Study: NY volunteerism strongest on LI

Long Islanders tend to volunteer and donate to charity at a slightly higher rate than the rest of New York, but organizations and willing volunteers still face difficulty getting connected, according to a new study by the Siena Research Institute.

The institute's director, Don Levy, presented his findings on volunteerism on Long Island and in the state at a panel Wednesday at United Way of Long Island's Deer Park offices.

A quarter of Long Islanders reported volunteering within the last year, compared with a fifth of New Yorkers, the study found. And 89 percent of Long Islanders said they had donated food, blood or clothing at least a few times, compared with 81 percent of all New Yorkers.

Within Long Island, a slightly higher percentage of people in Suffolk County reported volunteering and engaging in civic activities than those in Nassau County -- a difference that Levy said could be attributed to Suffolk's more rural nature, which lends itself to higher civic engagement.

While nearly all Long Islanders believe that volunteerism is important, only 19 percent are completely satisfied with the amount of involvement they have in their communities, a gap that Long Island's nonprofit community should capitalize on, Levy said. "That is an opportunity for human-services organizations," he said.

More Long Islanders -- 86 percent -- agreed with the idea that volunteering is important for the community, compared with 80 percent of New York residents as a whole, the study found.

Obstacles to volunteering include a lack of large blocks of time among busy potential volunteers -- but more than a third said that they simply had never been asked to volunteer.

Levy said that finding came as a surprise. "They're not asking in the right way," he said of nonprofits. "They're asking in a way that allows objections and obstacles to creep in. You have to ask, ask again, ask again."

One potential area of growth the study recommended was in "technological volunteering" -- finding ways for people to volunteer over the Internet, for example.

"That's an enormous arena of untapped potential," Levy said.

Levy's research was an addendum to the institute's 2011 New York Civic Health Index, a report that measured civic engagement among New Yorkers.

Diana O'Neill, executive director of the Long Island Volunteer Center, which sponsored the event, said she was gratified to hear about the level of volunteerism on Long Island. "I heard loud and clear that recruitment has to take on a different form," she said. "The traditional means of taking on volunteers has to be advanced in terms of technology."