Looking for stats on volunteerism in the U.S.? The Corporation for National and Community Service recently released their annual report. Some of the more interesting tidbits include:
In 2007, 60.8 million volunteers gave 8.1 billion hours of service.
More than 3.7 million volunteers in the U.S. traveled more than 120 miles from their home to serve (especially in the Gulf Coast region affected by 2005's Hurricane Katrina) while 1.1 million volunteered abroad with an organization outside the U.S.
Volunteers in the U.S. watch significantly less television than non-volunteers.
Along with the release of new stats for the country, the Corporation also launched a new interactive website where citizens and volunteer management professionals can learn more about how their individual communities volunteer. For example, you can check out the rankings to see which states and large and mid-sized cities have the highest volunteering rates (this year's trophies go to Utah, Minneapolis-St Paul, and Provo, UT, respectively). You can also read up on trends, stats, and highlights for your region, state, or any one of 162 communities. Finally, you can check out their collection of tools and effective practices.
Know of any other great sources for statistics that we should list? Please let us know!
Susan Ellis’s Hot Topic
Thanks to our partnership with Susan Ellis and Energize, Inc., we’re thrilled to host her monthly Hot Topic discussion here:
August 2008: The Yin and Yang of China's Olympic Volunteers
"1.7 million Chinese have gone through a rigorous application, screening, and training process to become Olympic volunteers, but much of the press coverage to date treats this not as quality volunteer management, but as suspect 'government control.' Susan challenges readers to watch Olympics reporting carefully this month and report back on positives, negatives, and contradictions revealed."
