Motivations for volunteering: Do motivation questionnaires measure what actually drives volunteers?

Do questionnaires measure the same motivations as open-ended questions? To answer this question, we analyze the correspondence between the motivations evaluated with an open-ended question and those evaluated using the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI, Clary et al., 1998) in a sample of 1,007 active volunteers. We expected some degree of overlap between both procedures, but also important differences. The results show that the variance shared by the two assessment instruments was significant although low. However, the differences were many and important. The open-ended probe provides fewer important motivations for the volunteers and greater variety of motivations. The VFI leads volunteers to mark all six motivations as important and large discrepancies appear for some motivations. For example, the social and the protective motivations are present in more than 90% of the volunteers when measured by the VFI and in less than 3% of the volunteers when measured by the open-ended question. Discrepancies and common points are analyzed to better understand what motivates people to volunteer in different fields and to better focus research and practice.