Americans overwhelmingly want to volunteer. Nonprofits desperately need them. The problem, according to the nonprofit Points of Light, is connecting the two.The organization, founded by former President George H.W. Bush to encourage service, is set to unveil plans to improve that connection at its annual conference in Washington on June 22.Jennifer Sirangelo, president and CEO of Points of Light, told The Associated Press that the group’s National Volunteer Strategy initiative is the first phase in its $100 million plan to double the number of U.S. volunteers to 150 million by 2035.“We believe that volunteering changes everything,” Sirangelo said in an interview. “It changes the people who serve. It uplifts the community. And we know that collectively it can change our society.”The National Volunteer Strategy is Points of Light’s contribution to “building bridges, deepening empathy, and putting us on a path for having a more civil society where we can get along in a pluralistic environment,” she added.
The strategy – which includes investments in infrastructure and building standards for both volunteers and nonprofits – comes at a complicated time for volunteerism and the broader nonprofit sector. President Donald Trump’s administration gutted AmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service and volunteerism, in 2025, eliminating thousands of jobs and leaving nonprofits scrambling to replace the lost workers and funding.
