volunteer paid night out - outrageous?

[spaghetticarbonara]

I volunteer for one of the UK's big charities in one of their shops. Our shop has one full time member of staff and the rest of us are volunteers. Obviously as volunteers we don't get paid. We can claim expenses for travelling to and from the shop but nobody ever does.

At Christmas, the charity says "thank you" by contributing £11 per head towards a Christmas meal. We had our night out last night at a local pub. The £11 doesn't cover the whole price of the meal or drinks so we pay the extra ourselves.

A couple of relatives have voiced the opinion that it's ridiculous that charities are funding a "jolly" for volunteers and that people contributing to the charity would be horrified to think that (an extremely tiny) percentage of the money is being used in that way.

AIBU to think an £11 "thank you" to volunteers once a year is actually OK?

YANBU. Thank you for volunteering!

I think a lot of people believe the money they give to charity goes tieards the course and make comment when they see the large salaries, entertainment expenses etc.

Charities have to be careful about what they spend their money on, as they are required to support their core activity and charitable purpose. However, if unpaid volunteers are the ones enabling them to fulfil their core activity and charitable purpose it goes without saying that a
contribution towards some kind of thank you to them, is completely acceptable.

Volunteers are the backbone of many charities and they deserve to be recognised and treated well - in the same way that full-time workers do. Are charitable volunteers and employed staff supposed to be treated worse than employees of non-charitable organisations?

£11 towards a Christmas meal is absolutely fine. Your relatives are being very unreasonable ignore them.

Do the complainers volunteer themselves? Doubt it somehow...

Fine by me. I have no issue with volunteers being given what is a tiny reward for their much-needed service.

I volunteer, not a charity but a public sector organisation. We get free biscuits and drinks, sometimes icecream, and a Christmas meal where we all get together, instead of just snatched conversation in passing - in return, the organisation receives not just our time but the benefits of our various skills. Even notionally costing our time at minimum wage the organisation benefits enormously, but most of the work we do would cost many more times than the minimum wage if it had to be paid for. We do it, not "out of the goodness of our hearts" but because we enjoy working for an organisation that makes use of our individual skills and shows appreciation. And because we get that appreciation, we offer far more of ourselves than the basic volunteer role would suggest.

I think a lot of people believe the money they give to charity goes tieards the course and make comment when they see the large salaries, entertainment expenses etc.

Its not that simple. If I give £10 to help the homeless, for example, I expect the charity to get the right people with the right background, skills and character to do the work I'm supporting, and to invest in stuff like understanding the legislation, understanding the issues homeless people face.

I also expect them to raise money from other people so that its not just my tiny contribution being spread too thin.

I expect a volunteer doing work I can't do to get supported so that they don't get burned out.

And a good senior team are worth their weight - they can access funding to develop services and make sure the work is effective.

I can give my tenner to a homerless person direct or I can give it to experts who may well spend it on something else short-term for long term benefits.

The relatives are ridiculous. Without volunteers the charity shops would close. £11 per head once a year is a dip in the ocean, it's also very good for staff morale.

I think it's fine!

It is the least they can do to thank you.

Charties in the past have been scolded for high wages, for high earners. It takes a highly educated person to run the large charities it reflects their wage.

Your relatives might be interested in reading the DSC's Charity Factsheet: fewer than 10% of charities employ staff, average CEO charity salary is £55k, over 70% of charities have less than £100k income, charities receive nearly half of all their income from individuals and 90% of households in the UK have used a charity at some point

More here www.dsc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/CharityFacts2.pdf

Why don't you rephrase to "I get paid £11 a year so do one you twunts"?

People who voice these kind of opinions do not understand the value of the volunteers and the infrastructure they provide and the services that are provided from their support. I hope all the volunteers enjoyed their night .

Ask them if they would be prepared to effectively donate their hourly wage to charity every week for X hours as you do.

Absolutely ok with this.

I think that is fine. It wouldn't sit well if it was a very flash expensive do but a wee thank you like that is morale boosting.

It's money well spent, that's how you've got to look at it.

The hardest part of running anything is managing the Staff/Volunteers. If this helps people feel valued and they work together better, then it's an investment.

Whoever said it has got to realise the average income for Volunteers and for some, that might be their only Christmas night out celebration, or celebration at all.

Charities are often very good to volunteers. You might get the odd freebie, the odd event you get in free, you get treated quite nicely compared to when you get paid for a job

It's keeping up morale and being grateful... costs far less than paying salaries or training new people when volunteers feel unthanked and walk to another that treats them better

I work for one with several sides to it. The money spent on volunteers isn't the same pot as that spent on the cause but most charities only have one arm to pay from

Some volunteers themselves don’t agree with spending money on them.
On the other hand many like and need the recognition.
It’s hard keeping everyone happy but best practise would definitely be saying thank you with some sort of event.

It's fine. Charities budget for these things and they justify it to their stakeholders too. Some of their income sources may purely be for volunteer expenses. Volunteer retention is vital and way cheaper than a content churn of recruitment. £11 quid at the end of a year for a hardworking volunteer is well worth it in comparison.