Analysis of the motivations, generativity and demographics of the food bank volunteer

Abstract

The increasing attention received by the topic ‘volunteering’ is not surprising because it is an activity involving a great number of individuals across all age categories; it includes a considerable number of activities and is fundamental to the effective functioning of many organizations. Thus, the social value of volunteers is unquestionable to civil society. Understanding volunteer's motivations has been regularly recognized by researchers as a valuable asset of volunteer's management. However, why people volunteer themselves remains an unsettled question, despite all the research carried out. ‘To analyse the profile of Food Bank volunteers, mostly regarding their motivation, generativity level and demographic characteristics’ was defined as the key objective for this research. For that purpose, the profile of volunteers belonging to two regional food banks was analysed. The motivational scale ‘Volunteer Functions Inventory’ and the ‘Loyola Generativity Scale’, were adopted for this research by means of a survey applied to 193 volunteers. According to the results achieved, the greater involved volunteers in the organization tend to be more orientated by social and altruistic motivations, the volunteer's generativity level is clearly related to the parenthood status of the volunteer and finally, the statistical analysis states that there is no relationship between the volunteers' level of education and his or her permanence in collaborating with the organization.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.