‘Young, Fun, and Free:’ Episodic Volunteers in Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania

Abstract

Abstract As scholarship on episodic volunteering expands, researchers question if episodic volunteering is similar to, and/or different from, long-term, membership-based volunteering. This article examines the motivations of Ghanaians, South Africans, and Tanzanians to engage in event-based, episodic volunteering. Based on surveys collected from over 1000 participants in 2018, we use logistic regression models to distinguish differences in motivations between novice, occasional, and regular episodic volunteers. The results show that age and student status are influential in distinguishing novice volunteers from regular volunteers, but more importantly that novices are motivated for primarily social reasons, while regular volunteers are motivated by more altruistic reasons. Our study reinforces established knowledge that people are motivated to volunteer for many reasons that may overlap or occur simultaneously, and that these motivations differ by stage of life.