New Findings on Rates and Determinants of Black Volunteering

• In Event: 3271 - Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity

Abstract

Volunteering is a form of civic engagement that involves individuals contributing to the common good by freely giving their time to benefit others (Wilson 2000). Previous studies of volunteering have found that there are racialized differences in rates of volunteering, such that whites are presumed to volunteer at higher rates than African Americans, and that different levels of human and social capital in the black community can explain these rates. This paper, through the use of new nationally representative data that oversamples for African Americans, offers an alternative view. We explore the rates at which blacks and whites volunteer, and look at how patterns of black and white volunteering differ. We find that there is not a significant difference between blacks and whites in terms of rates of volunteering and that there are subtle, but significant, differences in motivations and the structure of volunteering. The implications of these findings for further research and theory are discussed by way of the conclusion.

Authors

• Aisha Ariantique Upton, University of Minnesota

• Douglas Hartmann, University of Minnesota