Author Identifier (ORCID)
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to develop foundational propositions designed to reflect success factors in the recruitment and retention of volunteers for future longevity. Using insights gathered from three universities' experiences of student volunteering during COVID-19, plus capturing the experiences of volunteer involving organizations, we draw on existing theories, as well as service ecosystem literature, to identify critical emerging trends. We argue that conceptualizing volunteer pathways as a set of linear, sequential stages linked to a single volunteering experience does not adequately capture the complexity of the volunteer ecosystem, including the dynamic inter-relationships among actors and the multiple roles each actor may assume. We also take a collective view of the sector by incorporating the perspectives of both the individual volunteer, and the volunteer involving organization. Our propositions reflect the need to take a broader, more nuanced perspective to capture the multiple stakeholders and their needs and drivers within the volunteering ecosystem. We show that a significant interruption like COVID-19 can result in shifts in technology, word-of-mouth (WOM) recruiting, volunteer function, role preference, and commitment. Taking a propositional approach, we conceptualize core foundations around volunteer engagement, digital platforms, and episodic volunteering to better equip volunteer managers to source a reliable volunteering resource over the long term.
Keywords
COVID-19 volunteering, volunteer ecosystem, volunteer engagement, volunteer socialization, volunteering and digital technologies, volunteers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
1-1-2026
ISSN
10486682
Publication Title
Nonprofit Management & Leadership
Publisher
Wiley
School
School of Business and Law
RAS ID
99953
Funding Information
This work was supported by Volunteering WA.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
O’Brien, I., Rabbanee, F. K., Kim, E., Paull, M., Holmes, K., & Kestel, J. (2026). A service ecosystems approach for sustainable volunteer engagement: Developing insights from COVID-19 disruptions. Nonprofit Management & Leadership. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.70062