Reprinted with the kind permission
of The Canadian Centre for
Philanthropy
It is
useful to measure the economic value
of volunteer activity to demonstrate
to donors, funders, supporters,
policy makers, the public and
volunteers themselves how volunteer
contributions extend your
organisation's budget, activities
and services.
Once
calculated, you can use this
information in a number of ways:
To
Help Manage and Evaluate Your
Volunteer Program
You
can demonstrate the real costs
associated with your volunteer
program and the economic benefits of
volunteer involvement. You can then
use this information in your
planning and program administration
to:
* Demonstrate how much
volunteers contribute to your
organisation (i.e., the dollar value
of the amount of time they give and
the out-of-pocket expenses they incur as a
result of volunteering).*
* Evaluate the contribution
of volunteers relative to your
organisation's investment in
volunteer recruitment, development
and support.
* Assess the return your
organisation receives on the money
it invests in its volunteer program.
To
Educate Your Organisation, Funders
and the Public About the Value of
Volunteer Activity
Add
impact to funding proposals,
volunteer recruitment information,
internal and external accountability
reports, public relations and
program development by describing
the important contributions of your
volunteers and the economic value of
their activities.
Funding Proposals
* Describe how volunteers
extend the human resources of your
organisation and explain how much
this contribution is worth in
dollars.
* Explain how the hours and
in-kind support volunteers
contribute reflect the level of
community support for your
organisation and its mandate.
* Describe how volunteers'
hours extend the scope, quality and
impact of your organisation’s
activities in the community.
Financial Statements and Budgets
* Include the dollar value
of volunteer time as a line item in
your operating budget.
* Include the dollar value
of volunteer in-kind donations and
the dollar value of volunteer
activities as line items in
financial statements.
* Include a description of
what your volunteers do and what
this contribution is worth in
dollars.
Annual
Reports
* Include the dollar value
of your volunteers' contributions in
your annual reports.
* Report on your volunteer
program using volunteer hours and
estimates of the value of
volunteering.
* Produce a Volunteer
Annual Report that outlines the
number of volunteer hours
contributed to each program, the
dollar value of these contributions
and the names
and achievements of your volunteers.
The
Calculations
There
are eight different calculations you
may use to measure and analyse the
economic (dollar) value of volunteer
activity. For more information on
how to do each of these
calculations, see Assigning economic
value to volunteer activity: Eight
tools for efficient program
management, available online at
www.nonprofitscan.ca
This
article is reprinted from one
produced by Michelle Goulbourne and
Don Embuldeniya of the Canadian
Centre for Philanthropy titled
Fact Sheet on Measuring the Economic
Value of Volunteering.
*
Many organisations reimburse
volunteers' out of pocket expenses
to ensure that volunteering is
accessible to all.