In preparation for Pope Francis's visit to Philadelphia and the 2015 World Meeting of Families, organizers looked for thousands of volunteers to help carry out these events. This is common for many one‐time and episodic events, such as large sporting events (from marathons to Special Olympics), arts and cultural events (such as festivals and concerts), and fundraising events. After the pope's visit, volunteers were asked to respond to a questionnaire about their experiences and the volunteer management of the event; 2,408 responded (34.4 percent). Data on motivation, who volunteered, recruitment, training, assignment, supervision, communication, satisfaction, and suggestions for improvement were elicited. We focused on episodic volunteering at a religious event and on a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to management of episodic volunteers. Our findings add to the knowledge regarding volunteer management and also add to conceptual understanding of the distinction between ongoing and episodic volunteers.
Donor-advised funds (DAFs) are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. DAFs receive a growing share of all charitable donations and control a sizable proportion of grants made to other nonprofits. The growth of DAFs has generated controversy over their function as intermediary philanthropic vehicles. Using a panel data set of 996 DAF organizations from 2007 to 2016, this article provides an empirical analysis of DAF activity. We conduct longitudinal analyses of key DAF metrics, such as grants and payout rates. We find that a few large organizations heavily skew the aggregated data for a rather heterogeneous group of nonprofits. These panel data are then analyzed with macroeconomic indicators to analyze changes in DAF metrics during economic recessions. We find that, in general, DAF grantmaking is relatively resilient to recessions. We find payout rates increased during times of recession, as did a new variable we call the flow rate.
The growing use of donor-advised funds (DAFs) is changing the way many donors give to charity. Despite the increasing influence and importance of DAFs in the nonprofit sector, very little is known about how people actually use them. We conducted 48 in-depth interviews with DAF users, collecting rich qualitative data about why and how donors use DAFs. We use these data to sketch a DAF giving process with four phases and multiple decision points. We highlight some of the common donor strategies that are used with DAFs. Overall, we present evidence of abundant diversity in individual adaptation for giving through DAFs.
Seniors moving into retirement choose volunteering as a way to participate in meaningful activities while continuing their personal beliefs and social ties. Seniors with religious affiliations often volunteer within their faith community. These volunteers offer invaluable services to their religious organizations and the other members of their faith that benefit from their assistance. Determining what forms of service to give is an important choice for senior volunteers. Factors that influence how seniors choose to volunteer in a religious community are not well understood. We surveyed 964 seniors who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints involved in three different forms of volunteering: in-church volunteering or "calling," extensive local volunteering or "church-service mission," and out-of-residency volunteering or "full-time mission." We assess what resources allow seniors to perform "missions," whether personality traits influence the decision to participate in this type of volunteering, how community embeddedness affects volunteer behavior, and how levels of religiosity correlate with volunteering behavior. Findings indicate that factors explaining whether Latter-day Saints choose to serve a mission in retirement are different from factors explaining the kind of mission one chooses to serve.
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