Volunteering by older adults in the United States

Abstract

Traditionally, the United States is considered a nation of volunteers. Volunteerism is deeply rooted in the country's cultural and political institutions, and institutionalized volunteering is a distinguished feature. Federal policies and initiatives have played a significant role in creating and supporting senior volunteering programs. Older Americans engage in structured volunteer work through organizations, are involved in a wide array of volunteer activities, and demonstrate that they are capable and effective in various roles. Volunteer organizations are positioned to engage older adults from various socioeconomic backgrounds and to facilitate volunteer role performance. Through the provisions of access, information, incentives, and facilitation, organizations can promote volunteer engagement. As the baby boomer generation ages, there will be a large pool of potential older adult volunteers among the American population. Given the potential resources embedded in the increasingly large older population, much can be done to expand volunteering by older adults. Volunteering holds great promise for productive engagement among older Americans.

Keywords:

• organizational volunteering
• older Americans
• civic service
• productive engagement

Volunteering by older adults has increased during the last few decades in the United States. With the increasing size of the older population, improved health status, and the prolonged life expectancy, how to make use of the time after retirement from employment has become an important topic for older adults, gerontologists, and the society at large. Formal volunteering, as a form of productive engagement and civic engagement, serves as a channel to productive and successful ageing.

A variety of factors from individual experience to social and historical context affect older Americans' decision to engage in volunteer work. By taking volunteer roles, older adult volunteers create a new symbol of old age and help to shift the stereotype of being old away from images of senility, sickness, and dependence. Through volunteering, older adults can find a sense of fulfilment, maintain or improve their self-esteem and life satisfaction, and have more access to social supports and resources than non-volunteering peers, thus enhancing their capacity and status in their social life (Van Willigen 2000). Furthermore, they may make considerable contributions to solving community problems, addressing social issues, and promoting civic development.

A new perspective on late-life productivity has been applied to examine volunteering and civic service by older adults (Morrow-Howell et al. 2001). This new perspective, namely productive ageing, views older adults as a source of growth in volunteerism and civic service, who are equipped with a wealth of knowledge, skills, and experience to contribute to the society (Morrow-Howell et al. 2005a). Volunteering and civic service, as a vital means of productive ageing, contribute to counter the ‘decline and loss’ paradigm associated with ageing and to achieve personal fulfilment in the late life stages.

This paper reviews the history of volunteerism in the US since the foundation of the nation through the recent enactment of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve American Act, and pays particular attention to the policies and programs that affect older adults' engagement. Although this paper focuses on formal volunteering through organizations, that does not mean that volunteering in other forms such as informal help and mutual aid is not as valuable as formal volunteering. This paper also assesses the current level of volunteering engagement as well as types of volunteer activities and organizations available to older Americans. Current issues in research including factors that influence volunteering and benefits associated with volunteering are introduced. Finally, policy and practice implications are discussed regarding organizational facilitation of older adults in volunteer engagement.

Historical development of volunteerism

Volunteerism has long been one of America's traditions (Thoits and Hewitt 2001), and the United States is generally considered a nation of volunteers (Baldock 1999). Volunteerism and community involvement have been ‘institutionalized in terms of the way Americans think about themselves’ (Burr et al. 2002, p. 88). The roots of voluntary service can be traced back to colonial times when pioneers had to work together to overcome the challenges of surviving and adjusting to a new land and life. Since the nation's foundation, Americans have volunteered in times of war, tragedy, and need. The initial benchmark event was Benjamin Franklin's founding of the first volunteer firefighter company in 1736. During the nineteenth century, various volunteer organizations were established, such as the American Red Cross and the United Way. People volunteered through religious groups, educational institutions, and voluntary associations (Points of Light Foundation 2005).

Volunteerism in America is deeply rooted in its cultural and political institutions, and institutionalized volunteering or civic service is one of its distinguished features (Perry 2004). Since the beginning of the twentieth century, national service policy has undergone four distinct cycles: volunteering as a remedy for the Depression, as a strategy for fighting poverty, as a means of engaging youth in conservation and youth corps, and as a problem-solving strategy (Perry 2004). The Great Depression led to creating volunteer-based activities including serving in soup kitchens and bread lines. The National Committee on Volunteers in association with the National Conference of Social Work was formed in 1932 to address the overwhelming problems of the Depression: unemployment, poverty, and social turmoil (Points of Light Foundation 2005). In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) with the mission of renewing the nation's decimated forests and employing millions of young men. During the1960s, volunteering was used as an antipoverty strategy. The most notable and long-standing program was the Peace Corps established in 1961 by President John Kennedy. In the Johnson Administration, new volunteer programs were formed and directed toward poverty relief, including Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), the Foster Grandparent Program, and the Teacher Corps (Perry 2004).

