DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Bad Manners and Brimstone
HTML https://badmanners.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Life in General
*****************************************************
#Post#: 36234--------------------------------------------------
Re: Paying to volunteer
DIR By: Hmmm
Date: August 8, 2019, 2:51 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Volunteers should not be asked to buy a ticket or pay for their
own food. I would also not ask them to bring their own food.
Paying for their lunch should be part of the cost of the event
especially if the focus of the event is the picnic lunch. I have
been involved in some volunteer food related fundraiser where
the ticket holders were served a multi course meal, while
volunteers took a half hour break and had a much more modest
offering served in a different location. Maybe your sister can
speak with the caterer about providing a more modest offering of
sandwich box lunch a much lower cost. Paying ticket holders
would receive a risk band or ticket to go through the buffet
line. If a volunteer really wanted to partake in the buffet
picnic lunch, they could then buy a ticket.
However, do volunteers get another type of benefit? Is there
also a concert they can listen to or an activity that is
included in the event? If there is, then I can see offering a
reduced ticket price if you volunteer for a certain number of
hours. For instance, there is a large wine tasting event near me
that if you volunteer for a 2 hour shift, you are able to buy a
half price ticket to the event and then participate in the full
wine tasting. (but there is also another event I've volunteered
at that if you volunteer for 2 hours, you get a free ticket to
that event with all the perks)
#Post#: 36235--------------------------------------------------
Re: Paying to volunteer
DIR By: Contrarian
Date: August 8, 2019, 3:20 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
In my experience as a caterer, the cost of the food includes
staff, sometimes rental, and a specific and very generous amount
of food per person. There are some that may eat more but often
more that eat less at events like this.
I’ve never worked an event where staff and volunteers ate and
there wasn’t sill food left over.
A specific food may run out, but there is always lots of food.
Unless the number of volunteers is very high, in comparison to
attendees it’s fine.
The charity won’t likely add the number of volunteers to what
they are ordering from the caterer, they will order enough for
the attendees, meaning they won’t be paying for your food. But
there should be plenty of food for the volunteers as long as, as
stated above, there are not a huge number of volunteers needed.
I’d be shocked if I held an event where the volunteers and staff
are for free and there still wasn’t food left over.
#Post#: 36237--------------------------------------------------
Re: Paying to volunteer
DIR By: Jem
Date: August 8, 2019, 3:24 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
I wouldn't expect to pay to volunteer, but in the context of a
charity event I might donate in addition to volunteering.
However, a "donation" is a voluntary gift. A "charge" to
volunteer comes across as icky to me. If I am going to be
"charged" to volunteer, I would consider simply donating and
enjoying the event as a patron. And that's not what the charity
liking is looking for......so I really do think that "charging"
volunteers is short sighted.
#Post#: 36243--------------------------------------------------
Re: Paying to volunteer
DIR By: Hanna
Date: August 8, 2019, 5:56 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
That was an accidental disagree on Jem’s post above!
#Post#: 36249--------------------------------------------------
Re: Paying to volunteer
DIR By: prock929
Date: August 8, 2019, 7:35 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for all of the responses so far. You've pretty much
verified my own thoughts on this. Just a few thought/answers to
some of the questions I've come across in reading your answers:
The charity is relatively new. It was founded in late 2014 as a
501c not-for-profit. Most of us are relatively new to this and
are kind of learning as we go.
The event in question (though my question could apply to any
event) is a picnic at a local park. We have access to the
pavillion, though the park is open to anyone during the event
(not just picnic goers). In addition to the food, we have a
band (3 pc ), a silent auction, a chinese raffle (where you put
tickets in the bags in front of the items you want to win) and
activities for kids provided by an outside vendor (which the
charity pays for) Volunteers, for the most part, are friends
and family members who sell the raffle tickets, manage the
silent auction, sell T-shirts, and run the entrance/registration
table. (Normally there would be volunteers manning the buffet
line, but from what I understand, this year that will be done by
the catering staff) Past picnics have brought in roughly 150
patrons with approximately a dozen or so volunteers/workers.
