Volunteer Org Advocacy Group

I'm not stating any group should join, but they do have a wealth of information on demographics, volunteer retention, use of donations, etc. The lowest annual dues are $350. I also couldn't get to their sample newsletter, so can't state whether that's a good item to look at or not, but their free information IS.

The Power of the Hour
The estimated dollar value of volunteer time is $18.04 per hour for 2005.
The link has a table that provides a historical look at volunteering and its estimated dollar value. Assuming that the same number of volunteer hours was served in 2005 as in 2000, the total dollar value of volunteer time for 2005 is estimated at $280 billion.

Learn more about these figures, including how they are calculated and how nonprofit organizations often use them at the bottom of the page in the above link.

The dollar value of volunteer time for 2006 will be released later this spring.

The Power of College Students

Since September 2001, the overall percent of college students who volunteer has increased from 27.1 percent to 30.2 percent, exceeding the volunteer rate for the general adult population of 28.8 percent.

Tutoring and mentoring youth (26.6 and 23.8 percent, respectively) are the most common volunteer activities among college student volunteers.

39.2 percent of black college students mentor when they volunteer, compared to 22.3 percent of white college students.

Between 2003 and 2005, college students followed the national trend in volunteering, with females (33 percent) volunteering at a higher rate than males (26.8 percent), and whites (32 percent) volunteering at a higher rate than students of other races and ethnicities (23.6 percent).

College students were twice as likely to volunteer as individuals of the same age who are not enrolled in an institution of higher education (30.2 percent and 15.1 percent, respectively).

While 23.4 percent of college student volunteers serve with religious organizations, 34.8 percent of the general adult volunteer population serves through such organizations.

Students who work 1 to 10 hours per week part-time (46.4 percent) are more likely to volunteer than those who do not work at all (29.8 percent).

Volunteering rates decline substantially as college students work more hours. Students who work 31 to 35 hours and 36 to 40 hours volunteer at rates of 22.8 percent and 23.2 percent, respectively.

College student volunteers (27%) are more likely to be episodic volunteers (volunteering fewer than two weeks per year with their main organization) than the general adult volunteer population (23.4%). Nevertheless, 44.1 percent of college student volunteers also engage in regular volunteering (volunteering 12 or more weeks per year with their main organization).

Service learning linked to positive civic attitudes among youth

Volunteer management practices - Free publications

Tips for People Who Want Volunteer