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This article uses data from the 2006 Social Capital Community Survey to examine the impact of social capital, religious capital, human capital, and attitudes on volunteerism. Five alternative structural models are estimated. Tests reveal unambiguously the inferiority of the Tobit model and point to a double-hurdle model with independent errors as the best alternative. Major findings are that more diversity in friendships and more education increase the likelihood of volunteering, greater intensity of religious belief increases the level of volunteerism, and more informal social networking and formal group involvement along with greater religious participation increase both the likelihood and level of volunteering. Study results suggest strongly that the nonprofit voluntary sector has a vested interest in promoting policies that expand educational opportunities and foster civil engagement, social interaction, and religious participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the question of whether differences in four structural models of charitable behavior make any difference to the findings regarding the major determinants of philanthropic contributions is addressed. Using data from Independent Sector’s Giving and Volunteering Survey, giving and volunteering equations using the standard Tobit model, the “Heckit” model, the Cragg model with uncorrelated errors, and the Cragg model with correlated errors are estimated. Results indicate that the generalized two-stage approaches are far superior to the standard Tobit model for both monetary donations and volunteer time. For monetary giving, parameter estimates of the second-stage contribution equations are similar across the three alternative two-stage methods and there is no evidence of correlation between the first- and second-stage error terms. Second-stage estimates for volunteering from the Heckit and Cragg models with correlated errors are also similar and offer compelling evidence of correlated error terms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]