More than ever before, today’s college students say they feel a responsibility to help those around them. Yet, their passion for humanitarianism is not effectively translating to action, as volunteer rates for students have dropped since the early 2000s. At this point, just 26 percent of college students are volunteering.

While it would be easy to shrug this off and pin it on college students for not following through on their word, it’s not that simple. Increasing the number of student volunteers requires action, both from colleges and nonprofit organizations. 

“Youth’s historically high interest in doing good will not automatically translate into action without the right opportunities,” Robert Grimm, director of the University of Maryland’s (UMD’s) Do Good Institute, said in a statement. In 2018, he co-authored a report highlighting this trend with his colleague Nathan Dietz, an associate research scholar at the institute. 

According to the report, volunteering hit its peak in 2003, something the authors attribute — at least partially — to a “post-September 11 surge in civic attitudes and behaviors.” After 2003, however, college student volunteer rates dropped sharply, until finally plateauing in 2008. 

Though, at the same time, students’ interest in “doing good” has been steadily rising for years. At this point, college students are expressing more interest in civic engagement than they have in the past half-century. 

“Especially in the last five years, the percentage of students who say that it’s very important or essential to help others who are in difficulty has just skyrocketed,” Dietz told The University Network. “It’s really increased by a lot.”

So, the question is, if students are so passionate about helping those around them, why aren’t they? According to the Do Good Institute research, even high schoolers are more likely to volunteer. 

“When young people graduate high school and start going to college — even if it’s a community college — there are more changes in their lives than there have been in a very long time,” said Dietz. “Part of what college students face is just the pressures of trying to live independently in a way that they’ve never done before.” 

And if students are going to college outside of their hometown — as many students do — they’re typically living in a brand new community away from the typical influences that may have attracted them to volunteering in the past, like schools, churches and other neighborhood institutions, Dietz explained. 

“If you’re outside of your familiar home environment, then those institutions are not going to have the draw on you that they did back home,” he added. 

Additionally, many nonprofits are reluctant to hire college students as volunteers, Dietz explained, as they see more risks with bringing them on than rewards.  

Students’ schedules are often flexible, but they change very frequently — with each academic quarter or semester. And that makes it hard for them to commit to something long-term. 

The last thing an organization wants to happen is to spend time, effort and money orienting volunteers only for them to not show up the next day, said Dietz. “That’s worse than if they hadn’t even come through in the first place.”

Yet, with students’ desire to help others at a peak, it would be a shame to not take advantage of this opportunity and translate their eagerness into action. 

“We believe these results should spur parents, … colleges, universities, states and others to invest more time in developing quality opportunities for this generation of young adults,” the authors wrote in their study. 

Some institutions are already taking action. 

UMD’s Do Good Institute, for example, offers the Do Good Challenge, which is just one of many ways the institute is able to encourage student volunteering. 

Those participating in the challenge choose a pressing social issue they want to address and spend all year volunteering, advocating, fundraising and developing solutions for it. At the end of the year, a winning team is picked and given a prize of more than $20,000. 

Already, the challenge has inspired students to address some of the world’s most pressing problems, from food insecurity in UMD’s surrounding county to providing emergency services to orphanages in Nepal. One group of students created the James Hollister Wellness Foundation, which recycles expensive prescription drugs so they can be used by low-income people around the world. Another group founded the Food Recovery Network, which saves leftover dining hall food before it reaches the trash and redistributes it to nearby food banks. At this point, they’ve expanded to 230 chapters across 44 states and saved more than 3 million pounds of food. The list goes on.  

The University of Florida (UF) recently introduced a campaign, called Gators Volunteer, that links UF students and community members with the nearby organizations that need their help. This way, each eager student can find the volunteer opportunity that is best fit for them. 

Students at the University of Michigan recently created an app that connects people — specifically, their peers — with volunteer opportunities in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and its surrounding community. 

And, uniquely, students at UCLA spurred their psychiatry resident instructors to improve the mental health of Los Angeles’ homeless population by engaging in “street psychiatry.”

Although more efforts could be taken, clearly some colleges, universities and individual students have made increasing student volunteerism a priority. And the same must be done, universally, on the nonprofit side. 

“I think the main reason we don’t have a higher volunteering rate nationwide today is because it’s hard for people to find good fits with organizations that have attractive volunteer opportunities where they can really make a difference,” said Dietz. 

Jennifer A. Jones, an assistant professor of nonprofit management and leadership at UF, recently discovered that in college towns like Gainesville, Florida, where students make up a majority of the volunteers, student volunteers are not having as much of an impact as possible. And while some blame fell on students, the nonprofits also had their faults. 

Most notably, she explained that nonprofits could do a better job recruiting and helping students find rewarding volunteer opportunities. She offered some advice. 

“Nonprofits can change the way they recruit to encourage long-term volunteering and screen out those students who perhaps just want to pad their resumes,” she wrote. “These organizations can also improve how they train their young volunteers. And nonprofits can become more flexible about volunteer opportunities and do more to recognize the contributions of their student volunteers.”

To make it easier for nonprofits to connect to students, The University Network recently created a volunteer tool that will help students across the country find both in-person and virtual volunteer opportunities.