Does your company give paid volunteer time?

[dochas]

My company is going to give us 1 paid volunteer day a year and I love that. I wish we could do 2 half days, but it has to be taken as 1 day. If you have this benefit what kinds of things do you use it for? I'm blanking on what I could do for a full day during the week. I won't be doing a team thing through work and I would like to use it as a day to volunteer with my son.

[donutsmakemegonuts]

Yes! I work for my local county government and they give you one volunteer day per year to use. They provide a list of volunteer opportunities that you can sign up for which are things like planting trees at one of the county parks or teaching kids how to ride bikes at the annual bike rodeo, so it is dictated by them what you can volunteer for, but I do think it's a great idea.

[bbdoll]

No, but I wish they did. My company is non-profit and have events where they need volunteers. But, we have to use vacation time in order to do so, so I don't.

[macmars45]

As a school employee I get paid to volunteer for school events. Does that count? 

[underwaterrhymes]

Yes, we get one day a year to volunteer. (We also get one elder care day, one child care day, and a cultural holiday that we can take at our discretion.)

ETA - you don’t have to spend the whole day volunteering; it’s fine if it only takes part of the day.

[circa1978]

Sometimes. We have had annual service events - more often pre-COVID. I actually was just talking about this with a co-worker, because my organization emphasizes service and I think it would be a nice inclusion to enhance the culture.

[snowflurry]

Yes, I think we get 1 or maybe 2 days paid time off to volunteer.

They will also pay $20/hr (to the 501(c)) if you volunteer outside of work hours at a 501(c) org. And $1,000 to the org if you are a member of the board.

[glw]

We have bi-annual volunteer days with 5-10 prearranged volunteer activities for us to choose from (some are virtual since we have fully remote employees). Participation is optional. We get paid for a regular day on those days.

[livinitup]

My company is volunteering (as a group) for Earth Day by cleaning up the neighborhood for about 3 hours, during scheduled office hours on April 21st. You don’t have to participate but it’s nice that we can do it and will still get paid our regular salary.

[mysteriouswife]

H’s company is very generous. They give 7 days. 4 have to be used with company events and 3 for personal volunteer activities. No one is required to use them.

My new company gives 2. Not sure of the details yet.

[lemoncupcake]

We get 16 hours a year - can be used in any capacity (all at once vs here and there) as long as it’s during the normal workday.

[gretchenindisguise]

At my last company we got 8 hours to be used to volunteer however worked best for us.

I used it to edit photos I volunteered to take for my kids musicals.

[fernweh]

Yes they do. I believe we get 8 hours which can be taken as a day or two half days. They give us a list of approved organizations to those from and sometimes arrange events so large groups from the company go together.

[midwestmama]

Yes, we get paid volunteer time. I can't remember the official amount, but like 1-2 days. Usually there are a variety of company-sponsored volunteer events/opportunities each year, but we can also use it for volunteering outside of a company-sponsored event/opportunity.

[dochas]

I read the policy again and it's for "any charitable non-profit, non- partisan, public/private school, or religious organization". I miss volunteering at school so maybe I can use it for that!

[justemily]

No, but I really wish they did, as I do a lot of volunteer work!

[glitzy07]

Yes. I work for a B Corp and we get 3 days/24 hours to use per year. And then we also do some kind of volunteering at all full company meetings.

Last year I used my time to volunteer for my son's school field trips!

ETA: We also have the opportunity to double any monetary awards that we are given if we give the funds to a charitable org of our choosing. I won a $50 award in a team meeting a few months ago and I was able to double it to $100 and donate it to my son's hockey association.

[thebreakfastclub]

Yes, we get 16 hours that we can use in half day increments.

[Tacocat]

My company gives 8 hours per year and can be used in 2 hours increments. You can do company sponsored events or on your own. One of our core values is community involvement so there’s lots to choose from throughout the year. I’m volunteering at my daughter’s school so that counts as well.

[momin2013]

Higher ed - nope!

[kdubs923]

Yes! We get 4 hours a month. There are on/off site volunteer options the company offers throughout the year. Or the volunteer work can be something on your own. The only requirement is that it is to benefit children. We're a toy company, so our mission statement is focused on children and the volunteer opportunities are supposed to align with that statement. I will use it to volunteer at my kids school when they do the scholastic book fair or field day. Some people coach their kid's team sports and call it volunteer time.

Some volunteer options can be sort of worded that it benefits kids. So an Earth Day clean up might not involve kids in the day at all, but it's creating a better world for our kids down the line.

For the 4 hours a month, I don't know that many people actually use it. My company has gone through so many rounds of layoffs, every department is super understaffed. It's already hugely difficult to take regular vacation time, never mind taking additional hours off to volunteer.

We also have a company wide day of service around the holidays for giving back. We've packed food baskets, shopped for adopt a family, dropped off toys to local schools, etc. It's a really nice day being out in the community.

[meanie]

Yes, it's one of the few things my company does right. We get 4 paid days and they have a matching program where they match your donations or give a $500 grant when you volunteer for 16 hours at an organization.

My kids go to a nonprofit private school so I log the time I spend there volunteering as a room parent, reading to classes, events, fundraisers, etc.

[TR]

Yes, my company is very generous with this. We get 5 paid volunteer days and it’s ok if what you do doesn’t take all 8 hours, you still get the whole day. And we also have a Community Day where everyone can volunteer in organized group things and it doesn’t count as one of your volunteer days.

[TR]

Oh, and when you report your volunteering, they give you $10 in credit for every hour you volunteer and you can use that to donate to an organization of your choice.

[tacokick]

My husband does! He helps rebuild oyster beds which probably isn’t very helpful. His job has a list of places that will take one day volunteers. Another popular one is an urban farm but I think most parents do a day at their kid’s school.

[agnes]

Not like that, but you can volunteer (with supervisor approval) for county related things like Election Day, temporary emergency orders (fires, COVID vaccine distribution), homeless counts, etc. I usually volunteer for election days and get full pay for training, day of, and a $100 stipend. You can get mileage reimbursed too, but I don't bother with that.

[janegold]

Kind of. I'm a lawyer at a firm and we have billable hour requirements. We can count up to 100 hours of pro bono time toward our billable requirement annually (and are strongly encouraged to complete at least 20 hours).

[dochas]

Apr 12, 2024 10:57:26 GMT -5 tacokick said:

My husband does! He helps rebuild oyster beds which probably isn’t very helpful. His job has a list of places that will take one day volunteers. Another popular one is an urban farm but I think most parents do a day at their kid’s school.

They do oyster beds here too! I'm not sure if they do it on weekdays.

[arielroux]

Yes, we get 80 hours per year, so 10 business days. My company is very big into giving back. You can do group things, individual days, or even “give back” trips where you can travel for volunteer work. It’s pretty amazing. I never get anywhere even CLOSE to hitting my 80 hours.

[dochas]

Apr 12, 2024 12:00:48 GMT -5 arielroux said:

Yes, we get 80 hours per year, so 10 business days. My company is very big into giving back. You can do group things, individual days, or even “give back” trips where you can travel for volunteer work. It’s pretty amazing. I never get anywhere even CLOSE to hitting my 80 hours.

Wow!