"...is based on the average hourly earnings of all production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls (as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics). Independent Sector takes this figure and increases it by 12 percent to estimate for fringe benefits."Of course, for specialized work (lawyers, architects, etc.) the BLS assigns higher average rates, but only use them when the specialist is volunteering in their professional capacity (IE: Don't value a Doctor's work at the higher rate if she's helping with the filing).
Why are these values important? Because volunteer time is part of how we in the nonprofit sector leverage donor dollars. It's part of the story of how we can get $10 worth of services out of a $5 gift. Donors, large and small, private and institutional, want to hear that their investment in your organization is helping to bring in additional resources.
Track the hours and assignments of your volunteers, and include that value in budgets as an in-kind donation. Tout that figure in newsletters and annual reports. But, according to FASB (the Financial Accounting Standards Board), only include the figure in official reporting if "the organization would have purchased the services if they had not been donated."
So, what do you think of the $20.25/hour figure? Too high? Too low?
Thinking of the small, local nonprofit where I'm currently the Interim Executive Director, and other like-sized organizations, I wondered if we were now valuing the volunteers more than the staff.
Our average wage for non-supervisory staff would be about $15/hour, adding 12% as Independent Sector did for "benefits" (really, just payroll taxes, SSI, etc. - most of these staff are part-time and not receiving health insurance, etc.), that bring our figure up to $16.80/hour.
Do we now need to launch into a conversation about how we value our staffs?
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