Clinton Volunteers

The Clinton Global Initiative costs upwards of $12-million, but the former president relies on an army of volunteers as well to organize the event.

The volunteers — usually twentysomething college students — help attendees through the process of making charitable pledges, usher news media through press accreditation, hand out materials, and guide people through the hotel halls to sessions on poverty and climate change. In their white-collared shirts and blue ties or scarves, the volunteers are as ubiquitous as philanthropists at the event.

But while the William J. Clinton Foundation, which oversees the event, considers their contributions invaluable, it does place restrictions on them.

According to the event’s volunteer manual, volunteers will be sent home for asking the former president for an autograph, handing out business cards, or talking to a reporter as if they were official spokespeople.

The Clinton foundation does give some leeway to the last rule. “However, if a member of the press asks, for example, to be directed to the restroom,” the manual says, “please provide a friendly and helpful answer to their query.”