Feds Report Volunteering Surge in 2009 as Well as Other Volunteering Data

The federal Corporation for National & Community Service issued its annual Volunteering in America reportthis week, finding that 63.4 million Americans volunteered in 2009 by contributing 8.1 billion hours of service.  These figures represented an increase of 1.6 million volunteers over 2008, the largest single-year increase since 2003, and repesenting an increase in the volunteer rate from 26.4 to 26.8 percent.  For purposes of the report, volunteers are defined as “adults ages 16 or older who performed unpaid volunteer activities for or through an organization.”  The report provides either directly or through its website a wealth of information regarding volunteer demographics, geographic locations, and organizations served, including the ability to download the available data in multiple formats.

LHM