Pay to volunteer at a shelter?

For those that volunteer, did you pay an administrative fee to volunteer at the shelter you are at?

I just read a post from Fuzzles about wanting to volunteer and was shocked that all of the linked shelters in a reply asked for a payment to take part as a volunteer.

We have just one paid position and heavily rely on volunteers in the day to day tasks in the shelter and despite having 400+ volunteers working in the shelter, as fosters, in our second hand store or on reception desks etc have never had to offset costs - especially for returning volunteers (one of the groups said you had to repay after 3 months inactivity).

I am not currently an active volunteer but I have volunteered for several shelters and rescue groups and was never asked to pay any sort of fee. In fact I've never heard of such a thing until I read it here!

I am a volunteer at the local Humane Society and have never been asked to pay to volunteer. They only require that you pay for litter and food if you are going to foster, they take care of medications if they are needed.

We even take care of food, litter and give them beds for the cats, scratch posts etc - all they have to supply is the room, some love and a car ride to the vet if needed

I've never been asked to pay to volunteer either. There are about 25 of us running the shelter & fostering - total.

I wasn't asked to pay at the shelter here. I did have to sign a contract and provide proof of residence. And when I foster they give me a certain amount of food and litter and pay the vet bills if I use their vet.

We do track the food, I know some momma cats scarf down their food, but seriously, she is now eating a case of 48 tins of food in 10 days.

The websites listed were about $35 but I can see a lot of our good volunteers (who are obviously unemployed at the moment because they have so much time to help us) using that $35 to feed their family not to give us for administrative costs

I am going to volunteer orientation tonight at the humane society. They require $15 to help cover the cost of orientation materials (I'm guessing they probably have binders put together or something). I don't mind so much, I just consider it a donation.