We just hit our 700th vote and as I do the celebratory jig around the room I stop for a minute to think about why our relentless pursuit to stay in the top 200 these past couple of weeks in the Chase Community Giving program is so important for our organization. The potential of getting $20,000 is the obvious of course, but I’m reminded of why all funding we receive is important to pursuing our cause.

The Austin Business Journal recently reported that Austin ranks low for volunteering. We rank number 36 of 51 metro areas according to the annual Volunteering in America report put out by the Corporation for National Community Service. Furthermore, we rank lower than number40 for both young adults and teenagers volunteer rate listings. What’s puzzling is you would expect Austin to be ranked high since since we have a higher number of non-profits per 1,000 city residents than the national average and typically cities with more nonprofits per capita tend to volunteer more. Moreover, the ABJ reports that cities like Austin with lower-than-average poverty and unemployment and higher-than-average education rates tend to volunteer more. But this isn’t the case. Texas as a whole ranked 40th of of all states.

Of course there are likely many reasons for our low ranking in volunteerism amongst young adults and teenagers, but I can’t help but think that perhaps if we started early on with our children and included a regular routine of community service throughout their adolescence then maybe we would not rank so low. And if we could expand these volunteer opportunities to families outside Austin into other Texas communities, what would happen over time?

Yes, this is one reason we should keep pursuing the growth of our organization within Austin, outside of Austin, and to be a advocate for fostering volunteerism in early childhood through family volunteering. Anyone ready to hit 1,000 votes?

Voting instructions available at littlehelpinghands.org.  Voting ends July 12 at 11:59 pm.