The ABCE Model of Volunteer Motivation

To meet the growing social service needs of our societies, the social services and other Volunteer organizations need to understand the needs and motives of their volunteers to keep them retained. Although volunteer motivation scales are available and tested, different organizations have to amend and add volunteering motives to best fit their organization and environment. Furthermore, not much guidance is available to volunteer organizations to understand or measure motivation of their volunteers raising a need for a unified model that can be a guideline for managers. This study discusses different approaches to volunteering motivation and links them into four areas of affiliation using an ABCE model: affiliation (A), beliefs, (B) career development, (C) and (E) egoistic. Participants were 496 volunteers from a variety of NGOs including 239 (48.2%) from an international Faith Based Organization (FBO). Findings show that although differences exist in volunteering motivation the actual best fit was an ABCE model. Future research is needed on testing the scale with different cultures and different organizations. A deeper knowledge of volunteer motivations will enable organizations to prosper and utilize the continuous experience of the volunteers and their engagement, thereby ensuring enhanced quality social service delivery.