Efficiency

Relatively few of those "highly paid" people are paid on an hourly basis. Most are exempt from being paid overtime, so working an extra hour results in no additional money to donate to charities.

But you're almost certainly right in the abstract. A $60 donation would let the organization pay ten staff at minimum wage for an hour - surely that's better (worth more to the organization) than an hour of volunteer labor by someone who makes $120k/year.

As far as I can see, the attached thread of conversation between ldsudduth and scottb really just boils down to personal preference. I know a fair amount of people who give both their money and their time in the spirit of volunteerism and I know there are different reasons for why they do this. Other people just don't like volunteering, and would rather just give money. (Some do nothing at all.) There are many ways to give your time in my town, whether it's coaching children's sports, church oriented activities, volunteer fire department, etc. Many people do it for the comradeship they find in doing the actual work; others have found a cause they really believe in- again it boils down to the personalities involved. It could often be argued that on a grand scale, many times it wouldn't make a bit of difference whether some of these activities happened or not (Fire Dept. not included), but people like to do them anyway, and when it all adds up, it makes for a nice community if nothing else.