ABSTRACT
Volunteering and community service strengthen the social fabric of America, and are a critical component of civil society. This chapter examines volunteering and community service in America, primarily through the lens of the nonprofit sector and civil society organizations. It also examines the link between volunteering and social capital, with an eye toward ways volunteering contributes to community-building. The chapter looks at some of the ways that technology has broadened the structure of opportunities for volunteers. The nonprofits organize volunteers for strategic action toward problems or causes in communities. Human beings are complex and it is likely that some combination of altruistic and instrumental motivations is responsible for the decision to either start or continue volunteering. People may be simultaneously driven to volunteer by a mixture of altruistic and egoistic motives, and in fact there is evidence that the majority of people cite more than one reason in their decision to volunteer.
