What motivates volunteers to stay engaged in community organizing?

From my experience, intrinsic motivation should be the main fuel and extrinsic motivation works as the catalyst. But there's no doubt that motivation is the primary driving force behind volunteerism. Intrinsic motivation can come from a number of sources, personal alignment with the goals of the volunteer project is one of the major reasons. I often try to follow Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" while leading a volunteer team; though the major dynamics of a volunteer workforce is radically different from corporate or military ones, the underlying mental structure is more or less the same. Thus you can get a good result if you can blend Sun Tzu's thousand years old classic military leadership knowledge with your own modern insights.

Volunteers stay engaged when they feel valued. In my experience, recognizing each volunteer's contribution personally goes a long way. Creating a sense of purpose, like achieving a community goal, keeps motivation high. Regularly updating volunteers on the impact of their work and providing opportunities for skill development and growth ensures lasting engagement. Ultimately, it's the personal connections and the feeling of making a meaningful difference that keep volunteers committed to community organizing.

Allow volunteers to decide their scope of impact within guardrails. For example, our one criterion for my community is all of our chapter leaders are expected to show up to every event. That being said, that's quite simple. Since many already have external incentives; they will naturally choose responsibilities and ideas within the community that fit their own goals. Empower them, and drive that sense of ownership within the community vision.

We often hold a wrong belief that volunteerism is only about giving. Try to make the time and effort provided by the volunteer force as valuable as possible, document their contributions in a formal public space so that they can add that to their resume. You can surprise them with gifts which will be thousand times more valuable if you can convince them that this is just a small appreciation and their contribution can never be paid back with any worldly values. However, volunteer projects are the best spaces to push your leadership qualities to the extreme. Getting something without paying back in raw cash, that's also without having the ability to make your workforce obliged to do something is the toughest exam for a leader.