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Introduction. Volunteering is an effective tool for the development of society and a powerful personal development resource. However, ignoring the value content of volunteering in the mass organisation of volunteer youth associations reduces its ability to achieve social, economic, cultural and other altruistic goals. The formal approach to volunteering fails to meet either the public interest or the needs and expectations of young people. Participation in volunteering under the influence of external factors in case of unformed or controversial intrinsic motivation for this activity causes dissatisfaction with the work and termination of activities. Aim. On the basis of the value of volunteerism, the aim of the present publication is to identify and analyse the motivation for student volunteering. Methodology and research methods. The leading method of empirical research was the questionnaire survey among the members of volunteer organisations: schoolchildren, students of secondary specialised educational institutions and university students. The questionnaire was based on the theory of the motives of volunteering and their classification. The sample (N = 207) was formed using stratified random sampling. The quantitative research strategy included such tools as drawing up a portrait of a volunteer based on projective questions, using the method of unfinished sentences, the method of direct ranking of motives. The materials were processed in the programme Vortex 10. Results and scientific novelty. The study of the activity of volunteer associations existing on the basis of educational institutions indicates that such activity has become a compulsory type of extra-school work of students, which is veiled under volunteerism. Such “volunteering” is managed mainly through administration and is complied with the tasks of the educational institution. A typology of volunteering motives was formed, reflecting the subjective perceptions of young people. Comparison of the typology obtained with the declared motivation showed their consistency. When analysing the individual structure of motives, a predominance of focus on one's own requests, rather than on social problems, was recorded. According to respondents' answers, an “ideal type” of a volunteer is focused exclusively on altruistic values. An “ideal” leader of a volunteer organisation is characterised only as a manager. The key contradiction of youth volunteering is formed between its value essence as a free voluntary activity for the benefit of society and the predominance of egoistic motives for participation in it. The shift of emphasis in the motivation of young students to attitudes towards volunteering as a resource for personal development contributes to the growth of contradictions in real practice. The result of formalism, regulation and distortions in the reasons for volunteering is a disappointment in it. More than a third of volunteers leave volunteer associations due to loss or initial lack of internal motivation. Practical significance consists in scientific justification for the need to rethink and change the methods of volunteer management, taking into account its value components. The existing contradictions in the motivation of volunteers initiate the search for new approaches to the organisation of their selfless, socially significant work. © 2019 Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University. All rights reserved.