Gestion des organisations à but non-lucratif : comment recruter et fidéliser les volontaires ?

It is not possible to speak about the nonprofit sector without mentioning volunteers, since they represent the principal asset that enables the third sector organizations to achieve their goals. According to the White Paper on Voluntary Activity published by the Irish Government in September 2000, volunteering is defined as, "The commitment of time and energy, for the benefit of society, local communities, individuals outside the immediate family, the environment and other causes. Voluntary activities are undertaken of a person's own free will, without payment". We can draw a parallel between this definition and the definition of philanthropy: "values, organizations and practices that entail voluntary action to achieve some vision or the public goof or the private production of public goods". Volunteers, as understanding from these two definitions are giving their time in order to make a difference. In Ireland, 37.1% of the total population (4,234,925) volunteer, providing in-kind revenue from c. €200-600 million. Their actions takes place in the third sector, known as "the sum of institutions, organizations, and individuals located between the family, the state, and the market, in which people associate voluntarily to advance common interests".

The importance of volunteers will continue to rise in the coming decades since the role of the nonprofit sector as services provider will increase because of the help's decline from the government for human services and arts.
Volunteers are essential is this sector because their donations of times and talents can dramatically affect the efficiency of an organization as well as social cohesion and innovation. However a third of Irish voluntary organizations have fewer volunteers than they require. Our purpose is this literature review is to understand how the organizations from the third sector can get the most of their volunteers. none of the texts we are using is Irish. The purpose of this literature review is to draw inspiriting from other practices and theories to inform the Forum on Philanthropy about the possibility to foster the efficiency of organizations from the nonprofit sector by using correctly and wisely volunteers.