Valuation Guidance

Question IV.C : Employee Volunteer Programs

In this question, record whether different types of employee-volunteerism programs and initiatives are in effect at your organization.

Survey Instructions:

o Your company must incur costs (which might be in the form of expended staff time only) as a result of these programs.

o The top of this question asks generally whether you have employee-volunteerism programs domestically and/or internationally. If your company does not, leave these fields blank and click the “Save” button to bypass this question. By doing so, you will not be able to answer Questions IV.D-F.

o Use the “program specifics” column to jot down quick notes, such as: “At manager’s discretion,” “40 hours per year,” “During work day,” and so on. Do not feel limited by these examples.

Employee-Volunteer Program Descriptions

Formal Employee-Volunteer Program: This is a planned, managed effort that seeks to motivate and enable employees effectively to volunteer under the sponsorship and leadership of the employer.

Paid-Release Time: Paid-release time is also referred to in the Valuation Guide as “on-company-time volunteerism.” This includes time spent by employees during a normal paid work schedule to donate time to 501(c)(3) organizations, within corporate policies. With such a policy, the employee does not make up hours missed and, consequently, the company incurs salary costs for the missed hours. For example: a company-wide day of service is a subset of paid time off; paid time off, however, may also include other time off granted to employees during a normal paid work schedule.

Flexible Scheduling: For example: an employee may leave a few hours early to attend a nonprofit meeting, yet will often make up the time by coming in early the next day. Flexible scheduling is not included as on-company-time volunteerism because no costs are incurred by the company.

Dollars for Doers: This is corporate giving in recognition of employee-volunteer hours. The ratio varies by company, but a common policy is approximately $100 for every ten hours of volunteer service, usually at a fixed amount ($250 for 25 hours or $500 for 50 hours). Some companies limit eligibility to company-sponsored events.

Team Grants: These grants are set up specifically to fund teams of employee volunteers usually as a one-time grant. Team grants are different from Dollars for Doers, which rewards individual, ongoing volunteer hours.

Family Volunteering: Family volunteering allows families to join employees in participating in a formal employee-volunteer effort organized/sponsored by the company (not personal employee off-company time/volunteering).

Incentive Bonuses: Some companies have incentive bonuses that recognize volunteerism as part of their compensation structure and use these to reward employee volunteerism (the funds go to the employee, not the nonprofit, so are not considered charitable gifts).