Open Collections

Highlighting Benefits : Promoting Volunteer Engagement at the UBC Farm

University of British Columbia. Student Services; University of British Columbia. Campus and Community Planning

This study investigates the impact of highlighting tangible and psychological benefits on volunteer engagement at the UBC farm. By modifying the volunteer description on the UBC farm website, we aimed to discern the most effective approach to maximizing participant engagement. Utilizing online surveys, participants (N = 272) were randomly allocated into one of three groups: control (mirroring the existing volunteer description on the UBC farm website), tangible (highlighting tangible benefits), and tangible plus psychological (highlighting both tangible and psychological benefits) conditions. By using the Kruskal - Wallis test and post-hoc method, we found that using a volunteer description that highlights tangible benefits can promote students’ willingness to volunteer on the UBC farm, compared to the control condition that used the volunteer description without highlighting. However, the additional highlight of psychological benefits does not lead to a higher willingness to volunteer. An exploratory analysis using ANOVA suggests that regardless of whether or not the benefits are highlighted in the volunteer condition, community members experiencing food insecurity show a higher willingness to volunteer on the UBC farm, compared to those who do not. Furthermore, this report offers targeted recommendations for the UBC farm to enhance student engagement in volunteer initiatives. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Report

eng

2023-09-07

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85836

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/