What is the value of volunteer time?

I often get asked what an hour of volunteer is worth, in dollars and cents. This is a very tricky question....

There are formulas done on a national level that put a dollar amount based on the average from across the country. The last time I investigated it, it was around $17/hour! That is very significant, especially when one considers that Galt volunteers donated 9000+ hours in 2009....easily being valued at $133,000.00!!!

There are other ways of computing volunteer hours as well. A volunteer coordinator can look at the job the person is doing and value the hour by basing it on what a similar working paid employee is doing. In our case, that is very hard to do as none of our volunteers do exactly what our staff do, 100% of the time....in fact, most of our volunteers do things that complement and support our staff so there is tie-in but little actual overlap. If we did use this method at the Galt, I believe that the volunteer time for 2009 would be valued at well over $150,000.00.

Either way though, this is proof of a few things:

The Galt Museum & Archives would not be the Galt Museum & Archives without volunteers

We would not be able to do most things that we do, especially to the caliber that we are able to, meeting and exceeding standards in most, if not all, areas

Volunteers truly are priceless!