'It pays off for eternity'

Abortion: Like other volunteers in America, faith is the motivating factor for pro-life volunteers | Alisa Harris

Debbie Joslin/Handout

FARMINGTON, N.M.— Kerry Limback is a nurse who wears a long, loose calico skirt instead of scrubs. She volunteers each week at the Animas Crisis Pregnancy Center (ACPC) in Farmington, N.M., giving ultrasounds in a room with a teddy bear quilt hanging above the examining table.

What motivates her and her fellow volunteers? A recent study—Volunteering in America: 2007 City Trends and Rankings—linked volunteerism to shorter commutes, higher education levels, more home ownership, and a high prevalence of nonprofit organizations. But the study missed another motivating factor: faith.

Religious volunteers like Limback make up 35 percent of the volunteer pool—the largest group of volunteers, according to the Department of Labor. The Corporation for National and Community Service, which produced the Volunteering in America study, values religious volunteers' donated time at $51.8 billion each year. The Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, the largest scientific study of American civic engagement, named religious involvement "among the strongest predictors of giving and volunteering."