Washington, DC – According to the Washington Post, Utah once again has topped the national volunteering rate, with 46% of residents volunteering. The national rate of 25.4% is far lower. At an average of 75.5 volunteer hours per person, each resident of Utah spent more than twice the national average of 32.1 hours.
Utah has a long heritage of volunteer service. That spirit lead to the creation of Samaritan and remains our mission today. “Samaritan Technologies began designing volunteer management software in a Volunteer Center,” stated Samaritan’s co-founder Todd McMullin. “We honor everyone who takes time from their busy lives to help others in a myriad of ways such as cleaning up a park, serving as a docent, assisting persons in need, or mentoring.”
The Corporation for National and Community Services (CNCS) released Volunteering and Civic Engagement in Utah Trends and Highlights Overview for Utah in for 2013 in the 2014 Volunteering and Civic Life in America (VCLA) report. According to the U Serve Utah website, “At a press conference on Wednesday with Lt. Governor Cox the Utah Commission on Service and Volunteerism announced the report ranked Utah as the No. 1 volunteering state in the nation for the ninth year running.”
The nine year streak is a unique accomplishment for any state in the nation. In awarding Utah the highest honor for volunteerism, the report cited the following statistics:
- 45.3% of residents volunteer, ranking them 1st among the 50 states and Washington, DC.
- 937,770 volunteers
- 154.9 million hours of service
- $3.5 billion of service contributed
- 75.5 volunteer hours per capita
- 77.9% of residents engage in “informal volunteering” (for example, doing favors for neighbors)
For nearly 19 years, Samaritan Technologies has worked to become the industry standard for volunteer software that effectively recruits, retains, coordinates, tracks, and reports the activities of volunteers. Samaritan welcomes your contributions. Please send us your stories of volunteerism. We would love to share them!