If a volunteer hour is worth about $50, what is your organization doing to maximize this gift?

In a previous blog I discussed the fact that Two Out of Three Small Non-Profits (SNPs) are Gone. More importantly, most were abandoned rather than going through an orderly dissolution. There are many reasons, but the ‘Burden of Volunteering’ is worth exploring [5].

1. Defining a Burden
2. Volunteering is a Gift, Not Community Service
3. The Disincentives…
4. … Impacts Contributions…
5. Managing the Burden, Pricing the Contribution
6. Some final thoughts on the burden of volunteering:
   1. Volunteers ≠ Dirty Jobs.
   2. Price of a Free Hour.
   3. $50 an Hour is a Nice Round Number.
7. Before Technology, Your Thoughts
8. References and Further Reading

Defining a Burden

In earlier blogs, I discussed the Volunteer Lifecycle (Volunteers in LAST-VEGA) and Paying your Volunteers Well. These are all positives, let’s look at the negative, the ‘Burden of Volunteering‘:

The disincentives a volunteer organization implicitly or explicitly puts into place that impacts contributions of a volunteer. The burden results in reactions ranging from acceptance, reduced contributions, or forgoing/exiting the volunteer role.

Burden of Volunteering – Definition

Central to this definition is that the burden are things the organization puts into place and thus is under its control.

Volunteering is a Gift, Not Community Service

As a cautionary tale, I have been involved in organizations which had an ‘obligatory’ mindset. Statements bantered about included: ‘people ought to…’ or ‘why aren’t they…’. If your organization has this mental model, change it FAST!

Although 79% of Canadians volunteered in 2018 for an average of 206 hours a year [2]; this is a finite quantity. There are only so many hours an individual can commit. This may be extended if the joy of volunteering (the benefits or currencies) is outstripped by the time and inconvenience incurred.

The Disincentives…

A disincentive is a deterrent or something that discourages a behaviour. Ironically, the example sentence from Merriam-Webster dictionary is: “The complicated application process was a disincentive to volunteering our time“.

External Disincentives are those imposed on the organization, for example a legal requirement. Relevant legislation may impose a minimum age for volunteers or require a police check to work with minors. Disincentives may be mandated by another part of the organization. For example, the national synod of a church mandating that volunteers be adherents to the faith.

Internal Disincentives are controlled by the organization using volunteers. There are many ways to look at burdens, but I like the 3P’s mnemonic [4].

• PEOPLE: Not providing the correct number of social interactions. ‘Getting out of the House’ is often a reason to volunteer in the first place. Alternatively, providing poor quality social interactions, for example, how welcoming are you of new volunteers?
• PROCESS: Per the dictionary noted above, a complicated application processes, boring work, or cumbersome reporting of volunteer hours.
• PRODUCT/PURPOSE: There are two perspective on this, the over-arching purpose and the purpose of a specific task and how it contributes to the larger purpose. A volunteer may agree with the purpose of the organization but be put off by doing ‘busy-work’ or activities of low value or importance.

… Impacts Contributions…

Most people can accept reasonable burdens, for example a background check or having an emergency contact on file. These inconveniences are acceptable (a hidden criminal past notwithstanding). If not reasonable, contributions are impacted.

Reduced Contributions is where the volunteer scales their efforts relative to the perceived cost of volunteering. For example, if there is a cumbersome documentation process at the end of a volunteer shift, the volunteer may work fewer shifts.

Forgoing/Exiting the Role while a disengaged volunteer cadre is bad, having no volunteers is very bad. What is the worst is gaining a reputation in the community of being an undesirable place to volunteer. This stigma can linger and be challenging to dislodge.

Managing the Burden, Pricing the Contribution

Hopefully the above definition gives a framework to think about the disincentives your organization has that discourage existing and potential volunteers. In the next blog, I will focus on one aspect by examining how technology can help reduce the process-burden … maybe.

Some final thoughts on the burden of volunteering:

Volunteers ≠ Dirty Jobs.

I recall a conversation decades ago in which an undesirable job was to be given to ‘some volunteer’. Two thoughts are implied in this statement. Firstly, a volunteer would be ‘grateful’ to do anything, even an undesirable job. The second is that because the volunteer’s contribution is free, it has less value than a paid staff member. Let’s turn this second thought on its head.

Price of a Free Hour.

The minimum wage in Alberta is $15/hour. Add in taxes and other costs and this escalates the costs to at least $20/hour. But this is only half of the equation. The volunteer was donating their time and so the organization needs to PAY someone AND has make up the lost amount of an in-kind donation.

$50 an Hour is a Nice Round Number.

Of course, few people are willing to work for minimum wage and if that is what you are paying, you probably have high staff turnover. The cost of recruitment, supervision needs to be added to the mix. For the lost donation, the cost of fund raising should be considered.

When thinking about your volunteers’ contributions, assume each hour is worth at LEAST $50 for unskilled or semi-skilled labour. This factors in other costs and is a nice round number.

Before Technology, Your Thoughts

What are your thoughts? Should non-profit boards attempt to measure the costs and benefits accrued to their volunteers? Does even discussing this cheapen the volunteer experience? While you are pondering this, on to Technology and the Volunteer!

References and Further Reading

1. A simple internet search leads to a number of seemingly credible sites (e.g. Stanford University) that provide reasons to not volunteer. One of the consistently top reasons is that ‘no one has asked me’.
2. Volunteering counts: Formal and informal contributions of Canadians in 2018 (statcan.gc.ca).
3. Disincentive Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster
4. I like the three P’s so much, you can find them in past blogs such as Three P’s and a G over T Collaboration Framework or the Seven ARM Components.
5. The above definition and discussion are not based on an extensive or rigorous scientific process. It is based on about fifty years of hanging around volunteer organization. Is it exactly right, doubtful. Are they close enough to be useful, definitely. Nevertheless, if you know of a better way to think of disincentives, particularly for SNP, drop me a comment, etc.