Summative Assessment: Research Report

Module COMM 2190: Communication Research Methods

May 2014
Student I.D. 200727571
Word Count - 2870
How do current Leeds Childrens Charity volunteers benefit
from volunteering there and how are such benefits
communicated to potential future volunteers?

Money makes the world go round they say. Whilst this statement arguably
holds true for most organisations driven by profit and financial growth, for
a volunteer on the other hand, this phrase has little meaning. Volunteers
are rewarded not by monetary value but rather in the knowledge that
their time and self-less contributions in some way, go toward helping a
worthy cause or a significantly less fortunate other. As it stands, Leeds
Childrens Charity (LCC) acts as one of the oldest running charities in
Leeds, which aims to relieve children from some of the poorest, neglectful
and often abusive backgrounds by taking them away for a week of fun to
a centre by the sea in a small village known as Silverdale. As a social
researcher focusing on public communication in mind, it became apparent
that the aim of this study would be to explore the two by analysing the
way LCC identify the benefits of volunteering at the charity and how this is
then outwardly communicated to prospective volunteers. It was
imperative therefore, for me to understand what such benefits were in
order to evaluate how successfully or necessarily poorly the charity is at
promoting them to the public. Through the use of rich, qualitative
interviews, coupled with some additional textual analysis, I go on to
suggest that the charity face conflicting issues within the way it chooses
to communicate the perceived benefits of volunteering for the charity,
highlighted by the positive and negative aspects that Facebook has on
communication derived in my results. Finally, I surmise with my overall
view of the situation and make suggestions on how improvement to their
current communication strategies could be made.

1. Other Research
Charities have a long standing relationship with their volunteers.
Volunteers are essentially the driving force behind the smooth running
and function of any non-profit organisation. Their respective contributions
are instrumental to their success; without volunteers, it is undoubted that
charitable work would suffer. In respect to this, non-profit organisations
must do well to successfully promote the advantages of volunteering in
order to recruit new members. Indeed as Callow points out, when
developing a recruitment campaign, non-profits can highlight the various
appeal of volunteering by examining both the motives for, and the
benefits of, volunteering (2004:263). Possessing a thorough
understanding of its target audience is necessary therefore if non-profits
are to market the appeal to volunteers and when acquired, maintain
retention. A [high] turnover of volunteers can disrupt the operation of the
charity, threaten the ability to serve clients, and signal that the volunteer
experience is not as rewarding as it might be (Hager and Brudney, 2004:12).

Studies have shown, that to recruit a long term volunteer to any non-profit
organisation can be no easy task, based on the argument that motivations
for volunteering come in no singular form, but rather, they are
multifaceted (Clary and Snyder, 1999). Whether a person volunteers to
fulfil an altruistic goal of increasing anothers welfare (Batson, 1991:6),
or to in fact, satisfy egotistic desires, the reality of the situation is that the
field of volunteerism is complex and is highlighted in the contributions
made to it by various academic disciplines such as psychology, economic,
and sociology; all on whom collectively emphasise different teachings on
3

who a volunteer is, why they choose to volunteer and how they
respectively benefit from doing so. This being the case, non-profits are
faced with the challenge of appealing to a broad spectrum people who are
all potentially driven for different reasons. Undoubtedly though, the
incorporation of web based services has meant a radical upheaval to the
way charities now communicate with their publics since the internet can
be used to increase communication, coordination, education and
collaboration with and among volunteers(Hart, Greenfield & Johnston,
2005:14). Specifically, the adoption of social media to set up 2-way
communicative channels to the public has increasingly grown, where
NGOs now recognise the importance of social media as being more than
just a fad, or something soon to quickly pass by and fade away. A study
looking into The American Red Crosss adoption of social media,
particularly focusing on the use of Facebook, found that the charity
recognised the valuable nature of using Facebook to develop relationships
focused on recruiting and maintaining volunteers, updating the
community on disaster preparedness and response, and engaging the
media (Briones, Kuch, Liu & Jin,2010:41). Additionally, the study also
addressed the charitys acknowledgement of whilst wanting to appeal to
younger, more tech savvy volunteers, they also recognized that they
should not do so in a way that would alienate older volunteers and donors
(Ibid, 2010). These findings provide a suitable framework for my own
particular study, given that I am interested in the way LCC attempt to
communicate the benefits of volunteering to its publics. It will interesting

