✶ Supporting the Koenig Childhood Cancer Foundation

Volunteer Time Off Program: A People Team’s Setup Guide, built to actually get used.

Hours, eligibility, tracking, and the one decision that matters most: what your team’s first volunteer day looks like.

See How a Crazy Socks Event Works →
9 min read · Updated September 2026

A volunteer time off program gives your employees a set number of paid hours each year to volunteer, separate from their regular PTO. To set one up, you need six decisions (purpose, hours, eligibility, qualifying activities, request flow, and tracking) and one good first activity. This guide walks through all seven, in the order a People team would actually make them.

We’re an ICIMS consulting firm, so why are we writing about volunteering? Because our readers run People and Talent teams, and because we support the Koenig Childhood Cancer Foundation. Their Crazy Socks gift bag program is, in our experience, one of the easiest first volunteer events a company can host. It shows up near the end of this guide as the worked example. You can read more about why we care on our Social Impact page.

What is a volunteer time off program?

Volunteer time off (VTO) is paid leave an employee can use only for volunteering. It sits in its own bucket, next to vacation and sick time, so nobody has to choose between a beach day and a food bank shift.

One naming trap to clear up before you write a single policy line: “VTO” also stands for voluntary time off, which is unpaid leave an employer offers when business is slow. Same three letters, opposite meaning. Your policy should spell out “volunteer time off” in full the first time, every time.

💡 Tip: If your HRIS already has a “VTO” time-off code, check what it means before you reuse it. We’ve seen payroll teams and People teams using the same code for opposite things.

Quick recap: VTO is paid, it’s ring-fenced for volunteering, and it needs a clear name. Now, why are so many teams adding it?

Why are People teams adding VTO now?

Because it’s becoming table stakes. In SHRM’s 2025 Employee Benefits Survey, 28% of U.S. employers offered paid time off for volunteering, and 49% offered community volunteer programs of some kind. A few years ago VTO was a perk you bragged about. Now candidates ask about it in the first interview.

It’s also one of the few benefits that costs almost nothing to launch. You’re not adding a vendor, a premium, or a new system. You’re adding a time-off type and a paragraph to the handbook. The hard part is the design, because a badly designed VTO program is the one benefit nobody uses.

Before

✕ 40 hours offered, almost none used

✕ Three-step approval chain for a half day

✕ Nobody knows which activities count

✕ Hours logged in a spreadsheet nobody opens

✕ Announced once, never mentioned again

After

✓ 16 to 24 hours, most of the team uses some

✓ Log it, manager gets notified, done

✓ Any registered nonprofit qualifies

✓ Dedicated VTO code in the HRIS, reportable

✓ One shared first event, then quarterly nudges

Every line in the “After” column is a decision you can make this week. Let’s make them.