I'm not sure what the actual plan for determining the number of
"heads". We have used wristbands in the past (ticket holders
get a wrist band with people over 21 getting a certain color as
we do serve alcohol) so I'm guessing it might be by the number
of wristbands sold.
The charity itself provides financial assistance to families
meeting certain criteria (being deliberately vague here). It
provides a set amount of picnic tickets for the families helped
so they can attend the picnic. My thought is that we should
provide the same benefit to the volunteers and factor the cost
of the volunteers' meals. Or provide and alternative meal for
volunteers. (Though I think most of the volunteers for this
event will be paying for their tickets of their own volition, I
am most likely going to be either bringing my own food or
leaving for a period of time to go get something.)
My main reason for asking the question is for future events when
we may need to bring in more volunteers. I'd like to be able to
make a case that we need to provide some benefits if we are
going to attract volunteers in the future.
#Post#: 36251--------------------------------------------------
Re: Paying to volunteer
DIR By: Rain
Date: August 8, 2019, 9:06 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
I've volunteered in the past.
I've always been fed & admitted for free. If I had to pay to be
admitted, I would have never volunteered again for the event.
#Post#: 36254--------------------------------------------------
Re: Paying to volunteer
DIR By: wolfie
Date: August 8, 2019, 9:38 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
I've volunteered in the past to these kind of events. If food
was provided then i would get the food for free. If food was
"buy it" then i would provide it myself. But I never had to buy
a ticket into an event in order to work it. I wouldn't do it. I
give a lot of my time, effort, and money to the cause - letting
me into the events for free is a nice "thank you".
#Post#: 36255--------------------------------------------------
Re: Paying to volunteer
DIR By: Runningstar
Date: August 8, 2019, 9:45 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
I'd either increase the charge by a small amount per person to
cover the volunteer's meals, or just accept a smaller profit.
I've been asked to pay to volunteer only once, and I said no to
it.
#Post#: 36256--------------------------------------------------
Re: Paying to volunteer
DIR By: pierrotlunaire0
Date: August 8, 2019, 10:09 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
I answered Pay the full fee, but that is based on my own
volunteer experience, which seems extremely different from what
the OP is describing.
I volunteered for the local opera company. There is a $35 fee
just to sign up annually. There are no freebies. Zip. What you
do get is some access to behind the scene action, which the
volunteers look at as a major head spinning perk. (For example,
some volunteers act as personal drivers for the visiting
performers - I gather there is fighting over who gets to do
that). Plus, many of the volunteers are older and financially
well off. To an opera lover, paying $35 plus working for free is
a small price to actually interact with your idol.
That's why I voted as I did. For the experience the OP is
describing, I would have opted for treating the volunteers with
some consideration, and giving them a free meal.
#Post#: 36260--------------------------------------------------
Re: Paying to volunteer
DIR By: NyaChan
Date: August 8, 2019, 11:11 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
I think it’s nice when a group can afford to subsidize or cover
for volunteers, but I also have experienced organizations when
we could at most expect a discount on the fees that others would
pay. They would schedule things so that people’s volunteer time
was in shifts so that you could be just a guest for the rest of
the event. I had mixed feelings about it. Sometimes the
volunteers aren’t really doing enough to justify not charging
them for enjoying the event when they aren’t working. For
example, a volunteer manned the entrance table to take tickets.
After the first hour, their work is done and they are purely a
guest. If you let them in for free, you’ve essentially paid
them more than what they’d get as an hourly wage in the form of
food, drink, and the profit you’d otherwise have received from
them if they’d just been an attendee. Of course in my case, the
volunteers were people who would have almost certainly attended
anyways rather people coming solely to volunteer.
*****************************************************
Page 2 of 7
DIR Previous Page
DIR Next Page