Volunteering in rural and urban communities isn’t one-size-fits-all

Volunteering in rural and urban communities isn’t one-size-fits-all Rebecca Nesbit and Laurie E. Paarlberg argue that volunteering cannot be a one-size-fits-all solution, as the experiences of rural and urban communities demonstrate. Volunteering looks different depending on where you live. Rural communities traditionally show slightly higher rates of secular volunteering than urban areas (Paarlberg et al 2022), but why that difference exists has never been clear. Most explanations lean on culture, norms, or personal networks. Our research takes a different approach. We ask: How does the mix of local organizations shape volunteering in rural and urban places?