Volunteering Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serv ...

is the practice of people working on behalf of others without being motivated by financial or material gain. Volunteer or volunteers may also refer to:

Volunteerism

* Voluntears, Disney cast members who volunteer their time for charitable or community causes * Loyal Volunteers, a white settler movement in the Conococheague Valley of colonial Pennsylvania sometimes known as the Black Boys Rebellion

Military and paramilitary

Military volunteer A military volunteer (or ''war volunteer'') is a person who enlists in military service by free will, and is not a conscript, mercenary, or a foreign legionnaire. Volunteers sometimes enlist to fight in the armed forces of a foreign country, fo ...

, may refer to either non-conscripts, or to reservists

American and Irish

Volunteer (Irish republican) Volunteer, often abbreviated Vol., is a term used by a number of Irish republican paramilitary organisations to describe their members. Among these have been the various forms of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) the Irish National Liberation ...

Volunteer (Ulster loyalist) Volunteer, abbreviated Vol., is a title used by a number of Ulster loyalist paramilitary organisations to describe their members. Background The first loyalist paramilitary group to emerge in the period of the Troubles was the Ulster Volunteer ...

* Volunteers of Ireland, a Loyalist American regiment of Irish ancestry 1778–84 *

Irish Volunteers The Irish Volunteers ( ga, Óglaigh na hÉireann), sometimes called the Irish Volunteer Force or Irish Volunteer Army, was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists and republicans. It was ostensibly formed in respon ...

Irish Volunteers (18th century) The Volunteers (also known as the Irish Volunteers) were local militias raised by local initiative in Ireland in 1778. Their original purpose was to guard against invasion and to preserve law and order at a time when British soldiers were wi ...

, formed to support the Irish Patriot Party 1778–85

British

British Volunteer Corps The Volunteer Corps was a British voluntary part-time organization for the purpose of home defence in the event of invasion, during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. History Establishment At the start of the War of the First Coal ...

, a home defence force raised as part of the British anti-invasion preparations of 1803–1805 *

Volunteer Force The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement throughout the British Empire in 1859. Originally highly autonomous, the units of volunteers became increasingly integrated ...

, a home defence force from 1857 to 1908

Religious

Volunteers of America Volunteers of America (VOA) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1896 that provides affordable housing and other assistance services primarily to low-income people throughout the United States. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, the organiz ...

, a social welfare group

Film and television

* ''The Volunteer'' (1917 film), an American silent drama film * ''The Volunteer'' (1944 film), a recruitment short * ''Volunteers'' (1958 film), a Soviet feature film * ''Volunteers'' (1985 film), a comedy starring John Candy and Tom Hanks * "The Volunteer" (''Full House''), a 1991 episode of the family sitcom

Books

* '' The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery'', a 2012 book reprinting a report by

Witold Pilecki Witold Pilecki (13 May 190125 May 1948; ; codenames ''Roman Jezierski, Tomasz Serafiński, Druh, Witold'') was a Polish World War II cavalry officer, intelligence agent, and resistance leader. As a youth, Pilecki joined Polish underground s ...

* '' The Volunteer: One Man's Mission to Lead an Underground Army Inside Auschwitz and Stop the Holocaust'', a 2019 book by Jack Fairweather about Pilecki

Music

* ''Volunteers'' (Jefferson Airplane album), 1969 * ''Volunteer'' (Sham 69 album), 1988 * ''Volunteers'' (Spear of Destiny album), 2001 * ''Volunteer'' (Old Crow Medicine Show album), 2018 * ''The Volunteers'' (album) (2004), by onelinedrawing * "Volunteers" (song), by Jefferson Airplane * "The Volunteer" (1966), a single by

Autry Inman Robert Autry Inman (January 6, 1929 – September 6, 1988) was an American country and rockabilly musician. Biography Inman was born in Florence, Alabama, and was performing on local radio station WLAY by age 14. He used his middle name "Autr ...

Places

Volunteer Hotel The Volunteer Hotel was a pub in the suburb of Balmain in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The pub is named because of its association with a group of volunteer firefighter A firefighter is a first ...

, a former pub in Sydney, Australia * Volunteer Island, among the Line Islands of Kiribati *

Volunteer Park, Armadale Volunteer Park is a football ground in Armadale, West Lothian, Scotland. It is the home ground of Armadale Thistle, and was used by several of the town's previous clubs, including Armadale F.C., who played Scottish Football League matches ther ...

, a football ground in West Lothian, Scotland * Volunteer Point, Falkland Islands

United States

* Volunteer, North Carolina, an unincorporated community *

Volunteer Park (Seattle) Volunteer Park is a park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. History Volunteer Park was acquired by the city of Seattle in 1876 from J.M. Colman at a cost of $2,000. When Seattle Cemetery became Denny Park in ...

Volunteer State Community College Volunteer State Community College (Vol State) is a public community college in Gallatin, Tennessee. It is part of the Tennessee Board of Regents. Vol State serves the suburban Nashville community. The main campus of the college is 30 miles (48& ...

, in Gallatin, Tennessee * The Volunteer State, nickname for Tennessee

Ships

* ''Volunteer'' (yacht), winner of the 1887 America's Cup * , the name of more than one ship of the British Royal Navy * , operational replica of a 19th-century canal boat based in Illinois, United States * , the name of more than one United States Navy ship

Sports

Volunteer State Athletic Conference The Volunteer State Athletic Conference (VSAC) was a college athletic conference which was predominantly for smaller colleges in the U.S. state of Tennessee.Volunteer 500, the original name of the Sharpie 500 NASCAR race *

Tennessee Volunteers The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in Division I of the National Collegi ...

, the sports teams of the University of Tennessee

Other uses

Volunteer (botany) In gardening and agronomic terminology, a volunteer is a plant that grows on its own, rather than being deliberately planted by a farmer or gardener. Volunteers often grow from seeds that float in on the wind, are dropped by birds, or are inadverte ...

, a desirable plant that grows on its own, rather than being planted *

Volunteer (capital punishment) In capital punishment, a volunteer is a prisoner who wishes to be sentenced to death. Often, volunteers will waive all appeals in an attempt to expedite the sentence. In the United States, execution volunteers constitute approximately 10% of prison ...

, a prisoner who wishes to be sentenced to death