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Volunteer Iowa! Television Broadcast
In 2002, the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service and Iowa Public Television formed a partnership and in a collaborative effort, developed the Volunteer Iowa! television program with the primary goal of encouraging and inspiring more Iowans to become active volunteers in their community.
The live television broadcast is very similar to a typical telethon, but financial donations are not requested or accepted. Instead, viewers are encouraged to call and pledge the number of hours they will spend volunteering during the current calendar year.
During the first one-hour broadcast in January 2003, more than 430,000 hours were pledged. Totals for following years were:
- 2004 — 487,329 hours
- 2005 — 1,554,017 hours
- 2006 — 1,579,478 hours — valued at nearly $28 million1
Many large pledges are made by statewide organizations on behalf of all their members. The top pledges for 2006 were from:
- Iowa Jaycees – 550,000 hours
- Iowa Mentoring Partnership – 264,000 hours
- Iowa Red Cross Volunteers – 175,000 hours
- AARP – 150,000 hours
For more information about the latest Volunteer Iowa! Broadcast, see the 1/17/2006 press release: “Iowans Pledge More Than 1.5 Million Hours of Service for 2006“
1Based on research conducted by Independent Sector (www.independentsector.org), the current hourly value of volunteer time is $17.55.
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