Value of volunteer service pegged at $23.56/hour

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30325
• Published date: 01 June 2017
• Date: 01 June 2017

JUNE 2017

7

NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

Industry News

Value of volunteer service pegged

at $23.56/hour

A new analysis of economic data conducted by the

Independent Sector pegs the average value of volunteer

service in 2015 at $23.56 an hour—49 cents more than

2014 and more than a dollar higher than 2013.

According to the IS, the gure is based on the

hourly earnings of all production and nonsupervisory

workers 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. For 2015,

the value of volunteer service ranged from a low of

$19.14 per hour in Arkansas up to a high of $38.77

per hour in the District of Columbia.

For 2015, the group said, most states saw increases,

although a handful—Arkansas, the District of Co-

lumbia, Louisiana, New Mexico, Mississippi and

Wyoming—saw slight decreases year over 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.

For example, 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.

In some cases, the value of volunteer services can

also be used on nancial forms, such as statements

for internal and external purposes, grant proposals

and annual reports, according to the Financial Ac-

counting Standards Board, so long as the volunteer

is performing a specialized skill for the nonprot.

Another use of the data is to demonstrate the

broader economic impact of service, the IS said.

Combined with data from the Corporation for Na-

tional and Community Service—which says about

62.8 million Americans, or 25.3 percent of the adult

population, gave 7.9 billion hours of volunteer service

in 2014—the IS gure means that the total dollar

value of volunteer service reached about $184 billion

nationwide.

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

volunteer service, go to http://www.independentsector

.org/volunteer_time. ■

The Independent Sector has launched a new

campaign aimed at bolstering support for the

permanent expansion of the charitable deduction

to all U.S. taxpayers, as opposed to just those who

itemize their taxes, as is currently the case. Roughly

100 million American taxpayers aren’t able to take

the deduction due to that limitation, the IS said.

According to the group, the Giving100 grass-

roots advocacy campaign is timed to coincide

with the 100-year anniversary of the charitable

deduction’s inclusion in the U.S. tax code. The

campaign will give nonprots the tools they need

to demonstrate why the charitable deduction is so

important to the charitable sector and the commu-

nities they serve. The ultimate goal is to convince

policymakers that the charitable deduction should

be accessible to every taxpayer.

Nonprofits interested in the campaign are

urged to:

• Visit the Giving100 Champions Wall online

at http://www.giving100.org and upload their lo-

gos to show that their organizations believe the

charitable deduction should be available to 100

percent of taxpayers.

• Share the Giving100 explainer video, info-

graphics and messages with their social networks

using the hashtag #giving100. They can download

all of the materials and messaging on the cam-

paign’s main page.

• Share their stories about the charitable deduc-

tion with the world.

For more information, visit the website above or

contact the IS at giving100@independentsector

.org. ■

Independent Sector launches new campaign

to expand charitable deduction