I'm serving on the City of Austin Volunteerism Strategy committee. This enviromental benchmarking study was one of the first project we reviewed to help shape the future landscape of volunteering in Austin, TX.

1. Volunteerism in Austin:
How we can regain our position and help
our community

3. Cities of Service
•Bloomberg Philanthropies
•Impact Volunteering Fund
•Grant provisions
•Chief Service Officer
•Four issue-based programs
•Recruitment tools

4. Concluding the Grant Process
•Make Austin model city of service
•Increase volunteerism and civic engagement
•Chief Service Officer Sly Majid
•Tailor to Austin landscape
•NPOs, businesses, demographics, culture and lifestyle
•Existing resources, functions, needs
•Optimize position of Mayor’s Office

5. Moving Forward
•Identified best practices, patterns in service/engagement
•Four themes in national service
•Austin’s high points
•Ideas for future pathways

7. Corporation for National
and Community Service
Volunteering In America
2011

8. Top Volunteering Cities
•Twin Cities
•Seattle
•Portland
•Salt Lake City
•Columbus
•Hartford
•Kansas City
•Oklahoma City
•Washington D.C.
•Milwaukee
•St. Louis
•Rochester*

9. The Themes
Demographics Corporate
Involvement
Institutional Support Civic Engagement
and City Culture

12. Population
Explosion

14. GROWTH RATES FOR BENCHMARKING CITIES 2000-
2010
Metro City
• Twin Cities 10.5% -0.35%
• Seattle 13% 8%
• Portland 15.5% 10.3%
• Salt Lake City 16% 2.6%
• Columbus 13.9% 10.6%
• Hartford 5.6% 2.6%
• Kansas City 10.9% 4.1%
• Oklahoma City 14.4% 14.6%
• Washington D.C. 16.4% 5.2%
• Milwaukee 3.7% -0.4%
• St. Louis 4.2% -8.3%
• Rochester 1.6% -4.2%
• Austin 37.3% 20.4%

15. CHANGE IN POPULATION AND CHANGE IN VOLUNTEER
RATE 2004-2010
20%
Change in Volunteer Rate from 2004 to
15%
10%
5%
2010
0%
-10% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
-5%
-10%
-15%
-20%
Change in Population from 2000 to 2010

16. Magnet for Young
Adults

17. Austin's Age Distribution
85+
80-84
75-79
70-74
65-69
60-64
55-59
50-54
45-49
Age
40-44
35-39
30-34
25-29
20-24
15-19
10-14
05-09
00-04
0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000
Population
2010 Census Data via
DSHS Center for Health
Statistics

18. VOLUNTEER RATE BY AGE GROUP
35.00%
31.80%
30.60%
30.00% 28.10%
24%
25.00% 23.30%
22.50%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
16 to 24 25 to 34 35 to 44 45 to 54 55 to 64 65+
Volunteer Rate in 2011
Bureau of Labor Statistics Volunteering in
United States, 2011 Economic News Release

19. Fast Growing
Older Population

20. Austin Growth by Age Group from 2005-2010
60-69
35.00% 32.90%
30.00%
0-9
25.00% 010-19
80+ 20-29
Percent Growth
20.00% 18.83%
10-19 50-59 30-39
15.76% 16.21% 40-49
0-9 70-79
15.00% 13.10% 13.39% 50-59
30-39 60-69
20-29 9.30%
10.00% 70-79
7.71% 40-49
5.34% 80+
5.00%
0.00%
Age Groups
2005-2010 Census
Data via DSHS Center
for Health Statistics

21. Bureau of Labor Statistics Volunteering in
United States, 2011 Economic News Release

22. “Majority-Minority”

24. Volunteer Rate by Ethnicity
28.2%
30%
25%
20.8%
20.0%
20%
14.9%
15%
10%
5%
0%
White Black/African Asian Hispanic/Latino
American
Bureau of Labor Statistics Volunteering in
United States, 2011 Economic News Release

25. Tale of Two Cities

27. City Examples
Rochester
Minneapolis-St. Paul
Seattle
Columbus
Portland

29. Local Support
Austin Pro Bono
•Connect organizations and skilled individuals who offer pro
bono services to nonprofits
United Way for Greater Austin
•Seeks the root of problems in the community to ensure lasting
solutions and to offer alternatives for a better life
Hands on Central Texas
•Program of United Way
•Strengthens communities through volunteer service focused on
education, income, health, and the environment

30. Government Initiatives
Conference on Service
•Learn, Connect, Be Inspired, and Make a Difference
•Inclusion of nonprofit, government, business, and faith-based sectors
Volunteer Recognition
•Annual Volunteer Recognition awards
•Lieutenant Governor’s Volunteer Recognition Certificate
Volunteer Management
•Thorough certificate program
•After certified, trainers are able to teach volunteer management
courses to nonprofits

31. Government Initiatives
Non-profit Liaison to the Governor
•Established in 2011
•Cabinet-level position which serves as a state advocate for
nonprofit community providers
“This position provides an important linkage between community
providers and the Executive Branch…of its ongoing commitment
to the nonprofit health and human services organizations that
serve as the safety net for 500,000 of the state’s residents.”
-Terry Edelstein

32. Volunteer Center Efforts
Wisconsin
•Partnership between Nonprofit Center of Greater
Milwaukee and Volunteer Center of Greater Milwaukee
•Over 600 member organizations following
consolidation
•VolunteerWisconsin.org operated by Volunteer Center
Association of Wisconsin