to explore if and how LCC choose to use social media and whether my
findings are congruent with themes quite like these.
2. Methods
In this study, I put into practice the use of qualitative interviews in order
to test my research question. From the moment of first entering the field
and meeting my first point of contact at the charity, you might say that I
was instantaneously utilising my research method given the fact that all
conversations in life can be considered as a form on interviewing, in which
the typical man attempts to extract information from one another. Indeed,
the use of interviewing as a data gathering technique has become so
common practice that everybody now seems to do it, not just social
researchers; it is as if we now live in an interview society (Atkinson and
Silverman, 1997). Over the course of this study, I was able to conduct 5
data rich interviews which took place at the head office of Leeds
Childrens Charity. Being a relaxed atmosphere in the office where
volunteers were not too pushed for time and deadlines, this helped me
when conducting my interviews because I was able to explore in detail,
peoples feelings on how they felt they were benefitting from volunteering
as well as their responses to methods of communicating it to the public.
Berger (1998) notes that an unfortunate disadvantage of qualitative
interviews are that they can be somewhat time consuming if researchers
are to be able to extract sufficiently valuable information, but for myself,
this was fortunately not the case. The use of Qualitative interviews also
meant that I was free to manoeuvre the conversation as I saw patterns
5

emerge or areas I found worthy of probing in more detail and quite rightly,
the more people talk, the more they reveal (Berger, 1998:57). This is
unlike more rigid and restrictive methods of investigation like Surveys or
Questions in which the data is limited to closed ended questions
Although my principle research method was qualitative interviews
for this study, it became apparent that the use of further data gathering
techniques would prove advantageous to this study also. I therefore,
conducted some textual analysis, alongside my ongoing interviews in
order to gain the most wholesome perspective on how LCC were
communicating the beneficial nature of volunteering to the public. After
all, where individuals can certainly give an answer that we might take as
truth, what someone says and what someone does in practice can be two
different things. The use of textual analysis therefore, allowed me to
confirm my interviewees responses with what I visually witnessed from
their website and Facebook page too. Thus, applying more than one
research method to my study, and like other social scientists would agree,
allowed for a more holistic view of the given situation and subsequently
gauge a better understanding of what I attempted to investigate.

3. Findings
Issues with communication to the elderly

As I began conducting my interviews, it became evidently clear that the

vast majority of volunteers working at LCC head office were typically older
individuals over the age of 55. From this, I decided to explore in more
depth, what being a volunteer for them has meant and what they would
regard as beneficial outcomes of using their time there have been. A
recurrent theme that I kept encountering was that volunteering has
significantly improved the social and psychological wellbeing of its
participants. When I questioned my interviewees on how they felt
regarding their social lives and their mental health since volunteering at
LCC, I was met with responses such as it keeps my mind active and I stay
motivated and I have gained so many new people in my life, were like a
close-knit family. Current volunteers experience high amounts of social
inclusion and a number actually commented on how working at LCC has
helped to curb feelings of depression and low self-worth experienced
previously in their lives. Based on this, it would appear that my own
findings reaffirm prior research surrounding the psychological and social
benefits of volunteerism (Thoits & Hewitt, 2001; Willigen 2000; Pilkinton,
Windsor & Crisp, 2012) and could thereby be viewed as motivational
incentive for future volunteers to join. Given that these present volunteers
all seemingly enjoyed the same psychological and social benefits from
being involved at Leeds Childrens Charity, I decided that it would be
interesting to see how the charity focused its efforts on recruiting other
older volunteers from the community. It soon became clear that attracting
an older set of people into volunteering at the charity, was actually quite
an issue for them. They felt that being able to communicate the benefits
7

