Economy down, volunteering up
Number of people getting involved grew during recession
WASHINGTON – Volunteering in America is on the rise.
Americans spent 100 million more hours helping their communities last year, a new federal report says, and the number of people getting involved went up by 1.6 million to 63.4 million.
It’s the biggest increase in volunteers in a single year since 2003, and it came in the midst of a punishing recession, according to a report released Tuesday by the government-run Corporation for National and Community Service. The agency oversees national service programs including AmeriCorps.
The rise in volunteers comes as the nation struggles to regain its economic footing amid high unemployment.
The report points to lower volunteer rates in states with high rates of unemployment and in cities with high rates of foreclosures.
Patrick Corvington, who leads the government’s national service agency, said people in these affected areas are still helping a neighbor in need or cleaning up a nearby park. He said the report reflects those serving through more formal organizations and nonprofits, and doesn’t capture those giving in other ways.
Women largely contributed to the jump in volunteers. In 2009, 36.7 million women volunteered, up 1.2 million from 2008. More blacks also gave their time.
Americans overall set aside 8.1 billion hours to lend a hand, with the typical volunteer donating about 52 hours for the year.
Raising money or selling items was the top volunteer activity, followed by collecting and distributing food. Others spent time providing transportation or labor, and tutoring or teaching.
People primarily served through religious organizations or social and community groups.
Fundraiser puts Gulf seafood on menu
BERKELEY, Calif. – Eat a shrimp, support a Gulf of Mexico fisherman. That’s the thinking behind the “Dine Out for the Gulf Coast” campaign in which restaurants across the country will be putting a little fish philanthropy on the menu.
During the event, scheduled for June 10-12, participating restaurants will be donating to the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund. Restaurants that are able to, also will feature seafood from the Gulf.
“It’s good that we establish a conversation on the meaning of something like this,” says chef and restaurateur Jose Andres, who is participating in the event at all his restaurants, including The Bazaar in Los Angeles and Jaleo in Washington.
DETROIT Melissa Foster has used Facebook to keep up with friends and follow the Dave Matthews Band. Now, she’s hoping the social networking site can save her life.
Foster, 30, recently put up a page on Facebook looking for someone to donate their kidney to her. She has since heard from about 100 people wanting to get tested to see if they would be compatible. Foster is thrilled because she waited nine years to get the donated kidney her body now is rejecting, and she might have to wait between nine to 12 years for another donated kidney from someone who dies.
“I am a little overwhelmed with the people coming forward,” Foster, a Pontiac native whose kidney began failing when she was 16 due to a urinary tract infection, told The Detroit News. “But if they all follow through, somebody has got to match me.”
Foster is one example of how patients and activists are using social networking to encourage more organ donations among the living and dead.
Transplanted organs have long come from those who recently died and made their wishes known beforehand. Michigan ranks among the nation’s lowest — 42nd — in the percentage of licensed drivers who are on the Michigan Organ Donor Registry, said Betsy Miner-Swartz, spokeswoman for Ann Arbor-based Gift of Life Michigan.
Donors must sign up for the registry online or in a Secretary of State branch office.
Activists have tried to pass stronger laws to encourage more participation in the registry and are now using social networking to spread the word that 2,943 Michigan residents are currently waiting for organs.
At a presentation this month, Miner-Swartz encouraged attendees to tweet the need for organ donors onTwitter, and a few days later nearly 100 more people signed up on the registry.
“Social media works in the world of organ donation,” Miner-Swartz said. “Not only are we better able than ever to spread the word, but we’re seeing tangible results that ultimately will save lives.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-mi-exchange-organdon,0,7090760.story
Federal workers aid suspect charities
Two charities blasted by Congress for letting down the military veterans they ostensibly serve are themselves receiving help from what might be considered an unlikely source — the federal government.
Highlighting a systematic disconnect between nonprofit watchdogs and the government’s workplace giving drive, the groups — Help Hospitalized Veterans of Winchester, Calif., and the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes of Ossining, N.Y. — are among the charities benefiting from the generosity of federal employees through the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC).
