An Examination of Volunteer Motivation in Credit Unions: Informing Volunteer Resource Management

Volunteer recruitment and retention is a problem that most credit unions experience. Research suggests that knowledge of volunteer motivation can inform volunteer management strategies. This paper uses a survey approach to determine whether current volunteers in credit unions in Northern Ireland are more motivated by the actual act of volunteering, by the output from the volunteering activity (including altruism) or because the volunteering activity increases their human capital value. Altruistic reasons are found to be the most influential, with the act of volunteering also scoring highly. This knowledge should inform volunteer recruitment programmes and internal appraisal processes as management can reinforce messages that provide positive feedback to volunteers on the social benefits being achieved by the credit union. This will further motivate current volunteers, ensuring retention. When motivation was analyzed by volunteer characteristics we found that older volunteers, retired volunteers and volunteers who are less educated are more motivated in their role. There was little evidence that individuals volunteer to improve their human capital worth.

Profiling: a Strategy for Successful Volunteer Recruitment in Credit Unions

Credit unions are non-profit financial organisations that provide financial services to their members. They are located in 97 countries across the world. All credit unions are governed by a volunteer board and many are reliant on volunteers for all their labour requirements. However, recruiting volunteers is a problem. The literature on recruitment issues in volunteering in general, suggests that the not-for-profit sector looks to the private sector for guidance on recruitment policies and approaches. One such approach which is considered in this paper is ‘market segmentation’ wherein the potential volunteer body is profiled to determine if an individual is likely to volunteer and if they are, to identify the type of role they are most likely to be attracted to. Prior literature on volunteering in non-profit organisations suggests that certain types of individual (dominant individuals) are more likely to volunteer. This paper investigates whether this dominant status profile is evident amongst volunteers in credit unions in Northern Ireland (NI). The study finds that people with dominant characteristics are more likely to be attracted to volunteering to the board of directors and individuals who have less dominant traits overall should be offered more social/participative type roles. This information can be used by credit union governing boards for volunteer recruitment, retention and management purposes.

Community engagement in Belfast: Queen's University and the Sandy Row community

This chapter examines a case study of a university-community civic engagement project involving a homework club in an area of significant educational and social disadvantage. The chapter gives voice to community leaders who talk about the role of the initiative and their relationship with the university.

Universities as Anchor Institutions

Presentation as part of the Economics Panel at the annual conference of the Anchor Institutions Task Force. The presentation highlighted the economic contribution of Queen's University to the City of Belfast, the wider region and more globally. Impact was seen as covering direct and indirect financial factors, the social and economic impact of our research, and the social and civic contribution made through our teaching and the volunteering work of students.