Volunteers Enhance Grant Development

Volunteers--these happy individuals, grownups and youngsters--are essential to the smooth and effective operation of our systems of public and private schools.

In an age when most districts are not fully funded, volunteers provide invaluable services at no cost. They include teachers' aides, organizers and facilitators of fundraisers, safety patrols, gardeners, sports coaches, field trip chaperones, judges for science fairs, cafeteria monitors, guest speakers, mentors, tutors, and the like. They serve without apparent bounds or limits in time and imagination.

There is, of course, a not-too-indirect cost to these individuals in terms of quality time with their own children, spouse, friends, and peers; time for their own education and careers; and time for physical recreation and cultural diversion.

In the rare school system with sufficient fiscal resources, volunteers nevertheless contribute other invaluable capital. Their presence demonstrates to youngsters, as well as to teachers and administrators, that education is esteemed. This perception builds morale and generally creates a positive and supportive environment for teaching and learning.

Tracking Volunteers

The coordinator of volunteers at my three youngsters' neighborhood public school maintains a logbook. The number of individuals and their hours of volunteer service have grown dramatically over the last five years--from 15 individuals contributing 1,504 hours in 1987-88 to approximately 275 individuals and 3,053 hours in 1992-93.

At the district level, similar gains in volunteer activity have been tracked. In 1987-88, 4,711 individuals contributed 60,813 hours of service; in 1992-93, the corresponding figures were 25,706 and 141,804.

Maintaining an accurate and timely logbook is essential. It must include the names, services, dates, and hours for all volunteers. No effort is too minimal to be recorded. In place of a written record, a computerized data base may be used. With computer networking, this offers the possibility of volunteer services such as tutorials, lectures, and demonstrations rendered from homes, offices, and other workplaces.

Enhancing Funds

An important connection exists between volunteer hours and funds granted to school districts by federal agencies. These funds are not insubstantial. For example, in fiscal year 1992 the U.S. Department of Education alone granted approximately $12 billion to school systems. The Office of Management and Budget has determined that the value of volunteer or donated services may be allowed and counted as an element of cost sharing and matching in such grants or contracts.

This point is quite compelling for several reasons:

* First and foremost, the Internal Revenue Service does not allow deductions of donated or volunteer services as charitable contributions for purposes of personal income taxes.

* Second, it may preserve valuable resources of a school system where the grantor may require cost sharing and matching. Volunteer services may be alternatives to system personnel services or in-kind contributions such as materials and equipment.

* Third, it comprises leverage to enhance grantor funds. The grantor may be persuaded by the substantial good-faith contributions of the grantee.

* Fourth, it presumably increases the total value of each grant. This is excellent for public relations as well as potential access to grants from other sources such as federal agencies, private foundations, and other non-federal grantors.

* Fifth, it establishes explicit and formal recognition for donated or volunteer services as a matter of principle and as a point of fact with regard to individual volunteers and their contributions to education.

Evaluating Services

The value of these contributions depends on a number of interrelated factors including the amount of volunteer hours, the nature of the services donated, and the education, experience, and expertise of the volunteers. Accurate, complete, and contemporaneous record keeping clearly is essential to document prospectively the cost-sharing and matching aspects of a grant.

For a school district such as the Prince George's County Public Schools, an expectation of 150,000 volunteer hours may not be unreasonable. This amounts to only about 80 minutes per student and 840 hours per school.

The value of these 150,000 volunteer hours depends on many details. However, a rough estimate of merely $10 per hour yields $1.5 million in cost sharing or matching. This is not negligible, even for a school district whose total budget for 1993-94 presently exceeds $640 million.

Another and different approach to the value of these volunteer hours is to consider them as matching teachers' salaries and fringe benefits hour-for-hour and dollar-for-dollar. In Maryland, one teacher year comprises about 190 eight-hour days. Consequently 150,000 volunteer hours in this context approximates nearly 99 teacher years. At an average salary and fringe of $45,000, this amounts to more than $4.4 million for the year. Of course, the method of evaluation and the financial outcome depend, in detail, on the nature of the grant and the volunteer services.

Kenneth Fox co-chairs the future planning committee of the Community Advisory Council on Magnet and Compensatory Educational Programs of the Prince George's County Public Schools. He acknowledges the help of Lois Jenkins of Samuel Ogle Elementary School and Delpha Royal of the school system's Department of Staff Development in compiling the statistical data.

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