Continuing a tradition dating back to the late 1940s, the CFC aims to funnel charitable donations from federal employees to worthwhile causes. But the Office of Personnel Management, which administers the largest workplace giving campaign in the world, makes no pretense that it investigates the roughly 25,000 local, national and international groups that receive the money. That function falls to the Internal Revenue Service, which is responsible for verifying that charities fulfill their reporting requirements as 501(c)(3) corporations but doesn’t report on whether they are using their money wisely. As a result, charities have been able to join the CFC in spite of charges of mismanagement or fraud by Congress, state regulators or nonprofit watchdog groups.
Nonprofits may lose tax-exempt status
DES MOINES, Iowa – More than 200,000 small nonprofits across the nation are days away from losing their tax-exempt status because they haven’t filed a new form with the Internal Revenue Service.
Many of these groups already operate on razor-thin budgets and some worry an unexpected tax bill could force organizations to close.
“The nonprofits in your backyards, some of them are going to be gone,” said Suzanne Coffman, a spokeswoman for GuideStar, which tracks data on nonprofits.
From the Kiva.org blog:
We are thrilled to announce that for the first time in Kiva-history, a Lending Team has reached $2 million in loans! Congratulations to the Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists, and the Non-Religious Lending Team for recently reaching this milestone.
The team consists of 9,466 Kiva Lenders who have made over 65,303 loans totaling $2,007,500 in total amount loaned. This team raised $1 million in loans in just 7 months, and we want to thank all of the team members for their commitment to our cause!
Don’t forget to bookmark http://matthewroszak.info/
Official Blog Transition!
We will be officially transitioning the current video game industry blog over to http://www.matthewroszak.info, and revamping this site as a charity style blogged, themed with news and updates from http://www.kiva.org.
Thanks for visiting the site!
American consumers spend more than $25.3 billion a year on video games, both new and used, according to a report released today by market researcher Newzoo.
That number includes how much money is spent on new console and PC games, as well as online transactions and used games. But it doesn’t include sales of brand new game console hardware and accessories in the U.S., which last year included an additional $9.7 billion in spending, according to market researcher NPD.
The Newzoo report includes money that consumers spend on used games, digital distribution games, and online games. These spending amounts aren’t typically counted in retail sales reports. Amsterdam-based Newzoo says that traditional retail game sales are only 54 percent of total game spending. About 46 percent of the money spent on games is on used games, online subscriptions, virtual currency, micro-transactions and digital downloads. That means those categories account for $11.6 billion.
http://games.venturebeat.com/2010/05/09/americans-spend-25-3b-each-year-on-video-games/
Virtual worlds, those fully-formed, three-dimensional renderings of the real world, are waning as apps take off on social networks and mobile phones. But the mother of the virtual-world craze, Second Life, is bucking that trend and growing.
What’s more, Linden Lab’s Second Life virtual economy is adapting to the new business model of virtual goods. Last year, in the midst of the recession, Second Life’s virtual goods economy in user-to-user transactions was $567 million, up 65 percent from the year before. And in the first quarter, the growth continued, according to Mark Kingdon, chief executive. The world remains the largest user-generated virtual economy.
San Francisco-based Linden Lab is announcing today that March user-to-user transactions topped $57 million. For the quarter, user-to-user transactions were $160 million, up 30 percent from a year ago. The company’s monthly unique user number peaked in March at 826,000, up 13 percent from a year ago. This was at a time when virtual worlds such as There.com, Vivaty and Metaplace were closing down.
“It has been a vibrant market, and has become a full-time job for some people,” Kingdon said in an interview. “We set another record in March.
http://games.venturebeat.com/2010/04/28/virtual-worlds-recede-but-second-life-keeps-growing/
Casual game companies, which grew up as operators of portal web sites, are adapting to the new world order of social networking. Big Fish Games is doing that today as it launchesTreasure Quest, a casual games portal with eight games on Facebook.
