This is National Volunteer Week.
Volunteering enables nonprofits and organizations to do more with fewer resources.
- 62.6 million people volunteered in 2015, according to latest statistics.*
- The average volunteer donated 52 hours a year to one or two organizations.
- Religious organizations received 33% of the volunteer hours, followed by educational/youth services groups (25.2%).
- Parents of children under 18 are more likely to volunteer than people who have no children (so obviously our level of “busyness” isn’t necessarily an indication of the time we are willing to donate).
- 41% of volunteers became involved after being asked to do so (often by another volunteer).
So let’s spend some time in blog comments (or on Facebook) sharing where we volunteer and why. If you wish to invite others to volunteer, feel free! But let’s celebrate the gifts we each give to the charitable organizations that make the world a better place.
I’ll start right here:
- I volunteer as a Bible study leader of our church’s post–high school diner Sunday school class, because I want to keep college/post-college adults engaged in the church and in the Scriptures.
- I volunteer an hour most weeks in a 4th-grade classroom (with the same teacher for 5 years now), because education is a key factor in a successful adult life.
- I volunteer to attend and coteach a mini-Bible study before school at the elementary school, because kids need to know God’s Word and love it.
- I write a monthly blog post and weekly Facebook and Twitter posts for Wycliffe Bible Translators, because there are still 1,600 language groups without a single verse of the Bible in their heart language!
And my other “why”? Because it’s fun. And rewarding. And honors God.
Your turn! How are you volunteering? What’s your motivation?
I volunteer at the Good News Club which meets after school at the local elementary school.
That’s wonderful, Beth. Thanks for caring about children!