A vermilion pocket, saffron ticket shapes and winding violet paths form a conceptual painting about the everyday cost of showing up to volunteer.
A fair expenses system can make community service possible for people who cannot afford to pay first and wait.
By Arbab Naseebullah Kasi, Chief Executive Officer - CEO, Feel Worldwide Foundation Inc.
Imagine someone who has found a volunteer role they would love. The hours fit. The work matters to them. They have already pictured themselves turning up, learning names and becoming useful. Then they read the expenses instructions: pay for travel, keep the receipts and submit a claim at the end of the month. This is a hypothetical situation, but the practical question it raises is simple. What happens if that person cannot spare the fare today?
The organisation has offered reimbursement. The volunteer still needs money before they can participate.
That gap deserves more attention than it usually receives in a conversation about generosity. We can appreciate someone's willingness to help while overlooking the financial conditions attached to accepting their help. An invitation can sound open and still depend on a bank balance.
I believe a community benefits when people can contribute without having to demonstrate that they can afford an extra expense first. For leaders, that belief needs to reach the ordinary details: the recruitment notice, the travel booking, the approval process and the day money actually arrives.
The cost can appear before the first contribution
NCVO's Time Well Spent 2023 report offers a useful historical warning. Among recent formal volunteers, 55 percent said their group, club or organisation would reimburse expenses if they wanted it to. Another 16 percent did not know whether expenses would be reimbursed. These were volunteers' reported experiences and understanding, rather than an audit of organisations' accounts. NCVO, published 27 June 2023.
The dates matter. The research used an online survey with a total sample of 7,006 adults in Great Britain, with fieldwork conducted from 23 November to 6 December 2022. The expenses percentages describe a relevant subgroup, not all 7,006 respondents, and should not be presented as a measurement of volunteering in 2026. NCVO's methodology.
For an organisation reading those findings, two questions follow. Have we provided support? Does everyone who might need it understand how to use it?
A policy can fail the second test even when it passes the first. A coordinator may know the rules perfectly while a new volunteer assumes that asking for travel costs will make them look less committed. A recruitment page may celebrate inclusion without mentioning expenses at all.
The person deciding whether to apply should not have to guess what participation will cost.
Make the promise specific enough to use
A documented example helps make this concrete. The National Trust for Scotland's 2024 volunteer handbook described reimbursement for agreed travel between home and the volunteering location. It required advance agreement with a volunteer manager, explained that some properties or departments could have limits, and set out a claims system and bank-transfer payment method. National Trust for Scotland, Volunteer Handbook 2024, page 8.
That is qualitative evidence of a real organisation's written practice, not proof that every volunteer found the process easy or that the policy improved recruitment. Its value here is the visibility of the arrangement. A reader can see that there are conditions and a person to discuss them with.
For any group designing its own approach, useful questions include: which costs are covered, what needs approval, what evidence is required, how long payment takes, and what happens when someone cannot pay in advance?
The last question deserves its own answer. It should not be left inside a general reassurance that the organisation is friendly and approachable.
Waiting for repayment is part of the cost
Return to our hypothetical volunteer. Suppose their return journey costs US$8 and they attend four sessions before receiving any repayment. They have temporarily provided US$32 from their own budget. These are illustrative figures, not a local fare estimate or a research finding.
On the organisation's spreadsheet, the expense may look modest. In the volunteer's week, it may compete with another necessary purchase. No one reviewing the claim can determine how easy that waiting period was simply by looking at the amount.
Now change the arrangement. The group purchases suitable travel directly, or agrees a properly recorded advance where local rules permit it. The person can participate without supplying the same cash upfront. The role, the journey and the contribution have stayed the same. The financing of participation has changed.
NCVO's expenses guidance, last reviewed on 29 March 2023, recommends reducing the need for volunteers to spend their own money, including central purchasing of activity resources and pre-arranged travel. It also explains that advances require records and reconciliation of unspent amounts. NCVO, paying volunteer expenses.
The practical lesson is to examine the whole sequence. When is the cost incurred? When is approval available? When does the volunteer receive the money? A process can be accurate at the end and still be unusable at the beginning.
Put participation into the budget before inviting people
Volunteering Australia's 2024 National Standards for Volunteer Involvement places resources for volunteer participation within organisational planning. Its examples include reimbursement policies and procedures, and explaining relevant policies during induction. These are best-practice standards, not a finding that a particular policy causes a particular outcome. Volunteering Australia, 2024 standards, pages 17 and 22.
