The good news is in 2008 30.7 percent of people in Austin volunteered. That rate puts the city at #11 among large cities in the United States. This is indeed a totally decent ranking.
The bad news is in 2007 35.3 percent of people in Austin volunteered, which put us at #5.
Did I also mention that in 2006 37.9 percent of people in Austin volunteered, which put as at #3?
In just two years we lost 7 percent in our rate of volunteerism. This is not because we don’t need more volunteers.
Why are we sinking? I know there are many people who are trying to figure that out so they can do something about it. All I know is, if we were dropping like this in our ranking of “best places for start-ups” or “best places for tech” more people would be doing some serious scrambling. Where will we rank in volunteerism for 2009?
Very interesting post…we see so many generous volunteers on a weekly basis that it’s sad to hear that the city’s volunteerism rate is declining. Austin’s full of generous people who seem to always be looking for ways to help those in need. Let’s hope we see a rebound in ’09!