LOCALIZE IT: Volunteerism decline straining local nonprofits

EDITORS/NEWS DIRECTORS:

Volunteerism has been woven into the fabric of American life since Benjamin Franklin encouraged his fellow Philadelphians to establish America’s first volunteer firefighting brigade, the Union Fire Company, in 1736.

In 2021, American volunteers donated an estimated 4.1 billion hours to help their communities with an economic value of $122.9 billion, according to AmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service and volunteerism. However, formal volunteer participation in America fell to 23.2% between 2019 and 2021 — a 7% decline that is the largest drop the U.S. Census survey has recorded since it began tracking it in 2002.

Though volunteerism in America has been declining for decades, the rapid fall is further straining the nation’s social safety net, especially with nonprofits currently dealing with an increasing demand for its services, like food pantries.

The Associated Press has produced a series of stories set to run beginning April 17 to coincide with National Volunteer Week. We are making our first story, this guide with state data and an audio Q&A with Associated Press reporter Thalia Beaty available early on embargo as background for your reporting.

The impact of changes in volunteerism rates varies widely from community to community. This sets up an important line of local reporting. How has the volunteerism rate in your state changed in recent years? How are your local nonprofits coping with those shifts? Can they still meet your community’s needs?

Here are some ways to localize reporting on volunteerism.

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HEAR OUR AUDIO GUIDE

Q&A: Covering the need for volunteers in your community

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FIND YOUR STATE AND LOCAL DATA

Here are the rates of volunteer participation and informal helping in each state since 2017. The rates come from AmeriCorps’ analysis of U.S. Census data, which asks questions about volunteer participation and how often respondents help out their family, neighbors and friends each year.

The file shows the percentages of Americans who volunteered formally for any organization or association, as well as those who helped other people informally with favors such as housesitting or lending tools, in 2017, 2019 and 2021. The data also includes the same information at the state level and at the level of metropolitan areas for 11 such areas with sufficiently large populations:

New York

Los Angeles

Chicago

Dallas

Houston

Washington

Miami

Philadelphia

Atlanta

Boston

Phoenix

The file additionally contains breakdowns of the same rates of formal volunteering and informal helping by gender and by age group (generation). Because some of the survey’s sample sizes were small for Generation Z (born after 1996) and the Silent Generation or older (born before 1946), some of the percentages for those age groups have margins of error that are large enough to warrant extra caution. These margins of error are highlighted in red in the file when opened in most desktop spreadsheet software. (If you are opening this file on a Chromebook or in some web-based utilities, you will not see these highlights.) See “TECHNICAL EXAMPLE” at the end of this advisory for a longer explanation.

Please contact AP data editor Justin Myers at jmyers@ap.org if you have questions.

QUESTIONS TO ASK:

— Is volunteerism in your state increasing or decreasing? According to the data, Oregon saw a 15% drop in volunteerism through a nonprofit between 2017 and 2021 — the largest negative change in any state, though Arkansas, Iowa and Rhode Island also saw double-digit drops. Utah also saw a 10% drop in that time, but still has the most formal volunteers in the country with 40.7% in 2021. Florida has the lowest rate with 16% of those surveyed saying they volunteered at least once in 2021.

— What, if any, steps has your state taken to encourage volunteerism? Does it run a state volunteer center or otherwise support nonprofits with grants or trainings about volunteer management?

— What strategies are some of your local nonprofits using to recruit and retain volunteers?

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TALK TO YOUR FOOD BANKS

One place to look at the intersection of rising need and declining volunteer participation is your local food bank. Most food banks are staffed by a mix of volunteers and paid workers, but the current economic climate has made getting enough volunteers more difficult. The tight job market has made it tougher for food banks to hire workers, and they are struggling to keep enough volunteers to meet the growing demand for their services. Higher food prices and inflation have pushed more people to seek help from food banks, but often the nonprofits have been unable to expand their services because they cannot staff them.

QUESTIONS TO ASK:

— Does your local food bank have enough volunteers to meet demand? Have they expanded their services or are there now longer lines?

— What have local food banks done to attract more volunteers?

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EXPLORE THE CAUSES

Historically, volunteering has been strongest among college graduates, people who are married and people who have children. Many Millennials and Gen Zers are delaying those traditional markers of adulthood, and even their peers who do reach these milestones, are volunteering at lower rates, researchers at the University of Maryland found in a 2019 report.

Part of that decline is due to economics, said Mark Snyder, director of the Center for the Study of the Individual and Society at the University of Minnesota. While Baby Boomers are one of the few generations who have seen their wealth climb faster than the rate of inflation, he said the generations following them have not been as fortunate.

“Younger generations today are much more likely to work several jobs, more likely to have to share places to live long past the college roommate stage of life,” Snyder said. “These are barriers to getting involved. They are not all blessed to have the discretionary time to go out and volunteer.”

People may also choose to give their time or be involved in their communities in different ways that aren't volunteering with a nonprofit. For example, some may participate through political organization, taking part in social media campaigns or moderating online forums such as Reddit discussion pages.

QUESTIONS TO ASK:

— Do college students in your area generally volunteer?

— How are local nonprofits trying to attract younger volunteers?

— How have staffing shortages, inflation and other economic trends impacted how nonprofits recruit and manage volunteers?

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FIND LOCAL SOURCES

Here are some potential sources for local stories about volunteering:

-- Local nonprofits: Your local food banks, United Way, Salvation Army and other groups, like the local affiliate of the National Council of Nonprofits, can talk about whether they have enough volunteers to meet their current needs. Is it getting harder or easier for them to attract volunteers? How do they advertise volunteer opportunities and what if any requirements or limitations do they have on who can participate?

— State and local officials: Many state and local governments rely on nonprofits to help serve the community — including providing food, shelter and health services to those who need them. Those nonprofits often rely on volunteers to provide those services. Have government officials offered nonprofits additional support? Identify the state agency or office that coordinates AmeriCorps programs as they often give grants to support volunteer management.

— Local corporations: Many companies make their employees available to local nonprofits as volunteers, either for a one-day event or regular programs. Are they continuing those programs? Expanding them?

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READ AP’S LATEST

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EMBED THESE GRAPHICS

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TECHNICAL EXAMPLE: LEARN MORE ABOUT THE DATA

As a general rule, a margin of error is too large when it is more than half as large as the figure it’s associated with. For example, the 2019 estimate for Connecticut’s informal helping rate for Gen Z is 15.1% — but its margin of error is 11.5 percentage points, which is more than half of the estimate and should not be published without additional context and reporting. For the same year and state, the informal helping rate for millennials is 48.7% with a margin of error of 8.2 percentage points, which is well within acceptable limits. ____

Localize It is an occasional feature produced by The Associated Press for its customers’ use. Questions can be directed to Katie Oyan at koyan@ap.org.