Tobi Johnson: Hey everybody, Tobi here with Volunteer Nation. Welcome to the pod. Today I want to talk about what is a volunteer and why it matters to your organization.
You know, there’s a lot of debate out there about what a volunteer actually is. What is the definition of a volunteer? Some organizations have really wide, far‑reaching definitions, pretty much anybody helping anybody without getting paid is a volunteer. But there are also organizations that have very strict definitions of a volunteer. I want to talk through and kind of pull this apart a little bit: talk about what is a volunteer, why it matters, and some of the things you might want to think about if your organization doesn’t yet have this in writing.
It’s so important that you have a definition in your organization; what is it in writing? And if you don’t, there are a lot of issues because of that. I want to talk through what issues, what are the challenges that come up when you’re not clear on what your organization believes a volunteer to be. So let’s get started.
You know, recently the Independent Sector, along with the Do Good Institute at the University of Maryland, released the most recent dollar value of volunteer time. It’s broken down — I’ll put a link to their website so you can go check it out. It’s broken down by state, but the national number is now $36.14 per hour, which is a 3.9% increase from the year before.
There is a lot of debate in our sector about whether or not using what we call a wage‑equivalent model, saying, “If a volunteer hour’s worth $36 an hour and someone contributes ten hours, then that volunteer is worth $360”, is the right approach. Now, we know that not all time contributed is the same. Some people have pro bono volunteers, legal volunteers, people who have professional careers who are donating their time, and their hourly rate is hundreds of dollars an hour. So we know this is an average, first of all.
We also know that there are lots of other things that volunteers bring to the table besides their time. Their time is only one way to look at their value. But it does start to bring up the question: well, whose time gets counted into that dollar amount? We’ll get into a little bit more about all the other ways that volunteer value can be calculated.
If we’re going to make that calculation, if we choose to use that as one of the ways we’re valuing volunteer time, because it can be helpful in certain aspects of our communications with stakeholders, depending on the stakeholder group we’re talking to, it’s important to know whose time we’re counting. That means we have to have a definition of a volunteer.
So what is a volunteer really? Most organizations think they know the answer until you start asking people. Then confusion, tension, even burnout starts showing up because people aren’t clear about their own roles vis‑à‑vis volunteers, whether they be volunteers or employees.
When roles aren’t clearly defined, volunteers may feel underused and frustrated. Staff may feel overwhelmed and territorial. Expectations can clash, retention can suffer, people can get very resistant to working together. Whenever you see any of these, these are symptoms of a lack of clarity. If you see these things happening in your organization, tension between paid staff and volunteers, inevitably, it is because there is a lack of clarity about roles.
So today I want to talk about: what is a volunteer? The limitations of viewing volunteers as only wage replacement, how clarity will strengthen staff‑volunteer partnerships, and how clear roles will improve your volunteer engagement and accountability. That’s what I want to talk about today.
So let’s start with that Independent Sector number: $36.14 in the U.S. They look at Bureau of Labor Statistics modeling. If you want to know about their whole methodology, they’re very transparent about it; it’s on their website. I will link to it directly in the show notes. They’re not trying to hide anything. As much as people complain that this is a limited way of looking at volunteers, they are actually the only entity in the country right now that’s putting out numbers every year.
As the creator of the Volunteer Management Progress Report, which we did for a decade, putting reports out, I can tell you it is no easy feat to get that research out every year. So instead of bashing the value of volunteer time, let’s understand it better, understand its limitations, and also understand how it might be supplemented. I think that’s a healthier way of looking at this.
What the dollar figure can’t tell you when it comes to volunteers is it has a built‑in ceiling. The wage‑replacement model can only capture wage substitution, labor substitution, calculating what it would cost to hire a volunteer to do that thing. So it’s a floor, not a ceiling. It has a built‑in ceiling. You can’t expand from there.
What’s left out of a purely wage‑based valuation? A lot of things. Let’s go through what some of those things are. If we consider other things in addition, we can remove that ceiling of value and start stacking value when it comes to volunteers.
