Three municipal park system case study: relative comparison of public participation/volunteerism impact on park system vision, budget, and operation

Abstract

Volunteers provide enormous benefits to organizations and charities in the United States and throughout the world. In many different areas there has been a surge or research to better understand the value and impact that volunteers have on the organizations that they serve but little is known about volunteer impact on municipal park systems. To study and analyze how volunteers are impacting municipal park system, three individual case studies were conducted. A case study framework was used to help organize, analyze, and present the data collected, and a cross-case analysis was conducted to compare the impact of volunteers across three municipalities. Findings revealed that each of the three municipalities rely heavily on volunteers and are greatly benefitted by volunteer efforts.