Dollar Value of Volunteer Time
5 May 2008 at 11:11 am
As we are about to celebrate Volunteer Week in Australia (12th-18th May), The Independent Sector in the US has released its annual assessment of the value of the Volunteer hour.
The dollar value has reached $US19.51 or $AUD20.83 in 2007 showing an upward trend from 2006 of about 3% ($US18.77 or $AUD20.04)
The Independent Sector agrees that it is very difficult to put a dollar value on volunteer time. It says volunteers provide many intangibles that can not be easily quantified. For example, volunteers demonstrate the amount of support an organisation has within a community, provide work for short periods of time, and provide support on a wide range of projects.
The value of volunteer time presented in the US is the average wage of non-management, non-agricultural workers. It says this is only a tool and only one way to show the immense value volunteers provide to an organisation.
It says it is important to remember that when a doctor, lawyer, craftsman, or anyone with a specialised skill volunteers, the value of his or her work is based on his or her volunteer work, not his or her earning power. In other words, volunteers must be performing their special skill as volunteer work. If a doctor is painting a fence or a lawyer is sorting groceries, he or she is not performing his or her specialised skill for the Not for Profit and their volunteer hour value would not be higher.
To find out more about Volunteer Week go to www.volunteeringaustralia.org/
