Tom and I began working together 46 years ago at Common Cause, founded by the remarkable, accomplished and extraordinarily prescient John Gardner.

Among the values Gardner instilled in both of us was the value of volunteerism and the importance of respect and proper management and accountability for each volunteer who worked at Common Cause.

His pedigree — Medal of Freedom winner, former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Lyndon Johnson (until he resigned over the Vietnam war), author and Gentleman — didn’t blind him to the importance of volunteers.

One of the first five executive positions he ordered filled at the start of Common Cause was that of Director of Volunteers. The first Director was a dynamo by the name of Ruth Saxe, a former Peace Corps executive.

Ruth not only recruited volunteers (Tom started as one), but supervised, nurtured, and held them accountable. Whether the volunteer was a retired foreign service officer or a carpenter who devoted nights and weekends to our cause, there were uniform standards and rules:

• Each volunteer made a commitment in terms of task and schedule. If they volunteered to come into the office Monday and Thursday afternoons they were expected to be there. Timesheets were kept and if their presence was too erratic they were dismissed.

• Each volunteer received regular evaluations pointing out strengths and what Ruth called ‘improvement opportunities’. Each was welcome to participate in all the organizations events and meetings, including Board meetings.

• Their time was tracked and monetary value assigned to it. Each year the organization’s annual accounts would reflect this total value, which was considerable.

Respect. Recognition. Accountability. These were the three pillars on which the organization built a massive and effective human resource. (I visited Common Cause a month ago and the last of volunteers who were there 46 years ago with Tom and me had just retired!)

Ten years after he founded Common Cause, John co-founded Independent Sector, a national association of diverse groups that advocate for the nonprofit community. Its members range from the biggest foundations to local charities. Organizations engaged in every kind of endeavor with staffs ranging from 35,000 to 2.

However, this post is more than a trip down nostalgia lane.

Independent Sector has just reported  that the latest value of a volunteer hour is $24.14 — up 2.5 percent from the previous year. That figure, estimated from data collected in 2016, shows the incredible contributions volunteers make to our communities and our country.

Currently, 63 million Americans volunteer about 8 billion hours of their time, talent. With this updated value of volunteer time, these Americans are contributing approximately $193 billion to our sector.

According to data from the Corporation for National and Community Service, religious organizations were cited as the type of organization that volunteers worked in the most (34%), followed by educational or youth service (26%), and social or community service organizations (15%).

Thank you, John Gardner. Thank you, Ruth Saxe. Most of all, thank you volunteers — every 63 million of you.

Does your organization respect, recognize and hold volunteers accountable?

Roger

P.S. Independent Sector also updated the state-level breakdown for the new value of volunteer time. Most states saw increases over the previous year’s numbers. The highest value of volunteer time is in Washington, DC at $39.17, and Delaware saw the biggest increase over the last year. An interactive map is available on the Independent Sector website, as well as a table showing data for each state, where the value of a volunteer hour is highest and lowest, and how much the figure has risen or fallen since the previous year. Also included in the map is the complete dataset for the value of volunteer time for all 50 states and DC from 2001-2016.

To access state-by-state values of volunteer time and learn more about the national figure, visit independentsector.org/volunteer-time.