Independent Sector raises volunteer hour value to $36.14 for 2025

A volunteer hour now carries a $36.14 price tag, a number that can do more than fill a line in a report. For A Simple Gesture, it gives coordinators, board members and donors a concrete way to measure the labor behind doorstep pickups, sorting shifts, loading, event setup, communications and community outreach.

Independent Sector set the 2025 estimate at $36.14 on April 21, a 3.9 percent increase from the prior year, and timed the release to National Volunteer Week. The annual figure is produced with the Do Good Institute at the University of Maryland and is based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data. Independent Sector says the national estimate reflects average earnings of private-sector workers, excluding farm and managerial occupations, while state figures are adjusted for labor conditions and cost of living using a method originally recommended by BLS economist John Stinson.

The group is careful to frame the number as replacement cost, not a full accounting of what volunteer service is worth. That distinction matters for a nonprofit like A Simple Gesture, where volunteer labor is not an add-on but the operating model itself. The organization says it was started in 2011 by Jonathan Trivers in Paradise, California, and that the model has since been replicated by more than 70 chapters nationwide. On its own materials, A Simple Gesture describes itself as a near zero-cost program and says a one-dollar donation converts into more than $30 of food for food banks and pantries.

That is exactly why the volunteer-hour estimate can help inside the organization as much as outside it. In board reports and donor materials, the figure can translate the time behind a green bag pickup route into something more tangible than general gratitude. In volunteer thank-yous, it can show that a driver, sorter or outreach helper is contributing far more than a few spare hours. And for staff trying to recruit and retain volunteers, the number can support better onboarding, clearer roles and more deliberate recognition, all of which matter in a service model that depends on people showing up week after week.

A Simple Gesture’s food-recovery work in Guilford County, North Carolina, makes that point even harder to miss. The organization says the U.S. wastes 30 to 40 percent of the food it produces, and its volunteer-driven system has recovered millions of meals for Guilford County by redirecting surplus food from homes, businesses and schools to local pantries and programs. A partner page says the effort has recovered more than 2 million pounds of food and provided nearly 3 million meals through a food-rescue partnership. For a nonprofit built around doorstep collection and pantry partnerships, $36.14 is less a headline number than a reminder that appreciation, like logistics, is part of mission delivery.