-- Merle Curti, Pulitzer Prize-
winning
historian
The question is asked, is there still a civic spirit
in the United States?
There is a pervasive view that in earlier times,
Americans were far more willing than we are today to
help one another and to become involved in causes and
public issues. It almost seems a given to some that
we are now a less caring society and that we should
worry about what's happened to all that
neighborliness, public spiritedness and charity.
Actually, the past was not nearly as good as
remembered and the present is far better than
perceived. A far larger proportion and many more
parts of our population are involved in community
activity today than at any time in our history.
Fifty percent of all Americans are now active
volunteers. That's a staggering hundred million
people, or one out of every two of us over the age of
13. And we devote an average of four hours a week to
the causes of our choice. The base of participation
is also spreading. There are more young people, more
men and more senior citizens.
We organize to serve every conceivable aspect of the
human condition and are willing to stand up and be
counted on almost any public issue. We line up to
fight zoning changes, approve bond issues, improve
garbage collection, expose overpricing, enforce equal
rights or protest wars. In very recent times we have
successfully organized to deal with rights of women,
conservation and preservation, learning disabilities,
conflict resolution, Hispanic culture and rights, the
aged, voter registration, the environment, Native
Americans, the dying, experimental theater,
international understanding, population control,
neighborhood empowerment, control of nuclear power,
consumerism and on and on. Volunteers' interests and
impact extend from neighborhoods to the ozone layer
and beyond.
Three out of four U.S. citizens are regular
contributors of money to charitable causes, and give
more than $1,000 per family each year. Almost 90
percent of giving comes from them. Foundations and
business corporations, as important as they are,
provide only 10 percent of all contributions. People
of all incomes are involved, and contributors at the
lower end of the scale are more likely to be generous
than those better off.
From where does all this activity and generosity stem?
Obviously, the United States is not the only
participatory society in the world. Giving and
volunteering occur in most countries, and nonprofit
organizations can be found around the globe. But
nowhere else are the numbers, proportions and impact
so great.
It's not easy to sort out why there is so much more of
this activity here, but if we hope to sustain it into
future generations, we need to understand the
phenomenon better than we do. The research and
literature are sparse; still, one can begin to piece
together an explanation.
Most often the participation is attributed to our
Protestant ethic and English ancestry; but as
important as they are, they are only two of many
sources. What we identify as Judeo-Christian impulses
were also brought to our shores by each wave of
immigrants -- from Sweden, Russia, China, India or
elsewhere -- who followed Jesus, Moses, Mohammed,
Buddha or other sages and prophets.
One of the most fundamental explanations for voluntary
activity centers on religious expression and
protection of that freedom. The 1993 edition of
Independent Sector's report, From Belief to
Commitment, based on the largest study ever
undertaken of the community service role of religious
congregations, shows that these groups are the primary
service providers for neighborhoods. It's my
experience that the poorer the community, the larger
that role and impact.
Beyond the exercise of religious freedom and the
community services provided by religious
congregations, these institutions have been and
continue to be the places where the moral issues are
raised and pursued. In his mid-19thcentury observations on the American
scene, Alexis de
Tocqueville saw this country's network of voluntary
organizations not so much as service providers but as
"the moral associations" where such values as charity
and responsibility to others are taught and where the
nation's crusades take root.
As important as religious influences have been, we
can't ascribe our tradition of voluntary action solely
to their lessons of goodness. The matter of mutual
dependence and assistance cannot be overlooked. The
Minutemen in Revolutionary times (1775-1781) and the
frontier families in the late 18th and
early 19th centuries practiced basic forms
of enlightened self-interest. To portray our history
of volunteering as relating solely to goodness may
describe the best of our forebears, but it ignores the
widespread tradition of organized neighborliness that
hardship dictated and goodness tempered.
One of the most striking points about the origins is
that we shouldn't assume that these characteristics
and traditions were imported. In American
Philanthropy, historian Robert Bremner makes clear
that the Native Americans treated us with far more
"Christian" goodness than we practiced on them.
Reading his descriptions of the kindly way in which
the Native Americans greeted and helped us adjust to
their world, one is absolutely wrenched out of prior
notions about imported goodness.
We came into a country where there was very little
structure. We had a chance to start all over again.
For most people, for the first time in generations,
the family hierarchy was absent. There were few
built-in restraints imposed by centuries of laws and
habits, and yet we were terribly interdependent. In
the absence of families and controlling traditions, we
addressed our dependence and gregariousness by
becoming, as journalist-social commentator Max Lerner
described it, "a nation of joiners." These new
institutions -- churches, unions, farmers'
associations, fire companies or other specific
organizations -- became our networks for socializing
and mutual activity.
