Volunteers deserve great customer-grade service
On tax deductions, market rates, and why it's a travesty to waste high-value volunteer time on sloppy meetings and lazily-planned workshops
The 2026 National Volunteer Week concludes on April 25th. It shouldn’t escape anyone’s attention just how significant the volunteerism sector is in America -- there are high-profile opportunities to help with things like Habitat for Humanity, of course, but there are also thousands of little ways in which people contribute to their local animal shelters, blood banks, PTAs, Scout troops, churches and temples, libraries, and other institutions of civil society.
■ It can be much more valuable for professionals to donate their efforts to a cause rather than donating cash, but because nobody in those non-profit institutions is compelled (for deductibility reasons) to be conscious of the billable rates those professionals charge in the marketplace, they risk overlooking just how valuable those in-kind service donations really are.
■ There may be no task more important for non-profit managers to undertake than making it as easy as possible for high-value experts to donate their time for maximum efficient impact. Someone capable of donating services with a market price of $250 an hour shouldn’t be directed to spend their time on $10 an hour work (unless they really want to do it). Knowing the array of skills and talents available to an institution and making the maximally efficient use of them is as important as fundraising -- and perhaps even more important.
■ Significantly, though, the other thing non-profit managers should do is concentrate heavily on making every meeting, training session, and report as efficient as possible. People with valuable skills tend to be conscious of the value of their time, and wasting that time on poorly-organized board meetings, webinars, strategy sessions, and workshops isn’t just disrespectful: It deters high-value volunteers from volunteering.
■ The best thing anyone can do when leading a group of volunteers is to create an environment that is friendly to participation by people who don’t have trouble finding better things to do. The best volunteers aren’t looking for ways to burn up spare time; they’re the ones juggling other obligations because their worth is widely-recognized. Good organizational management values this in volunteers and invests tirelessly in making sure their experiences aren’t just superficially pleasant, but really look like the best use of highly-sought-after time.