We are updating this post from last year to reflect the recently released value of volunteer time the past year. While the numbers change, the messaging and considerations remain the same: When is the right time to quantify volunteer worth merely by hours and dollars? That time may have come and gone.
Recently, the much anticipated annual announcement of the updated Value of Volunteer Time was announced by Independent Sector and, drumroll please, the national value for 2024 reporting is $34.79, a 3.9% increase over the 2023 value. You can read the full report for national and state-by-state data.
This value remains the most commonly used way to describe and recognize the “impacts” that volunteers deliver on your mission. While many organizations record volunteers’ contributed hours so they can translate them to a financial value based on this annual value, as I have shared in blogs, toolkits, and videos (and, frankly, at every other opportunity!), this communicates only quantity – not quality.
So, as you are methodically updating your volunteer data sheets and volunteer recognition speeches, I encourage you to think broadly and deeply about this practice. For a thorough and clear “primer” on when to use — and when not to use — this value of volunteer hours, I strongly encourage you to read Dr. Sue Carter Kahl’s post, “Value of a Volunteer Hour: When and Where to Use Wage Replacement Rates (or Not).”
As Dr. Carter Kahl notes in another compelling post, “Reporting volunteer hours is a telling practice that communicates what we value. It reveals, for example, that we prize volunteer quantity. That we celebrate volunteer volume.”
As we wrap up another volunteer appreciation month and embark on a new year of engaging volunteers to build capacity, reach new audiences, enhance quality of our programs, raise funds, and so much more, take some time to consider what we really value. Is it merely volume? Or is, in fact, increased capacity, helping more people, quality improvement, strengthening staff and organizational skills, more resources, and greater awareness of our cause? There are so many resources out there to inspire us all to tell these compelling stories about the benefits of strategic volunteer engagement. Now is the time to leverage these resources and tell broader, more powerful, and more relevant stories about all the volunteers bring to our mission.
I volunteer in a position in my state that requires state and federal certifications and ongoing annual training. There are only 40 people qualified and registered with the state to fulfill this position and I am responsible for 25% of them. We serve a specialized group of 52,000 people. I have 7 years experience (600 hrs this year) and training. My question is are people like the 40 of us worth more per volunteer hour than the average volunteer?
Great question. Thank you for submitting. As per my post, there are benefits — and drawbacks — to trying to put one universal value on every hour that every volunteer contributes and your comment relates to one of those drawbacks! To address this, many organizations or communities attribute a higher value to “high impact” or “pro bono” volunteers. To identify that value, varied resources can be referenced. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (https://www.bls.gov/) has databases with occupational wages which can be referenced to find out what an organization might be expected to pay if hiring an employee to do what the volunteers are doing. Alternatively, Taproot, CECP, and others offer a standard Pro Bono Hourly Rate. So, in short, yes – many organizations do leverage position-specific values for roles such as yours. Thanks again for asking!