In the 1970s and 1980s, new volunteer programs were designed more closely in line with the CCC of the 1930s than programs in the 1960s, combining federal resources with local administrations and attuning to community or local needs and objectives. Youth was the target group for many of these programs, such as the Youth Conservation Corps and California Conservation Corps (Perry 2004). The 1980s was a period of volunteerism retrenchment with significant expenditure reduction in youth service and conservation corps and other civic service programs, whereas the 1990s witnessed the resurgence of support for volunteering and civic service with the bipartisan passage of the National and Community Service Act of 1990, and the creation of the Points of Light Foundation as an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization to encourage and empower the spirit of service (Perry 2004, Points of Light Foundation 2005). In 1993 the Clinton administration created a new umbrella agency, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), to house all domestic national service programs in the United States, and began AmeriCorps, a national service movement engaging Americans in services to address the nation's most critical problems in four areas: education, environment, human needs, and public safety. In 2002, President George W. Bush initiated a new White House coordinating council, the USA Freedom Corps, to expand volunteer service among programs like the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and Senior Corps. In summary, the historical development of volunteerism is embedded in an institutionalization process of enacting new policies and creating national programs. Volunteerism has been used as a strategy to resolve community problems and to promote social and economic development.

Currently, promoting volunteering and civic service is a major policy agenda of President Obama's Administration. One example is the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, signed into law by President Obama on April 21, 2009. The bill seeks to expand national service programs (including AmeriCorps and VISTA) administrated by the CNCS and to create new programs aimed specifically at recruiting older adults as volunteers. It will increase the number of AmeriCorps members from its current 75,000 to 250,000 by 2017, and will reserve 10% of AmeriCorps funds for organizations that engage volunteers aged 55 years and older. Older Americans will be eligible for several specific programs under the bill. The ServeAmerica fellowships will allow adults aged 55 and older to develop individual plans for community service. Silver Scholarships and Encore Fellowships will help older adults start new careers in public service. The awards will give grants up to $1,000 for 500 hours of service, and the grants can be transferred to children or grandchildren (Povich 2009). The bill also aims to expand service opportunities through Senior Corps. Federal policies and programs have played a vital role in promoting the development of volunteerism and civic service in the Untied States.

Defining volunteering and civic service

The term volunteering or volunteerism is defined vaguely and used broadly, referring to a wide range of unpaid activities (Cnaan et al. 1996). Volunteering includes informal helping, formal volunteer activities, and voluntary association activities (Wilson 2000). Informal helping is sporadic and reactive, and usually involves friends and neighbours; formal volunteering is proactive, involving planned time and effort with established or formal organizations. Voluntary associations provide volunteer services, but this is not their only function. They also provide leisure activities and opportunities for their members to develop political resources (Wilson 2000), and voluntary association members may not have any particular commitment to the voluntary work pursued by the organization (Bull 1982) besides a shared interest with other members (Pearce 1993). In contrast, formal volunteers are willing to devote their time without any or little pay to help operate a voluntary organization and to produce services or goods for outsiders of the organization (Pearce 1993).

Based on 11 widely used definitions of volunteering, Cnaan et al. (1996) identify four dimensions in the definition of volunteering, i.e., free choice, remuneration, structure, and intended beneficiaries. The variations in these dimensions reflect different ways of defining a volunteer, from narrow to broad spectrums. For example, an individual decides to volunteer from his/her free will, receives no remuneration, and volunteers in a formal organization for the purpose of benefiting or helping others, especially strangers (Cnaan et al. 1996). In this case, volunteer is defined in the purist way. An individual whose volunteering activities incur a high net cost is more likely to be publicly perceived as a ‘purer’ volunteer (Cnaan et al. 1996).

As a long-term, intensive form of volunteering, civic service is defined as ‘an organized period of substantial engagement and contribution to the local, national, and world community, recognized and valued by society, with minimal monetary compensation to the participant’ (Sherraden 2001, p. 2). Key aspects or features of civic service include a formal organization or structure, identification as a service program (e.g. AmeriCorps, Experience Corps), a defined role for service, a required level of time commitment, an articulated goal of improving a specific area of human or environmental affairs, and acknowledgement and recognition for a valuable contribution (Morrow-Howell et al. 2005a). Some volunteers may receive monetary support for their time commitment, including stipends and financial or non-financial commensuration for the costs incurred during volunteering. This current paper focuses on formal volunteering and civic service through or for organizations.

