Measuring Volunteer Outcomes: Development of the International Volunteer Impacts Survey

Current research on international volunteering and service is largely descriptive but program administrators and policymakers seek information about outcomes. This article reports on a 90-item survey administered to 983 respondents. Using factor analysis procedures, we assess factor structure and reliability across a range of outcomes in an International Volunteer Impacts Survey (IVIS) instrument designed to measure IVS volunteer outcomes. Resulting outcome categories include international contacts, open-mindedness, international understanding, intercultural relations, global identity, social skills, life plans, civic activism, community engagement, media attentiveness, and financial contributions. In this article, we discuss research design, survey administration, and further development of the IVIS