How Funding of Non-profit Social Organizations Affects the Number of Volunteers

In recent decades, significant changes have occurred to how charities and non-profit organizations are funded. However, only limited research has considered how the new financial landscape affects the work being carried out by these organizations. This article presents a quantitative analysis of the relationship between financing and the number of volunteers. The data material consists of panel data on revenue streams to nationwide, social, non-profit organizations in Denmark. The analysis reveals a strong, positive relationship between both value-driven general revenues and the organizations’ equity in relation to the number of volunteers. Conversely, targeted and means-driven investments do not have any significant correlation with the number of volunteers. Overall, the findings point to the fact that more volunteers can be attracted through forms of financing that strengthen the stability and organizational capacity of an organization as well as its ability to independently organize the work to be done.