Abstract Volunteering, essential to sustaining many social and sporting enterprises, has declined in recent years. Understanding how to cultivate and sustain volunteer labor is critical to ensure their survival and for individuals and wider society to benefit from the positive effects of volunteering. parkrun is a free, weekly, timed 5 km walk/run held in public spaces, which has disseminated widely (operating in 23 countries) and sustained itself over a 20-year period despite being largely reliant on volunteers for its operations. As such, parkrun can offer insights into how to attract and retain a large volunteer workforce. There are over 500 parkrun locations in Australia run by local volunteer teams, supported by a network of volunteer “ambassadors” and a relatively small number of paid employees. Our qualitative study examines whether and why individuals occupying volunteer roles central to event coordination and organizational delivery identify with the organization, and how parkrun cultivates and benefits from identification. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 67 parkrun Australia employees and volunteers who coordinate events. We deductively analyzed interview data against key theoretical concepts of organizational identification. Our findings show a dynamic layering process of identification with local event collectives and the broader parkrun movement, highlighting the organizational benefits of being community-led. parkrun intentionally perpetuates its identity, which volunteers internalize, defend, and enact, drawing in a labor force to sustain the organization. Our findings can inform volunteer initiation and retention strategies for parkrun and other volunteer organizations.
Cranney et al. (Thu,) studied this question.