Does Victim Responsibility Influence Nonprofit Volunteerism?

Abstract

Volunteers provide billions of dollars of nonpaid labor to nonprofit organizations every year. The purpose of this study is to better understand why volunteers join nonprofit organizations. The central research question examines victim responsibility. That is, does the circumstance of the victim influence a volunteer's willingness to donate time? A survey was designed to investigate the research question. The survey contained nine questions related to age and circumstance of the victim and the likelihood of volunteering. One hundred and seventy-five surveys were completed. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the data. The results indicate that volunteers are more likely to volunteer to help when the victims are not responsible for their circumstance.

Keywords:

• donors
• volunteers
• victim responsibility
• nonprofit