The Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) is a research method for assessing volunteer motivations. The model has been developed by Clary et al. in 1998.
Assumptions
People are purposeful, planful, goal-directed—Volunteers engage in volunteer work in order to satisfy important personal goals Different people may do similar things for different reasons—Volunteers performing the same volunteer activity for the same organization may have different reasons for volunteering Any one individual may be motivated by more than one need or goal—An individual volunteer may be attempting to satisfy two or more motives through one activity at your organization Outcomes depend on the matching of needs and goals to the opportunities afforded by the environment – Successful volunteer recruitment, satisfaction, and retention is tied to the ability of the volunteer experience to fulfil the volunteer's important motives
Motivations for volunteering FunctionDescriptionValuesexpressing or acting on important values, such as humanitarianism and helping those less fortunateUnderstandingseeking to learn more about the world and/or exercise skills that are often unusedEnhancementseeking to grow and develop psychologically through involvement in volunteeringCareergoal of gaining career-related experience through volunteeringSocialvolunteering allows the person to strengthen one's social relationshipsProtectivevolunteering to reduce negative feelings, such as guilt, or to address personal problems
Findings Having analyzed several dozens of studies using this framework, Chacón et al. found that the most common motivation for volunteering is the values dimension, and the least, career and enhancement ones. Career and understanding motivations decrease with the mean age of volunteers, and men seem to be more likely to consider the social dimension than women.
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