Two years ago, Charlotte O’Connell of Woodridge had an epiphany of sorts. She had been working in corporate America as a national accounts manager at Ameritech when she realized it was time to do something else–something more personally gratifying.
“I just felt like I wanted to do something other than spend all of my time working, which is what I was doing at that point,” she said. “I had reached a point where I didn’t want to deal with the high levels of stress, the corporate politics, the travel and a lot of other different things.”
So O’Connell, 52, quit her job. She took a part-time job as a marketing assistant for a company that creates software for benefits plans and she called Habitat for Humanity, where she would spend much of the additional time she’d created.
“I spend one day a week in the office and then another day a week on a construction site,” O’Connell said. “I’m investigating some other organizations that I’d like to volunteer with, in addition to Habitat.”
It seems more Americans are joining O’Connell in the ranks of volunteers.
About 109 million American adults volunteered in 1998, according to “Giving and Volunteering in the United States,” a national survey conducted by Washington-based Independent Sector, a network of non-profit organizations and corporate giving programs.
“That’s 56 percent of the adult population,” said John Thomas, Independent Sector’s vice president of communication. “It’s also a 13.7 percent increase from the last survey in 1996.”
The survey is conducted by the Gallup Organization and tracks both formal volunteering–helping neighbors or organizations on an ad-hoc basis with such chores as baby-sitting and baking for a school fair–and informal volunteering–regular, on-going work for a service organization.
The survey also looked at the economic influences of giving between 1994 and 1999. Prosperity, it seems, has been a boon for volunteerism. Respondents have increasingly reported more disposable income, which made them more willing to make financial contributions to charitable organizations and to volunteer.
There are benefits to volunteering beyond the gratification of spreading goodwill, says Carol Wilkerson, public affairs specialist for the Peace Corps Chicago Recruiting Office.
For example, if a volunteer is interested in changing careers or enhancing professional skills by attending graduate school, the Peace Corps can help facilitate these goals through its Masters International Program. “That’s just an added bonus for people who are in mid-career and want to stop to volunteer,” said Wilkerson.
For those who aren’t looking to attend graduate school, a Peace Corp stint, which is a 27-month commitment that includes three months of language and cross-cultural training, can still be career enhancing. “Someone may already have her MBA or other graduate degree but also want some international experience,” Wilkerson said. “Perhaps she may want to go into Peace Corps to perfect foreign language skills.”
Since the introduction of President Clinton’s AmeriCorps, which recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, volunteerism is all the more attractive to recent college graduates.
AmeriCorps volunteers work in community efforts that encompass education, public safety, health care, housing and the environment. It also works in concert with non-profits, including Habitat for Humanity, the American Red Cross, Boys and Girls Clubs and the YMCA. Students work a year in the program in exchange for tuition or tuition reimbursement. But the calling often has as much, if not more, to do with an inner drive to help, said AmeriCorps spokesman Sandy Scott.
“There are a lot of people who are turning down lucrative jobs to join AmeriCorps,” Scott said. “Notre Dame University’s top graduate in 1999, turned down a $50,000-a-year job and a Fulbright Scholarship to volunteer with AmeriCorps,” he said.
“One thing to keep in mind is what these people are making,” Scott added. “The average annual living allowance for AmeriCorps members is $8,730 or about $700 a month. After completing a full year of service, members earn (an additional) $4,725 to pay for college or pay back student loans.”
Scott said that AmeriCorps also attracts a substantial number of volunteers beyond the recent college graduate category.
“Even in these prosperous times, people are answering the call to serve in record numbers,” he said. “This year, AmeriCorps will enroll more than 40,000 people, more than will join the Marine Corps or Air Force.”