Relational capital is one thing. Let’s say you have a volunteer who’s been contributing time to your food pantry for a decade. They have institutional knowledge, donor relationships, trust with the community. There may be people who come into your food pantry who know this person really well and trust them. Maybe those guests have some mental health issues that can cause behavior that creates stress in the food pantry, but your volunteer, because they know them well, can calm them down. They have that skill set because they know them well. So there’s all kinds of things that can happen when there’s that relational capital.
Another is advocacy and word of mouth. Most nonprofit leaders of volunteers will tell me that the number one way they attract new volunteers is through word of mouth. That is a kind of value being given to your organization. People who talk about your volunteer opportunities, but also your mission and opportunities to make donations; that’s a marketing asset and a reputational asset that doesn’t get counted into that $36 an hour of wage replacement.
Another is the donor conversion pipeline. By the way, I’m not saying that staff don’t also bring some of these things. It’s not only related to volunteers. Some of your paid staff have this kind of capital as well. The donor conversion pipeline: we know from data that volunteers are donors and donors are volunteers. Volunteers who really believe in your cause are known to donate higher and more often to the nonprofits they contribute time to.
As far as I know, there hasn’t been research on bequests, estate planning, and volunteers leaving their estates, but I’ve heard anecdotally from leaders of volunteers that they didn’t even realize some of their volunteers left a fairly hefty estate to the organization. I’m not claiming that they should or shouldn’t, but what I am making the point is that volunteers make pretty significant contributions to the nonprofits they love.
Mission alignment and culture: Volunteers who believe deeply in your cause can shift culture sometimes in ways that employees can’t. Volunteers have an interesting kind of influence and credibility sometimes, especially with the public and fellow volunteers, that paid staff don’t. In fact, I read a research study years ago where they studied direct‑service beneficiaries of services from an organization, and they actually rated the volunteers higher than the paid staff because they felt like the volunteers didn’t have any axe to grind.
Community legitimacy: Three in four organizations say that volunteers are important to their operations, with nearly a quarter (23%) entirely dependent on volunteers. So the question in this case isn’t about wage replacement; it’s about organizational survival. If you’re listening and you’re one of those organizations that is 100% volunteer‑run, which many of our nonprofits are as they start out, this is a go/no‑go: if we don’t have volunteers, we don’t exist.
The Independent Sector acknowledges these limitations. It says the estimates may still underestimate the full value of volunteer service because they do not consider the many intangible benefits provided by volunteers that cannot be easily quantified, some of which I just talked about.
So when we think, “What is a volunteer?” I really want us not to go down the cul‑de‑sac of thinking of volunteers just as free labor. It’s a dead‑end street. “What is a volunteer? It’s a person who gives free labor.” Well, yes, but it’s some other things too. Wage replacement is only the start of the conversation. So what is a volunteer? Let’s shift gears and talk about the labor definition of volunteer labor.
Why does the U.S. Department of Labor care about what a volunteer is? They want to protect workers; that’s their job. Early in my nonprofit career, I worked as a contractor inside the Department of Labor. So I know a fair amount about it. Their job is to protect the U.S. worker.
The definition of a volunteer matters to the Department of Labor because they want to make sure that people who are doing work that should be paid are not misclassified as volunteers. The definition is important because it has to do with whether or not you get paid. They also have rules about nonprofit workers volunteering at the organization where they work, so that people are not taken advantage of.
If you’re listening outside the U.S., your country no doubt has laws about the definition of volunteer. Check with whatever department in your country that works with workforces, labor, etc.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a volunteer:
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Contributes time to a civic, charitable, or humanitarian purpose
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Provides freely without pressure or coercion
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Does not receive or expect benefits
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Does not displace employees
But then we start thinking: what about service learning? What about court‑ordered community service? What about when a budget gets cut but an organization still wants to offer that service and asks volunteers to step up? What about all those gift cards we’re giving volunteers? You can see how there’s a lot of gray area.
What’s not a volunteer according to the Department of Labor?
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Contributes time to a for‑profit company (a for‑profit cannot have volunteers)
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Supports commercial activities (e.g., gift shop) — okay, how many hospital gift shops have volunteers?
