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The Third-party Model: Enhancing Volunteering through Governments, Corporations and Educational Institutes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2009

DEBBIE HASKI-LEVENTHAL ,
LUCAS C. P. M. MEIJS  and
LESLEY HUSTINX
DEBBIE HASKI-LEVENTHAL
Affiliation:
Dr Debbie Haski-Leventhal, The Centre for Social Impact, Australian School of Business, University of NSW, Level 6 East, Kensington NSW 2033, Australia email: debbiehl@unsw.edu.au
LUCAS C. P. M. MEIJS
Affiliation:
Rotterdam School of Management, Department of Business-Society Management, Erasmus University, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands email: lmeijs@rsm.nl
LESLEY HUSTINX
Affiliation:
Postdoctoral Fellow Research Foundation – Flanders, Centre for Sociological Research, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium email: lesley.hustinx@soc.kuleuven.be
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Abstract

Volunteering is perceived as important for creating social capital and civil society, and therefore has become a fundamental part of social policies across most Western countries. In this article, we examine the involvement of governments, corporations and educational institutes in encouraging volunteering, and pinpoint their role in developing volunteering circles. Based on essential concepts presented here (volunteerability and recruitability), we develop the third-party model, and show how third parties get involved. We identify new ways in which these parties can enhance volunteering, and discuss their impact on volunteerability and recruitability. The potential negative impacts of volunteerism and ways in which these can be ameliorated are also acknowledged. Finally, issues that arise due to such involvement are also discussed, thereby offering an important contribution to social policy research in the area of volunteerism.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 139 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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