Summary of FindingsBack

1.1 Experience and Motive of Participating in Volunteer Work: Organized Volunteering

The first part of this survey was aimed at gauging the general public's experience and motive of participating in organized volunteering.

1.1.1 To begin with, our interviewers briefly explained the meaning of organized volunteering to all respondents. Result revealed that of the 1,555 respondents interviewed, more than three-quarters of them (78%) have never participated in organized volunteering (donation excluded) in contrast to 22% who said they have (Table 1).

1.1.2 Amongst those who have ever participated in organized volunteering, more than one-quarter (27%) mentioned that the last time they volunteered was within one month and a total of 64% of this sub-sample has volunteered over the past 12 months, which is equivalent to 12% of the overall sample (Table 2).

1.1.3 In regard to the number of hours participated in organized volunteering, excluding those who were certain that they had not participated in organized volunteering over the past 12 months, 28% reported that they have volunteered twice, and 13% only volunteered once. However, around one-fifth of them (22%) have volunteered much more frequently with eleven times or more within the said period. Taking the average of all definite answers provided by these respondents, each of them volunteered 11.9 times in the year past (Table 3). Meanwhile, the average number of hours they volunteered in the year past was 34.8 hours (Table 4). When asked to estimate how much each working hour was worth if the volunteer work they provided were to be done by paid workers of a private organization, the answer varied within a wide range from HK$0 to HK$3,000. The average figure was HK$76 per hour, and the median HK$30 per hour (Table 5).

1.1.4 When asked for what type of organization they have participated in organized volunteering, results showed that most of these volunteers participated in the volunteer work organized by educational organizations, religious bodies as well as social service organizations (each accounted for around 14% of total responses and mentioned by around 15% of the sub-sample, Table 6).

1.1.5 Respondents were further asked what kind of volunteering service they have participated in. "Visiting" topped the list which accounted for 38% of these volunteers (i.e. 8% of the overall sample), and the second most popular service was associated with recreational activities (21%) while other services like "medical service", "fund raising activities", "counseling" and "clerical work" were each mentioned by less than 10% of these volunteers (Table 7).

Figure in ( ) indicates corresponding % out of the sub-sample of this question, i.e.334 respondents.

1.1.6 In order to pave the way for AVS's promotional strategies, channels through which volunteers learned about volunteering were examined. Results showed that one-third (34%) of these volunteers learned it through their friends, another 19% learned it through their schools or teachers, 9% learned it through religious bodies, another 9% learned it through social service organizations (Table 8).

1.1.7 As for the reasons why they participated in volunteer work, 40% of these volunteers claimed that they wanted to help others (i.e. 9% of the overall sample), 21% simply did it to kill time. Other reasons such as "to make friends", "to gain skills and knowledge" and "religion" were each mentioned by around 5% of these volunteers (Table 9).

1.1.8 On the other hand, opinions were split in regard to the needs for training before participating in volunteer work. Almost half of these respondents (47%) said it was necessary to receive training, as compared to 46% who thought it was unnecessary (Table 10).

1.2 Experience of Participating in Volunteer Work: Mutual Aid

The second part of the survey studied the general public's experience of participating in mutual aid, which is defined in this survey as "the spontaneous and self-initiated behaviors aiming to help others without planning in advance and would occur from time to time".

1.2.1 After a brief explanation on the meaning of mutual aid, more than half of the respondents (55%) claimed that they have participated in this kind of volunteer work before (donation excluded) while 44% said not (Table 11). Of those who have ever participated in mutual aid, most of them (42% of the sub-sample) had done it as recently as within last month. However, more than one-third (37%) of them have forgotten when they did it last time (Table 12).

1.2.2 Regarding the number of times they have participated in mutual aid, excluding those who were certain that they have not done it over the past 12 months, 40% reported that they have volunteered up to 3 times, while 15% have done it 20 times or more within one year's time. On average (265 definite answers), each volunteered 18.5 times over the past 12 months (Table 13). Moreover, from the total number of hours they reported, the average volunteer time per these volunteers was estimated to be 21.9 hours in the year past (Table 14). When asked to estimate how much each working hour was worth if the volunteer work they provided were to be done by paid workers of a private organization, the average figure was HK$32 per hour, and the median HK$30 per hour (Table 15).

1.3 Intention and Reasons for Future Volunteering

1.3.1 Regarding the current volunteers' intention to continue volunteering in the future (including organized volunteering and mutual aid), 83% of them said they would, less than 10% of them said "no" (Table 16).

1.3.2 The main hindrance for those who said they would not continue to volunteer in the future (accounted for 8%; 75 respondents) was mainly due to the lack of time (73% of the sub-sample, 53 respondents), whereas "physically unfit" was mentioned by only a few (11% of the sub-sample, 8 respondents, Table 17).

1.3.3 On the other hand, for respondents who did not volunteer in the past, their main reason was again the "lack of time" (64% of the sub-sample), followed by "physically unfit" (14% of the sub-sample) at a distance. In other words, time and physical condition of the respondents were the main explicit barriers for volunteering (Table 18).

1.3.4 The same question on future intention was asked among those who have never participated in volunteer work before (587 respondents). It is found that less than half of these respondents (40%) would consider volunteering in the future as contrast to 83% among current volunteers (Table 19). Concerning their motive, two-thirds (66%) of these potential volunteers were driven by their desire to help others whilst 22% said they would do it to kill time (Table 20).

1.3.5 Apart from their personal experience, all respondents were then asked what they thought were the main reasons for people who participated in volunteering. By the same token, "to help others" topped the list which accounted for 72% of the overall sample, followed at a distance by the reasons "to serve the community" (33%) and "to kill time" (24%; Table 21).

1.3.6 On the other hand, they believed the most prominent reason for people not participating in volunteer work was because they could not afford the time (55%), and because volunteering could be troublesome (23%; Table 22).

1.4 Social Influence

1.4.1 According to the results of this survey, 59% of the general public has never encouraged others to participate in volunteering whilst two-thirds (68%) of them have never been encouraged by people around either (Tables 23 and 24). For those who have been encouraged to volunteer (502 respondents), the main source of that encouragement came from their friends (57%). The second most popular source was their schoolmates, accounting for 10%, while family members came third, accounting for 9% (Table 25).

1.5 Evaluation of the Barriers and Expectations of Volunteering

The last part of the survey was aimed at evaluating the barriers to the local development of volunteering as well as people's expectations of volunteering.

1.5.1 Twenty-two percent of the respondents thought that the main barrier to the local development of volunteering (including organized volunteering and mutual aid) was people's lack of time. This result was very much consistent with the previous observations. Another 14% thought that the poor economic condition these days was also an obstacle to the development of volunteering, while 10% blamed the lack of resources injected into this aspect. However, 29% of the respondents failed to give a definite answer (Table 26).

1.5.2 When further asked how to improve the situation, an even higher proportion of respondents (43%) did not have any idea. Suggestions provided by some of them included "to improve the economic condition" (12%), "to inject more resources" (8%) and "to cultivate the atmosphere for volunteering" (7%; Table 27).

1.5.3 In their opinion, the development of local volunteering should ideally be supported by the government (38%); although comparable amount of people believed that it should be the responsibilities of people in Hong Kong (26%) and then non-government organizations (21%; Table 28).

1.5.4 Finally, more than half of the respondents (56%) in this survey described the social status of volunteers in Hong Kong as being respectable while 17% described their status as being non-essential and one-quarter (25%) failed to make a judgment by saying "don't know" (Table 29).