Samantha Lunt

Abstract:

Volunteers are an integral part of any nonprofit organization. It is essential to have volunteers engaged and committed to their work at an organization because this will increase volunteer retention (Faletehan et al., 2021). Engaging and retaining volunteers can be challenging in an environment where volunteers change every few months, and each nonprofit presents unique site-specific challenges. When people feel connected to an organization and community, their engagement with service increases (Hellman et al., 2006). The process used to onboard volunteers is integral to creating healthy, sustainable relationships (Rafe, 2013; Faletehan et al., 2021). The purpose of this research is to examine strategies for engaging and retaining volunteers in Nonprofit businesses in general, explore the specific roles, goals, and sense of purpose of the volunteers at a youth-based community center in the New York Capital Region, and create a targeted center-specific training for their volunteers and administrators. The study sample consists of college student volunteers for the after-school program at the center. The questions were created from the literature on engagement and retention to investigate the volunteer mindset (Burns et al., 2006; Rafe, 2013).