$11,053,280. Jaw-dropping number, yes?  Keep that dollar amount in mind and I’ll get to what it represents in a minute. 

Because today is Labor Day, we are all taking a little break to pay tribute to all workers, here locally and across this great nation, who contribute to the prosperity, strength and well-being of our country.

But, it also sets the stage for another kind of labor I’d like to highlight; the labor of volunteers who give their hard work and talent so generously to the nonprofit sector.

A report from John Hopkins shows that a staggering 140 million people volunteer annually across the globe. This equates into a value of about $400 billion dollars of volunteer labor. Four hundred billion dollars! That is more than the GDP of over 50 individual countries!

In America, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) reports that about 62.6 million Americans, or 25.4 percent of the adult population, gave 7.7 billion hours of volunteer service worth $173 billion in 2013. They also report that in Wisconsin, 1.61 million residents, or 35.1% percent of the population, volunteered 163.8 million hours of service equaling $3.7 billion in 2013. By the way, kudos to Wisconsin because we are ranked 5^th among the 50 states in highest percentage of volunteers.

In Sheboygan County the number is also staggering. Independent Sector places the value of a volunteer hour in the State of Wisconsin at $22.24.  In 2014, there were 48 local organizations that were members of the Volunteer Center. As you may recall, the United Way took over the Volunteer Center midway through last year so we don’t have solid data from all 48 nonprofits. What we do have is the number of volunteers and volunteer hours that were reported by our Partner Agencies - the agencies that have programs United Way financially supports.

Based on the numbers from our 22 Partner Agencies, a total of 14,000 volunteers served their organizations in 2014 for a total of 497,000 hours.  Now let’s multiply those hours by the $22.24 value of a volunteer hour.

$11,053,280. 

I was completely taken aback when I did this calculation earlier this year. In fact, I thought there was no way that was right so I redid my math about three times and each time this huge number kept coming up. What is so striking is that this only represents 22 local nonprofits…meaning this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Next year, when all of our Volunteer Center members, which is now close to 60, report out on their 2015 volunteer hours, we could be looking at almost $50 million dollars of volunteer time given in Sheboygan County.  Talk about big impact!

Here’s some more big impact. On September 17 not only will we be launching our 2015/16 United Way Campaign, it is also the date for the 2015 Day of Caring. Here is the magnitude of volunteer impact in just one day through one event:

• 375 Volunteers
• 32 Volunteer teams
• 15 companies allowing employees to volunteer on company time
• 25 projects to complete at 25 nonprofits
• 6 hours at each project

This all culminates into 2,250 total volunteer hours given on that day for a total volunteer impact of $50,040. Not too shabby for a day’s work!

At United Way, we talk a lot about community impact, the idea that if we all work together and not in silos, that we can affect change and better our community for all. This level of volunteerism is probably the best possible illustration one could look to in order to define community impact. When a local nonprofit is successful in achieving its mission, our community is a better place for all and that can’t happen without volunteers.

$11,053,280 represents an endless array of skills, labor, time and talent. It’s just that those workers weren’t paid and I wouldn’t want us to forget the contributions of volunteers on this Labor Day.

If you are ready to volunteer, go to our website at www.uwofsc.org/volunteer and start your search through hundreds of local opportunities. There is something for everyone.