CINCINNATI, Ohio – It's about connecting volunteers and non-profits.

• Cincinnati area volunteer rate has dropped at twice the national rate
• Cincinnati Cares connects volunteers to non-profits through a search engine
• Nearly half of Cincinnatians donate $25 or more per year

Cincinnati Cares is a recently formed group of Cincinnatians working to stem the drop in volunteers across the Queen City.

Recently, Cincinnati Cares President and CEO Doug Bolton spoke to a group of individuals learning about how the organization can connect people. He outlined how the city's decline in volunteers puts the area at a disadvantage.

“The scary part is that we're far below our peer cities of Cleveland and Columbus and many of the other peer cities that we compete with for jobs: Indianapolis, Pittsburgh,” Bolton said to Spectrum News 1. “So it's very concerning that Cincinnati's volunteer rate has dipped to the point that it has.”

The decline in volunteers in the Cincinnati area over the last five years is twice that of the national average. Roughly 1 in 4 Cincinnatians volunteer, while closer to half donate $25 or more.

Nationally, the volunteer rate has fallen approximately two percent in the last five years. Cincinnati has seen a drop closer to five percent.

According to 2015 date compiled by the Corporation for National and Community Service, Cincinnati's volunteer rate is 25.8 percent. Cleveland leads Ohio's major cities at 29.5 percent and Columbus, while seeing a recent drop, stands at 26.3 percent. Cincinnati's donation rate is well below Cleveland and Columbus.

Bolton said there aren't specific issues that pinpoint why volunteerism drops, but a strong economy and low unemployment could be contributing factors. He said a reason Cleveland has a healthy volunteer ecosystem is because of a leadership group solely dedicated to volunteers.

Business Volunteers Unlimited formed in the 1990's when a five Cleveland-based companies started investing in volunteers. Now, the organization serves more than 120 businesses.

Cincinnati Cares hopes to follow a similar path.

“Our job is to lead the volunteer to the opportunity and then let them make the magic of connecting to the non-profit organization.”

Since it's inception in 2017, Cincinnati Cares, on average, places roughly 125 volunteers with non-profits per month. Bolton said previous volunteer organizations would place roughly ten per month.

Cincinnati Cares uses its website, cincinnaticares.org, and allows volunteers to enter in specific areas they'd like to volunteer for. They can also search by location. Populated results display locations and the type of work. Volunteers can also read about the non-profit, see how they can help, and be connected via phone, email, social media, or a website.

“We have more than 500 non-profit organizations that use the site. It's free to volunteer, it's free to the non-profit.”

Cincinnati Cares website has more than 1,400 ways to help in the Cincinnati area.

The group also helps connect non-profits and volunteers at the board level. It's BoardBank program helps train individuals to be board members. It's like a job bank.

“That's one the biggest pains in our community is non-profits struggle finding new, refreshing, diverse board members. So we started a platform that is actually now being very effective in making those matches and the value of a board member to a non-profit is estimated in all of the research to be about $10,000 a year.”

During Bolton's presentation, he said Cincinnati's decline in volunteers over the last five years has contributed to a $150 million loss. Volunteer work is valued at approximately $22 per hour in Ohio, according to data compiled by independentsector.org.

Cincinnati Cares is working to strengthen the volunteer ecosystem in the area by highlighting non-profits of all sizes. Bolton said the drop in volunteerism isn't necessarily a generational issue, although older generations tend to be more loyal to more established brands like The Salvation Army or United Way.

Bolton said younger generations want to know more about groups before they decide to help.

“They're less trusting of big brands. They're more curious about, 'Okay, how is this organization doing their work and are they doing it the right way?'”

Bolton said it boils down to changing how volunteerism operates, much like how a workplace has to change over time.

Despite the national drop in volunteerism, monetary giving is near an all-time high.