Nurturing Civic InvolvementNew Hampshire 2009 Civic Health IndexNovember 16, 2009
Personal Incentives Although it is frequently assumed that people might volunteer more if volunteering was made more convenient and if there were more incentives to do so, the CHI survey suggests that this is not true. In response to questions assessing the effectiveness of various wide-ranging incentives, the most common response to each incentive, across a continuum of response options (from 1 through 10), indicated that the particular incentive wouldn’t make any difference in getting the respondent to become more active in his or her community. Thus, such incentives as providing child care for respondents’ children while parents attended meetings or did volunteer work; easier ways to sign up for public service activities; training opportunities so that respondents could learn new skills as part of their volunteer activity; the chance to win rewards (e.g., gift certificates) for volunteering; and free public transportation to the volunteer activity were seen by New Hampshire residents—and by Americans more generally—as relatively ineffective ways to increase their community engagement. The incentives that were more welcomed by respondents were getting paid time off from work, college vouchers, and income and property tax reductions (see Figure 15). Clearly, then, for Americans to increase their personal involvement in community activity it would seem that such activity needs to present an economic benefit to the volunteer. In general, although many Americans are quite engaged in community activity, a community service ethos is not necessarily dominant in their lives. Some New Hampshire residents, like Americans outside the state, see career choices, for example, in terms of the public benefit of the work (7 percent and 6 percent, respectively). Nonetheless, they are far more likely to rank salary and benefits (42 percent and 41 percent) and job security (23 percent and 28 percent) as the most important considerations influencing their career choice. Serving the Community Good It is evident that New Hampshire residents share with their fellow Americans the view that serving the community good is not confined to doing community service. It is noteworthy that close to equal numbers of respondents said that working either for a local small business (22 percent), for a non-religious nonprofit organization (19 percent), or for a socially responsible corporation (19 percent) would allow them to do the most good for the community or the country. Far fewer endorsed the community benefit of working for local or state (12 percent) or federal (9 percent) government. Once again, highlighting the general unreligious tenor of New Hampshire, fewer Granite Staters (9 percent) than other Americans (15 percent) saw working for a religious organization as good for the community (see Figure 16). Support for Civic Involvement Although Granite Staters are more likely to emphasize the practical economic considerations involved in career choices and in evaluating incentives for greater involvement in community service, they largely support a range of measures to increase civic involvement. Substantial majorities favor students earning money for college in exchange for completing a full year of national or community service (84 percent), and requiring high school students to do community service (74 percent) and to pass a civics test (64 percent). It is of further note that over two-thirds (69 percent) welcome the relatively innovative idea of a national public discussion involving more than one million Americans deliberating on an important policy issue that would require a response from Congress. There is also substantial support for other measures to increase civic involvement (see Figure 17). Just over half of New Hampshire residents favor using federal money to support non- secular nonprofit organizations that use volunteers (54 percent), and support changes in the law that would enable local citizens to take the lead in setting standards in their local schools (52 percent). In line with New Hampshire residents’ relative distrust of organized religion, approximately one-third (32 percent) favor federal money for faith-based organizations that use volunteers. Indeed, this option is less preferred than the other least popular proposal—funding and promoting overseas service as a way of improving America’s relations with other countries (38 percent). Not surprisingly, weekly churchgoers (50 percent) are significantly more likely than occasional attendees (33 percent) and non-churchgoers (25 percent) to support government funding of faith-based organizations. New Hampshire respondents’ support for various measures that would increase civic engagement also varies by gender and generation. Women are more likely than men to support government funding of secular volunteer organizations (62 percent/46 percent), requiring high school students to fulfill service obligations (84 percent/66 percent), and giving college tuition in exchange for service (91 percent/77 percent). The younger generation, perhaps because their experience of high school is the most recent, is the least favorably disposed toward policies requiring high school community service and civics tests. While a majority in all age groups favors requiring high school students to do community service, millennials – those born after 1980 – comprise the smallest majority supporting this measure – 56 percent, compared to 78% of Xers and baby boomers, and 85 percent of seniors. Similarly, whereas 53 percent of millennials oppose a high school civics test requirement, this is favored by 61 percent of generation X, 71 percent of baby boomers, and 82 percent of seniors. 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