Because my work environment offers a great deal of opportunities to volunteer, occasionally we are visited by a large corporate group who are volunteering together. Often, they are volunteering on company time, and sometimes the company offers financial compensation (i.e. they are paid their regular wage) to be there.
Some people have argued that this is not at all volunteerism, that this is "cop-out" or a feel-good measure for the employees of a company. I disagree with both of these statements, because in my mind it all comes down to the question of what volunteerism is.
Fundamentally, volunteering is a way to get connected with your community. Volunteering is giving your time to help others. Volunteering is awesome and wonderful!
I don't really see why getting paid makes that experience invalid somehow.
At the end of the day, if your company believes it is important for you be involved with your community and they are willing to give you time or paid time to do so, that is a sacrifice of their resources. If you aren't there to do the important job that you do, your company is missing out. It is actually super awesome when a company makes a gesture like this: it's not only your time, it's their people power that they are donating to an organization!
I don't believe that those people who go around the world with humanitarian groups and are given a weekly or monthly stipend are having a less valid volunteer experience. Ultimately, I think it is unfair to rank people's volunteer experiences. If you are helping people out, who cares how or why you got there? Volunteering with an organization through work may lead you to volunteer elsewhere, and that's great.
Who cares how, where, when, or why you volunteer? You're connecting in an important way with the people and the community around you! And that's always a good thing.
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