Young People’s Approach to Making the World Suck a Little Less
How Young People are Changing Volunteering
Did you miss the Intro to this research report? Check it out.
For all the talk about young people being lazy, addicted to technology, and entitled, they sure find an unprecedented amount of time to give back.
Results from DoSomething Strategic’s 2016 Survey of Young People and Civic Participation show that 62% of young people (13–25) volunteered at least once in the past 12 months, and of those who do volunteer, 49% do so at least once a month.
Moreover, while the scope of this research was limited to young people, there is growing evidence that these high rates represent an increase over previous generations. (How’s that for “lazy,” Grandpa?)
We found that while age and gender generally aren’t defining in volunteerism, income is. Well-off or comfortable individuals are 33% more likely than low-income individuals to have volunteered in the past year. This points to the access issues low-income youth face when it comes to civic participation.
Happily, this does not translate to our DoSomething.org member base. In fact, 87% of DoSomething.org members who report having a low-income background have volunteered in the past year. Yup, 87%.
Why? Why is DoSomething.org attractive to the “typical” young volunteer as well as the “atypical”? Hint: It’s not because we give away sweet T-shirts (which we do). In fact, it’s simple: DoSomething.org provides young people with easy means of acting on social issues via the web and SMS. We design every campaign with young people in mind, and none require access to a car, a parent, or money. That’s why our campaigns are accessible to young people from all socioeconomic backgrounds.
Volunteering Outside “The System”
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reflects a relatively low rate of youth volunteerism at 26.4% for teens and 18.4% for those in their early twenties. Notably, the Bureau uses a dated definition of volunteerism, which instructs their survey participants to “only…include volunteer activities that you did through or for an organization.” This artificial delimitation excludes most of the charitable work that young people currently do.
In contrast, DoSomething Strategic’s survey instructed respondents to consider volunteer activities they did “…for any group or organization, with friends, or by yourself…formally or informally.” This broadened definition was adopted to keep current with how young people engage not just with volunteerism, but also with a generational shift away from formal arrangements.
Informal activities can include spending time helping a classmate with homework, cleaning an elderly neighbor’s house without pay, or spreading awareness about a cause via social media — things that are not done through a local or national organization or logged for community service hours, but are carried out nonetheless.
By acknowledging activities outside traditional organization-instructed opportunities, the reported rate of annual youth volunteerism more than doubled. The low rates from the Bureau, instead of proving that young people are selfish, highlight the increasing irrelevance of traditional organizations, a trend highlighted in the works by Robert Putnam, Malkin Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, among others. Putnam has documented broad and steep declines in traditional organizational membership, a trend he suggests has led to a loss in civic participation.
What Putnam and the Bureau miss are the underlying changes in affiliation preferences and the role that technology plays in civic participation. They undervalue how the volunteer system is evolving, diversifying, and getting stronger, all thanks to this generation of young people.
Yep, young people are getting. Stuff. Done.
Research & Editorial Team
Jeff Bladt, Chief Data Officer, DoSomething.org
Nick McCormick, Data and Survey Research Analyst, DoSomething.org
Ben Kassoy, Editor-in-Chief, DoSomething.org
Keri Goff, Creative Director, DoSomething.org
Meredith Ferguson, Managing Director, DoSomething Strategic
Irene Pedruelo, Editor, Director of Research, DoSomething.org
Methodology
The survey was distributed to individuals ages 13–25 across the United States and its outlying territories. Prior to analysis, the data was cleaned and weighted as follows:
• Individuals with completion times of under 5 minutes were excluded from the results.
• Individuals younger than 13 years of age or older than 25 years of age were excluded from the results.
• Weights were applied to create equal representations across gender and age.
The final sample includes 3,305 observations. Results presented here are reported post-weighting, meaning that the opinions and actions of 13-year-old females are just as well represented as those of 25-year-old males.
Assuming a population size of approximately 45,000,000 13–25 year olds nationwide, a sample size of 3,305 at a 95% confidence level allows for a 1.7% margin of error.
About DoSomething.org
DoSomething.org is a global movement for good.
We’re activating 5.4 million young people (and counting!) to make positive change, both online and off. And it’s already happening in every area code in the US and in over 131 countries! When you take action with DoSomething.org, you join something bigger than yourself. You team up with the young people who’ve run the largest sports-equipment drive. And clothed over half of America’s teens in homeless shelters. And cleaned up 3.7 million(!) cigarette butts around the world. You’ve got the power and the passion to make a difference on any issue you want — we’ll help you get it done. Welcome to DoSomething.org. LET’S DO THIS.
About DoSomething Strategic
DoSomething Strategic is the data-driven social impact consultancy arm of DoSomething.org. We help brands and organizations engage young people for positive social change. We combine proprietary data with a deep understanding of what young people care about to help clients build relationships with this unique demographic and activate them for social good. Our expertise is grounded in moving 6 million DoSomething.org members — ages 13–25 in every area code in the United States and in 131 countries worldwide — to take social action, and we’ve been doing this work successfully day in and day out for over 25.
