The volunteer workforce is the backbone of any nonprofit organization. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, however, even though many people have returned to work, leisure, and volunteering, there are others that have not, leaving many volunteer positions empty. As organizations return to the basics of recruiting, leading, and retaining the volunteer…

Volunteer-led programming is the heart of the 4-H program. The Wyoming 4-H program relies heavily on volunteers to deliver programming directly to youth. Shrinking budgets and limited staff makes volunteer retention and recruitment key in building and maintaining a 4-H program in Wyoming focused on youth education. Understanding what motivates…

The 4-H program is America's largest youth development organization (National 4-H Council, 2019). The 4-H program is part of the Cooperative Extension system, which provides unbiased, research-based educational programming to communities through the land grant university system (USDA, 2019). Volunteers play a major role in the delivery and…

Volunteer rates of Millennial postsecondary degree recipients continue to decline in the United States; consequently, the loss of volunteers onboarding with skill sets non-profit organization's need persistently places these organizations at a disadvantage. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore Millennial…

This case study explored what perspectives adults who volunteer at In4All, a career-connected learning nonprofit organization, hold about access barriers and education equity that are specific to students who have been historically underserved. Career professionals and their ability or desire to volunteer are the crux of career-connected learning…

Purpose: Drawing on expectancy theory, this research explores how and when volunteers' motivational drives for volunteering relate to organizational policies and practices. The paper analyses four areas of motivational association -- affiliation, beliefs, career development and egoistic motives -- together with organizational human resource (HR)…

For over 100 years, youth mentoring has grown to be an evidenced based prevention strategy for youth, demonstrating positive youth outcomes through strong relationships with caring adults. While trusting relationships are the mainstay of the positive impacts achieved through mentoring, the difficulty in recruiting volunteer adults has not met the…

Volunteers are noteworthy youth development professionals in the 4-H program whose training translates into practices that promote positive outcomes among young people they serve. This study explored how contextual and programmatic factors were associated with volunteers' practices of the essential elements with youth. Programmatic influences…

Non-profit organizations positively contribute to society in a myriad of ways. With their focus on purpose and mission, they raise funds and awareness for specific causes and people. This article points to how assessments and inventories strengthen the volunteer and professional workforce that drives the work of non-profit organizations. The…

Purpose: This paper aims to understand what drives people -- their motivations, autonomous learning attitudes and learning interests -- to volunteer as mentors for a program that helps families to ideate technological solutions to community problems. Design/methodology/approach: A three-phase method was used to build volunteer mentor profiles;…

Many Language teacher associations (LTAs) are nonprofit organizations and thus rely heavily on volunteers to carry out their mission. A volunteer is a person who donates time and labor in service to others. In the case of LTAs, volunteers play key roles in governing the association, planning and realizing national conferences and local workshops,…

Preconceived expectations for one's behavior drive how people interact with their communities. Messaging via pop culture is a common source for citizens to learn about one community engagement tool: compulsory volunteering. Compulsory volunteering, like court-ordered community service and school-based volunteering, provides an opportunity to learn…

Textbooks and lectures can convey the science of volunteer management; however, the art of volunteer management is developed through experience and reflection. This teaching activity gives students practice in developing a volunteer program and in identifying mission and position-specific nuances to volunteer management. Over the course of three…

As humanity around the globe enters the third decade of the 21st century, immense technological change is more profound than any previous time with pursuant massive social change. Central to this change is the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0). Three revolutions have gone before: mechanisation, mass production, and simple…

Much is known about the role of vocabulary in reading and the instructional procedures that improve vocabulary. Relatively less is known about feasible approaches to implement vocabulary interventions for struggling readers within tiered frameworks. The current study randomly assigned at-risk kindergarten and first-grade students to a vocabulary…