Improving Gender Imbalance in Volunteering

Repair the World is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making service a defining element of American Jewish life, learning, and leadership. Repair the World is poised to move from grant making to program implementation, and has identified a gender disparity in volunteering as an obstacle to success, in both their own work and the service field at large. Repair the World commissioned the Capstone team to examine the current state of gender-based recruitment in order to develop a set of recommendations and best practices. The team conducted extensive research, both through a comprehensive literature review and a broad-spectrum of information-gathering interviews. The interviews focused on gender issues, participation in volunteering in religious and secular organizations, gender-based marketing, gender psychology, and identity development. Aside from the final report, the team created an outward-facing tool for use by Repair the World’s partners in improving gender balance in volunteerism.