&gt; No, it is not the same thing at all. People volunteer for organizations because the organizations DO NOT have the resources to pay them because all their money goes into buying goods and what not.<p>The organization <i>does</i> have enough money to pay <i>some</i> of them, but the savings from people volunteering goes to other resources, and since people align with the goal of the organization, they are fine with that.<p>This is the <i>exact</i> same.  He liked the goal of the organization, he liked what they were doing, and he wanted to work with them, and he wanted to help out.  Any money saved here isn&#x27;t going to some CEO, this is the government, it&#x27;s budgeted and if it doesn&#x27;t go to another project here, it goes to some other service for the American people.<p>When you comp some or all of any expected monetary compensation, which is what this and all volunteer work is, you are helping to set the market rate for that job.  The only reason volunteers in an industry can be unpaid is because the supply of people willing to work for no money outstrips the demand.  If there were not enough people to volunteer in an area, the organization could and would pay some amount out of their operating fund to pay the work, if it was important to them.  This would likely result in fewer workers, but it&#x27;s obvious how this would work out.  It&#x27;s all supply and demand, even for volunteer work.