{"id":4354,"date":"2019-01-28T03:21:15","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T11:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/?p=4354"},"modified":"2019-01-23T19:18:19","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T03:18:19","slug":"volusadata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2019\/01\/volusadata\/","title":{"rendered":"review of latest data on volunteering in the USA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2753\" src=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/cncs_1-300x133.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"133\" \/>The Corporation for National Service has released its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalservice.gov\/serve\/via\">annual report on volunteering in the USA<\/a>. And, once again, the way they present the data, and the old-fashioned view of volunteering, has disappointed me greatly.<\/p>\n<p>How was the data gathered? I can&#8217;t find anything on the web site to tell me. How many people were interviewed? Or how many organizations provided data regarding their volunteers? Where is a report I can read, to get more in-depth info, not just graphics and summary paragraphs? I spent a lot of time on the web site and searching on Google and cannot find this information anywhere.<\/p>\n<p>Once again,\u00a0the Corporation is\u00a0focused on a dollar value for measuring the impact of volunteering: &#8220;Over the past 15 years, Americans volunteered 120 billion hours, estimated to be worth $2.8 trillion&#8221; and in the year for this report, volunteers gave $167 billion in economic value. That&#8217;s right &#8211; volunteers mean you can eliminate paid staff! And also contributes to the mistaken belief that volunteers are free (they aren&#8217;t).<\/p>\n<p>The Corporation summary of the report\u00a0breaks down volunteering activities in these categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fundraise or sell items to raise money<\/li>\n<li>Collect, prepare, distribute, or serve food<\/li>\n<li>Collect, make or distribute clothing, crafts, or goods other than food.<\/li>\n<li>Mentor youth<\/li>\n<li>Tutor or teach<\/li>\n<li>Engage in general labor; supply transportation for people<\/li>\n<li>Provide professional or management assistance including serving on a board or committee<\/li>\n<li>Usher, greeter, or minister<\/li>\n<li>Engage in music, performance, or other artistic activities<\/li>\n<li>Coach, referee, or supervise sports teams<\/li>\n<li>Provide general office services<\/li>\n<li>Provide counseling, medical care, fire\/EMS, or protective services<\/li>\n<li>Other types of volunteer activity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sigh&#8230; so, where do these common volunteering\u00a0activities go?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Participating in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/volunteer\/onedaytech.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">hackathons and\u00a0wikipedia\u00a0edit-a-thons<\/a>? What if I&#8217;m not doing anything at the computer &#8211; I&#8217;m walking around serving drinks?<\/li>\n<li>Supporting artistic activities but not actually supplying them? Would a theater usher be under the &#8220;usher&#8221; category or hear?<\/li>\n<li>Volunteering to register voters go?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And what about this range of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/virtualvolunteering.wikispaces.com\/examples\" target=\"_blank\">typical virtual volunteering activities go<\/a>?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Managing an online discussion group<\/li>\n<li>Facilitating an online video chat\/event<\/li>\n<li>creating web pages (designing the pages or writing the content)<\/li>\n<li>editing or writing proposals, press releases, newsletter articles, video scripts, etc.<\/li>\n<li>transcribing scanned documents<\/li>\n<li>monitoring the news to look for specific subjects<\/li>\n<li>managing social media activities<\/li>\n<li>tagging photos and files<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And, as always: where is the information about the resources it takes to engage volunteers? It takes money and time &#8211; yet the report never says a word about this. Volunteers do not magically happen.<\/p>\n<p>I have all the <a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2014\/12\/16\/cncs\/\">same complaints about CNCS and its report on volunteerism that I had in 2014<\/a>, so I won&#8217;t repeat myself here. But please, CNCS, read it. Drag yourself into the 21st Century and let&#8217;s get the data we truly need to help politicans and the general public understand and value volunteerism.<\/p>\n<p>#GoVolunteer<\/p>\n<p>Also see:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2018\/07\/19\/speakout\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Trump\u2019s War on Volunteerism<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2014\/12\/16\/cncs\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">CNCS continues its old-fashioned measurement of volunteer value<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2014\/03\/07\/bls\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Research on USA volunteerism excludes virtual volunteering<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2017\/01\/03\/defendingnonprofits\/\">A plea to USA nonprofits for the next four years (&amp; beyond)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2018\/01\/15\/servicerequirements\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Governor Bevin &amp; Donald Trump Are Wrong on Community Service Requirements<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2017\/04\/26\/requiredtovolunteer\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Requirements to volunteer are getting out of hand<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2016\/08\/08\/kypoliticians\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Kentucky politicians think volunteers are free<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2011\/10\/27\/judging-volunteers-by-their-of-hours-no-thank\/\">Judging volunteers by their # of hours? No thanks.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2012\/03\/01\/do-not-say-need-to-cut-costs-involve-voluntee\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Do NOT say \u201cNeed to Cut Costs? Involve Volunteers!\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2011\/09\/22\/un-volunteers-ifrc-ilo-others-make-huge-misst\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">UN Volunteers, IFRC, ILO &amp; others make HUGE misstep<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2011\/08\/08\/value-of-volunteers-still-beating-the-drum\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Value of Volunteers \u2013 Still Beating the Drum<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2012\/02\/15\/volunteers-still-not-free\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Volunteers: still not free<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Corporation for National Service has released its annual report on volunteering in the USA. And, once again, the way they present the data, and the old-fashioned view of volunteering, has disappointed me greatly. How was the data gathered? I can&#8217;t find anything on the web site to tell me. How many people were interviewed? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[616,176,353,729,953,498,532],"class_list":["post-4354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-volunteer-engagement","tag-data","tag-engagement","tag-philanthropy","tag-statistics","tag-stats","tag-trends","tag-volunteers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3fFJB-18e","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4354"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4499,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4354\/revisions\/4499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}