Compensation

pheimbecker

A nonprofit organization holds a casino night as a fund raiser. The staff is not paid for help working the fund raiser and it is strictly on a voluntary basis if they wish to help. Since they are volunteers, is the organization required to compensate them? Some of the employees that help are hourly employees.

Thanks

NaeNae55

Do the employees feel there might be repercussions if they don't volunteer, or benefits (promotions, etc) if they do?

Is the work they will be doing similar at all to their normal work? For instance, is someone who normally does janitorial work for you cleaning up after guests that ngiht?

pheimbecker

It is not their normal duties. To my knowledge, they do not feel pressured into doing it.

NaeNae55

You can do it, provided it is strictly voluntary and completely outside their normal duties. It is not usually recommended though, because it can cause more headaches than it is worth. If you decide to go this way, communicate the reasons and the rules several times to all supervisors and employees involved.

ACU Frank

Who benefits from the fund-raiser? Is it for the organization, or a charity? If it is for the organization, it makes it tougher to meet the standards required for use of employees as volunteers.

NaeNae55

It sounds like a fund raiser for the non-profit organization, which I assume IS a charity of some kind. I know of many non-profits who are not charities, but they do not do fund raisers. Maybe it goes back to the old addage about ASSUME.

ACU Frank

That's why I asked. We're a non-profit but we do lots of fundraisers for charities, and we don't pay the employees who volunteer for those. If it's an outside-of-work event to benefit us, we would pay the hourly employees.