All or Nothing, or Something In-Between? How Institutional Support of Volunteer Mentors Affects Volunteering

In this issue's Research to Practice, reviewer Laurie Mook looks at a very interesting study of online volunteer mentors. Researchers compared the quality of volunteering between four different online mentor groups who participated on the same platform in the same activities: self-enrolled volunteers with no institutional support, and corporate volunteers with no institutional support, limited institutional support and intensive institutional support. The quality of their interactions was measured by the extent that the mentors established a meaningful connection with their mentees, and by the tone of the messages. The study's findings may surprise us all!