Michael Lebenbaum, Claire de Oliveira, Joanne McKiernan, France Gagnon, Audrey Laporte
{"title":"COVID-19 Pandemic, Physical Distancing Policies, and the Non-Profit Sector Volunteer Force.","authors":"Michael Lebenbaum, Claire de Oliveira, Joanne McKiernan, France Gagnon, Audrey Laporte","doi":"10.1177/08997640231163782","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Although COVID-19-related physical distancing has had large economic consequences, the impact on volunteerism is unclear. Using volunteer position postings data from Canada's largest volunteer center (Volunteer Toronto) from February 3, 2020, to January 4, 2021, we evaluated the impact of different levels of physical distancing on average views, total views, and total number of posts. There was about a 50% decrease in the total number of posts that was sustained throughout the pandemic. Although a more restrictive physical distancing policy was generally associated with fewer views, there was an initial increase in views during the first lockdown where total views were elevated for the first 4 months of the pandemic. This was driven by interest in COVID-19-related and remote work postings. This highlights the community of volunteers may be quite flexible in terms of adapting to new ways of volunteering, but substantial challenges remain for the continued operations of many non-profit organizations.</p>","PeriodicalId":48235,"journal":{"name":"Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10116199/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08997640231163782","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/4/19 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"SOCIAL ISSUES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Although COVID-19-related physical distancing has had large economic consequences, the impact on volunteerism is unclear. Using volunteer position postings data from Canada's largest volunteer center (Volunteer Toronto) from February 3, 2020, to January 4, 2021, we evaluated the impact of different levels of physical distancing on average views, total views, and total number of posts. There was about a 50% decrease in the total number of posts that was sustained throughout the pandemic. Although a more restrictive physical distancing policy was generally associated with fewer views, there was an initial increase in views during the first lockdown where total views were elevated for the first 4 months of the pandemic. This was driven by interest in COVID-19-related and remote work postings. This highlights the community of volunteers may be quite flexible in terms of adapting to new ways of volunteering, but substantial challenges remain for the continued operations of many non-profit organizations.
期刊介绍:
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, the journal of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, is an international, interdisciplinary journal that seeks to enhance the quality of life and general welfare of humanity through effective and appropriate voluntary action by reporting on research and programs related to voluntarism, citizen participation, philanthropy, and nonprofit organizations in societies around the world.