The Give Back Kansas Challenge is hosted by the Kansas Volunteer Commission and Volunteer Kansas. This year, it ran from April 17th-June 9th. The purpose of the challenge is to engage Kansans in employer-supported volunteering.
In total, 7,092 volunteer hours were completed in the state of Kansas at various organizations. 1,305 employees participated, resulting in an average of 5.43 volunteer hours per participant.
The Independent Sector, which is a membership organization that brings together a diverse community of people wanting to make a change, reported that each volunteer hour in Kansas is valued at about $28.50. This makes the total contribution of this year’s challenge $202,122.
Sixteen businesses participated and were placed into categories based on the number of employees they had. The categories were small, medium, and large.
Each of the winning employers chose a charity to receive a $1,000 grant on their behalf from Volunteer Kansas. Cloud County Government of Concordia, Kansas was this year’s winner of “Large Organization”. They chose the Concordia Lions Club as their charity. These funds will support Cloud’s community suppers, which provides a free meal to community members the first two Wednesdays of each month. Volunteers, as well as financial support, are the main factors that allow the community suppers to continue.
