The Many Difinitions of Volunteering

Definition of volunteering is varied across cultures, time and in different disciplines such as psychology, sociology and economics (Wilson, 2012). However, there are four core elements that are noted in most of the definitions namely free will; availability of rewards or remunerations; the activities are carried out for the benefits of others, and it takes place in an organized or formal context. The Volunteering Unit (1995) defined volunteering as “The commitment of time and energy for the benefit of society and the community; the environment; or individuals outside one's own immediate family. It is undertaken freely and by choice, without concern for financial” (p. 3). This definition is close to that of Wilson (2000) who defines volunteering as “any activity in which time is given freely to benefit another person, group, or organization” (p. 215). For Holmes and Smith (2009) volunteering means a donation of one’s time and/or abilities for the benefits of others in the community.

However, these definition fails to capture the idea of ‘free will’ as there are situations requiring voluntary work that one hardly refuse such as community service as an alternative for imprisonment or military service or voluntary work to gain extra credits for study (Dekker & Halma, 2003). Thus, Stebbins (2007) termed volunteering as a form of serious leisure because volunteers are using their ‘free time’ for a serious purpose. As Stebbins makes clear in his definition of leisure as “Un-coerced, intentionally-productive, altruistic activity framed in sociocultural- historical context and engaged in during free time” (p. 342). Moreover, the definition is rather imprecise in terms of the criterion of being unpaid. There are volunteer programs that provide a modest monthly stipend or end of service award to volunteers as they work full time but these rewards are still below market value. This type of volunteering is defined as Quasi-Volunteering (Smith, Stebbins & Dover, 2006) or Hybrid Volunteering (Handy et al., 2000). Bryer, Pliscoff, Lough, Obadare & Smith (2016) defined these type of volunteering as “participants combining a volunteer spirit and motivation to help less fortunate people with very modest remuneration to support their living expenses while involved in full-time service work, often in stressful and demanding contexts.” (p. 260). Lastly, the criterion for the benefits of others is probably the most controversial criterion. This criterion has been an object of major disagreement in sociological disciplines. Smith (1981) argued that there is no pure, selfless altruism in volunteering.

This view is supported by Henderson (1984) who writes that volunteering is inspired by self-interest rather than altruism as volunteers who are altruistically helping others are also benefiting from various rewards experienced during the process (Stebbins, 2012). While a variety of definitions of the term volunteering have been suggested, the most recent definition by Smith (2016) cited in Smith and Puyvelde (2016, p. 61) is the most precise produced so far. Smith (2016) defined volunteering as “ (a) a noncompulsory, voluntary (free will) activity or effort that is (b) directed by an individual toward a person, people, or situations outside one’s household or close family that is (c) intended to be beneficial to another person or persons, group/organization, the local community, the larger society, and/or the ecosystem at some scale of magnitude, (d) with the activity being unpaid (unremunerated) financially or in-kind to the full, current, market value of the activity performed, leaving a net cost to the volunteer.”

Brief History of Volunteering

The roots of volunteering can be traced 150,000 to 200,000 years ago with a common type of human helping behaviour known as informal volunteering. Einof, Prouteau, Nezhina & Ibrayeva (2016) defined informal volunteering as “an unpaid, voluntary work/volunteering not coordinated by an organization or institution”. This type of volunteering normally directed to people one knows and rarely strangers, generally within a community (Amato, 1990) such as helping a homeless or hungry person (person-oriented) or taking care of animals and providing transportation (task-oriented) (Finkelstein & Brannick, 2007). Unfortunately, informal volunteering was progressively and partially replaced by formal voluntary and mutual aid associations in the 19th Century which was resulted from the industrialization and urbanization (Finlayson, 1994). Although informal volunteering continuing to exist it is no longer essential for survival as societies industrialized.
Formal volunteering started with religious missionaries in the late 18th Century with more than 10,000 missionaries were sent overseas by the British Voluntary Society. In the 19th century, The Great Awakening in America leads the youngster to community work through various religious groups with the key driving force was to curb the explicit class divisions in society (Callanan & Thomas, 2005). Large numbers of volunteer associations such as the Rotary International, Kiwanis International and Lions Club International were formed (Kaufman, 2002). The first Young Man Christian’s Association (YMCA) was established in 1851 while the American Red Cross was founded in 1881. Furthermore, the Great Depression saw one of the first and largest scale, nationwide efforts to coordinate volunteers. In the 1920s, programs such as Service Civil International were established as an alternative to military service. This program organized transnational workcamps across post-war countries (Rosenstock-Huessy, 1978) and in the 1930s and 1940s, they supplied emergency assistance and economic relief to India and some other developing countries (Devereux, 2008).

It was during the late 20th century, both the volunteer sector and international volunteering experienced significant growth (Callanan & Thomas, 2005). After World War II, the volunteering pattern shifted the focus from the altruistic passions to help the needy and go international. The major development was when the Peace Corps was founded in 1960. The volunteer opportunities started to expand with more long-term programmes was formed and the proses of finding volunteer work became more formalized. Furthermore, the Western cultures were becoming more aware of issues on anti-globalization and environmental-degradation (Uriely, Reichel & Ron, 2003) which encourage them to do something like volunteering in conservation activities, even if they did not have the specific skills. The emergence of these conscious travellers has increased the number of people taking part in volunteer activities every year but relatively few organizations existed to facilitate the placements (Roberts, 2004). Consequently, it gave opportunities for the establishment of private and commercial sending organization to supply the demand.

Thus, the majority of sending organization for international volunteering is facilitated by non-profit organizations with the focus was strongly based on the benefits of the volunteers. International volunteering has mushroomed over the years with the new requirements of global employment opportunities that required a more international repertoire of skills and experiences from workers, including internships and fellowships (Lough, Devereux, Perold & Uhereczky, 2016). Thus, there has been much growth in commercial gap year and other short-term volunteer programs when more young and inexperienced people are taking a gap year travel.