January 11, 2007 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

How volunteers get their start

About 43 percent of volunteers became involved with their main organization—the organization for which the volunteer worked the most hours during the year—after being asked to volunteer.

Volunteers by how they became involved with main organization for which volunteer activities were performed, September 2006
[Chart data—TXT]

Most often they were asked by someone in the organization; about 27 percent of volunteers became involved this way. About 14 percent of volunteers started after being asked by a relative, friend, or co-worker. The person doing the asking was a boss or employer in about 1 percent of all cases; in another 1 percent of cases, the person was someone else other than those already mentioned. 

About 41 percent of volunteers became involved on their own initiative; that is, they approached the organization.

These data are from a supplement to the September 2006 Current Population Survey. Find out more in "Volunteering in the United States, 2006" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 07-0019. Data are based on the period from September 2005 to September 2006. 

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

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