Reasons for volunteering in the field of civil protection in Germany

Abstract

This study investigates how the demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age, immigrant status) of people volunteering for civil protection organizations, as well as the type of organization, influence the volunteers' motivation to provide this service. A sample of 3320 volunteers was drawn from the following non-profit civil protection organizations in Germany: a) Voluntary Fire Brigade, b) German Red Cross, and c) German Federal Agency for Technical Relief. Reasons for volunteering were assessed by the Scales of Attitude Structure of Volunteers. Correlation analyses, and ANOVAs were conducted. No effects of type of organization and immigrant status on reasons for volunteering were detected. Men's and women's reasons for doing voluntary service were equal, with one exception: self-experience motivation, i.e., the motivation to gain knowledge, skills etc., was higher among female volunteers. Age was negatively associated with social motivation, self-esteem, and career motivation. Our finding that gender and age affect volunteers' motivation can be used to improve recruitment advertisements in the future: the various age groups can be targeted according to their specific motives for doing voluntary service, and the result that self-experience is more important to women than it is to men could also be explored to enhance the recruitment of women.