Surveying Volunteering: Giving in the Netherlands

René BekkersCenter for Philanthropic

StudiesVU University Amsterdam

Giving in the Netherlands• A biennial survey among a

preselected pool of potential respondents recruited by polling institute TNS/NIPO

• Conducted since 1996• Repeated cross-sectional survey

until 2000• Panel study since 2002• Funded by several ministries of the

Dutch national government

Aims of GINPS1. “Who gives what and when?” Estimate

the volume and composition of charitable giving by households and volunteering by individuals

2. “How is it changing?” Describe trends in giving and volunteering sources and destinations

3. “Why do people give?” Analyze predictors and how they are changing over time

Trends in volunteering

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 old

2010 new

201205

101520253035404550

% of the population reporting volunteer activities

hours vol-unteers spent per month

Generalisations excluding migrants

Including migrants

“Methodology is Destiny”• How many questions, which

questions, and how you ask them determines the responses people give in a survey.

• Who asks, who you ask and how you ask people determines whether they respond to the survey at all.

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What is the major source of error?

• Respondents, interviewers, survey designers or data-analists?

• The survey in the interview situation.• Social desirability is not a personality

characteristic; it is strongly dependent on the situation.

• People are more honest in private situations such as a written questionnaire or an online survey than in a phone/personal interview.

Modules in GINPS1. Prosocial values2. Charitable giving3. Individual helping and attitudes to

nonprofit organizations4. Volunteering5. Socio-demographics

The volunteering module• First we define volunteering for the

respondents: work without pay (at best a compensation) for an organization.

• We give a few examples.• We mention participation in activities and

membership as not being volunteering because it is not work.

• We do not mention social support and informal helping as not being volunteer work – people could do this as volunteers.

Area – Method module• AREA: first we list 18 different sectors

of organizations.• METHOD: then we list 12 different

tasks.• A method – Area module could further

increase the proportion of volunteers if it improves respondents recollections.

• The respondents’ employer is not identified in the module.

The Dutch volunteer profile• Older, smaller towns• Higher educated• More wealthy, own home• Religious: Catholic or Protestant• Social pressure in social context• Altruistic values, responsibility, trust• Confidence in charities

Volunteer motives• Current volunteers complete a

shortened version of the Volunteer Function Inventory (Clary et al.), Pride and Respect scales (Boezeman & Ellemers) and Ownership.

• Frequency of volunteering, hours, supervision of others

• Retrospective question for current non-volunteers: have you ever volunteered?

Motivation and motivated cognition

• If you ask volunteers ‘Why do you volunteer’ they may come up with all sorts of nice post hoc rationalizations.

• These reasons often refer to intrinsic motivations.

• If you ask non-volunteers ‘Why do you not volunteer’ they cite external circumstances.

• It is hard to tell how accurate these reasons are, but a positive social image bias is likely.

Who becomes a volunteer?• All respondents should answer

questions on predictors of entry and exit out of the volunteer work force.

• Mobilization: have you ever been asked to volunteer?

• Social norms: how self-evident is volunteering for people around you?

• Prosocial values: altruism, trust

Development of generalized social trust

2002 2004 20062.9

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Con-tinued

Bron: GINPS

Bekkers, R. (2012). ‘Trust and Volunteering: Selection or Causation? Evidence From a 4 Year Panel Study’. Political Behaviour, 32 (2): 225-247. DOI 10.1007/s11109-011-9165-x. (open access)

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Careers in volunteering• If you ask all repondents

retrospective questions about volunteer activities you can map life history careers in volunteering.

• Comparisons with other careers can show how they are intertwined.

• Does achieving a higher level of education make people volunteer more?

• Does volunteering improve employability?

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Volunteering and education

Proportion of respondents in the Family Survey of the Dutch Population reporting volunteer work at earlier ages by the highest

level of education achieved in the year 2000(Bekkers & Ruiter, 2008)

Two sources of bias

Civic duty

“Social desirability”

Lying

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Total survey error

Sampling error: Volunteers are more likely to participate in

surveys

Measurement error:

Respondents exaggerate

volunteer activity

OVERESTIMATE of amounts donated

Or are volunteers ‘better’ respondents?

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Accuracy of self-reportsNot reported Reported

Not volunteering in reality

True negative

False positive, overestimate

Volunteering in reality

False negative,underestimate

True positive,under- or overestimate

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Errors in three phases

Irregular or episodic volunteering activity is not reported

Short survey is less likely to make respondents remember everything

Volunteer acts that did not occur (or occurred earlier) are reported, or the level of real volunteering activity is exaggerated

Underestimate

Overestimate

Net result?

The civic duty of survey response

• The lower the response rate, the higher the proportion of respondents saying they volunteer (Abraham, Helms & Presser, AJS 114(4): 1129-65, 2009).

• Post hoc solution: weight the data.• Include measures of civic duty behaviors

for which true population values are known, such as voting, charitable deduction, blood donation, organ donation

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Contact• ‘Giving in the Netherlands’,

Philanthropic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, VU University Amsterdam: www.giving.nl

• René Bekkers, r.bekkers@vu.nl• Blog: renebekkers.wordpress.com• Twitter: @renebekkers