BOISE, ID – More than 408,000 Idahoans spent 705,000 hours as volunteers from September 2020 to September 2021, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. According to Volunteering and Civic Life in America research, their time and effort was worth more than $991 million in economic value for the State of Idaho.
Idaho NonProfit Center CEO Kevin Bailey believes Idaho is fortunate to have citizens who are “motivated to make a difference in their communities through volunteerism, philanthropy and civic engagement.”
“We are grateful for the volunteers, donors and nonprofit staffers who give back to their local communities,” Bailey says. “Idaho relies heavily on nonprofits to deliver the quality of life that our state’s residents have come to expect.”
In Washington State, more than 1,545,834 formal volunteers contributed 118.7 million hours of service through organizations worth an estimated $4.1 billion.
From Idaho Department of Labor:
The Volunteering and Civic Life in America research is the most comprehensive data on American volunteering and civic engagement across the U.S. Based on a survey conducted by AmeriCorps and the U.S. Census Bureau every two years, data is available on volunteering through organizations, informal helping and other civic behaviors. The most recent results find over half of Americans, or 124.7 million people, informally helped their neighbors at least once in the past year. Additionally, more than 23% of Americans, or 60.7 million people, formally volunteered with an organization, resulting in 4.1 billion hours of service with an estimated economic value of $122.9 billion.
In 2021, AmeriCorps committed more than $5.2 million to support Idaho communities through AmeriCorps initiatives. This federal investment leveraged more than $1.2 million in other resources to strengthen community impact, build local support and increase return on taxpayer dollars.
Serve Idaho is a division of the Idaho Department of Labor. The commission administers Idaho’s AmeriCorps programs. Serve Idaho is funded in part by the federal agency AmeriCorps and the Idaho Department of Labor.
For information about Serve Idaho and AmeriCorps service opportunities visit serveidaho.gov.
