Civic & Community Engagement

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Civic and Community Engagement » Summary

Why It's Important

Civic & Community Engagement provide opportunities for older adults to participate in unpaid services and activities within a wide range of settings. These activities provide a positive impact in the community and in the life of the individual.

See Data By: Richmond MSA | Virginia | National

How Richmond Is Doing

By donating time to serve, Richmond's volunteers make an estimated annual economic contribution of $816 million.
Volunteer Rate Ranking: 27th within the 50 large cities.
Average Volunteer Rate: 27.1 percent, with 284,000 volunteers serving 41.8 million hours per year.
Volunteer Hours Ranking: 19th within the 50 large citie.
Average Volunteer Hours per Resident: 39.9 hours.
33 percent of Richmond Boomers are volunteers compared to 27 percent of the overall MSA population. (CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE, 2009)
30 percent of employed Richmond region residents say their employer provides paid time off for volunteering or allows them to volunteer during regular work hours. (ODP CIVIC ENGAGEMENT, 2009)

Total Number of Volunteers in the Richmond MSA

(CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE, 2009)

Duties of Volunteers, Virginia compared to national average

(CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE, 2009)

Total Number of Volunteer Hours Contributed by Residents, Richmond MSA

(CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE, 2009)

Total Percentage of the population that volunteers, Richmond MSA

(CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE, 2009)

How Virginia Is Doing

Virginia currently ranks 29th among the 50 states and Washington D.C.

On average, Virginia's 1.6 million volunteers dedicated 233.2 million hours of service per year (between 2005 and 2007). The estimated economic contribution of the volunteer hours served is $4.5 billion annually. (CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE, 2009)

Volunteer Rate Ranking: 29th within the 50 states and Washington D.C.
Average Volunteer Rate: 28.3 percent
Volunteer Hours Ranking: 23rd within the 50 states and Washington D.C.
Average Volunteer Hours per Resident: 40.1 hours

Total number of volunteers, Virginia

(CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE, 2009)

Percentage of Population that Volunteers, Virginia

(CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE, 2009)

Total number of volunteer hours contributed by residents, Virginia

(CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE, 2009)

Duties of Volunteers, Virginia compared to national average

(CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE, 2009)

Areas of Volunteerism by residents, Virginia

(CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE, 2009)

How the U.S. Is Doing

Between 2005 and 2007, the nation had an average volunteer rate of 27.2 percent per year. (CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE, 2009)
In 2007, 60.8 million volunteers dedicated 8.1 billion hours of service to community organizations. (CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE, 2009)
In 2007, 60.8 million volunteers dedicated 8.1 billion hours of service to community organizations. (CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE, 2009)
Only 11 percent of Boomers are planning to stop working entirely when they reach retirement age. (AARP, HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW BOOMERS, 2008)
Two-thirds of Boomers are already certain of their retirement plans -- with more than eight in ten planning to work or actively volunteer. (AARP, HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW BOOMERS, 2008)

According to the AARP's 2008 report, More to Give: Tapping the Talents of the Baby Boomer, Silent, and Greatest Generation:

Four in ten Experienced Americans (41%) indicate they are very or somewhat likely to increase the amount of time they spend volunteering in the next five years, and nearly the same proportion (39%) of retired Americans report that they did increase their volunteering when they retired.
Not only are Experienced Americans interested in volunteering more, but most are able to do so. A majority (53%) of Experienced Americans is unimpeded by health or care giving for relatives in their home.
Fifty-two percent of respondents said that their desire to “help people in need” was an extremely important motivation for volunteering, followed by 48 percent who identified the desire to “stay healthy and active.”
Respondents expressed the most interest in volunteering through faith-based or religious groups (45%), by mentoring or tutoring young people (40%), and by helping older adults live independently (38%).
Respondents also identified key barriers to their civic engagement:

They prefer to volunteer without a regular schedule (79%)
They have no time (70%)
They have not been asked (68%)
They need to make money (54%)

(AARP, MORE TO GIVE, 2008)

According to a 2007 VolunteerMatch.com survey, over 70% of nonprofits surveyed agreed that the increased availability of skilled volunteers would be helpful to their volunteer program. In general and beyond skills capability, the vast majority of nonprofits reported wanting more information about potential volunteers.

Online volunteer recruiting tools such as VolunteerMatch.com provide non-profits with a powerful tool for to expand their volunteer recruiting capacity. Among nonprofit users: