Declining civic volunteering was not offset by volunteers shifting to other organizations.

Evidence

But what about the possibility that volunteers have simply switched their loyalties [End Page 69] to other organizations? Evidence on “regular” (as opposed to occasional or “drop-by”) volunteering is available from the Labor Department’s Current Population Surveys of 1974 and 1989. These estimates suggest that serious volunteering declined by roughly one-sixth over these 15 years, from 24 percent of adults in 1974 to 20 percent in 1989. The multitudes of Red Cross aides and Boy Scout troop leaders now missing in action have apparently not been offset by equal numbers of new recruits elsewhere. — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone, 35

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the civic-engagement decline debate Putnam later expanded into the book Bowling Alone. — connects to: Physical volunteering declined as older volunteers cannot replace it — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 427; Rising volunteering was an Indian summer, not a renewal — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 430; Nonprofit sector growth does not indicate rising social connectedness. — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining…, 43
• corroborated: 5 independent passages support this claim — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining…, 35

Related

• Rising volunteering was an Indian summer, not a renewal (similarity 0.90)
• Physical volunteering declined as older volunteers cannot replace it (similarity 0.86)
• The volunteering boom came almost entirely from seniors (similarity 0.82)
• Nonprofit sector growth does not indicate rising social connectedness. (similarity 0.80)
• American civic engagement rose for two-thirds of the century then sharply reversed. (similarity 0.79)
• Volunteering correlates with political engagement, not alienation (similarity 0.79)
• American civic engagement has cycled between collapse and renewal, not declined steadily. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Rising volunteering was an Indian summer, not a renewal #contradicts (0.88) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 430
• Physical volunteering declined as older volunteers cannot replace it #corroborates (0.82) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 427
• Nonprofit sector growth does not indicate rising social connectedness. #expands (0.78) — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone, 43