The Costs and Benefits of Volunteering Programs in the Public Sector: A Longitudinal Study of Municipal Governments

• Author: Mikhail Ivonchyk
• Published date: 01 August 2019
• Date: 01 August 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0275074019849125
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074019849125

American Review of Public Administration

2019, Vol. 49(6) 689 –703

© The Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/0275074019849125

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Article

Introduction

The efficient and effective delivery of public services consti-

tutes a core purpose of public administration (Neshkova &

Guo, 2012). While bureaucratic expertise is an important ele-

ment for successful policy implementation, citizen involve-

ment during various phases of the policy cycle is increasingly

seen as a way to enhance bureaucratic decision-making and

accountability (Nabatchi & Leighninger, 2015). The use of

volunteers to co-deliver public services constitutes one such

alternative. Although volunteers are generally associated with

nonprofit organizations, there is an increasing recognition of

the contribution that volunteers have in public service deliv-

ery (Brudney, 1999; Dover, 2010; Gazley & Brudney, 2005).

Potential benefits from volunteer involvement may

include improvements in service efficiency and effective-

ness, better incorporation of citizen preferences, and

enhancement of democratic goals such as greater bureau-

cratic accountability (Brudney, 2005; Brudney & Kellough,

2000). A major proposition in the literature is that volun-

teers can either generate cost savings or enhance service

levels with a given amount of resources (Brudney, 1984;

Parks et al., 1981). However, despite several efforts to ana-

lyze the costs and benefits of volunteering in the public sec-

tor (e.g., Brudney & Duncombe, 1992; Brudney & Gazley,

2002; Brunet, DeBoer, & McNamara, 2001; Handy &

Srinivasan, 2004; Hilke, 1986), there have not been many

longitudinal studies with representative samples to provide

more robust empirical evidence about the alleged relation-

ship between volunteering, cost savings, and paid-employ-

ees in the public sector.

The main goal of this article is to address this gap in the

literature and explore the effects of public sector volunteers

on cost savings and paid staff. The study uses a panel dataset

on all cities in the State of Georgia with different levels of

volunteer engagement in public service delivery across a

10-year period. This study examines two main hypotheses

derived from pertinent literature. First, the study tests the

proposition that volunteers are associated with cost savings

holding the level of services constant. Second, it tests the

hypothesis that volunteer use may be associated with a

reduction in the number of paid employees. Empirical find-

ings from the panel data analysis indicate that volunteer pro-

grams are associated with cost savings and may lead

to reductions in the number of paid employees, with the

number of services not affected. In addition, I find that

volunteer engagement is associated with significant increases

in city expenditure on the administrative function, which is

849125ARPXXX10.1177/0275074019849125The American Review of Public AdministrationIvonchyk

research-article2019

1University of Georgia, Athens, USA

Corresponding Author:

Mikhail Ivonchyk, Department of Public Administration and Policy, School

of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia, 355 S Jackson

St., Office 415, Athens, GA 30602, USA.

Email: ivonchyk@uga.edu

The Costs and Benefits of Volunteering

Programs in the Public Sector: A Longitudinal

Study of Municipal Governments

Mikhail Ivonchyk1

Abstract

Public sector volunteering is an increasingly common phenomenon that has attracted public administration scholars’

attention for several decades. Previous literature suggests that one of the main advantages of citizen involvement in

public service delivery is related to subsequent cost savings. However, a lack of longitudinal data has limited our ability

to test this proposition and constrained our understanding of the subject. The main goal of this study is to fill this lacuna

and analyze the relationship between volunteering and the level of spending as well as the number of paid employees in

city governments across 10 years. The empirical findings indicate that volunteer involvement is indeed significantly and

negatively associated with the level of spending and the number of paid employees, with the number of services unaffected.

The cost savings, however, may come with delays most likely because it takes time and resources to properly train

volunteers. This may also drive up administrative costs.

Keywords

volunteer management, local government, cost savings, budget size, public sector volunteering