Washington, D.C. – The Corporation for National and Community Service today announced it will engage five leading universities to expand scholarly and policy research and deepen understanding about volunteering, national and community service, and civic engagement in America.

The federal agency will award nearly $1 million to five institutions of higher education to conduct research on volunteering and civic engagement; the impact of national service on service participants, and trends in the nonprofit sector that either impact or are created by national service.

The recipients of the first-ever Expanding Research on Volunteerism and National Service grants are Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government; the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies; Washington State University in conjunction with Duke University; Pennsylvania State University; and Tufts University/CIRCLE/ Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service.

“After six years of groundbreaking research that has advanced our understanding of volunteering in America, we are thrilled to collaborate with these outstanding scholars and universities to take our research to the next level,” said Corporation CEO David Eisner. “Their research will provide important new knowledge to policymakers and nonprofit and civic leaders to help us build a more widespread culture of service in America.”

Eisner announced the grants before hundreds of civic, government, and education leaders gathered at the National Conference on Citizenship annual meeting at the National Archives today. Eisner also announced $2.3 million in grants to six organizations to use social networking sites and other Web 2.0 strategies to engage more college students in service to meet critical needs. (See related release).

Since 2002, the Corporation has joined with the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to produce detailed reports on volunteering using the Current Population Survey’s Annual Volunteer Supplement. The most recent report, released in July, has six years of data on volunteering, rankings of states and cities, and volunteer trends and demographic information for every state and 162 large and mid-sized cities at a new interactive website http://www.volunteeringinamerica.gov. The agency also recently released Serving Country and Community: A Longitudinal Study of Service in AmeriCorps. This detailed look at the long-term effects on the people who serve in AmeriCorps is one of dozens of studies the agency has produced in recent years on topics related to national service and volunteering. The reports are on the Corporation’s research page at www.NationalService.gov/research.

“These grants give us a unique opportunity to strengthen our understanding about volunteering and national service, as well as deepen our knowledge about the nonprofit climate,” said Dr. Robert Grimm, the Corporation’s Director of Research and Policy Development. “With this information, we will be better prepared to engage more people in volunteering and service at levels never seen before, and make more significant impacts to individuals and communities across the country.”

Listed below are the recipients of the Corporation’s Expanding Research on Volunteerism and National Service grants. The approved funding levels are subject to final negotiation between the applicant and the Corporation for National and Community Service.

• Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, MA; $275,618: Harvard University will examine how a person’s social context influences his or her decision to volunteer and participate in civic institutions. Among other things, they will look to see if changing economic conditions lead to unequal political and civic participation; and determine if there is a “class gap” in volunteering. This study will provide more information about the factors that influence the decision to volunteer that will help build stronger volunteer opportunities.
      
• Johns Hopkins University, Institute for Policy Studies, Baltimore, MD; $210,000: Johns Hopkins will incorporate the grantees of the Corporation for National and Community Service into the Johns Hopkins Nonprofit Listening Post Project. The Listening Post has a network of local nonprofit organizations that are the project’s eyes and ears on the major developments affecting the nonprofit field. Adding Corporation grantees to this project will facilitate learning more about national service grantees and how they compare to other nonprofits. This information will provide greater insight into the environment facing Corporation grantees and will be helpful to national service policy making.
      
• Washington State University, Pullman, WA; $190,560: Washington State, working with Duke University, will examine how social contexts influence individual decisions to volunteer. Researchers will build on existing work by using the findings of Volunteering in America to explain the reasons for geographical difference in volunteering rates and intensity.
      
• Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA; $150,620: Pennsylvania State will analyze data from A Longitudinal Study of Service in AmeriCorps to determine the differential motivations, opportunities, and outcomes of AmeriCorps for youth from disadvantaged versus advantaged backgrounds.
      
• Tufts University, CIRCLE/Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, Medford, MA, $128,100: The Corporation will work with Tufts University/CIRCLE to disseminate its research findings through the National Conference on Citizenship.

The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. Each year the Corporation engages more than four million Americans of all ages and backgrounds in service to meet local needs through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America programs. For more information, visit http://www.nationalservice.gov.

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