Segmenting the volunteer market: learnings from an Australian study

The volunteering industry in Australia contributes over 42 billion dollars to society each year. It is facing increasing pressures due to reduced funding and growing competition for limited resources. This study provides valuable information to volunteer managers by segmenting what is otherwise an extremely heterogeneous market into homogenous subgroups based on peoples’ motivations to volunteer. This is useful in the development of targeted marketing campaigns to identify, attract, and retain volunteers. Three segments are identified with distinctive motivational patterns – ‘social volunteers’, ‘community volunteers’ and ‘altruistic volunteers’. These segments are then profiled so that managers can identify the most effective way of reaching them and ultimately more efficiently spend their limited marketing dollars.