September 9, 2008 | Read Time: 3 minutes
Seventy-three percent of adults between the ages of 44 and 79 volunteered for an organization in the past year, but significant barriers remain to tapping the full potential of these “experienced Americans,” according to a report commissioned by the AARP.
Civic Entreprises, a public-policy consulting firm in Washington, surveyed more than 1,000 Americans in this age group for the “More to Give: Tapping the Talents of the Baby Boomer, Silent, and Greatest Generations” report.
Although 41 percent of the survey respondents, representing 45 million people, said they were very or somewhat likely to increase the amount of time they spend volunteering in the next few years, organizing this age group may prove difficult, as more than 70 percent of respondents said they preferred to volunteer without a regular schedule.
The same percentage said that a lack of time was a significant barrier to their volunteering, and more than half said another significant barrier was their need to make money.
Almost half of the respondents said there was a lack of available information about volunteering opportunities, and 68 percent of people in this age group who did not volunteer in the past year said they had not been invited to do so.
Lesser barriers to volunteering included not being able to find a group that fit with their interests or skills, restrictions due to health problems, and a lack of transportation.
‘Civic Highway’
The report makes many recommendations based on the findings.
Although Web sites such as VolunteerMatch and Idealist.org exist to provide information about volunteering opportunities, the report reccomends that the Corporation for National and Community Service also should offer a “significant grant to the best consortium of organizations that will develop volunteer-matching and social-networking technologies” to overcome the perceived lack of information.
Not only would this “Civic Highway” connect older Americans to volunteer opportunities online, it would also get information out to people by telephone, at churches and other religious institutions, and at local town-hall meetings on public issues and other civic activities.
To overcome financial restraints to volunteering, the report said offers of an education award that volunteers could use for themselves or give away to a young person would be a large or moderate incentive.
About 42 percent of those surveyed said that access to group health insurance also would be a large or moderate incentive, and 21 percent said a monthly stipend or voucher would be an incentive.
The report also recommended that volunteers who drive their cars for volunteer activities get reimbursed for their mileage at 58.5 cents per mile, which is the business rate of reimbursement, instead of 14 cents per mile, which is the current nonprofit rate. (Several bills are pending in Congress that would raise the mileage rate for charitable activities.)
Survey respondents expressed the most interest in volunteering as mentors or tutors to young people and by helping the elderly live independently. The report says “signature initiatives” should be developed around these two interests to motivate the largest number of older volunteers possible.
Among the other findings:
Fifty-five percent of Americans in the 44 to 79 age group believe they will leave the world in worse condition than they inherited it, while only 20 percent believe they are leaving the world in better condition. Those most actively engaged in volunteering feel less pessimistic. Fifty-two percent of older Americans said their desire to “help people in need” was a very important motivational factor in their volunteering. Forty-eight percent said the desire to “stay healthy and active” was a primary motivator. The rate of volunteering is highest among those who attend religious services regularly (86 percent); college graduates (85 percent); professionals (84 percent); those with annual incomes over $75,000 (83 percent); and evangelical Christians (80 percent). Eighty-three percent of Republicans said they volunteered for an organization in the last year, while only 67 percent of Democrats said the same. Sixty-nine of those who identified as independents said they volunteered in the past year. Baby Boomers, those born from 1946 to 1964, were most likely to increase their volunteer hours, according to the survey.
