News

Blog - More Volunteers!

June 10, 2009

So we face a conundrum. (Yes, I said conundrum. Now I should probably look that up in a dictionary.) Volunteerism has increased. According to the 2007 Canadian Survey of Giving Volunteering and Participating, both Canadians and Albertans volunteer more than they did in 2004.

Seriously? Wasn’t everyone saying volunteerism is on the decline? Weren’t we worried that the fabric of society was being torn apart? Well, it turns out that the naysayers were wrong. The sky wasn’t falling. We weren’t witnessing the demise of civil society. But wait. I’m jumping to conclusions. Let’s look at some basic numbers.

Basically, we went up. (I know. I’m still trying to wrap my head around that one too.) Nationally, the figure went from 45% to 46%. Not a huge jump, but not down, either. In Alberta, we went from 48% to 51.5%. A pretty substantial jump. Not as big as some provinces (PEI is up 9% and Nova Scotia is up 7%. Even our neighbours to the East went from 54% to 59%... the highest rate in the country. Good on you, Saskatchewan.) but still up.

Another intriguing number is the average amount of time volunteers contribute. It went down, slightly. In 2004, the average volunteer contributed 168 hours. In 2007, it was 166.

While most Canadians support charitable and nonprofit organizations through contributions of time and money, many contribute relatively modest amounts. Most of the money donated and much of the time volunteered comes from a small group in the population – the top 25% of donors who also volunteer (i.e., those who donated $364 or more and volunteered at least one hour). These individuals account for only 14% of the Canadian population, but they contribute 59% of total donations and 40% of total volunteer hours. ~ 2007 CSGVP

Now I’m a statistics junkie, so bear with me.

What’s a bit concerning is the median number of volunteer hours. That number dropped pretty significantly from 61 to 56. That means that while there may be more volunteers, they’re contributing fewer hours. There are a small few that are contributing way more than their share. And that’s on the rise. Who are these “super volunteers”? 10% of Canadian volunteers contributed over 421 hours in 2007. That’s over 8 hours a week. One out of every ten volunteers contributes more than one work day of their time every week. I think if there are alarm bells, that’s where we should be looking. This 10% is being stretched thinner and thinner.

So what does this all mean? It’s actually all fairly similar to 2004. Have we made progress? I’m going to say yes. There are pockets of good news and pockets of bad news. But on the whole, I guess we should be pleased. Cautiously optimistic, even.

So pat yourselves on the back. Canadians and Albertans alike should be proud. The fabric of society isn’t being unraveled. In fact, it seems pretty strong. It seems to me that’s pretty good news.

Posted by: Scott | In: IVC

100 Ordze Avenue, Sherwood Park, Alberta T8B 1M6 Copyright © 2010 IVC | design by lift