I talked to a staff member at school and learned for a charter school the logged hours we serve will help us keep our charter! Well worth my last 20 hours in the past 2 weeks!!
As a charter school our contract with the district is up for renewal every year and when the board sees how much the parents volunteer it really helps!
CREDIBILITY OF OUR ORGANIZATION -
When a volunteer organization can document hours that it's membership is actually putting forth, it shows that the members are active in carrying out the mission & objects it was organized to do.
MAINTAIN OUR TAX EXEMPT STATUS -
In order to maintain this status, we must be able to prove that we are indeed a volunteer organization worthy of that status. Documenting the number of volunteer hours is one of these ways.
GRANT APPLICATIONS -
When school districts or PTA organizations are applying for grant money, it is very effective to be able to show the degree of parent involvement.
LEGISLATURE -
In our lobbying efforts, it is most effective if State PTA is able to educate the legislators as to the degree of parent involvement in our organization.
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS -
Superintendents & principals appreciate knowing how much time is spent by parents in their schools.
BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS -
As schools & businesses seek to become partners to enhance the education of children, it is most informative & helpful to be able to document hours volunteered.
As a general rule, non-for-profit organizations at some point may be asked to show documentation of what volunteer work they are doing that would enable them to remain non-for-profit. For this reason, a log should be maintained showing volunteer hours,what the function is, date of function and how many people participated.
We are highly encouraged by our school to log on our hours as the school gets credit for our volunteer time. To be honest, I am not sure how or why and what the district does with the numbers. I've never asked. I think I just might, we are having a snow day and instead of laundry I am working on stuff for the election in May and helping a very distressed Prom advisor with Prom invitations!
Was someone thinking about community service credit- the hours volunteering would be credited to that?
Our PTO has traditionally tallied volunteer hours monthly and reported them at meetings. This has been going on for as long as anyone remembers, but no one seems to know if there is any real benefit to this. Along the line, someone said that there is some value (monetary?) to this somewhere, but no one seems to know. Does anybody know? Or are we wasting our time?
