Volunteers Swarm to Help Seattle-Area Nonprofits

A central source of current volunteer data was not readily available. But the central Puget Sound offices of various nonprofit organizations say the number of volunteers they manage has increased between 43 percent and 85 percent in the last year.

Organizations attribute the surge in volunteering to a number of factors, including rising unemployment, stark social needs, a call to volunteerism by political leaders and the attractiveness of donating time rather than money during the recession.