I was cautioned early in my career, never to say that volunteers save money. Unless you are prepared to deduct all program expenses, it’s best to look at volunteers as enhancing services to clients and community and building organizational capacity.
Tracking volunteer hours is important to funders, good data for annual reports, and important when recognizing volunteer contributions.
The Independent Sector tracks the value of volunteer hours. The most recent figure is $19.51, which includes a 12 percent estimate for fringe benefit costs. This figure does not adequately account for individuals who provide specialized skills like attorneys.
By 2010, almost 64 million boomers are poised to retire. They represent a highly educated work force. As they begin knocking on nonprofit doors and offering more specialized skills, it is in your organization’s best interest to find a simple way to track the value of these hours.
One way is way is to utilize volunteer management software. My favorite is Volgistics. You determine the value of the job based on what the local market will bear, plug in the figure and the software does the rest. Volunteers enter hours through your website portal and they are downloaded into your database.
The Points of Light Foundation has created a free tool, a which makes it possible to estimate the appropriate wage rate for volunteer time based on the volunteer’s position.
The calculator is simple to use! You just need to search for the job description and enter the number of hours given by the volunteer. Repeat this process until all volunteer hours have been entered. The system will automatically calculate the total for each job category and for the total across all volunteer jobs.
Calculating the value of volunteer hours is just one step in measuring your volunteer program’s effectiveness.
For more information about tracking volunteer hours and determining their value, check out the following articles:
“Tracking Volunteer Time to Boost Your Bottom Line,” by Dennis Walsh, CPA.
“Pro Bono Work Pegged At $120/hour,” The Nonprofit Times, March 30, 2009
Articles and reports on this topic, EnergizeInc.com
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