Last week I attended the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in New York City with almost 6,000 other people from the nonprofit, government, and business sectors. I usually am presenting or facilitating sessions at these conference so it was a real treat to actually get to attend some sessions this year!
One session I especially enjoyed was the panel on “Understanding the Talent Benefits and Metrics of Pro Bono Engagement: Develop Your Employees and Measure Your Success” facilitated by Lindsay Firestone of Taproot Foundation. One of my specialty skills areas is metrics and the evaluation of social programs from both the nonprofit/social impact and business perspectives – so I always appreciate hearing about advancements in the field. The panelists were Janet Donovan Katsakis from Merck, Evan Hochberg from Deloitte, Matt Hines from Capital One, and Farron Levy from True Impact. After opening remarks from each panelists, we were able to select two mini breakout sessions. I first sat with Lindsay and Diana Fischer, an AmeriCorps fellow from Taproot Foundation. The following table and report in its entirety can be found at http://www.probonoactiontank.org./pro-bono-standards/.
The Taproot folks were sharing the results of their 2009 collaborative work with the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) to establish a definition and valuation for pro bono service.
They have calculated an overall average of $120/hour for pro bono service provided to a nonprofit organization. This compares to the Independent Sector‘s hourly average value for “hand on volunteering” of $20.85.
If your employees are providing professional services to your nonprofit partners, you now have an approximate value to use to help you estimate the contribution you are making to the community. This $120/hour figure is especially useful if you are not a professional services firm and do not already have market values assigned to the skills your employees could be providing through pro bono service.
But remember, if your CEO or other executives are helping paint a fence, you need to use the $20.85/hour figure, not a percentage of their salary or the $120/hour average pro bono value as they are providing hand on/manual labor not skilled services – even if they are good painters!
I hope you find this information helpful!
International Corporate Philanthropy Day (ICPD) falls annually on the 4th Monday of February – this year on February 28th. The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) leads the international advocacy day intended to inspire businesses around the world to engage further in community partnerships. ICPD was created to bring awareness and advocacy to corporations and to inspire businesses to think about their social impact in new ways.
