Volunteering and Private Giving in Austria

Most welfare states are characterized by a large number of services that are provided with the help of volunteers and/or partially financed through private giving. Both, volunteering and private giving, are granted without the providers being "paid" for their services. Without their assistance, though, many services could not be offered at all or only at a much higher price. In addition to their economic value, voluntary work and private giving are also increasingly of political relevance, e.g. in the discussion about the restructuring of the welfare states. Despite their important economic and political role, however, not much research has so far been completed in Austria on this topic. While some data on volunteering and giving for specific organizations are available, an overall picture, examining the dimensions of volunteering and private giving in Austria, has not been drawn since 1982. Thus, this research project aims at providing a consistent and complete picture of the phenomena of volunteering and private giving in Austria. There are two main areas at which the study will focus: * On a macro-level, empirical information concerning the volume and the economic value of volunteering and private giving will be gathered. This will be done in a way which allows comparisons to the 1982 data. Moreover, international comparisons will be possible, since the proposer is also linked with the international Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project. * For specific areas which particularly rely on volunteering and private giving, especially the personal social services, a more detailed research will be undertaken. This involves an extensive quantitative but also qualitative analysis to explore the economic and societal role of volunteering and private giving within the Austrian welfare state. A thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis of volunteering and private giving in Austria will result in a substantive scientific progress which also involves an essential political dimension: the findings of the study of volunteering and giving will serve as an important guidance for the Austrian economic and social policy makers concerning the restructuring of the welfare state. In particular, it is important to gain knowledge on whether giving and volunteering will be able to partially substitute for government activities which may be reduced due to the tight budgetary policies in Austria.

Most welfare states are characterized by a large number of services that are provided with the help of volunteers and/or partially financed through private giving. Both, volunteering and private giving are granted without the providers being "paid" for their services. Without their assistance, though, many services could not be offered at all or only at a much higher price. In addition to their economic value, voluntary work and private giving are also increasingly of political relevance. Despite their important economic and political role, however, not much research has been completed so far in Austria on this topic. While some data on volunteering and giving for specific organizations are available, a comprehensive picture examining the dimension of volunteering and private giving in Austria has not been drawn since 1982. 51.1 per cent of the Austrian population over 15 years volunteer. Many of them engage in more than one field of activity. Men participate to a slightly higher extent than women, which is consistent with the results of 1982. Especially activities in some fields of activities such as sports, emergency aid and politics are mainly provided by men. Women are more active in social and religious services. The average amount of time spent is 5 hours per week. Overall Austrians spend about 16.7 million hours per week (maximum version). This corresponds to 480,000 full time equivalents and 15.4 per cent of the employed population. Applying the median gross income of employed people in Austria, the value of volunteering yields 118.1 billion ATS (8.58 billion Euro). Volunteering is therefore a crucial economic factor. The most important field of activity in terms of working hours are social services. The activities carried out in this area include for example care, visiting, participation in women`s and parental groups. Neighborhood aid and culture/entertainment are also important fields of activity. Slightly more than half of the volunteer work is carried out within or procured by organizations (defined as formal voluntary work), the remaining is provided on a private basis (informal voluntary work). While formal voluntary work increased over the past 18 years, informal voluntary work declined drastically in the same time period. In 1982, formal voluntary work accounted for only about one quarter of the total amount of voluntary work, whereas in 2000, more than half of the work was carried out formally. Overall the level of volunteering has decreased over the past 18 years. 80.9 percent of the Austrian population (15 years and over) donated money in the year 2000. About one third of the donors give money regularly, two thirds donate occasionally. Women participate to a higher extent than men. However female donors tend to give less money than male donors. With regard to age, the elderly are more likely to donate money and indeed more money than young people. In 2000, donors gave 1,300 ATS (94.47 Euro) on average (maximum version). Overall private giving amounted 6.3 billion ATS (458 million Euro) in Austria.