From Service to Sector: Early-Adulthood Volunteering as a Pathway into Nonprofit and Public Employment

Abstract

Nonprofit, public, and private employees display theoretically and empirically distinct characteristics. An important branch of this research investigates differences in prosocial behaviors given a sector of employment, but findings often model prosocial habits as the outcome and rely on cross-sectional data. This study adds to extant literature by hypothesizing that early-adulthood volunteering serves as a pathway for emerging-career nonprofit and public employment. We utilize regression and duration analysis on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 and find that millennials who display early-adulthood volunteering are significantly more likely to report emerging-career employment in the nonprofit sector. Furthermore, millennials with no work experience in nonprofits before their emerging-career phase demonstrate faster rates of entry into a nonprofit if they reported early-adulthood volunteering. We fail to find similar relationships for public employees. Our conclusions speak to the recruitment and retention of nonprofit employees while also providing possible caveats to understanding other-oriented public employees.