Give Your Team Paid Time to Volunteer

[Alicia_Schmidt]

Give Your Team Paid Time to Volunteer

A clear policy is what makes your time pledge real.

📍 Where you are

You have your goals. Now you need a formal policy that gives employees the time, the permission, and the process to volunteer during work hours. A VTO policy is how you operationalize your time pledge — without it, even the best intentions stay informal.

68% of employees consider paid volunteer time off crucial or highly important (Perceptyx, 2023). A VTO policy is one of the most cost-effective benefits you can offer and it signals that your giving program is real, not aspirational.

🤖 AI DRAFT PROMPT

Draft our VTO policy

Generate a complete, small business-appropriate VTO policy ready for review. The more detail you provide, the tighter the draft.

Copy this prompt into your preferred AI Assistant (like Claude or Gemini), then fill in the [brackets]:

Write a Volunteer Time Off (VTO) policy for a small business that has just joined Pledge 1%.

Company name: [name].
Number of employees: [number].
Employment types: [full-time only / full-time and part-time].
VTO hours per year: [e.g., 16 hours — or ask AI to recommend based on best practices].
Eligible organizations: [any registered charity / only our approved nonprofit partners / both].
Does VTO cover nonprofit board service? [yes / no].
How employees request VTO: [via our HR system / email to manager / calendar request].
How employees log hours: [Google Form / spreadsheet / HR system].

The policy should cover: purpose, eligibility, amount, approved organizations, how to request, how to log, liability disclaimer.
Tone: clear, professional, employee-friendly. Not legalistic. One page maximum.

Note: this is a starting template — our legal/HR team will review before publishing.

Components of Your VTO Policy

Element	Example Content
Purpose	[Company] believes in giving back. VTO allows employees to volunteer during paid work hours.
Eligibility	All full-time employees from Day 1 of employment. Paid VTO may only be used for services provided to registered charities / 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. VTO may not be used to support religious organizations, places of worship, or for the promotion of religious doctrine. Additionally, eligible organizations must not discriminate based on race, color, age, gender, religion, creed, sexual orientation, or political affiliation.
Amount	16–20 hours per employee per calendar year. Use it or lose it — expires Dec 31.
Eligible orgs	Registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Employees choose their own, or select from our partner list.
How to request	Submit to manager with [X] days notice. Same process as PTO.
How to log	Complete the [Google Form] after each activity: date, org, hours, description.
Liability	Employees participate voluntarily. Not covered by workers’ compensation during VTO.

💡 PRO TIP

Even with unlimited PTO: Create a VTO policy anyway. Without a dedicated policy, volunteering gets deprioritized and never tracked. The policy is what makes it real.

“If you can, give your team members a full week of volunteer time a year. At Atlassian, we do this for a couple of reasons. First, it’s really difficult to do something genuinely impactful with just a day per year. Second, even though only about 75% use their VTO, and many do not use the full week, Atlassians love knowing they’ve got it and that we encourage them to use it. We’ve found it’s better to aim high and give them more opportunity.”

— Mallory Burke, Senior Program Manager, Social Impact at Atlassian

Offer a Mix of Options

Format	Description	Best For
Group volunteer days	Full or half-day team events. High visibility, great for bonding. Plan 1–2 per year to start.	New programs, team culture
Individual VTO	Employees self-select and schedule their own activities. Flexible, low-admin.	Distributed teams, diverse interests
Skills-based / pro bono	Employees use professional skills for a nonprofit. Higher impact per hour.	Agencies, tech companies, service firms
Virtual volunteering	Remote-friendly options — tutoring, mentoring, content creation for nonprofits.	Remote or hybrid teams

Decide Before You Launch

Decision	Recommended Approach
Can employees choose any nonprofit?	Yes — any registered 501(c)(3). Optionally create a preferred partner list.
Does unused VTO roll over?	Use-it-or-lose-it drives more participation. Most small companies go this route.
Does it cover board service?	Yes — nonprofit board service is one of the highest-impact volunteer activities.
Can VTO be used for fundraising events?	Typically no — VTO is for direct service, not fundraising walks or galas, unless you are volunteering to support the running of the event.

Set Up Time Tracking

Team Size	Tools	When to Upgrade
Under 30	Google Forms + Sheets (or equivalent); Uncommon Giving; Millie; Deed; Groundswell	When manual tracking becomes a burden.
30–100	YourCause; Goodera; Groundswell; Submittable	When you want to make it easy to grow.
101+	YourCause; Goodera; Groundswell; Bonterra; Benevity	When you need matching or reporting at scale.
Any size	Slack or Teams #giving-back channel

3 Quick Actions

• Draft your VTO policy using the AI prompt above and get your HR/People team to approve.
• Set up your tracking tool.
• Create a Slack or Teams channel or internal space for impact updates, questions, and activity sharing.

Your policy is ready. Now let’s make sure your team is excited to use it.

Next: Get Your Team Excited to Show Up →