1. TRACK 2
Kawana Woodson
kwoodso@clemson.edu
Department of HEHD
Motivation for Staying: An Assessment of a School Volunteer Program
Richland School District One is the largest of two school districts located in Richland
County, Columbia, South Carolina. Over 20 years ago, Richland School District One’s
(RSDO) Volunteer Program was founded in an effort to establish community youth
development and increase community involvement in schools. The Volunteer Program is
active in over 50 schools that serve more than 23,000 students. The RSDO Volunteer
Program has over 3,000 business partners and community volunteers which serve mostly
in the capacity of mentors and tutors. The District has a fair representation of volunteers
from the community, however many volunteers do not actively participate in schools and
in the majority of schools the turnover rate is high. Much research has been conducted in
the area of volunteer motivators and satisfiers that impact retention. But, this will be the
first of its kind for the District. The aim of this study is to identify the motivators and
satisfiers of volunteers that contribute to high levels of retention. In order to understand
the factors that influence organizational commitment, an evaluation of one of the schools
within the District volunteer program will be conducted. The data collected will represent
a subset of the overall data (RSDO Volunteer Program). The subset will be selected from
the W. S. Sandel Elementary pool of volunteers. Sandel Elementary has a student
population of 462 students and 154 registered volunteers, which equates to a 3:1 student
to volunteer ratio.
Using a sample of 20 repeat program volunteers and 20 new volunteers both randomly
selected, a questionnaire survey will be administered via the internet. The collected data
and analysis of the findings from this study will act as a baseline for further research by
the district on the affect motivators and satisfiers have on intent to continue volunteering.
The underlying questions behind this assessment are: What motivates a person to
volunteer? Why are some volunteers committed to an organization and not others? Which
motivating factors influence volunteer retention? Is a person’s motivation to continue
volunteering impacted negatively if expected satisfiers from the volunteer experience are
not met? Ideally, the district will utilize the feedback from this assessment to improve
volunteer retention practices or influence their volunteer management plan.