Volunteers

The Cities of Service coalition has announced two-year grants totaling $2 million to ten cities around the country to hire senior city officials who will develop and implement plans to increase local volunteerism.

Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies, the grants will enable the cities to hire chief service officers, who will work within the mayor's office to convene strategic committees of service experts, conduct assessments of existing service levels, and identify collaborative partnerships to deepen the effects of local volunteerism. The second round of $200,000 Cities of Service Leadership Grants went to Atlanta; Baltimore; Houston; Pittsburgh; Austin, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Chula Vista, California; Little Rock, Arkansas; Orlando, Florida; and Richmond, Virginia.

The number of Americans who volunteer grew last year at the fastest rate in six years, according to a new report, defying the popular notion that hard economic times suppress civic participation.

The report, released today by the Corporation for National and Community Service, says that 63.4 million adult Americans­—nearly 27 percent of the population—volunteered to help charitable causes last year. That’s an increase from 2008 of roughly 1.6 million volunteers, the largest single-year jump since 2003.

NEW ORLEANS — The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has brought out thousands of people who just want to help — though there isn't much for them to do unless they own a Hazmat suit.

Directors of charities and BP PLC — the company responsible for cleaning up the spill unleashed after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20 — say the outpouring has been huge among people with vivid memories of Hurricane Katrina five years ago.

A recent report by the Johns Hopkins Listening Post Project, Nonprofits, Innovation, and Performance Measurement: Separating Fact From Fiction, reveals that there are widespread efforts in U.S. nonprofits to innovate. Driving that point home is the recent phenomenon of nonprofit restaurants.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 17, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The Charles Schwab Corporation's annual Schwab Volunteer Week begins today with a heightened focus on helping everyday Americans become more financially fit. This year's Volunteer Week, which runs through Friday, May 21, marks the seventh consecutive year Schwab has galvanized its employees to give back during a designated period of company-sponsored time off. Throughout the week, nearly 2,000 employees and executives nationwide will donate approximately 8,000 community service hours on 129 different projects, benefiting 92 nonprofit organizations, many of which aim to help alleviate poverty and provide the foundation for financial stability.

FALL RIVER, Mass. — The tattoo on Christian Berrios' right forearm says "Knowledge is Power." For a high school dropout in a city with shuttered textile plants and 18% unemployment, he needs all the knowledge he can get.