Current engagement: opportunities and organizations

Volunteering by older Americans is on the rise. The statistics about volunteering rates demonstrate an upward trend among adults aged 55 years and older. According to the September 2008 Current Population Survey (CPS), a nationwide survey of persons aged 16 years and older, 28.1% of adults aged 55 to 64 and 23.5% of those aged 65 years and older volunteered for an organization in the previous 12 months (US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2009). Actually, volunteering among adults 65 years and older has increased 64% since 1974 (from 14.3% in 1974 to 23.5% in 2008) (Corporation for National & Community Service 2006). Also older volunteers aged 65 years and older were the most committed, with a median of 96 hours in contrast to a median of 52 hours for all other age groups (US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2009). Another national survey showed that about 44% of people aged 55 and over volunteered an average of 4.4 hours per week, and a total of 26.4 million older adult volunteers contributed approximately 5.6 billion hours at a value of 77.2 billion dollars in 2001 (Independent Sector 2002).

Older Americans are involved in a wide array of volunteer activities, ranging from peer counselor to educational tutor, nursing home advocate to crime prevention volunteer (O'Reilly and Caro 1994). Non-profits cover a variety of cause areas: education and literacy, health and medicine, advocacy and human rights, arts and culture, crisis support, environment, sports and recreation, computers and technology, animals, emergency and safety, international development, employment, board development, religion, hunger, justice and legal concerns, media and broadcasting, politics, and hurricane relief (Peter D. Hart Research Associates 2006).Volunteers have opportunities to work with different populations: children and youth, seniors, the disabled, women, the homeless, racial minorities, immigrants, and refugees, as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people (Peter D. Hart Research Associates 2006).

As to specific types of volunteer activity, volunteers aged 65 and older were most likely to engage in collecting, preparing, distributing, or serving food (13%), followed by providing professional or management assistance (9.4%), fundraising or selling items to raise money (9.2%), engaging in general labour or supplying transportation to people (8.3%), being an usher, greeter, or minister (7.5%), providing general office services (7.2%), tutoring or teaching (6.7%), collecting, making, or distributing clothing, crafts, or goods other than food (5.5%), engaging in music, performance, or other artistic activities (5.2%), providing counseling, medical care, fire/EMS, or protective services (2.2%), mentoring youth (1.8%), and coaching, referring, or supervising sports teams (0.7%) (US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2009).

Older adult volunteers are most likely to serve in churches and religious organizations (Caro and Base 1995, O'Reilly and Caro 1994). According to the September 2008 CPS, among adults aged 65 years and older, 46.7% volunteered for a religious organization, 16.7% for a social or community service organization, 10.3% for a hospital or other health organization, 7.4% for an educational or youth service organization, 6.8% for a civic, political, professional, or international organization, 3.9% for a sport, hobby, cultural, or arts organization, 1.5% for an environmental or animal care organization, 1.0% for a public safety organization, and the remaining 5.7% for other organizations or unidentified organizations (US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2009). Older adults have a variety of volunteer opportunities through a broad array of organizations, but the key is how older adults access these structured volunteer or service roles and how programs reach out and recruit potential older adult volunteers.

Policies and programs for older adult volunteers

Federal policies and initiatives play a significant role in creating and supporting senior volunteering or service programs. The Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 and the National and Community Service Act of 1990 as well as their amendments affect volunteering by older adults (Morrow-Howell et al. 2005b). The Domestic Volunteer Service Act authorized and mandated three separate programs for older adults: Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), Foster Grandparents Program (FGP), and Senior Companions Program (SCP). When the CNCS was formed in 1993, these three programs were merged and formed into a single agency, Senior Corps (now the National Senior Service Corps). Unlike other national volunteer programs such as AmeriCorps or Learn and Serve America, which are geared toward recruiting youth, Senior Corps is for people age 55 years and older who want to share life experience and make a difference in their world (Morrow-Howell et al. 2005b).

The Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), initiated in 1971, is America's largest senior volunteer organization and network for people aged 55 years and older, providing a full range of volunteer opportunities with thousands of local and national organizations and channelling seniors with particular skills to these opportunities. RSVP volunteers tutor children, renovate homes, teach immigrants English, help victims of national disasters, provide independent living services, and recruit and manage other volunteers. Volunteers are provided with flexibility in choosing how, where, and how often they want to serve, with commitments ranging from a few hours to 40 hours per week. In 2008, about 428,900 volunteers served in 61,500 volunteer stations across the states. RSVP does not provide volunteers with monetary rewards, but may reimburse them for the costs incurred during service, including meals and transportation (Senior Corps 2009).

The Foster Grandparent Program (FGP), started in 1965, provides one-on-one tutoring and mentoring services to children and youth with exceptional needs. FGP volunteers serve as extended family members, tutoring children with learning disabilities, helping abused or neglected children, mentoring troubled teenagers and young mothers, and caring for premature infants and children with physical disabilities. In 2008, 28,700 foster grandparents served 258,000 children and youth across 10,200 stations in community organizations, school systems, and local agencies (Senior Corps 2009).

Since its establishment in 1974, the Senior Companion Program (SCP) volunteers have provided assistance and friendship to people who have difficulty with daily living tasks such as grocery shopping and bill paying. Volunteers also alert health care providers and family members to potential problems and provide respite to family caregivers. In 2008, 15,200 volunteers served 68,100 frail adults with special needs and 9,000 caregivers, involving over 3,100 community organizations and local agencies (Senior Corps 2009).

To be eligible for FGP or SCP, volunteers must be 55 years and older under the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which lowers volunteers' minimum age from 60 to 55 in line with current policies guiding RSVP volunteers. The Act stipulates that stipends must be provided to volunteers with an income of up to 200% of the Department of Health and Human Services poverty guidelines (an increase from 125%) and that an hourly stipend may be as much as $3 (an increase from $2.65) for serving 15 to 40 hours a week (Corporation for National & Community Service 2009). In addition to federal funding, non-federal support has a large share in funding Senior Corps: about 51% ($61 million of $119.6 million) in RSVP, 42% ($33.9 million of $80 million) in SCP, and 30% ($46.5 million of $155.5 million) in FGP came from non-federal support in fiscal year 2008 (Senior Corps 2009). Non-federal support may include state and local governments, private foundations, individual contributions, and other sources ( Morrow-Howell et al. 2006).

Non-profit organizations are another major source of sponsorship and support for senior volunteer programs. Morrow-Howell and associates (2006) identified and examined 51 senior volunteer or service programs in the United States and found that 39 (76%) were administered by non-profit organizations and 18 (35%) by government agencies (some were administered by both). These programs were implemented at local, state-wide, regional, national, and international levels. A good example is Experience Corps (EC), launched and developed by Civic Ventures, a well-known non-profit organization. EC is an independent program in partnership with non-profits, for-profits, and government agencies. EC programs engage adults aged 55 years and older as tutors and mentors for public elementary school children struggling to learn to read. Piloted in 1995, EC currently operates in 23 cities involving 2,000 volunteers serving 20,000 students. Recent research on EC indicates that the reading skills of tutored students have significantly and substantially improved (Morrow-Howell et al. 2009). For more examples of senior volunteer programs in the US, please see Morrow-Howell et al. (2005a, 2006).

Factors and effects of volunteering in late life

Three sets of key factors affect volunteer performance and commitment: demographic characteristics, personality traits and attitudes, and situational (managerial) variables (Cnaan and Cascio 1999). Previous literature indicates that older adult volunteers are likely to be the ‘young old’ (under age 75), female, highly-educated, high-income, healthy, married, and religious (Fisher and Schaffer 1993, Herzog and Morgan 1993, Caro and Bass 1995). However, recent findings are mixed regarding the association between volunteering and demographic factors of age, gender, race, and marital status. Age, gender, and racial difference in volunteering may be explained by human capital, motivations and beliefs, and social resources of volunteers (Wilson 2000). Prior experience with volunteering, involvement in the community, regular church attendance, and professional skills are also associated with volunteering in late life (Caro and Bass 1995, Bradley 2000).

Personality traits and attitudes affect one's decision to volunteer. Volunteer participation was high for individuals at high levels of self-efficacy, empathy, morality, emotional stability, and self-esteem (Allen and Rushton 1983). Personality characteristics such as extraversion, neuroticism, and self-efficacy have significant gross effects on volunteer participation among older adults, but the effects trail off or become non-significant after controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, environmental, and social-structural variables (Herzog and Morgan 1993). Personal attitudes toward altruism, the organization, civic duty, and religion are also related to volunteering. Perceived effectiveness of volunteer organizations, satisfaction towards the organization, and the sense of service mission may promote volunteer commitment (Cnaan and Cascio 1999).

