Regardless of a person’s education level, gender, or age, performing arts attendance increases the probability of volunteering by 25 percentage points. Moreover, levels of activity, including arts and sports attendance, are better predictors of volunteering than are demographic traits.

More than 1.6 million Americans volunteered with arts or cultural organizations in 2005. In contrast to volunteers with other types of organizations, arts volunteers are older, better educated, and more giving of their time. More than 7 million Americans, meanwhile, provided free artistic services to non-arts groups such as schools or churches.