Fulfilling Careers in Volunteering

Abstract

The reigning definition of volunteering in the field of nonprofit and volunteer studies – it is an economic definition – states that volunteering is intentionally productive, unpaid work. Although this conceptualization is descriptively correct, it fails to recognize the variety of important forces operating in the nonwork and leisure domains of life (Stebbins, 2013a). One of those forces is the possibility of finding a fulfilling pursuit in what was defined earlier as career volunteering. The economic definition says nothing about this possibility. Instead, it raises the question of why would anyone want to work for no pay? One answer – a motivational one – is that a powerfully attractive fulfillment career is possible in substantial volunteering.