ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses major themes in both the practice and study of volunteer engagement with organizations. Your usual textbook chapter on volunteer administration will emphasize standard organizational practices, like recruitment, supervision, and recognition of volunteers. This is vital ground, but this emphasis overlooks the fact that the individual volunteers are the ones who hold the cards. In this chapter, we invite readers to familiarize themselves and look through a “psychological contract lens,” which puts the onus on organizations to learn and satisfy the individual needs of their volunteers. The decision to volunteer or not volunteer is either reinforced or “breached” at vital stages. Strong volunteer programs are built from putting volunteer demands at least on par with the demands of the organization.
