Come December, volunteer firefighters in Montgomery County will have a little extra money in their pockets for holiday shopping.
As it becomes harder to find volunteers — and hang on to the ones you’ve got — Montgomery County is one of several localities in Southwest and Southside that is trying out financial incentives for firefighter and EMS volunteers.
This summer, the county introduced a 60% reduction on personal property taxes for active volunteers at its fire departments.
The goal is to boost recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters at a time when volunteerism is declining across the county. In Virginia, 91% of fire departments reported a decrease in volunteers since 2020, according to a 2023 report to the General Assembly by a workgroup of various state agencies and fire service stakeholders.
Since personal property taxes are paid biannually, volunteers won’t feel the effects of the reduction until the end of the year, said Montgomery County Administrator Angie Hill. That means it’s too soon to say whether the tax cut will positively impact recruitment and retention in Montgomery.
“We hope it helps with retention, and we hope it helps volunteers stay more active than they might otherwise,” Hill said.
If Botetourt County is any indication, this strategy holds water.
How incentives are working, and where they could fall short
Botetourt introduced financial incentives for its volunteers about eight years ago in the form of an annual check based on level of activity — how many calls they responded to and how many hours they served. The maximum amount that any one volunteer could earn a year was $300.
That $300 max never changed in the years the incentive was in place, said Zach Beckner, chief at the Troutville Volunteer Fire Department in Botetourt.
That’s one reason why Botetourt restructured its incentive program last year to a pay-per-call model. Now, volunteers get a stipend for each call they respond to. It’s paid out quarterly instead of annually, and it also takes into account a volunteer’s level of training.
A new recruit with no training would receive $5 for each call they respond to, and that number goes up with additional credentials, reaching $20 per call for a chief or officer level volunteer, Beckner said.
There’s been a positive impact on retention and upskilling of volunteers since the new model was introduced, he said.
“It’s keeping folks engaged,” Beckner said. “It has encouraged people to look at their certifications and achieve greater certifications, which in the end, gives us a higher quality member out there doing the job.”
There are also bonuses for volunteers, especially new ones, who complete training courses.
For example, brand new members that obtain certifications in Virginia Department of Fire Programs Firefighter I and hazardous materials training — and continue to volunteer for six months after their certifications — are eligible for a $750 stipend for their time training and volunteering, according to the policy.
Across Botetourt County, 84 volunteers are receiving the pay-per-call incentive, Beckner said.
The bonuses and incentives for training help keep the process fair, since it’s impossible to predict when calls will come in.
“We’ve got a lot of folks that come down to the station and don’t get any calls,” Beckner said. “They’re there, they’re ready to respond, but maybe that department doesn’t have a large call volume. So we’re making sure we consider that as well.”
The annual minimum for volunteers meeting all eligibility and activity requirements is $100. The policy doesn’t mention a maximum stipend amount, but anyone who receives more than $600 by the end of the year will be issued a 1099 Tax Form from Botetourt County and will be responsible for associated taxes.
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Volunteer fire departments across our region are the first line of defense during emergencies for many communities, but they continue to grapple with declining volunteerism, inadequate resources and funding, and the changing nature of their work.
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Beckner said the department saw at least five members increasing their training, and four new entry recruits who pursued initial training to receive the stipend since the new model was adopted in July 2025.
Incentives have been slightly less effective for recruitment, Beckner said, perhaps because those who are driven to volunteer aren’t doing it for money.
“A volunteer is not coming out for pay. We’re not attracting folks because they want a paycheck,” Beckner said. “But it’s certainly something that we can highlight as another thing we offer from a recruiting standpoint. We’re offering free attendance to the fire academy, free training, all the equipment’s paid for, and then on top of that, we have this structure to get an incentive back for your time.”
When you “can’t create hours in the day,” incentives can be a solution
The Dante Rescue Squad, between Dickenson and Russell counties, implemented a similar pay-per-call structure at the beginning of this month.