How do you set up a volunteer time off program? The seven steps

1
Write the purpose statement. Two sentences. Why does the company offer this, and what do you hope people get from it? This paragraph becomes the opening of your policy and the answer to every “does this count?” question later. If the activity serves the purpose, it counts.
2
Set the hours. Start with 16 to 24 paid hours per year. Industry benchmarks put the average around 20, and the platforms that track this (Benevity, Double the Donation) consistently find that a smaller, attainable number gets used more than a generous one that feels like a project. You can always raise it once year-one data shows demand. Prorate for part-time employees so the benefit is equitable.
3
Define eligibility. Open it to everyone from day one if you can. New hires are often the most eager to join something, and a volunteer day in week two is a better onboarding memory than a benefits webinar. If a waiting period is non-negotiable, cap it at 90 days.
4
Define qualifying activities. The simplest rule that works: any registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, plus any company-organized event. Name skills-based volunteering explicitly (board service, pro bono work, mentoring) so people don’t assume only manual labor counts. Exclude the obvious: political campaigns, activities that benefit the employee’s own family, anything for pay.
5
Decide how requests work. This is where most programs quietly stall. Replace “submit a form, wait for approval” with “log it, your manager is notified.” Ask for a reasonable heads-up (one week is common) so coverage can be arranged, but treat the request like a dentist appointment, not a budget ask. Managers stay informed without becoming gatekeepers.
6
Set up tracking in your HRIS. Create a dedicated “Volunteer Time Off” time-off type, separate from PTO, in Workday, UKG, ADP, or whatever you run payroll on. Give it its own balance, its own accrual (front-load it on January 1 or on hire date), and make it reportable by team and location. This one configuration step is what turns VTO from a handbook promise into a number you can put in front of leadership each quarter.
7
Pick a turnkey first activity. Policies don’t create habits. A shared first experience does. Launch the program with one company-hosted event that requires zero research from employees, happens on site or close to it, and takes about two hours. Once people have used VTO once together, using it alone later feels normal. More on this below.
💡 For TA and hourly teams: Recruiting and frontline teams are the ones most likely to skip VTO because “there’s never a good time.” Schedule the launch event for a known slow week, arrange shift coverage in advance, and make it clear in the policy that hourly staff are paid at their regular rate for VTO hours.

What should a volunteer time off policy include?

Here’s the one-page skeleton we’d hand a People team that wants to ship this month. Fill in the brackets, run it past legal, publish.

SectionWhat goes in itOur default
PurposeWhy the company offers VTOTwo sentences, plain English
EligibilityWho can use it and whenAll employees from day one; part-time prorated
AllotmentHours per year, accrual, carryover16 hours, front-loaded, no carryover in year one
Qualifying activitiesWhat counts and what doesn’tAny 501(c)(3) or company event; skills-based included
Request processHow to take it, how much noticeLog in HRIS, manager notified, one week notice
Pay and trackingPay rate, time-off code, reportingRegular rate; dedicated VTO code; quarterly report
Non-retaliationUsing VTO never affects reviewsOne explicit sentence
ReviewWhen the policy gets revisitedAfter 12 months, using participation data

Notice how short the defaults are. A VTO policy that fits on one page gets read. One that runs four pages gets skimmed and then ignored.

Need a first event that runs itself?

The Koenig Childhood Cancer Foundation brings the Crazy Socks gift bag event to your office: supplies, setup, and the story behind it. Your team writes notes of hope and assembles bags for hospitalized kids.

Learn About Hosting a Crazy Socks Event →

What makes a good first volunteer time off event?

Picture this. It’s launch week. You’ve published the policy, the HRIS code is live, and now 300 people are looking at 16 fresh hours with no idea what to do with them. Most will do nothing, not because they don’t care but because finding a nonprofit, vetting it, and coordinating a day off is real work.

A good first event removes that work entirely. In our experience it has four traits:

📍
It comes to you

On site or in a room you already have. No buses, no waivers, no 6 a.m. start.

⏱️
It fits in two hours

Short enough that a recruiter mid-req or a manager mid-quarter can still say yes.

🙌
Everyone can do it

No special skills, no physical demands, accessible to every role and ability.

💜
The “why” is in the room

Someone connected to the cause tells the story. That’s what people remember a year later.

The Crazy Socks gift bag program from the Koenig Childhood Cancer Foundation checks all four, which is why it’s our go-to recommendation for a VTO launch.

Some background. KCCF is a 501(c)(3) public charity founded in 2020 by Elana Koenig, a childhood cancer survivor who started it at age 11 with $900 from her piggy bank. It provides financial and emotional support to families of children battling cancer through Family Aid (help with medical bills, transportation, lodging, and food during treatment), KCCF Camp, and the Crazy Socks gift bag program.

Crazy Socks is KCCF’s signature project. While in treatment at age 7, Elana noticed how the plain hospital socks mirrored the monotony and fear of hospital days, and she wanted to change that for other kids. According to thekccf.org, more than 105,000 gift bags containing over 315,000 items have been delivered to hospitalized children so far.

