Volunteerism Becomes Cool

Volunteerism and national service are getting high-profile attention, with both President Obama and the first lady giving the issue top priority. ServiceNation, a coalition of community-service advocates, now counts more than 250 members — up from 105 a year ago.

Next year brings a shift in the conversation, from how to recruit more volunteers to how charities can better absorb and manage them. A coalition of more than 20 nonprofit, government, and business leaders, for example, will continue work in 2010 on the Reimagining Service project, which is exploring the issue.

BEHIND THE TREND:

Mixed signals. Interest in national-service positions, which pay a stipend, has mushroomed, thanks partly to the tight job market and a new idealism among young people. Applications for AmeriCorps, the flagship national-service program, jumped 184 percent in the 2009 fiscal year.

However, the recession could impede efforts to promote a big jump in overall volunteer rates.

A recent National Conference on Citizenship study found that 72 percent of recession-weary Americans said they had cut back on volunteering and other civic activities.

Federal aid. The Serve America Act, passed this year, sets the stage for AmeriCorps to start growing in 2010 as part of a plan to triple the number of participants — currently at 75,000 — by 2017. However, Congress has not yet allocated the money.

City efforts. Local volunteer campaigns will expand next year under the Cities of Service program announced by Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York, and 16 other mayors in October. The coalition now includes 46 cities and continues to recruit new members.