In an article published last year in the International Journal for Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Marketing I showed that incidental similarities between donors and solicitors promote giving. Alumni of Utrecht University who were solicited for donations in a phonaton were more likely to donate when their names matched the names of solicitors and the university.

Does volunteering promote trust? One would expect volunteers to be more trusting than non-volunteers. And indeed they are. But does a change in volunteering bring about a change in trust? It appears they do not. An analysis of data from the Giving in the Netherlands Panel Survey shows that people who are more trusting are more likely to start volunteering. But becoming a volunteer does not make them more trusting.