Effects of a Combination of Cleanup Activity and Sport on Recruiting Volunteers

Abstract

There is growing interest in the social importance of environmental volunteers. In order to contribute to the development of a theory of volunteering, and of different mechanisms for recruiting volunteers, participants in an environmental activity that combined sport with a cleanup activity were compared with participants in a normal cleanup activity.
Results indicated that 60% of the participants did not take part in normal cleanup activities. Many of the volunteers had intended to participate in an environmental activity, but had not done so. It is likely that an interest in competition was a reason people participated in the combination of sport and environmental activity. Team sports generated face-to-face requests to participate. Results demonstrated that combining elements such as sports with environmental activities and creating mechanisms for promoting direct requests was important in recruiting volunteers.