Aim of the present study is to validate, in the Italian context, the Volunteer Functions Inventory (V.F.I.), developed by Omoto and Snyder (1995) in the American context. V.F.I. assess the main motivational functions that drive individuals to begin and continue volunteer-ism activity. Partecipants were 508 volunteers, 182 males and 326 females, that provide dif-ferent kinds of social services. Principal components analysis and item analysis were con-ducted to demonstrate the validity of the inventory. The inventory’s factorial structure is been further investigated through the confirmatory factor analysis. Results show a six dimen-sions structure, confirming the results obtained by the American researchers. Multivariate and univariate analysis of Variance show gender and age differences for the six V.F.I.’s di-mensions. Finally, the validity of the scale is been probed measuring the correlations between the six motivational functions and two external criteria: the length of the service and the organ-izational integration. Keys: volunteerism, motivations.