The US national average estimated dollar value of volunteer time for 2011 is $21.79 an hour. This value is calculated annually by the Independent Sector.
The 2012 Federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees is $7.25 an hour.
State minimum wages can vary from the Federal, the 2012 Colorado minimum wage is $7.64 an hour.
Many not-for-profit organizations like to track and value the time their volunteers give them so that they can measure the impact that the volunteers are having on the organization.
Skilled Volunteers:
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has determined that volunteer time can only be accounted for on the organization’s Financial Statements if the volunteer provided a service that required a specialized skill that they possessed and if the service had not been donated, the organization would have had to have purchased it (FASB 116). For example an attorney providing legal services or a plumber providing plumbing services.
New or Improved Assets:
According to FASB 116 volunteer time can also be accounted for if the volunteer’s services created or enhanced nonfinancial assets. This means that if you renovated your facility using skilled and unskilled volunteers you should account for the value of their services. You would do this by getting the new appraised value of the asset and then you would subtract it’s original value to determine the improved value. Then you would subtract the value of the supplies and out-of-pocket costs. The difference will be the value of the volunteer time.