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Factors Influencing the Motivation of Turkey's Community Volunteers

Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University

Serap Palaz

Balikesir University

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 different 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.

Key Words: community volunteers • voluntary sector • motivation • Turkey

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This version was published on December 1, 2007

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 4, 643-661 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0899764006298364


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Boz, I. Articles by Palaz, S. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?