34. Austin Business and Service
•Job growth: 21.3%; 140,200 jobs
•Funding  Jobs  Growth
•Startups
•Lack of proportional service growth
•Unorganized business engagement structures
•Volunteering
•Giving

35. Unemployment and Volunteer Trends
Unemployment and Volunteering in
•Austin T Five Service Cities and Austin
op
40
•Lowest 38
Volunteer Rate (% Population)
unemployment 36
•Greatest affect 34
32
•Unemployment
30 Austin
relatively less affecting
28 T Cities
win
in top cities Portland
26
•Downward and 24
Salt Lake City
upward trends 22
Seattle
•Portland outlier 2 4 6 8 10 12
Unemployment Rate (% Work Force)

36. Volunteering and Job Creation
Volunteering in Top Five Job Creation Cities
40
Volunteer Rate (% Population)
•Salt Lake City 38
service not 36
affected by jobs 34
Austin: 21.3%
•Service in Texas 32
Salt Lake City: 13.5%
not reacting to 30 San Antonio: 13.1%
economic 28 Houston: 15.7%
Fort Worth: 10.8%
recovery 26
24
•Texas civic 22
engagement 20
2007 2008 2009 2010
Year

37. Good Business Practices
Companies
St. Louis, Anheuser-Busch
J.P. Morgan Chase, Tech for Social Good
Corporate/Business Volunteer Councils
Twin Cities, Corporate Volunteerism Council
Philanthropic Foundations
Columbus, The Columbus Foundation

39. Philanthropy in Austin
•1997-2008: individual giving fell 5.8% to 4.2%
•Young city
•Major corporations
•Multiple organizations handling philanthropic donations
•I Live Here, I Give Here
•Austin Community Foundation
•United Way

40. Top Giving Cities and Austin
City City Population MDI Med % Med Contribution Total Contributions
Houston, TX 2,099,451 $66,264 5.00% $3,332 $3,100,000,000
San Jose, CA 945,942 $65,831 3.50% $2,277 $1,200,000,000
Austin, TX 790,390 $64,597 4.10% $2,630 $790,800,000
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 1,939,022 $63,504 5.30% $3,394 $3,700,000,000
San Antonio, TX 1,327,407 $61,386 4.60% $2,846 $650,000,000
Boston, MA 617,594 $60,312 2.80% $1,719 $2,500,000,000
San Diego, CA 1,307,402 $58,845 4.00% $2,328 $1,400,000,000
Jacksonville, FL 821,784 $58,811 5.20% $3,078 $617,300,000
Philadelphia, PA 1,526,006 $57,523 4.00% $2,295 $3,000,000,000
Indianapolis, IN 820,445 $56,830 4.60% $2,632 $762,800,000
San Francisco, CA 805,235 $56,594 3.90% $2,180 $3,100,000,000
Memphis, TN 646,889 $56,240 7.20% $4,035 $703,800,000
Baltimore, MD 620,961 $56,161 4.80% $2,683 $1,600,000,000
Charlotte, NC 731,424 $54,862 5.80% $3,162 $1,100,000,000
Chicago, IL 2,695,598 $54,858 4.20% $2,296 $5,100,000,000
Detroit, MI 713,777 $53,508 4.40% $2,329 $1,800,000,000
Phoenix, AZ 1,445,632 $53,064 4.60% $2,445 $1,700,000,000
Los Angeles, CA 3,792,621 $51,300 5.10% $2,630 $6,700,000,000
New York, NY 8,175,133 $51,038 4.60% $2,361 $12,900,000,000
Columbus, OH 787,033 $47,696 4.30% $2,062 $735,800,000

42. Austin’s Culture
•Small scale/individual volunteering not included in CNCS
study
•Hours per person volunteering above average
•Matching personalized interest – likely more effective
than broad “volunteering” campaigns
•ATX niche culture: favoritism for “the new” works as an
idea incubator & a barrier to collaboration
•New Austinites have limited resources for orientation
•Correlation between election turnout & homeownership

43. City Examples
•Twin Cities: history of volunteerism
•Civic engagement in Milwaukee, Twin
Cities, Salt Lake City, and Rochester
•Milwaukee: “City of Festivals”
•St. Louis: home-ownership & neighborhood
involvement
•Portland: Office of Neighborhood involvement

45. Culture
•Vibrant and diverse
•Local and independent
•Active
•Artistic
•Pride

46. Higher Education
•One of the most educated metropolitan areas in the
nation
43.3% of Austin has a college degree
23.3% of Texas and 24.4% of the US has a college
degree
•High level of support from community
Approved proposition for new medical school

47. Tech Sector
• Headquarters for well-known companies, particularly for
semiconductors and software
• City support through the Emerging Technologies Program
• Diversifies job market
• Booming tech start up industry
 http://austinstartup.com

48. Nonprofit Community
•More nonprofits per capita than any other city in Texas
•Broad range of services offered
•Multitude of volunteer opportunities

49. Organizational Outreach
Austin Youth Council
Mayor’s Taskforce on Aging

51. Framework for Planning
• Thinking systematically
• Designing a centralized web resource hub which
supports and advertises nonprofit opportunities
• Structures for engaging business sector: incentives
process, Corporate Volunteerism Council, Chamber
of Commerce representation for non-profit sector
• Neighborhood involvement & investment

52. Contact:
Ellen Ray- ellen.ray@austintexas.gov
Carrie Powell-
carrie.powell@austintexas.gov
Anisha Vichare-
anisha.vichare@austintexas.gov
Taylor Timinsky-
taylor.timinsky@austintexas.gov