Government Volunteers?

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization. 

Jason Burkett
March 14, 2025

In light of the sweeping federal spending reductions taking place at the moment, public administrators may find themselves thinking through who might take over the provision of critical government functions typically handled by the federal workforce. Likely candidates include state governments, local governments and non-profit organizations. A less likely candidate? Volunteers.

When it comes to essential public services, it’s hard to imagine any function more critical than firefighting and emergency medical services (Fire/EMS). But surprisingly, these life saving activities are routinely handled by volunteers across the United States every day.

The Center for Public Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University (CPP) recently examined the sufficiency of funding for the provision of firefighting and emergency medical services in Virginia. In its review, CPP found that 54 percent of the national firefighting workforce are volunteers and that 70 percent of registered fire departments are designated as volunteer organizations (U.S. Fire Administration 2022). A 2023 report authored by fire chiefs and other industry stakeholders in Virginia included a figure from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confirming that Virginia’s Fire/EMS providers followed a similar distribution, 70.7 percent being categorized as volunteer organizations. The remaining workforce (46%) are known as “career” Fire/EMS responders. These are public employees who receive salaries or wages for their work.

The distribution of career and volunteer Fire/EMS professionals points to a staggering fact: Hundreds of thousands of Americans, across every state, volunteer their time to serve their community and help their neighbors in need—often at great peril to themselves. Further, this model of critical public service provision has been at work since the first structural fire at the Jamestown Colony in 1608 (Source).

According to the Virginia Department of Health, this neighbor-to-neighbor model of public service provision continued for centuries before the nation’s first independent volunteer rescue squad was formed in Roanoke, Virginia in 1928. The nation’s first volunteer paramedic program followed in 1970, according to the Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads, also in Roanoke.

While public administrators may find these current and historic data points inspiring, anyone planning to create the nation’s first Public Administration Volunteer Rescue Squad may do well to proceed with caution. 

In its study, CPP cites the work of Dr. Hurwitz who identifies a sudden drop in the number of U.S. volunteer firefighters beginning in 2014-2015. This concern is echoed by the work of Colibaba et. al, who emphasize how rural localities in Canada rely on aging volunteers for their Fire/EMS services as a result of youth outmigration. 

Volunteerism in the U.S. also appears to be declining outside of the Fire/EMS space as well. The latest data from AmeriCorps and the U.S. Census Bureau show 28.3 percent of Americans participated in formal volunteering in 2023, down from 30.3 percent in 2017. Not surprisingly, income appears strongly correlated with formal volunteering as households receiving $150,000 or more in income are more likely than their lower income peers to engage in this activity.

Despite these negative signals, there is cause for hope. An excellent write up from Tory Martin of the Johnson Center outlines the ways that volunteers prefer to work today. In her analysis, Martin highlights data points from the AmeriCorps and Census Bureau research focused on “informal helping.” Unlike “formal volunteering” which has declined across the country since 2017, “informal helping” has increased from 51.4 percent in 2017 to 54.3 percent in 2023.

Additionally, Martin points to 2021 research from Hager and Brundy that finds “volunteers are more interested in episodic, short-term assignments” as well as findings from the AmeriCorps report that online volunteering is a viable avenue for future engagements: “18 percent of those individuals who formally volunteered with an organization in the September 2022 to September 2023 period do so entirely online (p.3).”

As the United States faces a future with reduced federal spending, Americans will likely look to states, localities and nonprofits to provide vital governmental services. With much more limited funding available, Tory Martin’s advice on volunteer engagement couldn’t have come at a more critical time. While not ideal, by focusing on informal helping, short-term assignments and virtual opportunities, these institutions may be able to activate a citizenry that has a long history of banding together during emergencies, helping their neighbors in need and putting out fires.

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Author: Jason Burkett, MPP is a Senior Consultant with the Center for Public Policy in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. His work includes public policy research & evaluation, strategic planning, and economic impact analysis, primarily conducted for state government agencies and Virginia’s General Assembly.

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