It's also important to realize that we were people
determined never again to be ruled by kings or
emperors or czars and thus were suspicious of any
central authority. We were resolved that power should
be spread. This meant that voluntary institutions
would accomplish in the United States what governments
did in other countries. In "What Kind of Society
Shall We Have?," an article written for Independent
Sector, Richard W. Lyman, former president of
Stanford University, reminds us of Edmund Burke's
description of "the little platoons" of France that
became America's own way for achieving dispersion of
power and organization of mutual effort.
As we experienced the benefits of so much citizen
participation, including the personal satisfactions
that such service provides, we became all the more
committed to this kind of participatory society.
Along the way, we constantly renewed our faith in the
basic intelligence and ability of people.
We have never found a better substitute for
safeguarding freedom than placing responsibility in
the hands of the people and expecting them to fulfill
it. We can be disappointed at times in their
performance, but the ultimate answer is still the
democratic compact. There is still wisdom and comfort
in Thomas Jefferson's advice that "if we think the
people themselves...[are]...not enlightened enough to
exercise their control with a wholesome discretion,
the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform
their discretion by education."
We really meant and continue to mean what is written
in the Declaration of Independence. We do believe in
the rights and power of people, and these convictions
cause us to stand up and be counted on a broad array
of issues, and to cherish and fiercely defend the
freedoms of religion, speech and assembly.
If we accept that our patterns and levels of
participation and generosity contribute importantly to
our national life, it is essential to understand and
nurture all of the roots that give rise to such
pluralism. One of the basic challenges is to be sure
that the American people understand that there is this
third way by which we address our problems and dreams.
Volunteering obviously begins with the individual --
the golden rule and lending a hand. The hundred
million Americans who volunteer are involved in an
extraordinary array of acts of compassion and service.
They inform, protest, assist, teach, heal, build,
advocate, comfort, testify, support, solicit, donate,
canvass, demonstrate, guide, feed, monitor and in many
other ways serve people, communities and causes.
Beyond all the indications of the good that results
when so many people do so many good things, it is
important to recognize what all these efforts mean to
the kind of people we are. All of this voluntary
participation strengthens us as a nation, strengthens
our communities, and strengthens and fulfills us as
individual human beings.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Merle Curti,
says, "Emphasis on voluntary initiative has helped
give America her national character."
In examining most of the great citizen crusades of our
history, what comes through again and again is that
the participation, the caring and the evidence that
people can make a difference add wonderfully to the
spirit of our society. For example, in Inez Haynes
Irwin's study of the fight for women's suffrage, she
returns repeatedly to the spirit of those women, not
only in deciding on the task and accomplishing it, but
what their success meant to them as individual human
beings. "They developed a sense of comradeship for
each other which was half love, half admiration, and
all reverence," Irwin writes. "In summing up a fellow
worker, they speak first of her spirit, and her spirit
is always beautiful, or noble, or glorious . . ."
When one thinks of the giants of the voluntary sector,
one is likely to think of women's names, at least in
the past 150 years -- names like Clara Barton, Jane
Addams, Mary McLeod Bethune, Susan B. Anthony,
Dorothea Dix, Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dorothy Day, Mother Seton,
Carrie Nation, Margaret Sanger and Lucretia Mott.
In my recent book, Voices From the Heart: In
Celebration of America's Volunteers, I depict
volunteering through the experiences of 25
individuals, who reveal what they do, why they do it,
and what the experience has meant to them.
Listen to some of their voices:
Scott Rosenberg is an artist who teaches at-risk
teenagers to produce films and videos. He describes
the experience: "On a visceral level, volunteering is
a natural high. You get lifted in the right way when
you work with people on something you believe in.
It's arduous work, but you come away feeling
exhilarated."
Valdimir Joseph, a college counselor, founded Inner
Strength, which provides mentoring for young African-
American men. He says: "Everyone has something to
offer. Working with other volunteers has helped give
me strength. They are struggling, too. I feel
empowered watching volunteers develop relationships
with these kids, watching them both grow. . . .
Everyone I've met who volunteers, even if they only do
two hours a week, makes a difference in someone's
life."
Amber Coffman, a teenager, provides food to the
homeless and summarizes her reaction: "It's about
changing people's lives because of a few volunteers
who get together on weekends and just give from the
heart. That's what gets me up early when I don't feel
like making lunches. I do it because of the wonderful
feelings involved with giving. Once you truly give of
yourself, you're hooked for life."
John Gatus, a retired steamfitter, supervises an anti-
gang street patrol and reflects: "Volunteer work
brings real change, change you can be a part of,
change you can see with your own eyes. You don't need
politicians or the police to tell you things are
better. You can see it and feel it for yourself and
know you were a part of it. . . . There's a real pride
involved. We're part of the community."
