Research Outline

U.S. Volunteerism

Goals

The goals of this research are to find the 2019 volunteerism rate in the U.S., the 2019 teen volunteerism rate in the U.S., statistics about online/virtual volunteerism from prior years, and the percentage of people who transitioned to virtual volunteering due to COVID-19. This information will be used for writing an article.

Early Findings

  • The only 2019 volunteerism statistic we found pertaining to the U.S. is that 26% "of employers [are] offering paid time off for volunteering." A screenshot of that bar graph from Statista is included in this Google Doc.
  • A 2018 research study found that 35% of Americans volunteered in 2018.
  • In 2018, 13.01% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 volunteered.
  • According the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 26.4% of U.S. teens between the ages of 16 and 19 volunteered in 2015.

Summary of Initial Research

  • Our initial research indicates that both the national and teen volunteering rate in 2019 are unlikely to be available, as we found no such data whatsoever for that year. Year 2018 was the most-recent data we could find (for national), which we provided above. Though we aren't certain whether a more-recent teen volunteering rate is available (compared to 2015), we think there's a reasonable chance of finding such information through further research.
  • Our initial research did not find any data about online/virtual volunteerism rates either prior to or after COVID-19 pertaining to the U.S. However, we believe that we can find 3-5 statistics of specific organizations' online/volunteerism rates (i.e. said rate for the United Nations).