My recommendation is to make the likely cost of participation visible while deciding the size of a programme. Consider a proposed weekend activity. Before promising ten volunteer places, estimate the support those places could reasonably require. Include the staff time needed to organise and process it. Check whether the available funding can cover the arrangement being offered.
If the numbers do not work, that is valuable information at the planning stage. It creates an opportunity to change the location, the schedule, the purchasing arrangements or the scale of the activity before people make commitments.
A programme that only balances because nobody claims their agreed expenses has a fragile budget. Its apparent affordability depends on contributions that were never clearly requested or planned.
When discussing support with funders, be concrete. Explain what the money enables someone to do and how the expenditure will be controlled. A travel budget is easier to understand when it is connected to the actual journey required for the role.
Remove the awkward conversation
There is a difference between making reimbursement available and making it normal.
NCVO recommends routinely checking whether volunteers have claimed their expenses and doing this consistently, rather than treating a claim as an embarrassing exception. It also advises making the process easy to access and communicating the policy to new volunteers. NCVO's expenses guidance.
A coordinator could explain the process to everyone during induction, demonstrate a claim and identify who can help privately with an unusual situation. That demonstration should include what to do if a receipt is missing or a journey changes, according to the organisation's actual rules.
Avoid praising people for being the volunteers who never claim. Even a well-meant compliment can imply that claiming makes someone less generous. A person who can comfortably absorb costs and a person who needs reimbursement may be giving the same time, care and effort.
No volunteer should need to disclose an entire household financial history to ask how an advertised expenses arrangement works. Deal with the relevant practical need and protect personal information. If additional evidence is genuinely necessary for a particular form of support, explain why it is needed and who will see it.
Good controls should help the promise survive
A reliable system needs clear responsibility. Someone must approve the expense, someone must arrange payment, and someone must answer when an expected payment has not arrived. In a small group, one person may perform several of these tasks, with appropriate oversight.
Technology can assist, but choosing an application is not the same as designing the service. Test whether a new volunteer can complete the actual process. Can they understand the instructions on a phone? Can they get help if they cannot use the usual digital route? Does an approval remain stuck when the coordinator is away?
Look at exceptions as carefully as routine claims. An inaccessible transport option or an unexpected cancellation may require a decision that a standard form cannot make. Provide a clear route for that decision before someone feels obliged to spend money they may not recover.
Financial controls and consideration for volunteers can support each other. Clear advance approval reduces uncertainty for the person and the organisation. A payment status update can prevent repeated chasing. A named backup can stop an ordinary absence from becoming a long delay.
Be honest about limits, and careful about legal differences
Some groups have very little money. Their leaders may also be volunteers, managing the work around jobs and family responsibilities. Recognising the cost of participation does not create an unlimited budget.
It does create a responsibility to explain the offer honestly. If a group cannot cover certain costs, say so before someone commits. Explore whether the activity can be redesigned to reduce those costs. Where that is not possible, accept that some people will be unable to join. Their decision should not be treated as a failure of commitment.
Reimbursement also needs to remain distinct from other payments. For example, UK government guidance says volunteers may receive money to cover expenses, while other payments, rewards or benefits can affect whether someone is considered a worker or employee. That is UK-specific guidance, not a universal legal rule. Organisations should check applicable employment, tax and benefits requirements before introducing advances, allowances or other arrangements. GOV.UK, pay and expenses, accessed 6 November 2026.
The aim is a clear, lawful arrangement that people understand, with no pressure to donate back money they need.
Ask whether the support is reaching people
Once a system is operating, review more than the total paid. Ask volunteers whether they knew about it before joining, whether they could use it, and whether waiting for payment caused difficulty. Track unresolved claims and the time they take to settle.
A low claims total does not, by itself, tell a complete story. People may have incurred no costs. They may have chosen to cover them. They may not have understood the process. Ask before deciding which explanation applies.
Return, finally, to the person considering that first journey. We cannot remove every obstacle in their life. We can examine the obstacles created by our own arrangements.
Their willingness to help is already a contribution. A well-designed expenses process respects it by making the invitation practical, clear and financially manageable.
Before asking who will volunteer, it is worth asking: who can actually afford to accept the way we are inviting them?