For a company, the event runs in three steps: KCCF coordinates and delivers the supplies and handles setup, Elana shares the “why,” and your team writes notes of hope and assembles the bags. Companies that have hosted one include Meta, Bank of America, UBS, Aflac Global Investments, Forvis Mazars, and Sumitomo Mitsui Bank. Details are at thekccf.org/crazy-socks.

💡 Why it works as a launch: Every participant uses two VTO hours, sees the time-off code in action, and walks away with a story. That’s the habit loop you want, created in one afternoon.

How do you keep a volunteer time off program alive after launch?

Most VTO programs don’t fail at launch. They fade by month four. Here’s the maintenance routine that keeps ours, and our clients’, in use.

Put it in onboarding. New hires should hear about VTO on day one, with the balance visible in their HRIS profile. It signals that this is part of how the company works, not a seasonal campaign.

Nudge quarterly. One short message per quarter: current balance, one or two upcoming opportunities, one employee story. That’s it. Resist the monthly newsletter.

Let leaders go first, visibly. When a VP posts photos from their own volunteer day, the rest of the org reads it as permission. When leaders never use their hours, employees read the policy as decorative.

Report the number. Because you set up a dedicated time-off code in step six, you can pull hours used by team, location, and quarter. Share it with leadership alongside your other People metrics. A benefit that shows up in a dashboard gets defended at budget time.

Repeat the anchor event. Make the launch event an annual fixture. A Crazy Socks assembly every fall, for instance, gives the whole company a shared date and makes the program feel like a tradition rather than a policy.

Mini-recap: onboarding, quarterly nudges, leaders first, a reportable number, and one annual anchor. Five habits, none of them expensive.

What could you do tomorrow?

Draft the two-sentence purpose statement and the eight-row policy table above. Ask your HRIS admin how long it takes to add a new time-off type (usually not long). Then pick a launch date and a first event. If a turnkey, two-hour, on-site activity with a real story behind it sounds like the right opener, take a look at what hosting a Crazy Socks event involves.

Give your VTO program a first day worth remembering.

See how companies host a Crazy Socks gift bag event with the Koenig Childhood Cancer Foundation, and what your team would be part of.

Explore Hosting a Crazy Socks Event →

Volunteer time off program FAQ

What is a volunteer time off program?
A volunteer time off (VTO) program gives employees a set number of paid hours each year to volunteer with nonprofits or community causes, separate from their regular PTO.
How many volunteer time off hours should a company offer?
Most guidance points to 16 to 24 hours per year as a strong starting point, with roughly 20 hours being a common industry average. Some large companies offer 40 or more, but a smaller, attainable number tends to get used more.
Is volunteer time off the same as voluntary time off?
No. Volunteer time off is paid leave for community service. Voluntary time off is unpaid leave an employer offers during slow periods. Both are abbreviated VTO, so define the term clearly in your policy and check what any existing HRIS code actually means.
Should volunteer time off require manager approval?
Keep it light. A notification model, where the employee logs the request and the manager is informed, drives more participation than a multi-step approval chain. A one-week heads-up is reasonable so coverage can be arranged.
How should we track volunteer time off hours?
Create a dedicated VTO time-off type in your HRIS or timekeeping system so hours are tracked separately from PTO and can be reported by team, location, and quarter. This makes the program measurable and easy to defend at budget time.
What is a good first volunteer time off activity for a whole team?
A turnkey, on-site event that takes about two hours and needs no special skills. The Koenig Childhood Cancer Foundation’s Crazy Socks gift bag program brings supplies and setup to your office; your team writes notes of hope and assembles bags for hospitalized children. Details at thekccf.org/crazy-socks.
Do hourly and shift employees get volunteer time off too?
They should. Prorate hours for part-time staff, pay VTO at the regular rate, and coordinate shift coverage in advance so frontline and recruiting teams can participate without penalty.

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