{"id":806,"date":"2014-05-14T04:56:02","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T11:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/?p=806"},"modified":"2017-10-11T13:06:56","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T20:06:56","slug":"anger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2014\/05\/anger\/","title":{"rendered":"Anger motivates volunteers as much as sympathy"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years, during my workshops<\/a> on volunteer engagement, I\u00a0have half-jokingly said I have never volunteered out of the goodness of\u00a0my heart or to be nice<\/strong> – because I’m not at all a nice person – and have,\u00a0instead, volunteered because<\/a> I’m angry about something. I have used this as a way to introduce audiences to\u00a0the plethora of motivations of volunteers, to help them create better\u00a0recruitment and engagement schemes.<\/p>\n

Now, I have some science to back me up!<\/p>\n

Someone sent me this link today: “Anger motivates volunteers as much as sympathy<\/a>.” \u00a0<\/span>The authors of the study are Dr. Robert Bringle<\/a> and his students Ashley\u00a0Hedgepath and Elizabeth Wall at Appalachian State University. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And it’s not the first study that’s said this:\u00a0Ilana Silber published “The\u00a0<\/a>angry gift: A neglected facet of philanthropy<\/a>” in 2012.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a mistake to think that all volunteers are motivated only by kindness or selflessness. There are all sorts of motivations for volunteering. People volunteer because they:<\/p>\n