Volunteer Recognition Day Date in the current year: April 20, 2024

Volunteering is an act of voluntarily and freely giving one’s time and labor for community service. It should not be confused with military volunteering, where people enlist in military service by free will and are usually paid or compensated for their service.

The noun “volunteer” originally referred exclusively to military volunteers. Its first use in the non-military sense was recorded in the 1630s. The active development of volunteering as we known it today began in the 19th century, when the United States experienced a religious revival and more people became aware of the disadvantaged.

The first volunteer organizations (YMCA, The Salvation Army) were religious. Non-religious charity and volunteer organizations began to emerge in the early 20th century. They included, for example, Rotary International and Kiwanis International.

Today, there are a lot of forms and types of volunteering. The two main forms of volunteering are traditional volunteering, where people participate in volunteer work that doesn’t have anything to do with their professional lives, and skill-based volunteering, where people use their specialized skills and talents to help others without being paid for it.

Popular types of volunteering include community volunteering (working to improve one’s local community), environmental volunteering, social volunteering (helping out at schools, hospitals, welfare institutions, memorial sites, etc.), volunteering in emergency situations such as natural disasters and wars, and volunteering at sporting events.

The best way to celebrate Volunteer Recognition Day is to thank the volunteers you know and consider volunteering yourself. You don’t have to spend all your free time volunteering; even a couple of hours a week can make a difference, and helping one person or animal is better than not helping at all.

You can volunteer by lending your specific skills to a non-profit organization and providing professional services to those who cannot afford them otherwise, or by doing things that don’t require a specific skillset, such as helping out at a soup kitchen or delivering groceries to elderly people.

The best way to start volunteering is to find a cause that moves you. Some people are inspired by taking care of animals, others love helping children or the elderly, contributing to environmental protection, or working at sporting events. Volunteering is about helping others and making the world a better place, but it is also about finding your passion, joy and a place of belonging.

In addition to Volunteer Recognition Day, there are a lot of other official and unofficial observances dedicated to volunteers and their contribution to society. They include, for example, International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development, International Volunteer Managers Day, Mitzvah Day International, Random Acts of Kindness Day, and more.