Katherine Pener has counseled post-surgery breast
cancer patients for 22 years and proclaims: "I
guarantee anyone who volunteers will feel better
emotionally, physically and psychologically. I don't
care who you are or what you do. The people I know
who volunteer have smiles on their faces. The hours
they give are worth more to them than any money they
could ever receive."
Volunteers usually work together to increase their
reach and results. There are more than a million
charitable organizations officially registered with
the U.S. Internal Revenue Service ranging from small
community groups to national crusades. That number
doesn't include most religious congregations, mutual
assistance groups or local chapters of large national
organizations such as the American Cancer Society.
Also not counted are the less formal groups concerned
and involved with everything from prenatal care to
cemeteries. Altogether, the total is at least three
million and growing.
Voluntary organizations include major institutions
such as universities, museums and hospitals; large
national crusades such as the American Heart
Association and the National Trust for Historic
Preservation; and local associations dealing with
almost every possible cause and concern.
There are three general roles that volunteer
organizations assume: service (such as youth hostels),
advocacy (such as Americans for Indian Opportunity),
and empowerment (such as the National Organization for
Women).
Voluntary organizations provide individuals with
interconnections to extend almost every important
element of their private lives including religious
expression and mutually beneficial projects. A great
many of these relationships are informal, but many
require some structure, which leads to the creation of
associations.
Whether one's interest is wildflowers or civil rights,
arthritis or clean air, oriental art or literacy, the
dying or the unborn, organizations are already at
work; and if they don't suit our passion, it's still a
wonderful part of America that we can go out and start
our own.
Social activist and onetime government official John
Gardner says that "almost every major social
breakthrough in America has originated in this
voluntary sector.
"If volunteers and voluntary organizations were to
disappear from our national life, we would be less
distinctly American. The sector enhances our
creativity, enlivens our communities, nurtures
individual responsibility, stirs life at the grass
roots, and reminds us that we were born free. Its
vitality is rooted in good soil -- civic pride,
compassion, a philanthropic tradition, a strong
problem-solving impulse, a sense of individual
responsibility and an irrepressible commitment to the
great shared task of improving our life together."
It is this joining together of compassion, spirit and
power that often makes the difference for the most
serious issues facing all of us. Such enormous and
complicated problems as cancer and poverty require
thousands of volunteers focusing on service,
prevention, public awareness and public policy.
Usually when examples of volunteer power and impact
are cited, they relate to the distant past -- to such
issues as slavery, women's suffrage and child labor
laws. As important as those examples are, their
constant repetition tends to support the notion that
things of significance are less likely to occur today.
It is my distinct experience that in just the past
quarter-century, there has been an absolute explosion
of citizen impact on a vast range of human
considerations. For instance, in just the past 20
years, volunteers have broken through centuries of
indifference to the needs of the dying. As a result
of their noble crusade, almost every community today
has hospice services providing relief to the
terminally ill and their families.
In very recent times, volunteers' passion, courage and
tenacity have forced the nation and every region in it
to realize that we must preserve for future
generations our precious resources of water, air and
land. That ethic and practice are now spread to every
form of local and national asset including wetlands,
forests, farmland, historic buildings and entire urban
centers.
Volunteers stood up and were counted on behalf of
common decency and adequate services for retarded
children, and with those breakthroughs showed the way
to many others who then dared to do the same for
cerebral palsy, autism, learning disabilities and
hundreds of other problems we hadn't even heard of a
few decades ago.
With the establishment and growth of Alcoholics
Anonymous, volunteers pioneered a model of mutual
assistance that today extends to almost every serious
personal problem. In almost every community there's a
group of people who have weathered the storm and are
reaching out to others newly faced with such
threatening crises as death of a child, mastectomy,
depression, stroke or physical abuse.
And all the time a number of people served by
promoting the importance and availability of arts and
cultural opportunities as central aspects of a
civilized society. One of the great waves of
voluntary activity and impact has involved community
theater, dance and music to provide opportunities for
creativity and enjoyment of it.
The list goes on almost endlessly with preschool
education, day care, social services, cancer control,
consumerism, population control, conflict resolution,
ethnic museums, early infant care, independent living
for the elderly, teen pregnancy, substance abuse and
job training -- which, when taken together, blanket
the U.S. social landscape.
Through our voluntary initiative and independent
institutions, ever more Americans worship freely,
study quietly, are cared for compassionately,
experiment creatively, serve effectively, advocate
aggressively and contribute generously. These national
traits are constantly beautiful and must remain
beautifully constant.
__________
Brian O'Connell is founding president of Independent
Sector and professor of public service, Tufts
University, Medford, Massachusetts. Most recently, he
is the author of Voices From the Heart: In
Celebration of America's Volunteers (Jossey-Bass
and Chronicle Books, 1998), and the forthcoming Civil Society: The Underpinnings of American
Democracy (University Press of New England and
Tufts University, 1999).
