Benefits of Volunteering

A fact sheet by Davila and Mora investigates the effect of school required community service on academic performance. The authors found positive links between the two, providing solid research for community service advocates.

  • Students who participated in school required community service were 22 percentage points more likely to graduate from college than those that did not and were more likely to have improved their Reading, Math, Science, and History scores.
  • Similarly, students who performed voluntary community service were 19 percentage points more likely to graduate from college than those that did not.

Read more results about the positive link between civic engagement and educational attainment here.

A CIRCLE working paper by Andrea Finlay and Constance Flanagan finds a link between educational progress and volunteering for young adults (after high school age).

A CIRCLE fact sheet finds that volunteering also seems to ease the transition to civilian life for returning veterans.

Volunteering Trends & Statistics

The actual rate of youth “volunteering” is controversial, because definitions of the term vary and each survey produces different levels. Probably the most reliable estimate comes from the Census annual Current Population Supplement, as analyzed by CIRCLE. (See Fig. 1 below.) These data suggest that the volunteering rate for young adults is around 20%, although other surveys yield higher rates. All surveys find a gap in the volunteering rate between those who attend college and those who do not.

volunteering trend

According to CIRCLE’s own 2006 Civic and Political Health of the Nation, 36% of young people, ages 15 to 25, volunteered in the past year.1

Of these young volunteers, only 19% reported volunteering on a regular basis.

Volunteering rates by student status:

  • Current high school student: 47%
  • Current college student: 43%
  • Not a current student: 23%

Young females were 4 percentage points more likely than males to report volunteering in the past year.

19% of young people had worked within the last year “informally with some one or some group to solve a problem in the community” where they live. This was about the same rate as among older people.

Only 10% were confident that they personally could make a great deal of difference in solving community problems, although another 45% believed they could make some difference.

Young people were more confident about collaborative work: 44% believed that “people working together” can make a great deal of difference in solving local problems.

Where Young People Volunteer

Organizations involving youth (67%) draw the greatest numbers of young volunteers, followed by civic or community organizations (54%) and then religious groups (49%). Political organizations tend to draw the fewest youth volunteers (13%).

Source: 2006 Civic and Political Health of the Nation

Wyoming, Utah, and Wisconsin had the three highest youth volunteer rates in 2005.

Source: CIRCLE’s tabulations from the Current Population Survey, September Supplement, 2005.

Motivations for Volunteering

Overall, young people who participated in political organizations (just 13% of the young volunteers) were most likely to be motivated by the desire to address a social or political problem.

Most young people who volunteered for other types of organizations wanted to help other people. For example, young people who volunteered for environmental organizations generally did so to help other people (52%), not to address a social or political problem (23%).

Source: 2006 Civic and Political Health of the Nation

How to Encourage Volunteering Among Young People

Invitations please…
Being asked is the top reason motivating young people to volunteer (closely followed by “because it makes me feel good.”) In 2006, political organizations were also the most likely to recruit their volunteers by reaching out to them. In the other groups, young volunteers tended to make the initial contact.

Role Models…
Young people who grow up in a household where someone volunteers are twice as likely to volunteer regularly, to be an active member of a group, and are more likely to follow politics and vote.

Let’s Discuss!
Young people who discuss a volunteer experience are twice as likely as others to volunteer regularly. And, they are also 16 percentage points more likely to try to influence someone’s vote!

Sources: The Civic and Political Health of the Nation: A Generational Portrait & 2006 Civic and Political Health of the Nation

What Young People think about New Volunteer Programs and Policies

Young adults are enthusiastic about an expanded AmeriCorps type program - where every young person would be offered a chance to do a full year of community service to earn money for tuition.

However, the majority of young people oppose community service as a requirement for high school graduation. Source: Volunteering Among Young People

1 It is important to note that in recent years efforts to measure volunteering have produced widely different estimates, largely because of the methods employed to measure volunteering.

Resources:

For more information on volunteering/ community service:

Consensus Report:

The Civic Mission of Schools (released by CIRCLE & Carnegie Corporation of New York)

Fact sheets:

Working Paper:

Research Report:

The 2006 Civic and Political Health of the Nation Report