Because VRCs manage spontaneous volunteers who provide life safety and sustainment services, volunteer hours can be used as an offset against the grantee’s cost share requirement for FEMA reimbursement.

To provide accurate costs that may be eligible for reimbursement, the jurisdiction should record the hours served by spontaneous and affiliated volunteers doing work that is eligible for FEMA reimbursement. These costs are eligible as part of the non-Federal share or local match for Federal reimbursement.

The only acceptable ways to determine the value of a volunteer is to determine the:

• Hourly rate, including benefits, at which a government employee would be paid to do the work, OR
• Hourly rate the jurisdiction would have to pay a contractor to do the work.