Volunteer service is a valuable product of our society. Increasingly, at recent sporting events, volunteers are a critical part of the overall success of the events (Williams, Dossa, & Tompkins, 1995). Today, an expectation of most sport event administrators is recruiting and retaining enough volunteers to fulfill the wide range of roles which are needed for a sport event to achieve its goals. In order to recruit and retain enough volunteers in sport events, it is important to clearly understand the demographic characteristics of volunteers, volunteer motivation and commitment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among selected demographic characteristics (income, education and age), motivation and commitment of volunteers at a marathon running event. The specific aims of this investigation were to : (a) describe the type of individuals who participated as volunteers for a marathon running event, (b) examine the motives that were most and least important to those who participated as volunteers for a marathon running event, (c) confirm the multidimensionality of commitment (i.e., four bases of volunteer commitment) and motivation (i.e., five-factor model of volunteer motivation) among volunteers in a marathon running event, and (d) explore the relationships among the selected demographic characteristics (income, education and age), motivation and commitment among volunteers in a marathon running event. For the main purpose of the study, the measurement models for volunteer motivation and commitment and the structural model to investigate the relationships among the selected demographic characteristics (income, education and age), motivation and commitment were analyzed. The results of the measurement models showed that the proposed models of volunteer motivation and commitment were confirmed. The structural model illustrated that the paths of selected demographic characteristics (income, education and age) and volunteer commitment were statistically significant. The path of volunteer motivation and commitment was also statistically significant. In other words, the sample data clearly showed that selected demographics (income, education and age) and volunteer motivation influence volunteer commitment. The outcomes of this study will contribute not only to an extension of the knowledge base of volunteerism in the field of sport management, but also to practical applications for volunteer coordinators, administrators and event marketers. The directions for future research are presented.