Contextual factors are the attributes of the environment that may influence individual volunteering activity, including regional, community, and organizational factors (Smith 1994). Regional differences can be reflected in economies, cultures, climates, and predominant industries, which may be related to the forms and levels of volunteering (Herzog and Morgan 1993). Thus, urban and rural residents may have different volunteering behaviours due to levels of labour market complexity, social integration and connectedness, and level of services (Herzog and Morgan 1993). Regional and community variables are hard to measure, but interact with individual-level factors in relation to volunteering. However, scholarly attention towards organizational factors has recently increased; organizational characteristics and capacity have been examined in association with promoting volunteering by older adults (Sherraden et al. 2001, Morrow-Howell et al. 2009).

Organizational characteristics and culture may affect individual participation (Smith 1994). Organizational culture can be expressed on three levels: (1) visible manifestation (e.g. physical environment, rules, and policies); (2) shared values, philosophy, views that are easily expressed; and (3) underlying beliefs and assumptions (e.g. about human nature, ageing, or retirement) (Cusack 1994). The visible manifestations are concerned with rules and norms of individual interactions within structured situations, which are more controllable and mutable by public polices and organizational procedures (Neale 1987). Volunteer organizations also vary in the number and type of volunteer roles they provide and differ from each other in the way they facilitate individuals to initiate and maintain their role performance ( Sherraden et al. 2001).

Volunteering engagement is viewed as a social approach to public health promotion in the older population. Older volunteers may experience positive outcomes in psychological well-being, physical health, and social benefits. A recent work by Morrow-Howell et al. (2009) reviewed the evidence about the significant relationship between volunteering and well-being outcomes. Psychological well-being benefits include improved life satisfaction (Van Willigen 2000), reduced depressive symptoms (Li and Ferraro 2005), and enhanced subjective well-being (Greenfield and Marks 2004). Volunteering is also related to better physical health or functioning. Compared with non-volunteers, older adult volunteers reported increased levels of self-rated health (Morrow-Howell et al. 2003), increased physical functioning (Lum and Lightfoot 2005), increased muscular strength ( Fried et al. 2004), reduced pain (Arnstein et al. 2002), and delayed mortality (Musick et al. 1999). In terms of social benefits, older volunteers feel less lonely, have more friends and social resources, and their lives after retirement are more structured than non-volunteering peers (Fisher and Schafer 1993). Volunteering provides an important means for socialization, engagement in meaningful activities, improving life and self-worth, and promoting personal growth among older populations (Morrow-Howell et al. 1999). In addition, older volunteers report a wide array of benefits to the people they serve, their families, and the community (Morrow-Howell et al. 2009).

Positive effects at the individual level may have cumulative impacts on family, community, and society at large. Older volunteers report that their family members are less concerned about them, that the family gains knowledge and information about resources and social services, and that communities are better off because the individuals receiving the service of volunteer programs are better off (Morrow-Howell et al. 2009). For example, tutoring programs produce improvements in educational performance, thus enabling the school to improve its ranking (Project STAR 2001). Through volunteering, older adults become more aware of social issues and improve intergenerational understanding. Compared with younger adults, older people are more active politically, more experienced in community affairs, and more likely to become valuable advocates for the social issues exposed during volunteering (Morrow-Howell and Tang 2007). However, there are some negative effects on families, for example, interference with family activities due to volunteer schedules (Morrow-Howell et al. 2009). But in general, positive effects of volunteer engagement outweigh the negative effects.

Expanding volunteering by older adults

Older Americans report various motivations for volunteering. The most frequently cited reason for volunteering is to help others and the community, especially those in need (Black and Kovacs 1999). Older adult volunteers want to make a difference in the community and thus enhance their sense of purpose through helping others (Bradley 2000). In addition, exploring and understanding a new issue or problem is another major motivation (Okun et al. 1998, Bowen et al. 2000). Retirement from the paid workforce is generally viewed as a stressful loss, leading to decline in both physical and mental health (Simon 1997). Therefore, retirees may choose volunteering to maintain productive roles and continue the behaviour patterns established in their earlier life (Cohen-Mansfield 1989). Formal volunteering through organizations provides older adults with continued productivity and a sense of accomplishment (Bradley 2000). Some older adults participate in volunteer programs to meet other people, increase social interaction, and get social support (Barlow and Hainsworth 2001, Warburton et al. 2001).

