Although managers, professionals, and military personnel are in “time-greedy occupations,” they are the people who are most likely to volunteer their time—“particularly the men,” reports Natalie J. Webb, an associate professor of economics at the Naval Postgraduate School, and her coauthor in a new study.
Using survey data from 11,520 U.S. respondents, the researchers initially show that social and community service occupations send the most volunteers to the nonprofit trenches (see graph at right).
But after controlling for factors such as education, income, and wealth, they uncover that managers, professionals, and military personnel are actually the most likely to donate their time—despite the demands of their day jobs.
The study does not examine how much nature and nurture drive the relationship between jobs and volunteering. On the one hand, Webb says, managerial positions may attract people who are more self-directed and altruistic by nature. But on the other hand, the norms of managerial positions may induce people to volunteer more.
Webb’s findings do suggest, however, that nonprofits should broaden their hunts for volunteers. “Don’t assume that a professional is too busy to help,” she says. At the same time, “nonprofits have to ask themselves, ‘Did we invite the construction workers to volunteer?’” Recruiters of free labor, she notes, often overlook people who are unlike them.
Most studies of volunteering examine how factors such as income, wealth, or ethnicity affect people’s willingness to contribute their time. Yet thinkers as diverse as Adam Smith and Karl Marx have long agreed that the job makes the person, says Webb. Likewise, “the profession you are in influences the likelihood that you will volunteer your time to a charity.”
Rikki Abzug and Natalie J. Webb, “Do Occupational Group Members Vary in Volunteering Activity?” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 37, 4, 2008.
Read more stories by Alana Conner.