Understanding Volunteer Motivations and Information Sources During Emergency Crisis Situations: Volunteering with Ukrainian Refugees

Abstract Nonprofit organizations play a crucial role in responding to humanitarian crises, making it important to understand what motivates volunteers and how they learn about volunteering opportunities. Drawing on functional theory as well as word-of-mouth and tie strength frameworks, this study examines volunteers’ motivations and information sources during the arrival of Ukrainian refugees in Hungary. Twenty-five semi-structured interviews with volunteers have been analyzed using thematic analysis with deductive and inductive coding. The findings show that values and protective motivations were the dominant drivers of volunteering, with career, social, and understanding motivations also present, whereas enhancement motivation was absent in the context of the emergency crisis. Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) was the main source of information, with volunteering opportunities spreading mostly through weak ties, whose recommendations were trusted and accepted without scrutiny. Volunteer recruitment in humanitarian crises should emphasize value-driven and protective motivations while utilizing eWOM and weak-tie networks to reach potential volunteers effectively.