In Canada, more than 13.3 million people volunteer. That means that on their own time, and without being paid, they work on a project to help others in some way.

This week (April 21 to 27) is National Volunteer Week in Canada, according to an organization called Volunteer Canada.

In a recent report, two economists* have put a dollar figure on all of that volunteering.

Volunteering creates $50-billion in economic value every year for Canadians, Craig Alexander and Sonya Gulati, economists with the TD Bank, say in a report.

They call volunteering “the life-blood that keeps (many organizations) running.”