You asked “would volunteering continue to increase during the recession (in large part due to it’s self-marketing power) if personal branding did not take off?”

Self-marketing is an insignificant influencer for most volunteers. Very few people would openly tell you that they volunteer in order to market themselves. If they do, it would probably be at the end of their list of reasons.

The three prevalent theories for volunteer motivation are: 1) the need for achievement (pride); 2) the need for affiliation – concern for relationships with others (I.E. community); and 3) the need for power/influence.