2018 value of volunteer service

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30610
• Published date: 01 June 2019
• Date: 01 June 2019

NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR JUNE 2019

6© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

Industry News

Value of volunteer service pegged at $25.43/hour

The latest analysis of U.S. economic data con-

ducted by the Independent Sector puts the average

value of volunteer service in 2018 at $25.43 an hour,

up 74 cents (3 percent) from 2017 and $1.29 from

2016. Since 2001, when the organization began

tracking this metric, the value of an hour of vol-

unteer service has risen a total of $9.16 per hour,

the IS said.

To calculate the gure, the IS draws on the hourly

earnings of all production and nonsupervisory work-

ers on private nonfarm payrolls, based on yearly

earnings provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The IS takes that national average and makes adjust-

ments to derive state-level values as well, the IS said.

For 2018, the value of volunteer service ranged from

a high of $41.72 for the District of Columbia—which

holds the top spot by quite a stretch, coming in at

$9.57 above Massachusetts, which placed second—to

a low of $19.70 in Mississippi.

This year, all states saw increases year-over-year, a

departure from last year, where one in ve saw their

gures drop from the prior year.

According to the IS, putting a dollar value on

volunteer service is challenging because volunteers

provide many “intangibles” that aren’t easily quanti-

ed. Volunteers demonstrate the amount of support

an organization has within a community, provide

work for short periods of time and provide support

on a wide range of projects, the organization said.

But the numbers can be helpful in several ways,

one of which is to calculate the total economic value

of volunteer service to the U.S. economy. According

to the group, some 63 million Americans volunteered

about 8 billion hours of their time to improve and

strengthen their communities. Based on the new aver-

age value of volunteer time, that translates into about

$203.4 billion of economic output.

The value of volunteer services can also be used

on some nancial forms, including statements, grant

proposals and annual reports, according to the Fi-

nancial Accounting Standards Board, so long as the

volunteer is performing a specialized skill for the

nonprot, the IS said.

To access the state-by-state data on the value of

volunteer service, go to https://independentsector.org/

value-of-volunteer-time-2018. ■

2018 value of volunteer service

According to an analysis of U.S. labor and

salary data conducted by the Independent Sector,

the dollar value of volunteer service for 2018 for

all 50 U.S. states, as well as Washington, D.C., is

as follows:

District of Columbia

$41.72

Massachusetts $32.15

Washington $31.72

Connecticut $31.05

New York $30.18

California $29.95

New Jersey $28.82

Maryland $28.65

Minnesota $28.15

Colorado $28.02

Alaska $27.88

Virginia $27.50

Illinois $26.89

Hawaii $26.87

Rhode Island $26.82

Georgia $25.78

North Dakota $25.77

New Hampshire $25.76

Oregon $25.40

Delaware $25.38

Wisconsin $25.12

Texas $25.10

Utah $24.99

Pennsylvania $24.94

Michigan $24.85

Arizona $24.83

Vermont $24.60

Wyoming $24.60

North Carolina $24.19

Indiana $24.13

Ohio $24.05

Florida $24.04

Nebraska $24.01

Missouri $23.96

Iowa $23.41

Kansas $23.35

South Carolina $23.21

Maine $23.12

Montana $23.09

Oklahoma $22.95

Louisiana $22.76

Tennessee $22.67

Alabama $22.65

Nevada $22.61

West Virginia $22.29

Idaho $22.14

South Dakota $21.91

Kentucky $21.42

New Mexico $21.20

Arkansas $20.49

Mississippi $19.70

Source: Independent Sector. ■

Check out NBA on Facebook!

Drop by our page and join

the conversation.

Simply visit Facebook and search for

Nonprot Business Advisor. See you there!