New calculator is Volunteering Tasmania’s gift to managers of …

… volunteers this International Volunteer Managers Day

Peak body Volunteering Tasmania (VT) is launching an exciting new online tool today, on International
Volunteer Managers Day.

The Value of volunteering calculator was developed by the Institute of Project Management (IPM) as a
practical tool to support the findings released in the State of Volunteering Report 2014: The
Economic, Social and Cultural Value of Volunteering.

This collaborative report produced by IPM and VT provided an economic assessment of the value of
the volunteering industry in Tasmania.

The calculator uses the same cost benefit analysis used in the State of Volunteering report. This
method offers a more accurate representation of the value of volunteering compared to typical cost
replacement methods

“Cost replacement figures are often used to value volunteer programs in current reporting
and grant application processes, but the truth is they only give part of the overall picture,” said
Adrienne Picone, CEO of Volunteering Tasmania.

“A cost replacement analysis simply takes an arbitrary wage and multiplies it by volunteer
hours donated. This in no way reflects the economic impact of a volunteer program. There is a flow on
economic, social and cultural impact that cost-benefit methods accurately capture,” said Ms Picone.

“This calculator is an excellent tool for organisations to accurately understand the economic
impact of their volunteer program,” she said.

The calculator can be found at www.volunteeringtas.org.au

“We know that for every dollar invested in volunteering, the community receives over $4 in
benefits. We hope that managers of volunteers will adopt this calculator as a ‘go-to’ tool to measure
the value of their volunteer program for grant writing or strategic planning documents,” she said.

“We hope that the calculator will also help Volunteer Involving Organisations and other
stakeholders consider investment in their managers and coordinators of volunteers. Without these
people, our volunteers couldn’t receive the support they need,” she said.

Results can be shared on social media, and VT encourages managers of volunteers to share theirs
using the buttons at the bottom of the calculator.
Bonnie Tuttle