Volunteer Remuneration Strategy

Always remember to pay your volunteers well.

If that seems like a contradiction or an oxymoron then bear with me.

If you think that volunteers are people who give their time to you and ask for no payment in return then you are wrong. They want no financial remuneration but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t entitled to be rewarded for what they do.

Far too many people see volunteers as just people who are bored and have too much time on their hands, that want something to do. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Without the volunteers many large organisations would grind to a halt.

Local parishes couldn’t run without parish councillors. Schools couldn’t run without governors. Charities couldn’t run without trustees. And most of these roles are filled by volunteers.

And as I’ve touched upon in other posts, many people confuse COST with VALUE. Volunteers cost nothing. So many people don’t see their huge value. And consequently they disregard entirely their entitlement to be paid.

As a volunteer you don’t expect any money in return for what you do. But you have a reason for volunteering which is more important to you than mere monetary payment. Maybe you volunteer because you want to give something back. Maybe you volunteer because you want to make a difference. Maybe you volunteer simply because you want to make other people happy. But whatever the reason you volunteer because somewhere inside you giving something of yourself in the service of some purpose that you believe in gives you pleasure or satisfaction or joy.

Volunteers should be highly valued and they need to be rewarded in the currency of joy.

If being a volunteer stops giving joy then that is when you lose them. And when you do, you don’t lose something that costs you nothing. You lose something of great worth that is increasingly hard to replace.