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Full‑time or overtime work provided under pressure (“voluntelling”)
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Services typically associated with paid employee work
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Receives or expects benefits
Now, some volunteers like certain perks. I’m not saying we’re giving them gift cards, but you can see how this gets complicated.
Employee as a volunteer: The Department of Labor says an employee cannot provide services that are the same as, similar to, or related to their regular job duties. What about those development staff who volunteer to work at a fundraising event? It’s not exactly what they do as grant writers, but it is part of fundraising.
Public sector employees (government employees) can volunteer to provide similar services for a different jurisdiction. For example, a police officer could volunteer as a firefighter.
Nonprofits cannot request or direct employees to perform volunteer work during the employee’s normal working hours, even if it is different than their job. (Working nights and weekends in addition to your full‑time job, is that a one‑way ticket to burnout? Probably, depends.)
You can only provide nominal perks or rewards.
I’m going to link to the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division final rulings and opinion letters, because my rundown probably gave you more questions than answers. The good news is you can at any time request an opinion letter from the Department of Labor and say, “Here’s our situation. Please help us determine what is a volunteer and what is a paid employee role.”
Don’t be overwhelmed. The title of this episode is “What Is a Volunteer?” and I wanted to pull it apart for real, not give you a pat answer, because it’s really not a pat answer.
We also talk about types of volunteers: episodic, ongoing regular, skilled or pro bono. Volunteers are different from employees and from paid interns (a paid intern is usually classified as a contractor). Unpaid interns should be treated like volunteers; the Department of Labor has more definition around interns requiring a certain amount of training or educational element.
Volunteers are different than clients and participants, but we could have clients and participants volunteering. I really love that idea. We should bring in the people we’re serving in the community and have them help out. They have a lot of lived experience that could make our work better. National Service members (AmeriCorps, VISTA, Civilian Conservation Corps) are not considered volunteers. I’ll link to my episode with Kyra Esgate about the funding challenges of National Service.
All of these different types of volunteering and the legal definition really beg the question: what is a volunteer? If there is a formal legal definition but it doesn’t seem like anybody’s really following it, the most important thing when it comes down to brass tacks is how your organization decides to identify what a volunteer is.
There is no external authority that’s going to tell you, unless someone goes to the Department of Labor and says, “I contributed all this labor and it actually should be paid.” So there is some risk involved if you disregard the Department of Labor definition. Someone could complain and they could get back pay from your organization.
So the most important thing is to decide what your own definition of a volunteer is. Your definition should be based on:
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Your tolerance for risk
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Your stated and unstated organizational values (what do you believe in? If you believe in strong labor rights, you’ll be clearer about what a volunteer can and can’t do)
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What you stand for and what you’re willing to compromise on
There’s an art to it. I also recommend you talk to your legal counsel and say, “We really need to have a clear classification of what’s a volunteer.”
After the break, I want to talk more about defining volunteer roles versus paid staff roles. I’ll get to it when we come right back. So let’s take a break from my rundown of what is a volunteer and why it matters to define it for your organization. When we come back, I’m going to talk about how we can differentiate between volunteers and paid staff. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.
Okay, we’re back with my rundown of what is a volunteer, especially what’s the difference between volunteers and paid staff. Here’s the bottom line: clarity creates confidence. The definition of a volunteer matters to your organization operationally. This is not just wordsmithing; it’s not just an intellectual exercise. How you define “what is a volunteer” in your organization shapes your onboarding, your insurance, your training investment, your reporting, all of it. So you gotta make the decision. I’m really encouraging you to have a definition in writing.
So how do you define the differences between volunteer and paid staff roles? Why does this role clarity matter? If you start seeing symptoms of a lack of clarity, tension between volunteers and paid staff, paid staff not willing to accept volunteers in their department, worries that volunteers will take their jobs, volunteers frustrated that they’re not given meaningful work, that’s all about role clarity.
