They’re baaaack! Volunteers have returned to nonprofits, after the pandemic tanked participation

From local students completing community service requirements to remote workers giving time at a Hoboken pantry, nonprofit volunteers across Hudson County and the nation have come back after the coronavirus pandemic.
A new survey from the U.S. Census Bureau and AmeriCorps shows 28.3%, or 75.8 million people in the U.S., volunteered with a nonprofit between September 2022 and September 2023. A snapshot, yes, but nonprofit organizations in Hudson County have seen the increases and felt the difference.
“In post-COVID or late stages of COVID world we saw more people working remote and working hybrid, which allowed them more freedom to volunteer; and we have a lot of different time opportunities at our nonprofit,” said Jennifer Manzetti, director of operations and programs for the Hoboken Community Center (HCC), speaking about its food and hygiene pantry.
Volunteer numbers at HCC hit an all-time high of 615 this year, officials say.
The coronavirus public health shutdowns tanked participation by almost 7% to 23.2% in 2021, the last time the survey was conducted. It is not a full return to pre-pandemic rates of volunteerism.
Residents in tightly packed Hudson County have become more interested in engaging in outdoor volunteer activities in the wake of the pandemic, says Sam Pesin, president of the Friends of Liberty State Park, which is involved in Hudson River shore cleanups and other volunteer activities.
Pesin said he’s been told the volunteer programs at the park run through the state Department of Environmental Protection are equal to and surpassing the pre-pandemic numbers.
“The fact that we went from a point in this country where we were telling people, ‘Don’t come, our doors are closed,’ — the fact that that did not lead to a flatline or lead to a gradual increase, but to see more than 5% jump is pretty impressive,” said AmeriCorps CEO Michael D. Smith.
The survey on volunteering and civic life, conducted by the U.S. Census every two years, asks respondents if they volunteered at a nonprofit. It also asks if they informally helped friends, family
The free labor volunteers provide to nonprofits fuels a huge range of services across every kind of community in the U.S., with the survey estimating the value of a volunteer hour at $33.49, far more than the minimum wage in any state or major U.S. city.
The survey also reveals differences in volunteer participation between states, with a handful like Utah and Vermont at the top with more than 40% participation and a couple of states like Rhode Island and Nevada dropping below 20% participation at the bottom. New Jersey’s formal volunteer rate was 25.7%.
People in the Census’ New York-Jersey City-Newark metropolitan area are volunteering at a 25% rate, three points higher the pre-pandemic rate of 22% in 2019, AmeriCorps stats show.
The website and smartphone app Charity Quest, created by Hoboken resident Frank DiCola, is helping fuel those numbers.
Launched in June, 2020, Charity Quest is a free portal for both volunteers and charities that has grown from a couple nonprofits, HCC and the Hoboken Shelter, to approximately 50 organizations in North Jersey that range from soup kitchens and food pantries to recycling and environmental groups.
“For volunteers, it’s a great way to find out what’s available and when it is available,” said DiCola, a software engineer, game designer and part of the leadership team at Hoboken Community Center.
Compared to other adults, people between the ages of 45 and 54 volunteered at the highest rates overall, the survey found, and more women volunteered than men, continuing a long-term trend.
People with higher incomes reported volunteering with a nonprofit at higher rates than people with lower incomes. Many more people, or 54.3% of people in the U.S., help out informally, which could include anything from babysitting for a family member to lending a tool to a neighbor.
A little more than half of the 15,000 volunteers at New York-based Crisis Text Line in 2023 were 18 to 25 years old, said CEO Dena Trujillo. Overall, the survey found 22.6% of a similar age group reported volunteering for a nonprofit.
Crisis Text Line acts like “mental health emergency room,” Trujillo said, with volunteers responding to people in crisis by text 24 hours a day.
Trujillo said besides finding purpose in immediately helping people who are in crisis, volunteers report that they feel more equipped to support their family and friends and to deescalate and manage situations in their own lives after completing the training.
“When I look at young people, quite frankly, I think the issue is that the volunteering has to match what is relevant to that young person’s life,” she said, with many seeing mental health and well-being as urgent issues.
For the first time this year, the volunteerism survey asked people to report if their volunteering took place at least in part virtually and 18% of volunteers said it had. While it’s not possible to compare to previous years yet, Smith sees the embrace of virtual volunteering as a way to make more volunteer opportunities available to more people.
Another strategy organizations can use to find more volunteers is to draw from the communities they serve. The Federal Hill House in Providence, Rhode Island, runs early childcare programs, a senior center and a large food pantry. Executive Director Kimberly Fernandez said often the older people who help take care of babies in the morning will stay for lunch and an exercise class in the afternoon.
“Part of the volunteering that happens here is also part of the programming, right? So we don’t try to divide: ‘You are the service recipient and you’re the volunteer service provider,’” she said.
The spike in volunteerism comes as more people are finding it tougher to stretch their paychecks.
“We’ve seen a steady increase in the food-insecure community and we have seen the need grow outside of Hoboken, too, as people learn of our pantry,” Manzetti said.
“Rising rents and inflation are winning. We are seeing more working poor, people who have jobs, but are still struggling to make ends meet. People are going back to work, but they are still struggling.”
Shari Weiss Shanks, executive director of a nonprofit in Lincoln, Nebraska that repairs used bikes and gives them away, says that no matter the charity, there are a lot of different roles people can play depending on their interests.
“The one thing I would say about about volunteering is if you are angry or you aren’t finding a purpose or a cause, go volunteer for a nonprofit,” she said. “It will change your life.”