Public Perception of "Who is a Volunteer": An Examination of the Net-cost Approach from a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Femida Handy, University of Pennsylvania
Ram A. Cnaan, University of Pennsylvania
Jeffrey L. Brudney, University of Georgia
Ugo Ascoli, University of Ancona
Lucas C. Meijs, Erasmus University
Shree Ranade, Marketing & Market Research Consultants

Article comments

Reprinted from Voluntas, Volume 11, Issue 1, 2000, pages 45-65.
Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1008903032393

NOTE: At the time of publication, author Femida Handy was affiliated with York University. Currently November 2006, she is a faculty member in the School of Social Policy and Practice.
The authors assert their right to include this material in the ScholarlyCommons@Penn.

Abstract

Volunteers are the cornerstones on which the voluntary sector is predicated. We are accustomed to using this phrase in every aspect of our lives, yet too little systematic work has been carried out to define this term in a rigorous and precise manner. Volunteering is the essence of the scholarly work of numerous academicians around the world, however there are many issues that arise when people report their own volunteering or attempt to define the term volunteer. No clear-cut definition that encompasses all aspects of volunteering exists. Often too many different activities and situations are aggregated into this concept (Cnaan, Handy, & Wadsworth, 1996; Scheier, 1980; Smith, 1995; Tremper, Seidman, & Tufts, 1994; Vineyard, 1993).