Many Americans Want To Volunteer But Don’t

By Kate | Permalink | No Comments | March 12th, 2007 | Trackback

Recently I came across an article confirming the title of this post with the results of a small, 1,100 person telephone survey by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans (this is a “Fortune 500 financial services membership organization helping nearly 3 million members achieve their financial goals and give back to their communities”).

Some of the more notable findings were:

• 53% of respondents said money was easier to give than time (30%).
• 65% said they would be willing to serve meals to homeless people, but just 12% had done so during the past 12 months.
• 64% said they had performed some type of volunteer activity in 2006, but 22% more said they would be willing to volunteer but hadn’t done so.

I think as with many things, people just aren’t able to do everything they’d like to or hope to. In practice I also think that volunteering, even at home, can end up being harder to organize – and with perhaps less of an explicit reward – than expected. There are also many activities people do in the normal course of life that are just not considered volunteering, but which help others nonetheless.

The fact that people often considered it easier to donate than to volunteer is interesting as well. At first glance, it may seem not so positive: I think there is an often unspoken sense that donating your time is somehow more valuable than donating your money. However there are so many facets to this question that I don’t think the answer is as simple as it seems. Selecting a good organization is imperative and shouldn’t be taken for granted; but a donation to the right organization can also go a long way.

I think current events at a country and international level have influenced the way people in the US look at the world and also at volunteer work and may be one of the causes of this current interest in volunteering…is it beneficial to make it “easier” to volunteer? And if so, how can that be done?

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