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Volunteering Statistics
The Numbers
Results of the 2004
National Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating (NSGVP)
are in. Statistics Canada released the survey results for 2004 in
its latest report of the National Survey on Giving, Volunteering
and Participating. In the survey, Canadians respond to questions
about how they are engaged as donors, volunteers and participants
in voluntary organizations and charities. The previous NSGVP survey
was conducted in 2001, and prior to that, in 1997.
Read Where
Canadians Volunteer for a comprehensive overview of the findings
around volunteerism in the 2004 National Survey on Giving, Volunteering
and Participating, or for BC-specific information, read the Volunteering
in British Columbia 2000 NSGVP Fact Sheet.
The full results of the NSGVP are
posted on the Statistics
Canada web site. Statistics Canada has also produced an Executive
Summary of the survey results.
For more statistics on
volunteering in BC and in Canada, visit: www.givingandvolunteering.ca.
The Economic
Value of Volunteering
There
is much debate within volunteerism circle around the idea of giving
a dollar value as a measurement of the impact of volunteer effort.
As the debate continues, more and more organizations are including
some economic value to the amount of volunteer involvement their
volunteer programs use to operate.
Dollar
Values of Volunteering
In
Canada, the most recent dollar value on an hour of volunteer effort
was $16.50. This number was presented in 2001, in Volunteer Canada's
“Volunteer Management Audit” resource (page 15). Download the resource
at http://www.volunteer.ca/volunteer/pdf/ManagementAuditEng.pdf.
In
the United States, the Independent Sector (www.independentsector.org),
a coalition of non-profit organizations, the 2004 estimate for the
value of a volunteer hour is US$17.55 per hour, an increase from
US$17.19 in 2003.
Measurement
Tools
The
Knowledge Development Centre (of the Canada Volunteerism Initiative)
has put together an online tool called the Volunteer Value Calculator.
This calculator is designed to be an easy to use online tool to
calculate the economic value of a volunteer program. Use the calculator
online at www.kdc-cdc.ca/vvc.
The
calculator is based on the manual "Assigning Economic Value
to Volunteer Activity: Eight tools for efficient program management,”
by Michelle Goulbourne and Don Embuldeniya. Download a copy of the
manual at www.nonprofitscan.
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