The voluntary work and charitable donations of teenagers are worth a massive £300m!
Because you are worth it!
Your volunteering and donations are worth a whopping £300m! A recent survey by Christian charity the Evangelical Alliance has revealed that "teenagers make substantial donations in cash and time."
The online diaries of school charity teams entering the Giving Nation Awards show loads of evidence of this with our schools raisingan estimated £295,123.86 for over 116 different charities and causes between them.
The Evangelical Alliance‘s Young People Matter report is based on a survey of 700 teenagers aged between 14 and 18 and reveals that young people spend an average 3.6 hours volunteering every month.
The report‘s evidence suggests that if those volunteers were paid the minimum wage, it would cost a mammoth £210m a year top pay them!
The fact that young people are actively involved in fundraising, volunteering and other charity and social actions is not news to Giving Nation. This year alone, 106 schools entered the Giving Nation Awards raising at least £295,123.86 for international, national and local causes between them.
It is estimated that each school charity team who entered the awards in 2008-9 organised an average of 56 events each per year. Some young people in Giving Nation Awards schools organised over 200 events and actions in support of the cause of most concern to them in just one school year!
So why do it?? The report‘s findings show that the most common reasons for volunteering were: wanting to help people (53 percent) and wanting to contribute something to society (43 percent). The most common factors hindering volunteering were lack of time (54 percent) and too much school work (52 percent). 41 percent said that gaining a recognised qualification would encourage them to volunteer.
Get Involved! Entry to the Giving Nation Awards starts in September 2009-10. Enter the awards and tell us the difference you are making at your school via a Giving Nation online diary. You can link the diary to your school‘shomepage or your own website/ social network site to show your community how you are making a difference.