of volunteering to the elderly population was becoming increasingly

difficult and arguably falling on quite literal deaf ears. In light of the
information technology revolution, much of the charitys information,
events, fundraisers and ultimately opportunities to volunteer are now
posted online because of its efficiency, contrasting to more traditional
methods of communications like through word of mouth which is now
arguably, a dying form of communication. My results here support
research by Norris (2001) regarding the difficulties experienced by older
generations and the internet. Typically, there exists a digital divide in
which lack of access to information by certain groups and in this case the
elderly due to generational differences is very much a reality and a
significant communicative issue for LCC that needs to be addressed. As
such, non-profit organisations need to continue to reach out in traditional
ways to constituencies with access problems or who are hesitant to use
social media (Kanter and Fine, 2010:8). Swinson (2006) furthers the
notion, suggesting that non-profit organisations who seek to increase the
numbers of elderly volunteers should consider a revised marketing
strategy that would highlight the social benefits that go with volunteering.
Key phrases such as feeling socially isolated? Find out how volunteering
can increase your social network and feeling down or not quite yourself?
Find out how volunteering can improve your outlook on life. Additionally,
she emphasises the imperative for non-profit organisations to the recruit
older volunteers particularly since the post-war baby boomers are now
coming up to retirement age and so acquisition of such a group would
make up a large resource base that could provide ample volunteers for
8

many years to come(Swinson, 2006:25). I believe something similar

should take place at LCC; increased communication in the form of print
such as brochures, hand-outs and newspaper advertisements; coupled
with greater emphasis on the social and psychological benefits to
volunteering as well as distribution to more location specific areas i.e.
retirement homes and doctors surgerys would improve LCCs ability to
obtain more elderly volunteers in the near future.
Social Media
Having learnt that Leeds childrens charity now actively use social media
regularly as a tool for communication with the public, I decided that an
interesting avenue to explore would be to analyse how the charity visually
communicates the identity of its volunteers online and so conducted a
textual analysis with emphasis on the photos presented on both the
charitys website and Facebook page. Lister (1995) informs us that
photographs possess certain strengths over verbal communication, one
being that they demonstrate a truth value, that is, the photo in question
replicates a moment identical to when it was taken. From the photos I
analysed, It can be suggested that the volunteers all display the emotion
of happiness, engaging in various organised activities including bake offs,
sponsored cycles and images portraying large cheques with lots of smiling
faces. In featuring these images, the charity successfully communicate
the notion that volunteering increases self-fulfilment that has been
continuously emphasised by other scholars in the study of volunteerism
(Clary, Snyder, Ridge, Miene, &Haugen, 1994) Likewise, out of the 57
9

photos I observed, 13 feature at least 1 volunteer and a child being helped

in some particular way, whether it be being pushed on a swing, helping
them ride a bike or teaching them how to bake a cake. Most studies on
motivation to volunteerism assert that the dominant reason is to fulfil an
altruistic desire to help others (Unger, 1991; Anderson and Moore, 1978)
that is, through selfless acts, contributing to the happiness and well-being
of their fellow man (Vroom, 1964:39). With this in mind, LCC could
potentially include more photos which communicate more of this altruistic
behaviour, rather than images that focus on money raised or pictures
identifying egocentric themes like personal happiness. Indeed, similar
research by a colleague of mine encourages the charity to feature more
negatively framed photos depicting images of children looking sad or
lonely because such images are more likely to increase public donations
due to the way individuals internalise negative emotion. These findings,
along with my own, make the suggestion that LCC would do well to
consider incorporating more photos of this nature since it could be used as
a more effective measure to spur on more donations as well as a
potentially greater spectrum of prospective volunteers.
From time to time, I also observed that the Facebook page featured
news articles regarding information on topics including child abuse,
neglect and poverty which is principally what the charity aims to relieve
the children of Leeds of for 1 week at the Silverdale centre by providing a
week of fun away from it all. I felt that by providing such information on
their Facebook was an encouraging communicative tactic since it provides

10

a way for prospective volunteers to gain a better insight into issues they
may have little prior knowledge on. According to Clary and Snyder (1999),
most volunteers consider gaining greater information and skills previously
unknown as one of the highest motivational incentives to volunteer. In
light of this, the beneficial nature of volunteering for LCC resides in the
way it educates its current volunteers on the concerning issues faced by
the children they aim to help.
Whilst spending my time at the head office of LCC, I was able to
conduct an interview with one particular volunteer whose primary role in
the team was to maintain the social media accounts of the charity. From
him, I learnt that he had seen an increase in the number of student
volunteers since they began to more actively use their Facebook page as
a means of communication; prior to this, the number of students
volunteers obtained were very few and far between. He told me that on
a number of occasions, they advertised voluntary positions which involved
roles centred on the charitys financial management and various
administration duties. By listing such opportunities on Facebook, he said
that they had been able to reach out to a previously relatively untapped
audience and highlight the potential benefits working at a non-profit
organisation could give to eager students and their own future
development. Studies have shown that younger volunteers, particular
students, are more likely to volunteer where the possibility of new skill
acquisition or career advance is available. Therefore, my research here
highlights once more how social media has been used by the charity to

