Motivation and benefits of voluntary activities. Case study: EYOF 2013 Brasov

• Author: Baltescu C. A., Boscor D.
• Pages: 59-64

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series V: Economic Sciences • Vol. 9 (58) No. 1 - 2016

Motivation and benefits of voluntary activities.

Case study: EYOF 2013 Braşov

Codruţa Adina BLTESCU1, Dana BOŞCOR2

Abstract: Voluntary activities have become natural concerns among an increasing number

of European citizens. Romania, as a member state of the EU, has a low number of

participations in voluntary activities, situation partly justified by the lack of presence of our

country on the map of large scale events organization which is based to a high extent, on

volunteers’ involvement. The present paper presents the results of a quantitative marketing

research organized among volunteers who participated at EYOF 2013 Braşov and highlights

the participation’s motivations and benefits felt by volunteers at the end of the event. The

authors of the article highlight the differences reported between volunteers’ expectations and

their opinions after the event, the results obtained being considered useful for planning the

voluntary activities in organizing future events hosted in our country.

Key-words: voluntary activities, events, EYOF 2013 Braşov

1. Introduction

Voluntary activities play an important role in Europe, but the situation differs from

country to country. These activities represent, for young population, a first step

towards building the career and acquiring professional experience. Whilst certain

EU Member States have longstanding traditions in volunteering and well developed

voluntary sectors, in others the voluntary sector is still emerging or poorly

developed. Romania is included into the group with a relatively low level of

volunteering, as 10%-19% of adults carry out voluntary activities (Volunteering in

the European Union, 2010). In 2011, the European Commission launched

the European Year of Volunteering to celebrate the efforts of the estimated 100

million Europeans who take part in voluntary activities. A survey from 2015 found

that around a quarter (25%) of young adults in the EU had been involved in an

organised voluntary activity in the last 12 months

(http://europa.eu/youth/node/67_en). For Braşov county, the organization of the

European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) in 2013 has validated the organizational

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, codruta.baltescu@unitbv.ro

2 Transilvania University of Braşov, dana.boscor@unitbv.ro