Environmental Volunteers: Are They Driven By Altruism and a Strong Feeling of Regional Identity?

The significant growth of the nonprofit sector in Australia has lead to increased competition between organisations in attracting and retaining volunteers. Nonprofit managers are under increasing pressure to adopt commercial marketing techniques in order to achieve volunteer targets, and are recognising the need for detailed market information in order to develop customised and targeted marketing strategies. Environmental organisations within Australia lack information in relation to the particular segment of the market which is most likely to volunteer for their type of cause. This study addresses this issue by investigating whether environmental volunteers display unique characteristics, such as strong levels of altruism and regional identity, which will enable environmental organisations to target them effectively. Whilst few differences are found between environmental volunteers and non-environmental volunteers in terms of demographic characteristics, significant attitudinal and behavioural differences are identified.