NEW ORLEANS — The Bush family’s nonprofit Points of Light will lead an effort to double the number of people who volunteer with U.S. charitable organizations from 75 million annually to 150 million in 10 years.
The ambitious goal, announced in New Orleans at the foundation’s annual conference, which concluded Friday, would represent a major change in the way Americans spend their time and interact with nonprofits.
It aspires to mobilize people to volunteer with nonprofits in the U.S. at a scale that only federal programs like AmeriCorps have in the past.
It also coincides with deep federal funding cuts that threaten the financial stability of many nonprofits and with an effort to gut AmeriCorps programs, which sent 200,000 volunteers all over the country. A judge on Wednesday paused those cuts in some states, which had sued the Trump administration.
Jennifer Sirangelo, president and CEO of Points of Light, said that while the campaign has been in development well before the federal cuts, the nonprofit’s board members recently met and decided to move forward.
“What our board said was, ‘We have to do it now. We have to put the stake in the ground now. It’s more important than it was before the disruption of AmeriCorps,’” she said in an interview with The Associated Press. She said the nonprofit aims to raise and spend $100 million over the next three years to support the goal.
Points of Light, which is based in Atlanta, was founded by President George H.W. Bush to champion his vision of volunteerism. It has carried on his tradition of giving out a daily award to a volunteer around the country, built a global network of volunteer organizations and cultivated corporate volunteer programs.
Speaking Wednesday in New Orleans, Points of Light’s board chair Neil Bush told the organization’s annual conference that the capacity volunteers add to nonprofits will have a huge impact on communities.
“Our mission is to make volunteering and service easier, more impactful, more sustained,” Bush said. “Because, let’s be honest, the problems in our communities aren’t going to fix themselves.”
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and AmeriCorps, the rate of participation has plateaued since 2002, with a noticeable dip during the pandemic.
Susan M. Chambré, professor emerita at Baruch College who studied volunteering for decades, said Points of Light’s goal of doubling the number of volunteers was admirable but unrealistic, given that volunteer rates have not varied significantly over time.
But she said more re