2018), and response influences from the length of the survey instrument (Steinberg et Relatedly, Smith et al. 2017) trust and confidence in institutions (e.g., Hager and Hedberg 2016) generational preferences (e.g., Cho et al. 2012) psychological influences on volunteering (e.g., Smith et al. 2017) love and compassion (Sequera 2020) the role of emotions (e.g., Ugazio et al. 2018 Neumayr and Handy 2019 Radovanović 2019a volunteering and helping (Radovanović 2019c) helping orientation (e.g., Maki et al. Other approaches include studying motivations for philanthropic behavior (e.g., Lam et al. For example, diary and time use studies ask people to record how they use their time throughout the day and study the amount of time donated within larger time-use decisions (e.g., Havens and Schervish 2001). Also, different socio-demographic groups of population engage in different forms of giving time. In general, respondents who reported giving time are likely to be found among the younger population, among students and those without health problems. There are differences in giving time according to socio-demographic characteristics. This research shows that providing direct help to people (71.2%) is by far a more common activity than volunteering to formal organisations (27.7%) and participating in the activities of informal groups (22.8%). Data analysed in this paper come from the first encompassing national survey on pro-social behaviour (N= 1,528) carried out in Serbia in 2014. Focussing on three forms of giving time in Serbia: volunteering to formal organisations, volunteering in informal groups and helping individuals, this paper seeks to address these gaps in the literature. However, volunteering to formal organisations tend to predominate in the research, and our knowledge on the factors that promote such behaviour mostly comes from countries where this form of giving time is well developed, particularly from Anglo-Saxon and Western and Northern European countries. Such activity can be done through formal organisations and informal groups, but time can also be given directly to people in need. Volunteering is conceptualised as an activity when time is given freely to benefit another person, group or cause.