A while back I went on about how volunteering was a great way to invest in your own self. [see Investing in yourself by giving back] One aspect I didn't cover in that article was that there are real, tangible, benefits to volunteering. Tangible, as in things you can touch and even put in your pocket. Things like nickels and dimes. Dollars even.

Yes, hard currency.

You can reap monetary benefits from your volunteer activities. Every mile you drive your car doing volunteer work is tax deductible:

Charitable services. The standard mileage rate allowed for use of your car when you use your car to provide charitable services to a charitable organization is 14 cents a mile.

So add that to the list of benefits, or return on your "give something back" investment.

• You get that good feeling that only donating your time and energies can bring
• You get opportunities to find your passion and develop skills to help you pursue it
• It's a great networking opportunity
• While your time isn't deductible, your mileage is

Now, to bring this home and personalize it a little bit, I just tallied up my own personal mileage for 2006. Yes, tallied. You want the deduction, it's good practice to keep a log. The result: a little over 12,000 miles driven in 2006. At $0.14 per mile that works out to nearly a $1700 deduction. Not bad!

Reference: 2006 standard mileage rates at irs.gov