‐volunteers in an ESV scheme in a UK‐based company – the added dimension of interest and value is that the studied organisation was a gambling business.

The purpose of this paper is to complement and test prescriptive volunteer management proposals by examining how volunteers are actually managed and exploring factors other than prescribed best practice to assess volunteer management effectiveness.

The authors use qualitative methods to study five Portuguese non-profit organisations, selected for having active volunteer programmes while presenting diverse sizes, organisation styles and levels of reliance upon volunteers. Interviews were conducted between February and August 2011 with board representatives, volunteer managers and volunteers.

This paper assesses volunteer management practices in these organisations, and further identifies a number of interrelated dimensions affecting volunteer programme success, namely: centrality, formalisation, professional support, sustainability and a minimum set of practices. It also uncovers weakness points that inhibit further development, including lack of a strategic approach and limited capacity to diversify sources of financing.

This is an exploratory study, with a limited number of cases and interviews.

This study may help volunteer managers focus their attention in aspects other than prescribed management practice. Although a minimum set of identified practices are vital, the dimensions it uncovers have a pivotal role in the success of volunteer programmes.

This set of intertwined dimensions has not been specifically addressed in the literature. They go beyond the more conventionally prescribed volunteer management practices, and provide a promising framework for analysing the effectiveness and sustainability of volunteer management.

Academically focused tutoring programmes for young children have been promoted widely in the US in various forms as promising strategies for improving academic performance, particularly in reading and mathematics. A body of evidence shows the benefits of tutoring provided by certified, paid professionals; however, the evidence is less clear for tutoring programmes staffed by adult volunteers or college students. In this article, we describe a relatively large‐scale university‐based programme that creates tutoring partnerships between college‐aged volunteers and students from surrounding elementary schools. We used a randomised trial to evaluate the effectiveness of this programme for 196 students from 11 elementary schools over one school year, focusing on academic grades and standardised test scores, confidence in academic ability, motivation and school attendance. We discuss the null findings in order to inform the conditions under which student support programmes can be successful.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of expectation formation and matching for university student volunteers and their hosts.

This research involved a multi-stage data collection process including interviews with student volunteers, and university and host representatives from six Australian universities. The project team undertook an iterative process of coding and interpretation to identify themes and develop understanding of the phenomenon.

University student volunteering has the potential to fail to meet the expectations of at least one of the parties to the relationship when the expectations of the parties are not clearly articulated. Universities operating volunteer programmes have an important role in facilitating expectation formation and matching, minimising the chances of mismatched expectations.

The study confirms the operation of a psychological contract for university student volunteers and organisations who host them which is consistent with other research in volunteering demonstrating the importance of matching expectations.

The paper identifies the importance of expectation formation and matching for hosts and students, and highlights the role of universities in facilitating matchmaking.

This paper contributes to the growing body of research on the role of the psychological contract in volunteering, in particular in university student volunteering and host organisations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of volunteers and its impact on related accountability practices towards beneficiaries by a large humanitarian non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Indonesia.

The authors adopted a qualitative case study design. The empirical evidence comes from rich fieldwork carried out in an Indonesian NGO. The authors collected the evidence mainly via 46 interviews and five focus groups.

The authors found that the case NGO drew heavily on the social and cultural capitals of volunteers in the process of serving its beneficiaries, which, in turn, facilitated the enhancement of its accountability to the beneficiaries. The authors also found that volunteers play a bridging role to reduce the distance between NGOs and beneficiaries.

For NGO managers, this study provides necessary empirical evidence on the positive role played by the volunteers in the development and operationalisation of accountability to the beneficiaries. In the authors’ case, beneficiary accountability is enhanced by the social conduct and practices performed by the NGO’s numerous volunteers. Beneficiary accountability is of significant concern to the policy makers too. This study shows that volunteers and NGO can work in a reciprocal relationship where social and cultural capital can be mobilised to each other’s advantage. To facilitate beneficiary accountability, NGOs can draw on the socio-cultural capitals held by the volunteers who appear to share the same norms and expectations with the beneficiaries. This process can also lead to the building of social and cultural capital by the volunteers themselves as they achieve great satisfaction and gain valuable experience in this process that could lead to greater satisfaction in their spiritual and material lives.

The authors extend the previous literature on beneficiary accountability by highlighting the under-researched role of volunteers in such accountability practices. In this paper, the authors first discuss the facilitating role of volunteers in enhancing NGOs’ accountability towards beneficiaries. Then, this is illustrated empirically. In addition, the authors argue that although Bourdieusian concepts like field and capital have been widely used in the analysis of various organisational practices the concept of habitus received limited attention particularly from the context of developing countries. The authors undertake an examination of the habitus of volunteers in the Indonesian case organisation and explore their linkages with the field and associated capitals.

There are different types of non-profit organisations (NPOs) characterised by the different extents of their volunteer management practices. In addition, the use of volunteer work measurement tools is infrequent among these organisations, especially in contexts where NPOs face no obligations or standard practices in this area, such as in Italy. The literature has stated that volunteer programmes and activities are effective if a NPO is highly structured and employs good volunteer management practices and that the measurement of volunteer work may increase the effectiveness of such programmes; this is frequent, for instance, in US NPOs. However, what would occur if a NPO introduces the measurement of volunteer work in a context where volunteer management is not highly structured, such as in Italy?

To study this topic, we adopt the quasi-experimental approach to examine six Italian voluntary organisations (VOs) based in Abruzzo. The treatment consists of the gradual introduction of volunteer work measurement tools to the managers and volunteers who work for the selected organisations, as well as the observation of the early impact of this treatment on the effectiveness of volunteer programmes and activities. This paper aims to discuss the issue of the implementation of measurement tools for effectively managing volunteer services in two different contexts: Italian and US NPOs.

Our findings have practical implications, especially with regard to the management of relatively unstructured volunteer organisations that would like to introduce new tools of measurement but do not have the necessary skills to do so. We also wish to show in this work how some organisations are implementing these tools and highlight the initial effects produced by this implementation process.

This study is innovative, particularly for contexts in which there are no obligations and customs with regard to the measurement of volunteer work.