You want to define which tasks belong to volunteers, which tasks belong to paid staff, and why those distinctions exist. Why aren’t we just one big family moving the mission forward? Because that’s not a smart way to go about it when you start to scale. Why should some roles stay employee‑led or assigned to paid staff? Reasons include:
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Legal requirements
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Confidentiality, licensing, or credentials required
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Risk management
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Organizational continuity (something that needs to be done on a daily basis)
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Strategic oversight (understanding the entire fabric of the organization)
There are also reasons roles stay staff‑led that are less ideal: people won’t let go (their identity is wrapped up in that task), staff don’t want to set boundaries on volunteers, or there’s no clarity around the risk management strategy. All three of those are driven by fear. Having role clarity can reduce confusion and fear.
Let’s talk about why volunteer roles matter: expanding capacity, bringing community voice to the table, increasing your reach far beyond your agency doors, building advocates who are credible with lawmakers, strengthening trust with clients and community, and adding specialized expertise. The difference between paid staff and volunteers: different but not better. Keep beating that drum. People will try to put it in a hierarchy. When you look at org charts, volunteers are at the bottom, if they’re on the chart at all.
Mistakes when differentiating roles: giving volunteers vague assignments, using volunteers only for low‑level admin (the grunt work), failing to explain why boundaries exist, and assuming everyone just knows because it’s common sense. We’re in a common sense recession right now, I’m just gonna say it.
When you’ve decided which is volunteer and which is paid staff, make sure you have really clear role descriptions: responsibilities, boundaries, reporting relationships, decision‑making authority, time expectations, and reporting. Without this in writing, in a position description, people don’t feel accountable.
Role descriptions for volunteers do not need to be boring. They can be used as marketing tools. I’ll link to a podcast or blog post about that. Let me give you a couple of examples of how differentiation works in practice.
Example one: A volunteer receptionist may welcome guests and answer basic questions, while paid staff handle confidential client information. Both working in the same office, but with access to different types of information.
Example two: A volunteer team may handle setup, registration, and guest engagement for an event. Paid staff may receive budget approvals, risk management, and financial decision‑making about that event. Both roles are essential.
You can see how clear it is when I describe these examples. People go, “Okay, I get that. That’s why.” And if they ask why, you say, “Because that’s part of our risk management policy. We’re open to changing these roles in the future, but for now, this is where we’re starting.”
Let’s make sure everybody’s rowing together, but rowing in their own lane. Otherwise, we’re going to have boats crashing into each other.
For more on strengthening volunteer‑staff partnerships, check out Volunteer Nation episode 9: “Helping Nonprofit Employees See the Value of Volunteers.” Also, episode 96: “Volunteer Work or Staff Position, How to Decide.”
I hope this episode has given you more questions than complete clarity, but also resources and places to go to get that clarity, and to let you know that if you’re having tension between volunteers and staff, this may be part of the reason. You’re just not being clear enough. The more clearly your organization can define and answer the question “What is a volunteer?”, the more likely people can work together successfully.
Here’s your call to action:
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Review your volunteer role descriptions
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Talk openly with your staff about volunteer partnerships
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Clarify expectations and identify where problems align
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If you don’t have a definition of “what is a volunteer” at your organization, start getting that figured out
If you’re a leader of volunteers and the internal consultant on volunteerism, draft something up, give everybody a straw man to start working against. Form a task force. Give it a beginning, middle, and end. In 60 to 90 days of meetings, you could have this hammered out.
Also, I have a tool to help you surface the talents, skills, and benefits that volunteers bring through your interview process: our free volunteer interview question cheat sheet. It’s on our website; go to the show notes page and link to it there. It gives you top questions to ask when interviewing volunteers, moving beyond just availability and which role they want.
I hope this has helped you think through the question “What is a volunteer?” and given you impetus to get this in writing if it’s not clear. Don’t feel bad if it isn’t. Most organizations have not built a shared definition. It will make a difference to your teamwork between volunteers and staff, and it will give you a little peace of mind.
Again, talk to your legal counsel. In the U.S., you can ask for an opinion letter from the Department of Labor. If you’re in another country, I’m certain there are people who can help you navigate this interesting landscape.
I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please share it with a friend. Of course, we always love ratings and reviews; five‑star ratings help us get in front of more people. I know what we’ve got to share here is of value because I hear from people all the time that it is. It’s a labor of love.
I hope you’ll join me next week, same time, same place on the Volunteer Nation.
