Here's Some Good News: Volunteering Is On The Rise

By Mark Memmott

Published December 13, 2012 at 12:09 PM EST

Nov. 22: Volunteers prepared Thanksgiving dinners for people in the Queens borough of New York City, which was hit hard by Superstorm Sandy.

Enough of the bad news for a moment.

Smack in the middle of the holiday season, here's something that underscores how generous many Americans are:

"64.3 million Americans (more than one in four adults) volunteered through a formal organization last year, an increase of 1.5 million from 2010," .

The organizations also estimate that "two out of three Americans (65.1% or 143.7 million individuals) volunteered informally by doing favors for and helping out their neighbors, an increase of 9.5 percentage points from last year."

Of course, natural disasters 鈥� such as 鈥� increase the need for volunteers. So there is something of a flip side to this story.

But as we said, there's more than enough bad news around. Let's focus on the positive for a moment.

Note: That's just a question, not a survey of public opinion.

Mark Memmott

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists 鈥� helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.

See stories by Mark Memmott

开云体育

Here's Some Good News: Volunteering Is On The Rise