The impact of your volunteer hours
There are countless ways to volunteer in community efforts that don't take lots of time.
Volunteering in your community can make such a difference — even if it's only two hours at a time.
Start volunteering
If you ask some people about ways to volunteer in community efforts, they might come up empty handed. It can be hard to figure out how to start volunteering, and our full schedules as well as uncertainty contribute to inertia. Many might feel an hour or two of giving won't matter to an organization or their community, but that is not true. Volunteers can make a difference to the community and place you are serving.
Volunteer hours
Even the smallest of volunteer hours and tasks have a big impact. Think about a small increment of time — perhaps simply the same amount that you might spend watching a movie. Give those same hours to local nonprofit and charitable groups and you can help bring lasting change to your community. Your acts of service benefit organizations by freeing up hours and resources for staff to devote to other efforts, making a profound economic impact. According to Independent Sector, one volunteer hour equated to approximately $34.79 to a nonprofit in 2024.
The amount of volunteer hours tracked by the U.S. Census Bureau can put it into perspective. Between September 2022 and September 2023, over 75.7 million people in the United States volunteered through an organization, serving an estimated 4.99 billion hours which contributed to over $167.2 billion in economic value!
Positive effects of volunteering
Small amounts of time spent volunteering can have a positive chain-reaction effect on you and your community in many ways:
- Reduces stress — When you focus on someone other than yourself, it can interrupt usual tension-producing patterns and help you put your experiences into a greater perspective.
- Improves health — Serving others may help bring positive emotions like optimism and joy and may help lower your risk factor for high blood pressure.
- Saves resources — By saving time for staff members, more money can be spent on other local efforts.
- Provides experience — You can try out different roles and areas to find what you like, and it could help you towards your professional career.
- Brings people together — People can unite together from diverse backgrounds to work together, creating close relationships and building teamwork.
- Strengthens your community — You can help support families, improve schools, support the local youth and clean up your community when you volunteer.
Ways to volunteer
Volunteering can look many different ways. Some examples could be picking up litter at the park, helping at a school, painting a house, assisting at an event, and taking care of animals at your local shelter. Volunteering can be also specialized to support your area of work or skills. If you are handy, you can participate in building houses or repairing structures around your city. If you love the environment, you can help at your local garden or clean up plants. Find ways to volunteer around you and look for something that interests you.
Employee programs and volunteer grants
Many corporations and employers have charitable and nonprofit giving programs. Check with your employer to see if they have a grant for volunteer programs for donating funds based on the hours you contribute to a certain cause. Some corporations even offer matching dollar donations to the nonprofits that their employees volunteer for or support.
In addition, some organizations offer employees paid days to volunteer. Others provide product donations, grants or cash donations. You may be surprised at what volunteer grant programs many employers and organizations offer.
Wherever you decide to volunteer, know that your time makes a difference.
