The Value of Volunteering: New York and National Data

September 11th has become recognized as our National "Day of Service". In 2009, Congress designated September 11th as a National Day of Service and Remembrance under bipartisan federal law, and charged the Corporation for National and Community Service with helping to support this effort across the country. Similarly, April is National Volunteer Month, which grew out of National Volunteer Week. National Volunteer Week began in 1974 when President Richard Nixon signed an executive order establishing the week as an annual celebration of volunteering. Every president since has signed a proclamation promoting National Volunteer Week.

Obviously volunteering is a large part of our culture. But how large ? And at what cost?

New York, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), ranks only ahead of Louisiana when it comes to our volunteer rate. What is the volunteer rate? It's defined as the percentage of individuals who responded on the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey's Volunteer Supplement that they had performed unpaid volunteer activities for or through an organization at any point during the 12 preceding months. While the national volunteer rate was 26.8% in 2011, only 20.7% of New Yorkers volunteered during that same time period. In Louisiana, 19.4% had volunteered services in comparison.  Here's a couple other graphics that they have about New York volunteer services. Click any of the graphics below to see larger versions.

New York versus National Volunteerism 2002-2011

Urban, Suburban, Rural Volunteers in New York

Types of Volunteerism Among New Yorkers

 Among the things the CNCS highlights are the following when it comes to New York volunteerism:

• More than 3 million people volunteered during 2011
• They provided more than 410 million hours of service
• This averages to 26.6 volunteer hours per resident of New York State
• Almost 60% of residents said that they do favors for their neighbors

Of course non-profit organizations rely heavily on volunteers to provide their needed services. According to the independentsector.org, New York has more than 100,000 nonprofit organizations. They are broken out by the type of agency below.

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Independent Sector goes on to point out that:

• New York nonprofits employ 1.25 million people–15%of the state’s workforce
• New York nonprofits pay wages of $55.6 billion
• New York nonprofits hold assets of $372 billion and generate annual revenues of $194.7 billion
• New York City nonprofits employ 500,000 people –15% of NYC’s workforce and are the city’s largest private employer
• New York foundations annually give over $6.9 billion and rank first in the USA in total giving

But the question that many organizations wish they could put their finger on is the value of their volunteers. It is very difficult to put a dollar value on volunteer time. Volunteers provide many intangibles that can not be easily quantified. For example, volunteers demonstrate the amount of support an organization has within a community, provide work for short periods of time, and provide support on a wide range of projects.

That being said, the Independent Sector has worked with Bureau of Labor Statistics data to determine the average value of volunteer time based on the hourly earnings of all production and non-supervisory workers on private non-farm payrolls. The Independent Sector indexed this figure to determine state values and then increased it by 12 percent to estimate for fringe benefits. In essence the value of volunteer time presented here is the average wage of non-management, non-agricultural workers plus a fringe of 12%.

Below, then, is their table which suggests that the the value of a volunteer hour of service in New York is more than $28. Perhaps this can help put all those volunteer hours out there in our region in perspective!

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26.6 volunteer hours per resident.

59.3% do favors for their neighbors.

87.4% eat dinner with their family a few times a week or more.

52.3% discuss politics a few times a month or more.

3.22 million volunteers.

413.2 million hours of service.

$9.0 billion of service contributed.

- See more at: http://www.volunteeringinamerica.gov/NY#sthash.J6ow54bC.dpuf

The percentage of individuals who responded on the Current Population Survey's Volunteer Supplement that they had performed unpaid volunteer activities for or through an organization at any point during the 12-month period that preceded the survey.

The percentage of individuals who responded on the Current Population Survey's Volunteer Supplement that they had performed unpaid volunteer activities for or through an organization at any point during the 12-month period that preceded the survey. - See more at: http://www.volunteeringinamerica.gov/about/glossary.cfm#volunteer_rate

The percentage of individuals who responded on the Current Population Survey's Volunteer Supplement that they had performed unpaid volunteer activities for or through an organization at any point during the 12-month period that preceded the survey. - See more at: http://www.volunteeringinamerica.gov/about/glossary.cfm#volunteer_rate