The Investigator

What is The Investigator?

The Investigator is a quarterly publication on volunteerism sponsored by the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service. The first issue of The Investigator was published October 2004, with issues to follow in January, April, and July 2005.

As the word "investigator" connotes, this series investigates the field of volunteerism, through promoting academic research and providing a bridge from academic research to the hands of practitioners.

To promote the academic research, the series leads the field of volunteerism research by introducing new data sets, exploring characteristics of volunteers, and suggesting fruitful research agendas. The first issue, Data Sets: A Research Primer details new and frequently used data sets on volunteerism. This issue is a research starter for a researcher new to the field of volunteerism such as graduate students or researchers in fields less familiar with volunteerism. These data sets are the empirical foundation for understanding volunteerism and the impact of volunteering.

The series hopes to open the door for beginning researchers or cross-discipline researchers to seriously consider volunteerism for in-depth analysis. The Investigator series makes the area of volunteerism more attractive by collecting current information about volunteering, identifying research agendas, and providing direction for further inquiry. The Investigator series plans to cross all disciplines, such as economics, sociology, and political science, and draw each respective researcher to the field. In time we also hope to cross international boundaries with information and data sets from other countries.

The Investigator gives practitioners a snapshot of the issues that researchers are grappling with and replaces the pontification over volunteerism with tested hypotheses.

An introduction to The Investigator appears on the e-Volunteerism website, www.e-volunteerism.com in the July-October 2004 issue.

Why does research matter for the fields of volunteerism and volunteer administration?

To a large extent the world of volunteer administration has grown up in the community. Our books and resources, while very useful, are generally built upon practice wisdom. While this practice may make the resources currently in the field user-friendly and effective for those managing programs, they are often not considered the caliber of material that colleges and universities seek when designing for-credit curriculum. Likewise, while we may feel "certain" that some volunteer management practices are more effective than others, there are still very few studies that verify these assertions.

Research in volunteerism itself is also reasonably embryonic. We do have a growing number of surveys that tell us how frequently people serve, where they serve and why. Perhaps the best known of these survey studies are those done by Independent Sector and the studies now commissioned by the Corporation for National and Community Service and performed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While these studies are interesting, there is still much we still want to learn. For example, we all talk about episodic volunteerism, but the way in which these studies are designed usually makes it difficult to ascertain that the service is performed over time, verse service which is performed in short, concentrated durations of time. Likewise, many of us in the field are eager for researchers to move beyond studies of motivation and explore other dimensions of the service continuum.

In an effort to build a field of professional practice and to gain university recognition for volunteerism and volunteer administration, the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service (see www.rgkcenter.org) wants to encourage researchers to take the field of volunteerism seriously. Quality research studies are one way to build a respected field of professional practice.

The Investigator Series has emerged in part from this desire. Each issue of this quarterly publication is designed to capture key information and identify resources to encourage students and academicians to study the field.

Supportive documentation for the Investigator series appears on both here on the ServiceLeader web site and on the RGK Center web site. The material appearing on the ServiceLeader site is focused on the concerns of the practitioner, the information on the RGKCenter site is intended for researchers and academics. You are encouraged to review all of the information.

Several studies that have furthered the knowledge in the field of volunteer administration are:

The Investigator Series and Further Information
  • The Investigator #1: "Data Sets: A Research Primer"
  • The Investigator #2: "Volunteering by States"