Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Policy and Administration

Advisor

Mark Gordon

Abstract

Many arts-related nonprofit organizations rely on a volunteer labor force and often face difficulties fulfilling their missions without successful recruitment and retention efforts. Millennials make up almost a third of the volunteer force. This research focused specifically on members of the Millennial generation and their relationship with arts and culture-related nonprofit organizations in their communities for the purpose of helping these types of organizations recruit, retain, and manage volunteers from this age group. The theoretical foundation for this research consisted of public service motivation theory and generational cohort theory. The research question examined the primary motivations for Millennial adults born from 1982 to 2000 to volunteer for art and culture related nonprofits in their communities. This phenomenological qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews with 20 volunteers who donate time and skills to arts and culture nonprofit organizations in the Midwestern region of the United States. Nvivo was used to organize the data. Hand-coding was used for the thematic analysis. Results indicated that members of the Millennials generation were motivated to volunteer for a mix of personal and altruistic reasons. Additionally, the results showed that the dimensions of public service motivation were prevalent in the motivations for millennials to volunteer for nonprofit arts and culture organizations in their communities. This research contributes to positive social change by providing insight to nonprofit leaders to help them recruit volunteers to be able to continue carrying out their missions and provide arts and culture content to their communities.

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