ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author defines volunteering as unpaid work, in other words, organised voluntary action (often personal help) that is performed in voluntary social welfare organisations or in public social and health institutions. The motives of volunteers in Nordic countries have been studied only in the 1990s, and the motives of young people have received even less attention from researchers. Earlier studies have dichotomised volunteers’ motives into altruistic and egoistic. There are only a few demographic and background characteristics that explain why young people have different motives. Young people will be committed to voluntary work as long as they receive satisfaction from what they are doing, and positive feedback from co-workers, other volunteers, and the group that they are helping. Young people want to have challenges and responsibilities in voluntary work, but at the same time it needs to be flexible and to satisfy their individual needs.
