Caring and Sharing Hasn’t Disappeared

Posted by Tara Greco

The annual “Volunteering in America” research report was issued on Tuesday by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). As usual, there is a ton of useful and interesting data about how, when, where and why Americans of all ages are volunteering.

On the surface, the numbers tell a great story:

• In 2008, 61.8 million adults donated approximately 8 billion hours of service through or for an organization to address pressing needs
• Service among young adults continues to grow (an almost 2% increase from 2007 to 2008) with 8.2 million volunteering last year.
• Between September 2008 and March 2009, more than a third of nonprofit organizations report increasing the number of volunteers they use

And, what’s even more revealing about this year’s report is its reading of the American spirit.

Conventional wisdom would expect service to decrease when the economy is tough: the job market is shrinking and more Americans are struggling to meet the basic food/shelter/clothing needs of their families.

Not only did Americans discredit this assumption—we defied it. One million MORE people volunteered in 2008 than did so in 2007.

This increase is more profound because during the same time period, charitable donations decreased. Caring and sharing hasn’t disappeared, it’s just taken a new shape. As the CNCS report shows, Americans are clearly willing to give time when they can’t give money. 

And, it also shows promise that Americans are willing and able to come together, community by community,  to help solve the challenges that our country is facing. According to the research, “Neighborhood engagement levels have risen sharply since 2007, with a 31 percent increase in the number of people who worked with their neighbors to fix a community problem and a 17 percent increase in the number of people who attended community meetings.”

At a time when the news is filled with stories about “cuts” and “downward slides” and “contentious debate” it’s refreshing to hear about “spikes” and “positive trends” and “collaboration,” and reassuring to know that there’s some real strength in these numbers.