Like many other rural counties, Dante was seeing a decline in volunteerism, and when the rescue squad lost its captain in June, it felt particularly strapped for personnel.
Captain Daniel Glass said he had been a volunteer for nearly 58 years, since his father helped create the Dante Rescue Squad in 1968.
“We estimate it would take about 10 to 12 volunteers to provide the coverage and other duties he was carrying,” said Carla Glass, his daughter-in-law and secretary for the Dante Rescue Squad.
Glass said that trying to increase volunteerism with paid personnel and billing for services — strategies that other departments in the state have used — wouldn’t work in Dante.
“Like many rural areas, Dante did not have the call volume to offset the expense long-term,” she said. “Also, that option wasn’t one our membership felt was a good fit for the agency.”
As the rescue squad explored options to increase volunteerism, it found that a root cause of the decline is lack of time.
“We knew we had to think outside the box,” Glass said. “We couldn’t create hours in the day. The most obvious thing that we could assist with was the cost of fuel volunteers incur traveling to our station and the cost of food while volunteering.”
By implementing a pay-per-call stipend, the Dante Rescue Squad can give back some money to offset these costs and reward volunteers for their time, she said.
The idea of rewarding, or thanking, volunteers through a stipend is also part of the mindset in Botetourt and Montgomery.
“The model of incentives is really saying, ‘Hey, we thank you for your time. The time that you’re taking to drive down to the station or be at the station for a shift,’” Beckner said.
Like in Botetourt and Montgomery, volunteers in Dante must be active to be eligible for the stipend. The per-call rates in Dante depend on the role of the volunteer — for example, drivers receive $6 per call, EMTs receive $8 and paramedics receive $10.
And like in Botetourt, the stipends in Dante are paid quarterly, and volunteers can receive additional stipends for obtaining or recertifying training.
“We’re hoping for recruitment, retention and an increase in those trained at EMTs,” Glass said. “We also want volunteers to feel seen and cared about. Gas and food prices have skyrocketed and we don’t want volunteers to feel like we are ignoring that fact or expecting them to take from their families.”
The rescue squad is able to afford the stipend thanks to forward-looking financial planning by the late captain, Glass said.
Must-haves: local government support and volunteer appetite for incentives
Incentives for volunteers rely on a local government’s willingness to include them in the budget, on the volunteers’ willingness to accept them, and on the needs of the locality.
At the end of the day, stipends for volunteers affect a locality’s bottom line, so support from local officials is a necessary part of the process.
In Botetourt, the budget for fiscal year 2027 includes $120,000 of county money for the pay-per-call program. That amount, from the operational budget for the Fire & EMS department in the county, covers anticipated incentives for the 84 volunteers who are eligible and opted-in, Beckner said.
In Montgomery, 140 volunteers have opted-in to the personal property tax reduction incentive since it was approved this summer, Hill said.
The county’s normal personal property tax rate is $2.55 per $100 of assessed value. For active volunteers, that rate is now $1, and it applies to one vehicle.
“We estimated that if 160 people participated in the program, it would cost about $20,000,” Hill said. Since fewer people have enrolled in the program so far, it will be less than that, she said.
Local government officials felt that the incentive was important enough to justify this cost. Everyday taxpayers in Montgomery County also benefit from stronger and better-staffed fire departments, Hill said.
Successful incentives also rely on the willingness of volunteers to accept them. It’s important for a locality to gauge interest in financial incentives among its fire departments before implementing them, Beckner said.
Some volunteers in Botetourt opted-out of the stipend, saying they “don’t want any type of check from the county for their services,” he said.
But most volunteers opted-in, and overall, the program has been well-received by both volunteers and the public, he said.
Glass said that a locality should identify the root causes of declining volunteerism. Incentives work best for localities that have a retainer of volunteers who want to see the agency thrive, she said.
“Nobody is getting rich off a few dollar stipend,” Glass said. “If this root cause is unwillingness to volunteer, this isn’t going to fix that. … My biggest piece of advice is to value the volunteer and keep the agency’s mission at heart.”
