Feature Story

December 13, 2007

Will Retiring Boomers Form a New Army of Volunteers?

Urban Institute:

The results, based on data from the Health and Retirement Survey, show that while most volunteers acquire the volunteer habit while still working, a significant share begins volunteer work after retirement.

Among adults who retire, 45 percent engage in formal volunteer activities even though only 34 percent of these same adults volunteered while working.

Since boomer cohorts following this group will be much larger, nonprofit organizations seem destined to benefit from a significant growth in the services of retirees.

Some research shows that boomers have been less civically engaged than preceding generations (Putnam 2002), leading others to forecast that boomer retirees will demand relatively few volunteer opportunities (Harvard School of Public Health 2004).

Using data from the Americans' Changing Lives survey, Mutchler, Burr, and Caro (2003) examine the work and volunteer participation activities of individuals age 55 to 74 in 1986 and in 1989.

Among individuals not volunteering for formal organizations at the time of the first interview, the researchers find those who worked parttime, those who had not worked in either period, and those who stopped work between the two interviews participated more often in formal volunteer activities at the second interview than full-time workers did.