Snyder On Residential Stability and Volunteerism

Photograph of Professor Mark Snyder

The younger generation is volunteering less and less each year, with a seven percent drop from 2019-2021. In a recent StarTribune article, “Helping Out: How American volunteerism is changing – and why,” Dr. Mark Snyder dives into how residential stability plays a role in why the number of young Americans volunteering is decreasing. Snyder suggests that, when people are constantly on the move and not living in one place for a long time, the likelihood of them volunteering is lower. 

Many organizations are trying to find new ways to get more individuals involved, including younger people who have yet to put down roots in the community. For these organizations, research by Snyder and his collaborators may help to fill in the gaps between the motivations of organizations to recruit and retain volunteers and the changing demographics in America. 

Mark Snyder, PhD, McKnight Presidential Chair in Psychology, and Director of the Center for the Study of the Individual and Society, in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota.

Composed by Madison Stromberg, communications assistant.

 

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