In recent years there has been increasing interest in the issue of the economics of voluntary work. As volunteering assumes even greater significance in national policy agendas and voluntary organisations respond to increasing pressure for efficiency, transparency and accountability, the values and costs of volunteers are coming under close scrutiny.
Research undertaken by Gaskin Research and Consultancy explored these aspects of volunteering in eight large voluntary organisations in the Netherlands, Denmark and England, through pioneering the Volunteer Investment and Value Audit (VIVA) approach. VIVA is an innovative tool in the management of unpaid human resources, which:
• places a financial or 'market' value on unpaid work, producing a total volunteer value or notional 'volunteer wage bill'
• adds up all items of expenditure on volunteers, including staff costs, to produce a total investment figure
• compares the two through the VIVA Ratio, which measures cost-effectiveness in volunteer programmes
For more information on this or how to carry out a VIVA in your organisation or community group, please contact Kathy Gaskin at Gaskin Research and Consultancy at
KAGaskin@aol.com