Based on the fact that a variety of motivations inspire older adults to volunteer, it is crucial for voluntary organizations that use older adults to understand what motivates a person to help and create the best fit possible between the volunteer's interests, skills, and needs and the organization's needs (Kovacs and Black 1999). Organizations should strive to make potential volunteers more aware of their own preferences and needs and offer them information about positions that may best meet those needs. Online programs (e.g. www.volunteermatch.org, www.comingofage.org) and new centres, some of them part of the Next Chapter initiative, facilitate the exchange of information and encourage people to plan and consider various options for work and volunteer positions (Tang et al. 2009). There are many ways that organizations can reach out to potential older volunteers, including directly approaching older people, which is considered the best recruitment method (Cohen-Mansfield 1989, Caro and Bass 1995, Black and Kovacs 1999), utilizing current volunteers to recruit new ones (Cohen-Mansfield 1989), and previous personal experience with the host organization. Generally, people who have a strong interest in organizational goals and a strong sense of self-efficacy are likely to approach organizations and seek out volunteer opportunities by themselves; otherwise, they are primarily recruited through social networks, such as friends, co-workers, and family members (Pearce 1993).

Who are the potential older adult volunteers? Or who are the targeted groups in the older population? Caro and Bass (1995) suggest recruitment of those who are willing and able to volunteer, who are well-educated, relatively young, and in good health. It has been pointed out that recruitment of retirees is a cost-effective strategy, because they volunteer more hours once they are engaged than the employed and the homemakers (Chambre 1993). However, there are recent calls to include diverse older populations in volunteering and other forms of civic engagement (McBride 2007, Tang et al. 2007). Inclusion of disadvantaged subgroups of older adults in volunteering may potentially address health disparities, given that volunteering is a social approach to public health promotion. Furthermore, the benefits of volunteering can extend beyond the older adult volunteers to families and community, allowing organizations to increase public support and their capacity to fulfil their mission (Corporation for National & Community Service 2005). The integration of diverse populations in volunteering may enhance social capital and sustain democratic society (Putnam 2000). In light of these rationales, it is important to facilitate the engagement of older adults in volunteering, especially disadvantaged subpopulations that have been historically underrepresented, that is, low-income and ethnic minorities (Tang et al. 2007).

Organizational arrangements can make it easier or harder for older adults to engage in volunteer roles. Individual capacities of older adults may be limited and pose difficulties to volunteer engagement; however, agencies and organizations sponsoring volunteer programs are positioned to help overcome these difficulties and facilitate the engagement of older adults in volunteering. Organizations can build up and develop the capacity to include older adults of diverse backgrounds and to sustain volunteering over an extended period of time. The provision of choice in activities and ability to set their own schedule are important in attracting older volunteers, and monetary incentives and transportation are important to lower-income and non-White older volunteers (Tang et al. 2007). Through providing training and publicly recognizing volunteers' contributions, as well as providing facilitation in other forms, organizations may sustain volunteer role performance (Tang et al. 2009). Future studies are needed to examine other forms of organizational facilitators, as well as the interaction effects of organizational facilitation and individual characteristics on volunteer performance and outcomes.

Conclusion

Populations are growing older in the United States and indeed throughout the world. Prolonged life expectancy and improved health status make it possible for older Americans to engage in volunteering and other types of productive activity. The longevity revolution and the societal need for volunteers in the American society call for expanding volunteering and service opportunities for older Americans. Given the potential resources embedded in the increasing older population, much can be done to expand volunteering in later life. Traditional volunteer roles in the United States may not appeal to today's older adults, who are healthier, more educated, and desire personal development. If volunteer programs offer meaningful activities while facilitating adequate organizational supports, as proposed from an institutional perspective (Morrow-Howell et al. 2001), older Americans may volunteer at higher rates. Now it is time to increase understanding about what institutional characteristics are important for the best late-life volunteer programs. Nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and hospitals will not be the dominant institutions for older Americans; rather, the emerging non-profits, community service organizations, and federal initiatives will be activated by the increasing engagement of older Americans. The joint efforts by gerontological professionals, organizations, and governments will help to maximize volunteering by older adults. The US experience with promoting volunteerism by older adults has implications for China as well as other countries in designing policies and developing programs for older adults.