It might seem that volunteers are just like free employees. Volunteers don’t get paid, they don’t get health insurance, and you don’t pay taxes or workers compensation for volunteers. They don’t cost your nonprofit organization anything because they’re not on the payroll, right?

Well, not completely right. True, volunteers are unpaid. But good volunteer management means acknowledging that volunteers are not completely free to your organization—so treat them accordingly.

Volunteers are an investment: Recognize that recruiting, screening, training, and retaining volunteers takes time and resources.

Volunteers are an asset: Your volunteers save your organization’s needed funds by performing work you would otherwise be obligated to pay for.

Volunteers are needed elsewhere. If your volunteers feel underused or underappreciated, there are plenty of organizations they can give their time and talent to.

Volunteers must be supervised. Your organization may need to designate a full- or part-time employee to just this area—incurring all the costs of salary and benefits, recruiting, screening, hiring and training that person.

Volunteers must be appreciated. Showing thanks can take many forms: small gifts, plaques or certificates, free tickets to events, or even free meals. There are costs associated with all of these items.

Volunteers incur expenses, too. Travel, parking, auto reimbursement and other expenses must be taken into consideration when looking at overall volunteer costs.

So don’t make the mistake of seeing volunteers as having zero impact on your bottom line. They are immensely valuable assets that do cost your nonprofit organization time and money. Treat them right, and your investment will be repaid many times over!