The State of Research Regarding Volunteering in Sport: Current state and future directions
Literature Review by Ashley Penney
The Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health at Saint Mary’s University
Volunteers play a critical role in supporting the Canadian ecosystem by filling several roles that allow non-profit and charity organizations to function effectively. In 2022, 24 million Canadians volunteered formally or informally contributing over 2.5 billion hours annually (Statistics Canada, 2022). 18% of all volunteer hours were conducted in the sports sector and sports and recreation organizations had an average of 29.0 volunteers (Hoye et al 2020; Statistics Canada, 2023). The existing body of research regarding sport volunteers extensively investigates volunteer motivations, sacrifices, retention and satisfaction. Other areas, such as management can be labelled as a growing body of research.
The aim of this review is to summarize the findings of the available research and identify gaps in the literature, specifically regarding sport volunteers in Canada when possible. This paper debriefs several main themes found during extensive literature review and concludes with an overview of the identified gaps in the systems that govern and drive volunteerism in sport and recreation in Canada.