Motivation factors within non-profit projects : How project leaders can motivate their project group

Abstract: Projects as a work model are becoming more and more popular and also within non-profit organizations. The non-profit organization however, cannot offer monetary rewards as compensation for the time people put in when working within non-profit organizations. They need to find other ways to motivate people to join the non-profit projects but also to remain within these projects. The purpose of this study was to investigate which motivation factors were considered important within two student unions when joining a non-profit project. The purpose was also to investigate how project leaders should act in order to keep their project group motivated within these non-profit projects. To fulfill these purposes we investigated these problems qualitatively, through interviews and quantitatively, through a survey. 16 interviews were performed, seven with project leaders and nine with project workers and the survey resulted in 64 respondents. In the theoretical part, the following motivation theories were used; Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Herzberg’s two-factor theory, Vroom’s expectancy theory, Hackman and Oldham’s theory of motivation and McClelland’s need theory. In addition to these theories, theories about non-profit motivation, leadership, and leadership within non-profit organizations were presented along with McGregor’s theory X & Y. These theories formed the basis on which the empirical results were collected along with the interpretations of the results, which showed that some of the theories were more applicable than others. The conclusions of the study showed that the most motivating factors were personal development, new experiences, social belonging as well as gaining merits to put on the résumé. A project leader who was motivating was also someone who was respondent, engaged, positive and who gave feedback, which were all very important for the volunteers’ motivation.