Giving Compass' Take:

• Elysia Gabe reports that politics influence volunteer behaviors. Organizations saw an increase in volunteers with the 2016 election. 

• How can organizations maintain the volunteer momentum created by politics? 

• Learn about strategies to engage millennial volunteers.

With the most recent presidential campaign, the U.S. saw a major upswing in civic engagement behavior, including protests, marches and large donations to specific causes and organizations. However, no one was tracking whether there were also changes happening to volunteer behavior. So I, with the help of many others including VolunteerMatch, embarked on a study to find an answer using data.

What we found was most organizations saw a small increase in the number of volunteer applications and people becoming active volunteers. In addition, many organizations identified that they were receiving expressions of interest in volunteering from people they normally wouldn’t, as well as those who had no prior affiliation with them.

Organizations said that over a fifth of volunteer applicants referenced the political climate as a motivation to volunteer. Meanwhile, almost a third of volunteers in the study indicated that what was happening politically in the U.S. was a motivation for them to volunteer.

A significant number of brand new volunteers were inspired by the political landscape to become volunteers for the first time — almost 10% of the individual respondents. Happily, almost all of these new volunteers strongly intend to continue volunteering.

Read the full article about politics and volunteer behavior by Elysia Gabe at Volunteer Match.