November 13, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
How much of an impact do volunteers have on charities’ programs? Not much, writes Holden Karnofsky, on the GiveWell blog.
In fact, Mr. Karnofsky says that volunteers generally cost a charity more time to manage than the value they add to an organization.
“I’ve generally found that adding a new person into a work process nearly always costs a lot of time, especially up front, for training and managing,” he says.
He says that training volunteers can be worthwhile, however, if the volunteers put in enough time to eventually overcome the cost of their training, or if their projects are very well-defined.
The real value of volunteerism for most charities, says Mr. Karnofsky, is that it provides a way to get potential donors more engaged with the organization.
What do you think? Click on the comments link below to share your thoughts.
