Can our paid staff volunteer at a special event?

Question: We have a special event coming up, and several of our staff members would like to work the event (they are not event staff, so this is outside of their job description). We’d like to have these staff members volunteer because we did not budget for this number of staff to work the event. Is that allowed? 

This is a great question and one that comes up a lot for nonprofits, where staff are passionate about the mission and also may be asked to volunteer. Non-exempt employees are subject to state and federal FLSA minimum wage and hour laws. We don’t want to get on the wrong side of these.

To fall outside FLSA wage and hour requirements for non-exempt employees, any volunteer work must be optional and done during the employees’ non-work time, at their own discretion, and generally without the nonprofit’s supervision or direction. Activities performed as a volunteer under those conditions will not count as “hours worked” for FLSA purposes. This assumes the employee’s involvement is truly voluntary, meaning that the nonprofit does not put pressure on or require the employee to participate and there are no negative consequences for employees who do not participate.

If a staff person is required to do something because a staff person must do it, then it cannot legally be turned into a volunteer activity just to save budget. However, if they are staff and also want to attend the event or otherwise support the mission, that is probably just fine. The communication about what is required as part of staff’s jobs and what is optional for volunteering must be crystal clear, and preferably in writing.