It`s the thing people know they should be doing, but aren`t.
Put it up there with going to church, exercising and dieting. Of course, people should volunteer and donate to charities; that`s understood. It`s putting more service and less lip into volunteering that`s the hard part.
The results of a survey back that up. According to the survey of 3,004 households in Cook, Will, Du Page, Kane, Lake and McHenry Counties, deeds are not keeping pace with intentions when it comes to charity.
The ”Charitable Giving in Metropolitan Chicago” study, conducted by the Metro Chicago Information Center under a grant from the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation, shows that adults believe they should spend two hours each week volunteering for a worthy cause. They also feel that 4.1 percent of their annual income should go to charity.
But, once again, reality separates what we say and what we do. The study reported that the same adults surveyed said they are really donating only 15 minutes a week and 0.8 percent of their income.
Now, 15 minutes is probably about the time it would take someone to drive to a charitable organization, and .8 percent of the annual income of a regular working Joe-say in an area like Orland Park, where the average household income is $51,748, according to the village-figures out to about $414, or less than a pack-a-day smoker spends on cigarettes in a year.
Although charitable giving in these amounts is commendable, if more people`s actions matched their intentions, hundreds could be helped and given a better life.
”Every volunteer organization can always use more volunteers. The difficult thing now is summer programs,” said Carrol Schiffgens, executive director at the Crisis Center for South Suburbia in Tinley Park, a shelter and 24-hour hotline for victims of domestic violence. ”Traditionally, volunteerism drops off in summer, and that creates a real crunch.”
The economic climate also determines the number of volunteers available for non-profit groups.
”The volunteer picture reflects the economy. When the economy is down, there are not a lot of part-time jobs, and the amount of volunteers goes up,” said Pat Rice, director of volunteer services at Palos Community Hospital in Palos Heights. ”Whenever there are some sort of projects that take a lot of people, many take part-time jobs instead of volunteering.”
Rice said, for example, she noticed a decline in the number of volunteers in the area when Orland Square shopping center opened for business.
However, an organization in Chicago that serves non-profit organizations is promoting a new campaign that could put new meaning in the phrase ”gimme five.” The goal is to boost volunteerism and charitable donations.
The Metropolitan Chicago Give Five Campaign will help provide non-profit organizations with more manpower and resources, according to Patricia Deinhart, president of The Volunteer Network.
Its goal is to encourage people to give five hours a week and 5 percent of their income to causes they care about. The group launched its campaign at a joint press conference last April that also inaugurated the Volunteer Referral Service, the nation`s first comprehensive computerized system for registering and referring volunteers.
Staff at TVN in Chicago and six other sites that serve a six-county area operate the referral system connecting people who want to volunteer with non- profits that need them.
According to Claire Fennell, director of development and communications as TVN, 2,100 agencies are included in the referral service database. ”So far we`ve probably worked with about 7,000 volunteer referrals,” Fennell said.
”Our service is increasing because of our ability in terms of finding them a non-profit that needs them.”
Chicago area businesses founded TVN nine years ago as a way to funnel
”in-kind” (non-cash) resources to support other non-profits with volunteer and material resources, Fennell said. During its 1990-91 program year, TVN ”recruited, trained and placed 1,023 volunteers from the ranks of business, professions, government and the public who provided 216,216 hours of volunteer and technical assistance amounting to $10,448,640 in equivalent consulting time,” according to its literature. It also supplied $1.8 million in material resources such as surplus office furniture, equipment and supplies to 204 non-profits.
TVN hopes it can motivate people to do their part.
”The main reason people don`t volunteer is they don`t know where to go. We`re here to give them information on what non-profits are out there and what`s needed,” Fennell said.
TVN interviews potential volunteers on the phone to determine the person`s interests and personal criteria such as geographic location and time constraints. That information is added to the database and matched with data from non-profits.
During its 1990-91 fiscal year, TVN served area organizations such as Christ Hospital and Medical Center, Southwest Suburban Center on Aging, PLOWS Council on Aging, Recording for the Blind, Tinley Park Youth Commission, the South Suburban Genealogical Society and Families Against Drunk Driving, according to TVN literature.
Six months after a volunteer is matched with a non-profit group, TVN does an evaluation to find out if the match was successful and if there are any problems, Fennell said. ”This service is free. The agency lists their needs with the system. It can only help them.”
The cost of setting up the VRS was $1.6 million over four years. It came on line last November, Fennell said.
”We`re the only volunteer center in the country that is collaborating and doing it on this level,” Fennell said. ”It`s the most comprehensive system in the nation.”
However, beating the status quo will require several more ”points of light” given the state of government monies available for non-profits.
”We`re trying to show people that there is a lot to be done in stimulating volunteerism. We`re finding more and more government cutbacks, and individuals need to step up,” Fennell said. ”Services are needed more but the money is not increasing. We`re trying to help people to utilize their skills in ways they might not have thought about.”
There is indeed great potential hidden in the Give Five Campaign. According to a May 3, 1992, Chicago Tribune editorial, if people gave 5 percent of their income, donations in the Chicago area would rise to $1.6 billion from $332 million a year. The philanthropy that money could fund is only imaginable. But action must come from the heart as well as the pocketbook.
”Time is the greatest untapped resource,” Deinhart said. ”Give Five outlines how much is needed from the private sector, and the Volunteer Referral Service provides potential `give-fivers` with a fast and easy way to find organizations needing help.”
