MKE & WI Stand Atop Volunteering Report, But Men Lag Behind Women

Here you can see MKE topping the national average

While one of my goals is always to increase volunteering among men, it appears that the city of Milwaukee and our entire state are doing pretty well in a general sense. A new report by The Corporation for National & Community Service, a federal agency that promotes public service, rates Milwaukee as number 3 of the 51 largest MSAs and Wisconsin overall in the top 10 of all states at number 8. I can't say how proud it makes me to live in a city that often takes heat from the rest of the state to take such high honors in this type of report.


The report, which reviewed states' volunteer rates between 2010 and 2012, shows some great numbers for our city and state.

Overall, in Milwaukee, WI in 2012:

• 33.6% of residents volunteer, ranking them 3rd among the 51 largest MSAs.
• 42.8 volunteer hours per resident.
• 380,000 volunteers.
• 50.1 million hours of service.
• $1.1 billion of service contributed.
• 65.3% of residents donate to charity.
• 12.3% of residents participate in public meetings.
• 45.4% of residents over age 55 volunteer.

Overall, in Wisconsin in 2012:

• 35.6% of residents volunteer, ranking them 8th among the 50 states and Washington, DC.
• 36.7 volunteer hours per resident.
• 1.62 million volunteers.
• 165.3 million hours of service.
• $3.1 billion of service contributed.
• 60.6% of residents donate to charity.
• 13.6% of residents participate in public meetings.
• 34.7% of residents over age 55 volunteer.

Though we are the largest metropolitan area in Wisconsin, it is still impressive that Milwaukee alone accounts for 1/3 of the state's hours of service (.5 of 1.6 million) and money donated (1.1 of 3.1 billion) with a higher number of hours per resident and higher percentage of residents donating than the state average.

The report also proves what I had thought for the past years and spurred me to start GMM: that women volunteer more than men. Nationally, 29.5% of women volunteer for 4.5 billion hours of service while men are at 23% volunteer rate for 3.4 billion hours of service - nearly 1/3 higher hours.

If Milwaukee is this good already, just think where we can place on the lists if we can get more men involved and make Milwaukee & its men Greater at volunteering. If you want to find volunteer and charitable opportunities, here is a list of ones available in Milwaukee. Let's all work together and see if we can get Milwaukee to be #1 and take Wisconsin along with us to the top.