Formal and informal volunteering, according to the volunteering in Hungary  2018
          survey
          Miklós Gyorgyovich

          Abstract

The Volunteering in Hungary 2018 research examined the situation of volunteering in Hungary on the basis of a data collection of 2,000 people, representing the Hungarian adult population by gender, age group, education and type of settlement. In our study, based on the research database, we selected into two parts and examined the Hungarian formal and informal volunteers. As international trends show, the vast majority of volunteers in Hungary also work (partly) informally, while one third of them (also) take on tasks as formal volunteers. There is not a sharp line to draw between the two groups in all aspects, but they have different characteristics in several respects that require further thought. On the one hand, it turns out that higher proportion of formal volunteers are under the age of 50, has a baccalaureate or diploma, live in a better financial environment, and they are more religious. In addition, we point out that the nature of the tasks performed by the two types of volunteers are somewhat different: while informals prefer simpler favors and physical assistance, formal volunteering performs a higher proportion of more service-centric and complex tasks. Furthermore, formal volunteers take action slightly more often, but the average number of days spent volunteering is higher among those who live volunteering in a more lifestyle way, for example they help informally in addition to the formal framework.

Keywords: informal volunteering, formal volunteering, primary research, quantitative data collection