Aussie Volunteering Trends
20 December 2004 at 12:12 pm
A new report shows that Aussie volunteers give more than 700 million hours of their time.
AMP Foundation and Volunteering Australia have produced a new report on volunteering trends in Australia and internationally which shows that more and more Australians are giving their time to help others.
The report, Snapshot 2004: Volunteering Report Card, was launched to coincide with International Volunteer Day on December 5.
The report shows that the average time Australian volunteers spend in volunteering has increased in recent years. There is a clear indication that that the majority of Australians believe that volunteering is an important community activity that they will be involved in over the next 12 months.
Some interesting statistics:
– Australians donated 510 million hours to community organisations in 1997, and by 2000 this had risen to 704 million hours.
– By 2002, more than 1/3 of all adult Australians completed come type of volunteering over the course of the year.
– The time spent on volunteering each week increased by 66% between 1987 and 1997.
– The number of volunteers in Australia increased 10.4% between 1995 and 2002.
– Based on current indications, close to 40% of Australians will volunteer by 2005.
– Adults in the Netherlands and the UK spent 88 and 94 minutes per week volunteering, compared to Australia and the US at 45 and 40 minutes.
New research commissioned as part of the report also revealed that:
– 90% of volunteers said their motivation for volunteering was to help others/help the community. This was followed by “personal satisfaction” and “to use new skills”.
– 46% of Australian adults surveyed had volunteered in the last 12 months.
– 84% of the respondents who had volunteered in the previous year anticipated volunteering in the next 12 months.
– 71% of those who did not volunteer said they did not volunteer because of a lack of time.
Sha Cordingley, CEO of Volunteering Australia, the national peak body for volunteering says Snapshot 2004 shows that volunteering in Australia is thriving, and that giving time and energy to organisations is an increasingly important part of Australian life.
