Central New Jerseyans are connected to each other and the region, are educated and financially well off and live in communities with high levels of trust and diversity.

   So why don’t they volunteer more?

   This was the question posed by Nancy Kieling, president and executive director of the Lawrence-based Princeton Area Community Foundation, and discussed by other nonprofit officials at a forum on the future of volunteerism in Central New Jersey, held at Rider University on Monday.

   The answer, according to the forum participants, was would-be volunteers needed to be educated to the real problems that exist in their communities, needed to be matched with rewarding volunteer work and, above all, needed to be inspired.

   The forum was sponsored by VolunteerConnect, formerly Hands On Helpers, an organization that matches volunteers with volunteer opportunities through its Web site www.volunteerconnectnj.org.

   Citing statistics gathered in a 2007 “social capital” survey conducted by the PACF and Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Ms. Kieling said area respondents scored above the national norm in many ways that would indicate higher levels of civic engagement — citing trust, connectedness and diversity in their communities, high income and education levels — but actually spent slightly less time volunteering than the national average.

   ”Why are we only average when it comes to our volunteerism?” Ms. Kieling said.

   ”The number one reason people volunteer is because somebody inspired them to do it,” said Wayne Meisel, president of the Princeton-based Bonner Foundation, which administers programs at colleges and universities nationwide that engage students in service and civic work.

   Volunteers need to be informed how valuable their time is to the organizations they volunteer for, said Craig Lafferty, president and CEO of United Way of Greater Mercer County in Lawrence.

   They also need to be given interesting work, “something that is useful to the volunteer themself,” Mr. Lafferty said.

   He added, “You have to have something more for someone to do than just stuff envelopes and clean the fish tank.”

   He said it was up to those who staffed nonprofits to inspire and recruit volunteers.

   ”Your job is to go back and bring people forward,” he said.

   Although all the right pieces were in place in area communities for volunteerism, it could be low because residents couldn’t envision problems existing in their pleasant, close-knit communities — “that can’t be happening in Lawrence, N.J.; that can’t be happening in Mercer County,” Mr. Lafferty said.

   Herb Levine, executive director of the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness in Lawrence, said positive stories of how advocates and volunteers achieved successes often weren’t well publicized. Nonprofits needed to identify and share such successes as a way to inspire would-be volunteers, Mr. Levine said.

lotis@centraljersey.com