Stipends in Volunteer Civic Service: Inclusion, Retention, and Volunteer Benefits

Abstract

What is the role of stipends as an institutional facilitator in volunteer civic service? By examining the relationship of stipend receipt to volunteer diversity, time commitment, and perceived benefits from a longitudinal study of older adults serving in Experience Corps, this article assesses stipend status relative to volunteer sociodemographic characteristics, motivations, intensity and duration of time served, and volunteers’ self‐reported benefits. The findings underscore how stipends may promote participant diversity. In particular, stipended older adult volunteers serve for longer periods of time, but their motivations for serving do not differ. Stipended volunteers report higher perceived benefits than nonstipended volunteers. The results suggest that stipends may leverage wider inclusion, increase retention, and contribute to other benefits, but additional research is needed using more controlled and comparative designs.

Doing Less with More: Cohorts, Education, and Civic Participation in America

“…Meanwhile, women are more likely to volunteer than men (Musick and Wilson 2007), and middle-income individuals are also more likely to volunteer (Lee and Brudney 2009;McBride et al 2011). Marriage may also affect civic participation by increasing social connectedness (Putnam 2000;Rotolo and Wilson 2006); however, Oesterle, Johnson, and Mortimer (2004) find no marriage effect and Stoker and Jennings (1995) suggest that individuals adjust their political participation to match that of their marital partner.…”

To Volunteer or Not

“…Finally, potential volunteers also appear to be less involved in helping others outside the household. By providing informal help outside the household, new contacts may yield as well as more opportunities to be aware off volunteer activities and being asked to join volunteer activities (McBride et al, 2011;Okun & Michel, 2006).…”

“…The time devoted to providing informal help appears to bear a positive relationship with late-life volunteering (Einolf, 2010;McNamara & Gonzales, 2011). Likewise, helping someone outside the household expands one's social ties and may increase the likelihood of being recruited (McBride, Gonzales, Morrow-Howell, & McCrary, 2011).…”

“…We also expect that being a parent will be more strongly related to formal volunteering than to non-volunteering and willingness to volunteer; people with children are more likely to have been in contact with volunteer opportunities (Musick & Wilson, 2008). Finally, we expect a positive relation between providing informal help and volunteers and potential volunteers because providing such help indicates one's embeddedness in a social network (McBride et al, 2011).…”

An Asset-Based Approach to Volunteering

“…Workplace-based volunteer opportunities can be expanded to include hourly and low-wage workers, not just major corporations (Zaff, Youniss, & Gibson, 2009). In addition, stipends can provide incentives to volunteering for low-wage earners (McBride, Gonzales, Morrow-Howell, & McCrary, 2011). Education subsidies could be offered in exchange for volunteering, modeling federally funded corps-based service programs such as AmeriCorps (Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement [PACE], 2010).…”