How to Keep Them Inside? Organizational and Motivational Factors That Influence Volunteer Retention for Refugee Aid Organizations

Abstract

Refugee aid organizations depend to a large extent on volunteers. These organizations have difficulties retaining volunteers. The question then is: what can refugee aid organizations do to keep their' volunteers inside? Prior work suggests that satisfaction with the organization and motivations to continue volunteering may be of particular importance for volunteer retention. Therefore, this article assesses (1) which organizational factors contribute to satisfaction with the volunteer organization and (2) what personal factors contribute to volunteers' willingness to continue doing this work. Based on analyses of data from volunteers at a Dutch refugee aid organization (N = 1090) to both open-ended and close-ended questions, we find that volunteers who feel more valued for their work express stronger organizational connectedness. Moreover, we found that a bridge function that volunteers are theorized to be motivates them: volunteers are motivated to continue because they contribute to the facilitation of refugee inclusion and to increasing societal tolerance toward refugees. Further, work conditions need to be in place to prevent volunteers from leaving the organization. Moreover, the experienced appreciation for their work turned out to be a crucial factor for organizations to retain volunteers. These results give refugee aid organizations and volunteer managers concrete steps on what they can do to retain volunteers. This paper discusses these results and their practical implications as well as the limitations of the study.