Points of Light, the world’s largest nonprofit dedicated to accelerating people-powered change, today announced April as the second annual Global Volunteer Month – a time to recognize the impact of volunteering and the power of volunteers to tackle society’s greatest challenges.

Introduced in April 2020, Global Volunteer Month was launched as a galvanizing moment to inspire and activate volunteers in addition to supporting the most vulnerable populations affected. And over the past year, in the midst of a pandemic, volunteers have joined the ranks of frontline workers and first responders to fight against COVID-19, support the vaccination roll-out, address systemic racism and ensure equity and opportunity for all.

“We launched Global Volunteer Month last year during a time of great uncertainty that made it even more important for us to find ways to unite communities and connect people despite distance,” said Natalye Paquin, president and CEO of Points of Light. “2020 marked one of the most civically engaged years in history and demonstrated that, despite all the obstacles, the powerful force in our world today is people-powered change.”

Points of Light’s Civic Life Today report in Fall 2020 shared that 95% of people plan to maintain or increase their current level of involvement to do more after the pandemic passes. To meet that need, the organization recently launched Points of Light Engage, the world’s largest digital hub for volunteering and community engagement opportunities to help connect people to even more at-home and in-person opportunities than before. This database aims to connect eager volunteers with growing opportunities in cities around the world, where the number of volunteers is increasing rapidly as some metropolitan areas are seeing between approximately 4,000 and 21,000 new volunteers each month, currently being driven by vaccination efforts. This new tool also offer tips and best practices for safely volunteering from home or in communities.

Throughout Global Volunteer Month, Points of Light is calling on everyone to help build our society back better than before the pandemic through volunteering this April – whether from home or safely in their community – using Points of Light’s platform to find an opportunity in their own backyard at https://pointsoflight.org/volunteer/.