Happy National Volunteer Week!  We at Adler & Colvin are blessed to count among our clients many empathetic, compassionate, and driven individuals who work within their organizations every day to try and make this world a better place-and many of them do that work without compensation, as volunteers.  We are deeply grateful, alongside their organizations, for their services and contributions to the nonprofit sector and to the people, communities, and causes it serves.  Indeed, during this national week of acknowledgment, we hope that is one thing our entire nation can shout with one voice:  Thank you, volunteers!

This year, Independent Sector and the Do Good Institute announced that the latest value of a volunteer hour is estimated to be $29.95, which is a 4.9% increase from 2020 to 2021.  The total contribution of volunteers to our collective well-being is, well, priceless.

Of course, “priceless” does not necessarily mean “risk-free.”  As the charitable sector grows and more and more organizations rely on volunteers in carrying out their charitable missions, and as the value of volunteer service continues to increase, we, in our capacity as counsel to the sector, think it’s important to remind organizations that there are risks associated with using volunteers, and strategies to minimize them.  National Volunteer Week seems like a good time to highlight some best practices for nonprofit risk management using volunteers.  We hope this LexisNexis Practice Note provides some useful tips for those newer to volunteer management, or perhaps a check-up list for those with established volunteer programs.

We hope you can pause for just a moment, in these very busy, often chaotic days, to reflect on someone you know who volunteers, an organization you benefit from that uses volunteers, or volunteer work you’ve done yourself.  Appreciate them, send them your good thoughts-or even an e-mail!  And if you’ve volunteered, pat yourself on the back, and accept our gratitude.