Volunteer hour value calculator

What the number means

Volunteer time has a dollar value, and funders accept it. Multiply the hours your volunteers gave by a standard hourly rate and you get in-kind value: the worth of donated labor, in money.

It does two jobs. It shows a funder or a board the scale of what your volunteers actually contribute, and for some grants it counts toward a required match, which can be the difference between affording a project and not.

Where $36.14 comes from

Independent Sector publishes the national value of a volunteer hour each year. It starts from federal data on the average hourly pay of workers who are not managers at private, non-farm employers, then adds benefits. The current figure is $36.14. It is the value for 2025, released on 21 April 2026, and it is 3.9% higher than the value for 2024.

It updates every April, for the year before, so check the source before a big report rather than reusing last year's number. The 2025 figure was built from early wage data. Independent Sector says it will update it once the final data is out, though it does not expect a big change.

Your state's rate is probably different

Independent Sector also publishes a value for each state, and for 2025 the spread is wide, from $17.99 in Puerto Rico to $54.77 in the District of Columbia. If your funder is local, the state figure is often the more defensible one.

The state values live on the interactive map on Independent Sector's page. Look yours up, then type it into the rate box above.

Which hours to count

Be consistent and be conservative: a number you can defend beats a bigger one you can't.

• Count time spent on the work: shifts, prep, remote tasks, and volunteer-led admin.
• Usually skip travel time, unless a funder specifically asks for it.
• Write your rule down so every volunteer and staff member logs the same way. Consistency matters more than the exact boundary you pick.
• Keep the detail. Hours by program and by date, so when a funder asks "how many hours went into this program?" you can answer without a reconstruction.

Specialized skills can be valued higher

The national rate treats every hour the same. Some volunteers donate professional work: an accountant doing your books, a lawyer reviewing a contract, a designer building your annual report. For work like that, many funders will accept the going market rate for the profession instead.

If you do that, note it separately in your report and say what rate you used and why. Mixing a professional rate into a headline average without explanation is the kind of thing that draws questions.

A caution on accounting

In-kind value for a grant report is not the same thing as what goes in your financial statements. Under US accounting rules, donated services are only recorded as revenue in narrow circumstances. Broadly, that is when they create or improve a non-financial asset, or when they require specialized skills that would otherwise have been purchased.

So the number this calculator gives you is right for a funder narrative or a board packet. It can also count toward a match when your funder accepts this rate. On a federal award, 2 CFR 200.306 has its own rule: use what your organization pays for similar work, or, if no one on your staff does that work, what the job market you hire from pays. Type that rate into the rate box above. Before a volunteer value appears on a financial statement or a Form 990, check with whoever prepares them.

The Ember tool for this

Ember Volunteers

Ember Volunteers totals approved hours by person and by program, and Impact Reports turns them into an in-kind value at the hourly rate you set, so the number in your grant report comes straight from your records. Unlimited users on every tier.

Sources: Independent Sector, Value of Volunteer Time ($36.14 for 2025, released 21 April 2026, built from preliminary wage data) and its value of volunteer time by state spreadsheet (2025 values, $17.99 in Puerto Rico to $54.77 in the District of Columbia). Read 25 September 2026. The rate updates each spring, so check the source for the current figure.