Are the managers/administrators of non-profit organizations different from other members?

This paper focuses on the profiles, the motivations and the involvements of voluntary workers who take on responsibilities in French voluntary associations. First, drawing on a national association survey, we contrast the characteristics of leadership volunteers with those of the French population as a whole. The results show that leaders are very different from the overall population even if these differences seem to diminish for organisations created more recently. Secondly, drawing on a national household survey aimed at studying participation in associations, we compare Board members with other members of associations. We find in particular that the former are more rooted in their local environment and they participate more frequently in several associations. Women are underrepresented among leaders. Board members are driven by more activist motives than are the other members. They give more time to their associations and they use more skills in their voluntary tasks than other volunteers do