Motivation, commitment, and intentions of volunteers at a large Canadian sporting event

The purpose of this study was to examine volunteer motivation, commitment, and intentions to remain as volunteers at the 2005 BMO Canadian Women's Golf Championship. Volunteers (n = 647) responded to the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1982), volunteer motivation questionnaire (Strigas & Jackson, 2003a), and qualitative questions regarding intention to remain volunteers. Results indicated that commitment was related to sport specific factors of the particular event; however, motivation to volunteer was associated with being part of the community. A number of factors and relationships between the variables and intentions to remain volunteering were identified. Descriptive statistics indicated that most of the volunteers intended to continue as golf volunteers (97.5%), would volunteer with other sport events (76.4%), and were likely to continue volunteering in general (83.3%). A variety of rationales were discussed. Understanding the factors that impact motivations and commitment, and the relationships between intentions and motivation/commitment to volunteer can help event organizers target volunteer recruitment and retention strategies.