RESEARCH ARTICLE When motivation is not enough: Effects of prosociality and organizational socialization in volunteers’ intention to continue volunteering Stefano Livi 1 | Valeria De Cristofaro 1 | Annalisa Theodorou 1 | Marika Rullo 2 | Valerio Piccioli 1 | Maura Pozzi 3 1 Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Rome “Sapienza”, Italy 2 School of Psychology, University of Kent, Great Britain 3 Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy Correspondence Stefano Livi, University of Rome “Sapienza”, Department of Social and Developmental Psychology. Email: stefano.livi@uniroma1.it Abstract Retention of volunteers is a main issue for no‐profit organiza- tions. In the present study, using a cross‐sectional design, determinants of volunteers’ intentions to continue their ser- vice were investigated in a sample of 116 volunteers at dif- ferent Italian organizations (M age = 42.32, SD age = 15.91). Guided by the conceptual model of the volunteer process, we hypothesized that organizational socialization should mediate the link between prosocial personality and intention to continue volunteering. Results confirmed our prediction. Findings provide suggestions for organizations concerned about volunteers’ dropout that focus on ameliorating the socialization process of less prosocial volunteers in order to support their intention to remain in the organization. KEYWORDS intention to continue volunteering, organizational socialization, prosocial personality, volunteerism 1 | INTRODUCTION Volunteers are a structural part of today's society supporting a wide variety of activities, organizations, services, and sectors. Due to the extent and nature of their involvement, volunteers seek out their opportunities and may deliberate long and hard about the initiation of their participation (Dwyer, Snyder, & Omoto, 2013; Omoto & Snyder, 1993; Snyder & Omoto, 2008). For these reasons, altruism, empathy, helping dispositions, and motivations are fundamental in sustain gratuitous efforts. The present research focuses on how one of these volunteer characteristics, prosocial personality, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received: 10 July 2018 Revised: 1 October 2019 Accepted: 11 October 2019 DOI: 10.1002/casp.2446 J Community Appl Soc Psychol. 2019;1–13. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/casp 1