The Danish Institute for Voluntary Effort defines 7 types of volunteers based on their motivations:
1. The network builder:
Wants to build social networks and have relation to other volunteers. This group is often made up of pensioners who have left the labor market, but still want to spend their time with other people, on something that gives them meaning.
2. The competence hunter:
The volunteer who wants something on their CV, to supplement their education, and want to get competences that they can use when they are applying for a job. These are often young people who are aiming for very specific qualifications and competences they can use in their careers.
3. The Idealist:
Motivated by the cause. For them, it is not so important, what they are doing or with whom, but they are engaged by the cause of the organization.
4. The activity participant:
This group volunteers because they want to participate in the related activity. For example, a festival-goer who wants to participate in the festival itself, and therefore decides to participate as a volunteer. This is also a very common group of volunteers among sports clubs.
5. Local community actor:
People who are very active in the local community, and are eager to back up any kind of activity or event taking place in their community. This group is particularly found within smaller towns and rural districts, as well as some neighborhoods of larger cities.
6. The problem solver:
This group consists of individuals who believe there is an important problem which needs to be solved. They then sign up in various volunteer organizations to make an effort to solve the problem. This could for example be organizations like patients’ associations, or charities working to solve diseases or world hunger for example. Oftentimes, these volunteers are motivated because they know someone who has been affected by a disease, which gives them an incentive to get involved with finding a cure.
7. Specialist volunteer:
The newest group of volunteers. These people have a high amount of specialist knowledge within a certain field. Perhaps they are, or have been, working within this field in their professional life, and now want to apply this knowledge or skills in the volunteer world. This could for example be a retired marketing manager, who helps event organizers market their culture event. This group can be extremely valuable for volunteer organizations, but when managing this group of volunteers, it is also quite important to draw a clear line between volunteers and hired staff, since this line can sometimes become blurred.