Statistics on Volunteering

Data reported by official sources, usually governments, around the world.

Of Course We Should Give Volunteer Firefighters a Tax Break, Jordan Golson, Wired, 2015
Doing Good by the Young and Old: Forty Years of American Volunteering, Robert T. Grimm, Jr. and Nathan Dietz, The Nonprofit Quarterly, 2016

Analysis of the 40 years of data about volunteering in America.

Evaluating by Comparisons: Watch out for the Traps!, Susan J. Ellis, Energize Hot Topic, 2001
A Great New Report to Praise, Criticize, and Use, Susan J. Ellis, Energize Hot Topic, 2004
It's Time to Start Counting Volunteers Seriously, Susan J. Ellis, Energize Hot Topic, 2001
Mystifying Data: Can America's Promise Get Away with It?, Susan J. Ellis, Energize Hot Topic, 1999
Statistics, Bikinis and Volunteers: The New Independent Sector Study on Giving and Volunteering, Susan J. Ellis, Energize Hot Topic, 1999
Troubling Numbers in Volunteering Rates, Paul Clolery, The NonProfit Times, 2014

Editorial on the data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Universal Standards vs. Your Own Situation, Susan J. Ellis, Energize Hot Topic, 2003
Value of Volunteering, Betsy McFarland, Energize Hot Topic, 2020
Wouldn't It Be Nice to Really Know, Susan J. Ellis, Energize Hot Topic, 2006

The following articles on this topic were published in our journal, e-Volunteerism. Previews are free; full articles are available to paid subscribers. You may also have 48-hour access to the journal and its full archive for US$10.00.

Employee Volunteering: What Companies Want and How Nonprofits Can Give It to Them
Getting Their Attention: YouthNet's Innovative Approach to Engaging Young People in Volunteering
In Giving, How Much Do We Receive? The Social Value of Volunteering
Investing in Volunteerism: The Impact of Service Initiatives in Selected Texas State Agencies
Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work
Measuring Volunteering: Why Wrong Conclusions Are Unacceptable
Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey
Surveys and Data
The Sky Is Not Falling . . . Yet! Ten Strategies for Shorter-Term Volunteers
Too Much? Too Little? Or Just Right? A Study of Accountability for Volunteer Contributions
Using Technology to Understand Volunteering Trends
Volunteer Retention and Community Service Self-Efficacy
Volunteer Transitions among Older Americans
What Data Sets Can Tell Us about Volunteering

By Emily Hoban Kirby, Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, and Surbhi Godsay, from CIRCLE/Civic Youth.

, 2011, pp. 23
Corporation for National and Community Service Research and Policy Reports

Various reports and studies on volunteering in the US, especially on youth service and AmeriCorps.

Giving and Volunteering in the Americas

From the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University, this complete online journal issue contains more than 30 articles by various authors on some aspect of philanthropy, volunteering, corporate social responsibility, and more in Central and South American countries (particularly Brazil, Peru, and Mexico).

Nonprofits Canada

Site with research findings and reports on the voluntary sector in Canada, with many items on volunteering.

Volunteering in America

Interactive site from the Corporation for National and Community Service, offering six years of data on volunteering, rankings of states and cities, and volunteer trends and demographic information for every state and 162 large and mid-sized cities.

Print and e-Books in Our Store

book cover Measuring the Impact of Volunteers

Measuring the Impact of Volunteers

Presents the innovative Volunteer Resources Balanced Scorecard measurement and planning tool for aligning volunteer effort with organizational goals and effectively assessing the impact of that effort. 

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