Volunteering: A Comparison of the Motivations of Collegiate Students Attending Different Types of Institutions

Volunteerism represents a major source of labor in the United States (Dutta-Bergman, 2004). It involves a considerable number of activities and endeavors with the goal of improving communities and the lives of individuals (van Emmerik, Jawahar & Stone, 2004). Findings from the Current Population Survey, composed of 60,000 households, estimate, for instance, that between September 2001 and September 2002, more than one of every four individuals over the age of 16 in the United States engaged in volunteer activities (Boraas, 2003). An activity pursued to such an extent appears to warrant research attention.