The Value of Volunteers
In
2001, the Wildlife Diversity staff proposed a study to project leaders
to determine the value of volunteers’ time. Leaders were provided
with time sheets (one for each month, May through November). For
each activity
on the timesheet, a column was assigned to both the ”number
of hours spent” and “number of people involved”.
Project leaders filled out and mailed a summary of the volunteer
timesheets each month. At the end of the season, beach/island totals
were summarized in an Excel spreadsheet and returned to each project
leader for verification.
The minimum wage ($5.15 per hour) was used for those who simply patrolled the
beach. Anyone who was trained to do the other more technical tasks (move nests,
inventory nests, or work in an administrative capacity) were valued at $10.00
per hour.
Fifteen separate beaches/islands participated in this study. The size of each
group varied from only a few, to over a hundred on two of the beaches, for
a total of 520 volunteers. The number of volunteers was not directly related
to the number of nests laid on a beach each summer, but was more an indication
of the enthusiasm generated by the project. The monetary value for “Beach
Patrol” and “Management” were similar due to the higher number
of hours in patrolling at the lower rate, versus the lower number of hours
in management at the higher rate. Both came in at over $50,000. The total for
the season, $104,964, was astonishing. We had no idea that the volunteers’ time
would have such a high value, which made it even more imperative to publicize
these results.
It is clear from these numbers that recovery goals could not be met without
the volunteers’ involvement in management efforts. It is also clear from
our results that the state of South Carolina could not afford to pay for the
services provided by volunteers. Sea turtle conservation efforts in South Carolina
are greatly enhanced by the altruistic dedication of these individuals.
The citation for the this published paper is
Hopkins-Murphy, S. R. and J. S. Seithel. 2005. Documenting
the value of volunteer effort for sea turtle conservation in South
Carolina .
Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 4(4):930-934.