Calling all volunteers: The role of stewardship and involvement in volunteer-organization relationships

Millions of people in the U.S. volunteer, and understanding how organizations can retain and deepen relationships with these individuals is critical to the sustainability of the nonprofit sector. The relationship maintenance strategies of stewardship may help nonprofit organizations strengthen relationships with their volunteers, particularly if organizations are able to influence volunteers’ feelings of involvement. An online survey of volunteers was conducted to see the relationships between stewardship, involvement, and organization-public relationship (OPR) outcomes. Our path analysis model indicates that stewardship strategies can positively contribute to volunteers’ involvement and their evaluations of OPR outcomes. One of the few to test this model, this study contributes new theory to public relations literature and better informs the practice.