Extended Abstract
Background and Purpose
Sports, as a group activity, possess a unique ability to generate social capital and serve as a platform for building or enhancing networks of social relationships through teamwork. Evidence shows that individuals actively engaged in sports tend to hold greater social capital and, consequently, enjoy elevated levels of social trust. Social capital broadly refers to the interpersonal relationships, social networks, and reciprocal trust norms that facilitate cooperation and cohesion among members of society. A significant body of research emphasizes the role of voluntary associations and behaviors in nurturing a spirit of volunteerism, alongside its ethical and value-driven outcomes within communities.
Volunteering is defined as an activity that, typically performed without monetary compensation, manifests as a high degree of voluntary choice within formal organizational structures and embodies altruistic motivations aimed at benefiting others. Despite its critical importance, recent years have seen challenges faced by sports organizations globally, notably a decline in volunteer participation.
It is therefore vital to identify and bolster the factors influencing the motivation of sports volunteers to encourage broader societal participation. Given sports’ effectiveness as a fertile ground for generating social capital and stimulating volunteering, alongside worrying declines in volunteering trends nationally, this research aimed to propose a social capital-based model to promote volunteerism in sports.
 
 
 
 
Methods
This study is philosophical and interpretive in nature with an exploratory focus. It applies qualitative research methodologies within the classic grounded theory approach. The statistical population included experts specializing in volunteering and sports sociology. Data were collected through open-format, unstructured interviews with thirteen purposively selected experts and experienced instructors.
Reliability and trustworthiness of the data were achieved following systematic grounded theory procedures, ensuring rigor both formally and content-wise. Credibility and transferability were established by continuing data collection until saturation was reached, presenting rich informant accounts, engaging participants throughout the research, and adapting collection as necessary. Multiple coders independently conducted data coding to mitigate individual bias.
Confirmability was assured through deliberate sample selection, integrating semi-structured interviews with field note-taking, obtaining participant feedback, validating findings with experts, and maintaining detailed technical and field notes while consciously preventing bias throughout the study.
The analysis progressed through three strategic coding phases—open, axial, and selective coding—to fulfill the research objectives. These coding processes and their outcomes are elaborated in the discussion section.
 
Results
The analysis revealed that the social capital-driven model of promoting volunteer activities in sports comprises six principal indicators:

Civic Volunteering: Engaging volunteers in urban development and beautification through sports initiatives, environmental protection efforts, participation in religious and cultural domains, involvement in sports-related artistic activities and rituals, and supporting the emergence of urban and national identity.
Idealistic Volunteering: Mobilizing volunteers through platforms encouraging suggestions and criticism, promoting social justice, enhancing volunteers’ knowledge and experience within sports contexts, and facilitating access to open spaces for engagement.
Social Volunteering: Utilizing volunteers to broaden social interaction and solidarity networks, fostering family-based sporting activities, promoting harmony and friendship through sport, supporting peacebuilding and human rights advocacy, enriching recreational time, collaborating through sports associations and centers, boosting social vitality, encouraging national integration, and mitigating societal harms.
Development-Oriented Volunteering: Engaging volunteers to construct sports infrastructure and integrate technological and creative expertise into sports environments.
Altruistic Volunteering: Involving volunteers to expand sports opportunities in suburban areas, promote sports for marginalized or special groups, support student and educational sports, assist working children and those experiencing homelessness, foster worker sports initiatives, encourage elder participation, manage fan activities, and conduct charity-driven sports events.
Volunteering and Personal Development: Helping volunteers strengthen social connections via sports, build self-confidence, display personal capacities and skills, enrich social experiences, and develop teamwork abilities.

Overall, the findings demonstrate that sport volunteerism grounded in social capital extends beyond infrastructure and justice development, significantly fostering national identity, personal growth, and social sustainability.
Conclusion
Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the six identified volunteering types—citizenship, idealistic, social, development-focused, altruistic, and personal development-oriented volunteering—constitute essential indicators and mechanisms for enhancing sports volunteerism. This multifaceted approach ultimately leads to an increase in the social capital of volunteers.
Consequently, it is recommended that policymakers, sports organizations, and communities implement strategies derived from this model to reinforce volunteer engagement and strengthen social solidarity among participants.
Article Message
The core message of this article is that civic, idealistic, social, development-oriented, altruistic, and personal development volunteering collectively form the pillars for increasing volunteer activity in sports, thereby nurturing social capital among volunteers. This framework underscores the inclusion of volunteers across diverse domains—including cultural, environmental, educational, and infrastructural sectors—maximizing their positive societal impact. Notably, facilitating opportunities for volunteers to demonstrate capabilities and skills through sports enhances motivation and reinforces social cohesion.
Ethical Considerations
Research ethics principles were strictly followed throughout this study. Participants were thoroughly informed about the research objectives and methods, provided written informed consent, and had confidentiality assured. This research was conducted in compliance with the regulations set forth by the National System for Registration and Announcement of Ethical Committee Results in Biomedical Studies, with all ethical aspects duly reviewed.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest related to this publication.
Authors’ Contributions
Conceptualization: Halime Piri, Shahryar Kharazian
Data Collection: Halime Piri, Azam Nakhaie Naizi
Data Analysis: Seyed Mohammad Hosein Hoseini Ravesh
Manuscript Writing: Halime Piri, Shahryar Kharazian
Review and Editing: Shahryar Kharazian, Seyed Mohammad Hosein Hoseini Ravesh
Responsible for funding: Halime Piri, Shahryar Kharazian
Literature Review: Halime Piri
Project Manager: Shahryar Kharazian
 Acknowledgments
The authors extend their heartfelt thanks to all contributors and participants who supported this research.