The nation's 250th anniversary arrives with a call for year-round community service

NEW YORK — The U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission wants to turn America's 250th birthday celebration into the country's single biggest year for volunteering.

But America Gives, the program unveiled this week as the U.S. begins commemorating the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence, will have to revitalize a culture of service that has recently waned. Declining volunteering rates still haven't returned to pre-pandemic levels. Just 28% of Americans said they volunteered time to a religious or secular charitable organization this year, according to a December AP-NORC poll.

Organizers don't know how many service hours they need to set the record and aren't targeting a specific number. The idea is to leverage nationwide reflections on the country's direction to encourage lasting community involvement that will strengthen nonprofits' volunteer pipelines beyond 2026. Funding comes from congressional appropriations as well as corporate sponsors, including Walmart and Coca-Cola.

Participants are invited to pledge their time and log volunteering on an online tracker. Nonprofit partners include Girl Scouts of the USA, which will offer a volunteering badge to any of its roughly 1 million youth members who complete a service project, and Keep America Beautiful, which is leading efforts to clean up 250 million pieces of trash by the Fourth of July. JustServe — a service project coordinator sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — is sending 250 semitrucks to deliver food donations to 250 food banks across the 50 states.

"We strongly believe that this is as much about the future as it is the past," said America250 Chair Rosie Rios, who oversees the nonpartisan commission created by Congress to organize the anniversary. "Especially this next generation, we want them to give them something to believe in."

Connection and accessibility for young volunteers

That forward-focused goal requires courting a demographic that many nonprofits struggle to reach: young volunteers.

About one-quarter of adults under 30 said they volunteered their time to charity or provided non-financial support to people in their community in the past year, according to a March AP-NORC poll, compared with 36% of those over 60.

Rios said America Gives is working with high schools, many of which already list community service as a graduation requirement, to ensure those volunteering hours are logged and build giving habits that continue after students' secondary education.

"They're very passionate. They're very purpose driven. They do want to give back," Rios said, adding that "inspiring them to not just visualize, but maybe fuel their own future, is a big priority for us."

Service could be an opportunity to meet younger generations' desire for in-person connections. Sofia Alvarez — a cohort lead for the Youth250 Bureau, a separate effort to center Gen Z perspectives throughout next year's programming — said young people want "third spaces." That means somewhere outside of home, school or work that feels "safe," she said, but doesn't require spending money.

"I think any sort of craft or activity that really helps people connect, where they can chit chat and bond with each other, really builds that sense of community," Alvarez said.

Sarah Keating, vice president of Girl and Volunteer Experience at Girl Scouts of the USA, said they've had to make their volunteer opportunities more manageable.

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Young people want to give back, Keating said, but they are busy and don't know how. She said nonprofits must offer experiences "that match their lives." Someone might not have time to lead an entire troop, for example, but they can help lead a specific badge program.

"A campaign like this shines a light on the multitude of ways that you can volunteer — that it doesn't have to be whatever stereotype you have in your head," she said of America Gives. "There are small ways to volunteer. There are big ways to volunteer."

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Building bridges — and habits of giving back

The patriotic appeal must also overcome extreme polarization and the slow erosion of national pride — trends that America Gives organizers believe they can counter with their call to action.

Acknowledging political divisions, Rios said the commission's research shows that most Americans want to bring back a spirit of volunteerism.

"It is about one country," she said. "I think there's gonna be a lot of people who feel like now, more than ever, we all need to stand up."

Keep America Beautiful CEO Jennifer Lawson expects her nationwide nonprofit network to unify people around the issue of litter. Her benchmark next year is to reach 4 million volunteers through local chapters devoted to cleaning up their communities, planting trees and making gardens.

Lawson wants the volunteer opportunities to show people patriotism is an action — not a concept — that involves working with your neighbors.

"It doesn't have to be all flags and tricornered hats," Lawson said. "Patriotism in this country is an act of giving into community."

America Gives will engage volunteers beyond July 4th in an attempt to build up the habit of giving back. Volunteers who register their service hours can enter a sweepstakes where 250 randomly selected winners will get to donate $4,000 to an approved nonprofit partner.

The program also plans to rally people around the national days of service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and 9/11. The year-round goal will be to keep things as local as possible.

"It should be on people's minds all the time, not just the day that they're doing service," Rios said. "But how do they plan ahead to keep it going?

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