Factors influencing the motivation of Turkey's community volunteers

Abstract

Although Turkish society has traditionally valued volunteering, it has not fully utilized the potential of such contributions. This is because the country lacks professional volunteer organizations, and limited research has evaluated Turkish volunteers. The main aims of the current study were to describe the personal characteristics of Turkey's community volunteers and to determine the influence of various motivational factors on their decision to serve in the Community Volunteer Foundation. The participants were a randomly selected sample of 175 community volunteers from di ferent regions of Turkey. Findings showed that the average community volunteer was a 22-year-old, male college student pursuing a career in engineering, economics, or business. The most important motivational factors for volunteering were altruism, a filiation, and personal improvement (in that order). Completing an orientation course before working as a volunteer was considered useful. Recognition, by contrast, was not considered to be a vital factor. © 2007 Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action.