Bay street lawyer Tim Costigan was playing basketball in a recreational league back in 1995, when he and a couple of colleagues decided to turn their love of the game into an event that would benefit the community. Eleven years later, Bay Street Hoops has raised more than $1.2 million for local charities.

Whether they know it or not, Costigan and the hundreds of volunteers that make Bay Street Hoops possible every year are members of Canada’s volunteer sector. Whether reading to children at a local library, handing water to runners at a marathon or sitting on the board of a not-for-profit organization, Canadians are among the world’s leaders in volunteering.

And Canada’s vogue for volunteering has significant implications. Not only does it have a huge impact on the economy, but everyone wins when it comes to volunteering. A growing number of health and medical publications say volunteering is good for your health: it boosts the immune system, lowers stress levels, enhances mental alertness and bolsters self-esteem. Employers, as well, benefit from the improved skills and morale their employees bring back from their volunteer activities. And corporate involvement in the community heightens public awareness of the companies.

So, when Costigan and his colleagues turned their hands to running a charitable basketball tournament, it is no surprise they found ready support. That first year, eight teams of lawyers participated in Bay Street Hoops, raising more than $10,000 for the Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. Now the annual event draws 800 players, from lawyers to advisors, and raises about $180,000.

It seems Canadians are good volunteers. Canada’s non-profit and voluntary sector is the second-largest in the world — second only to the Netherlands — when expressed as a proportion of GDP. According to the 2000 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (the most recent comprehensive research report on volunteerism in Canada, released in 2001), 6.5 million Canadians, or 27% of the population aged 15 or older, volunteered through a charitable or non-profit organization in 2000.

A 2005 study by Johns Hopkins University indicates the non-profit and voluntary sector accounts for 6.8% of Canada’s GDP. More specifically, the volunteer sector alone accounted for 1.4% of GDP, or $14.0 billion in 2000 (the most recent period for which figures are available), according to a Statistics Canada study released this past December. Unfortunately, that is a decrease from 1.7% of GDP, or $14.1 billion, in 1997.

But that doesn’t mean volunteerism is declining in Canada, says Sue Tomney, Calgary-based vice president of membership, communication and marketing at Imagine Canada, Canada’s national charitable program. In fact, more companies are getting involved in supporting volunteer work. That should boost participation levels for the benefit of all involved.

Linda Graff’s research would support that. In her paper, entitled Making a Business Case for Employer-Sponsored Volunteerism, published in 2004 by Volunteer Canada, a national association of volunteer organizations, she writes: “Despite the decline of almost one million volunteers over the three-year period, corporate Canada’s interest in volunteerism grew.”

The report shows that the number of volunteers who received permission from their employer to adjust hours to accommodate their volunteer activities is on the upswing.

There is no shortage of ways employers can support employee volunteerism. The most common are use of workplace facilities, time off and changing work hours to accommodate volunteer activity. Companies can also recognize employees for doing community volunteer work. “I’ve seen programs in which employees report the hours they contribute and when they reach a certain benchmark, the corporation makes a donation to the charity,” Tomney says.

Most employer-supported volunteer programs originate with an employee who donates his or her time to a community project or charity. Sometimes, the event can become big. Tomney points to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure, a series of running events held across the country to raise money for breast cancer research.

“It started out as an employee program,” Tomney says. “Now it has 10,000 volunteers, probably 8,000 of whom are CIBC employees. The corporation supports it financially.”

While most employer-supported volunteerism is employee-driven, an innovative program taking hold in Canada starts at the top, with the chief executive. Developed in Britain 15 years ago by the Prince of Wales, Seeing is Believing puts CEOs into the communities they are being asked to help. Once they have seen what life is like for people on the street, the executives come up with creative ways to get their companies involved in assisting the people they have met.

@page_break@The program was launched in Canada late last year by Vancouver’s Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, a member organization that promotes social responsibility among Canadian companies.

Under the Seeing is Believing program, a handful of business leaders sign up for a one-day itinerary that consists of tours of two or three carefully selected community organizations. The CEOs pay a fee, which is turned over to the organizations as a donation.

“These business executives get to see firsthand the life realities of people who are marginalized in their communities,” says Adine Mees, president and CEO of CBSR.

The CEOs spend the morning visiting community organizations, then have discussions with the clients of the organizations about what life is like for the homeless, drug-addicted or recovering addicts. “The CEOs finish the day with an informal conversation, discussing what they have seen, what they have learned and what action they would like to take,” Mees says.

The group has run only two tours in Vancouver so far, but the success stories are already being told. The second tour, last month, visited a centre in Vancouver’s downtown east side that, among other things, teaches street kids to become chefs. The program also has a functioning catering service, which gained some new business clients that morning through the Seeing is Believing program. Seeing is Believing tours are scheduled for Toronto and Calgary.

As Graff’s research indicates, everyone wins when corporations take up the slack by supporting volunteer programs. The community benefits from volunteering in many ways, most simply because community organizations receive help from more people with a wider variety of skills. Employees benefit by gaining job-related skills. And volunteers actually make more money. A study by the University of Ottawa shows volunteer work increases the annual earnings of volunteers over non-volunteers by 6%-7%.

If that is not enough, there is the health thing. “It’s been proven that volunteers live longer because they volunteer,” Graff claims.

While there’s no empirical proof that volunteering causes good health (as opposed to already healthy people tending to volunteer), a national survey found that 85% of volunteers reported their health as “good,” while 79% of non-volunteers gave the same answer.

As far back as 1991, a study called Volunteering for the Health of It, published by Volunteer Ontario, found that people who volunteer reported feelings of improved self-esteem and self-satisfaction — qualities essential to good mental health, which is widely believed to be linked to good physical health. The study also found that volunteering aids in rehabilitation, giving patients the motivation to get better — a sense that “I don’t have time to be sick or hurt.”

There is also evidence that volunteering promotes longevity. A national study called Older Adults and Volunteering reports that 70% of older volunteers enjoy better quality of life than the average non-volunteer.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says volunteering among seniors in Canada has been linked to improved quality of life, stronger social networks, increased levels of physical activity and lower mortality rates. Volunteer activity throughout the adult years promotes healthy aging, activity and multiple roles in older ages, it adds.

So, volunteering benefits everyone — the individual volunteer, the corporation and, most of all, the person being helped IE