We absolutely love volunteers! Not just because we are a nonprofit organization focused on volunteer listings and opportunities, but also because they are just plain awesome! Why?

Volunteers dedicate themselves to a cause or an issue in the community because they care and want to give back. They do not act for monetary rewards or even recognition. They volunteer their in many different ways from book drives to park clean up just to give back to their neighbors.

April is National Volunteer Month, so let’s celebrate the hard work volunteers are doing around the world by recognizing their efforts!

• In 2012, 62.7 million people volunteered in America.
• Thanks to those 62.7 million volunteers, 8.1 billion hours of service were logged for the United States. Imagine what the nation would look like without those 8.1 billion hours!
• 26.5% of United States residents reported that they volunteered in some form over the past year in 2010. Those 26.5 percenters individually contributed 34.1 service hours in their communities.
• The Independent Sector reports that those 8.1 billion hours of service were worth $178 billion in 2010. Each volunteer is worth $21.67 per hour, but they do the work for their love of the community, rather than salary.
• 23.5% of volunteers are actively involved in food collection and distribution. How many residents would go hungry without these volunteers?
• 26.7% of volunteers for education. How would our children succeed in school without the help of education volunteers?
• 11.6 million Millennials volunteered 1.2 billion hours of community service to their community in the categories of fundraising, labor, mentoring, and food distribution. Do you still believe that young people cannot make a difference?
• 9.2 million older Americans (65 years and older) donated 1.7 billion hours of hours to their communities. Older adults are able to find new meaning to their lives after retirement thanks to volunteer work.
• Volunteers with HandsOn Network affiliates impacted the service economy by $546,638,278!

Are you still skeptical about the value of volunteer work? We hope not. Recognize the work being done in your community via volunteers. National Volunteer Week is just around the corner, April 15-21. Do something special for your volunteers! Whether you want to alert the media about your volunteer events and impact or you want to write personal thank you notes for your volunteers, make this a week of recognition for the unbelievable service work happening every day!

 

The statistics used in this report can be found in the 2010 Volunteering in America report conducted by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

This infographic can be found via the Corporation for National and Community Service.

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