11

communicate with potential volunteers, through pointing out beneficial

opportunities.
4. Conclusion
My research has ultimately shown that current volunteers display many of
the beneficial qualities thought to be obtained by volunteering. It reaffirms
prior research into volunteerism and adds weight to the work other
scholars. Although these benefits may be clear to those currently enjoying
them, the methods for communicating them to prospective volunteers is
somewhat mixed and in ways, requires improvement. As my results
indicated, the use of social media is somewhat of a catch 22 situation for
the charity since it is both a positive and negative thing. For a more
youthful set of volunteers, online media can be viewed as an efficient way
to highlight the benefits of volunteering for LCC, either through the
displayed photographs visual appeal or through the advertisement of
voluntary opportunities. But this is all relative to if such a prospective
volunteer has online accessibility. This is where the downfalls of social
media are highlighted based on the argument that should a typically older
prospective volunteer lack online accessibility, they will find themselves
unfortunately excluded from obtaining knowledge on the respective
benefits of volunteering. In this way, the most logical solution for the
charity to pursue would be to increase communication via printed
methods to more age appropriate locations but to also maintain their
communication with younger audiences across all forms of online media.
Bibliography;
12

Anderson, J.C. & Moore, L.F. 1978. The Motivation to Volunteer. Nonprofit and
Voluntary Sector Quaterly. 7(120).
Atkinson, P. and Silverman, D. 1997. Kunderas Immortality: The Interview Society
and the Invention of the Self. Qualitative Inquiry 3(3) 30425.
Batson, C.D. 1991.The Altruism Question: Toward a Social-Psychological Answer.
New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers
Berger, A. 1998. Chapter 6: Depth interviews. FROM: Berger, A. Media Research
Techniques. 2nd ed. London: Sage. 55-62.
Briones, R.L., Kuch, B., Liu, B.F., & Jin, Y. 2010. Keeping up with the digital age:
How the American Red Cross uses social media to build relationships. Public
Relations Review. 37. 37-43.
Callow, M. 2004. Identifying promotional appeals for targeting volunteers: An
exploratory study on volunteering motives among retirees [Electronic version].
International Journal of Nonprofit &Voluntary Sector Marketing. 9(3), 261-274.
Retrieved July 30, 2006, from ABI_INFORM database.
Clary, E.G. and Snyder, M. 1999. The Motivations to Volunteer: Theoretical and
Practical Considerations. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 8(156).
Clary, E.G., Snyder, M., Ridge, R.D., Miene, P., &Haugen, J. 1994. Matching
messages to motives in persuasion: A functional approach to promoting
volunteerism. Journal of Applied
Social Psychology. 24, 11291149
Hager, M.A. & Brudney, J.L. 2004. Volunteer Management Practices and Retention
of Volunteers. Urban Institute. [Online] Available at:
http://www.urban.org/publications/411005.html
Hart, T. Greenfield, J.M., Johnston, M. 2005. Nonprofit internet Strategies: Best
Practices for Marketing, Communications and Fundraising. John Wiley & Sons :
New Jersey.
Kanter, B., & Fine, A. 2010. The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with social
media to drive change. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons
Norris, P. 2001. Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty and the
Internet in Democratic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pilkington, P.D., Windsor, T.D., & Crisp, D.A. 2012. Volunteering and subjective
well-being in midlife and older adults: the role of supportive social networks. The
Journals of Gerontology, Series B:
Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. 67(2), 249260.
Swinson, J. 2006. Focusing on the Health Benefits of Volunteering as a
Recruitment Strategy. The International Journal of Volunteer Administration. 24
(2).

13

Thoits, P. A. & Hewitt, L. N. 2001. Volunteer work and well-being. Journal of

Health and Social Behaviour, 42, 115131.
Unger, L.S. 1991. Altruism as a motivation to volunteer. Journal of Economic
Psychology, 12, 71-100.
Vroom, V. 1964. The Motivation to Work. New York: Wiley
Willigen, M. V. 2000. Differential benefits of volunteering across the life course
[Electronic version]. The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological
Sciences and Social Sciences. 55(5), 308-318.

14