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A
vital leadership role is to help everyone
see the big picture. Make sure your accounting, reporting, and program
evaluation practices assess the impact of volunteer contributions and
illuminate volunteer accomplishments. See the resources below for help. |
Featured Book
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What Counts: Social Accounting for Nonprofits and
Cooperatives
by Laurie Mook, Jack Quarter
and Betty Jane Richmond
In an era of resource
constraints and increased demands for accountability, creating accounting
procedures that highlight the social impacts of nonprofits is critical. What Counts is a very timely analysis of
a major challenge facing nonprofits today -- how to properly assess social impacts
and the important contributions of volunteers.
Order the book NOW! (e-book, US $12.00)
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Book Review
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As a
participant in the research for What Counts, the Jane/Finch Community and Family
Centre has had a firsthand opportunity to apply [concepts from this book] to
our organization. Knowing the "value added" that we create has helped our
funders to appreciate our contribution and has had the same effect for our
staff and our volunteers. We have to come to realize that we don't simply use
resources, but that we also add value to society through our services.
-- Margarita Mendez, Executive Director, Jane/Finch Community and Family Centre, Toronto
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More Resources
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Volunteer Management Audit The Volunteer Management Audit is a unique tool for analyzing the
effectiveness of an organization's approach to and procedures for involving
volunteers.
Proof Positive: Developing Significant Volunteer Recordkeeping Systems, 21st Century Edition
Collect and communicate volunteer information in easy and effective ways
and write reports that get your executive's attention.
Measuring Up: Assessment Tools for Volunteer Programs Here's the book you've been looking for to "prove" the results
and effectiveness of the volunteer program you lead! Nearly 70 timeless tools
to help you evaluate your plans, program, organization, the people involved and
even yourself.
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Book Excerpt
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Economic Impact of
Nonprofits and Cooperatives
Excerpted from What
Counts: Social Accounting for Nonprofits and Cooperatives by Laurie Mook, Jack Quarter, and Betty Jane Richmond
To illustrate
the economic impact of nonprofits and cooperatives, let us start with a simple
example. In many countries, volunteers deliver meals to homes of people in need.
One of these programs, called Meals on Wheels, was started in Britain during World
War II as a service to people who, during the bombing known as the Blitz, lost their
homes and their ability to cook for themselves. The original program was organized
by the Women's Volunteer Service for Civil Defense, which not only delivered
meals to their homeless neighbors but also brought refreshments to canteens used
by people in the military. This service was the prototype of the Meals on
Wheels program that has spread internationally. . . .
. . . In Canada, the first
Meals on Wheels program was introduced in Brantford, Ontario, in 1964, by
the Independent Order of Daughters of the Empire and the Canadian Red Cross
(Ontario Community Support Association 1993). A 1997 survey prepared for the
Canadian Association for Community Care (Goodman 1997) presents an illuminating
analysis of Meals on Wheels. The survey found that there were nearly 800 such
programs in Canada serving
about 1 million meals per month (nearly 12 million per year). Congregate Dining
programs, where recipients share group meals in a center rather than in the
privacy of their dwellings, made up 16 percent of the total meals served in
1997. In addition to seniors, the home-delivered meals were sent to disabled
people, early-discharge patients from hospitals, people with HIV/AIDS, and prenatal
and postnatal mothers at risk. The programs were almost exclusively nonprofit (99
percent), using a large cadre of volunteer labor (about 150 per program) in combination
with a small staff (about 10 full-time and a similar number of part-time employees
per program). Taken together, there were nearly 125,000 volunteers working
alongside about 16,000 staff (full- and part-time).
Few would
regard Meals on Wheels as an economic entity. These programs were set up for a
social purpose -- to serve people in need -- and, therefore, they could be referred
to as social organizations. Because these organizations are nonprofits (that
is, corporations without shares), none of their income is distributed as dividends
to shareholders. Instead, all of their income is used to maintain and expand
their services. Yet, like businesses in general, Meals on Wheels programs
purchase supplies on the market and also employ people who, in turn, pay taxes
and participate in the economy through the expenditure of their earnings. The
cost of home-delivered meal programs in Canada is about $53
million (Goodman 1997), an estimate that includes the fee paid by the clients
(averaging about $4 per meal) and the $1.50 per-meal subsidy from governments
and charitable organizations to cover the remaining costs. The estimated cost,
however, does not include the contribution of the 125,000 volunteers who
deliver and help with preparing the meals and who also assist with the
administration of the programs. The volunteers supplement the labor of the paid
staff and thereby bring the service to a greater number of recipients
and at a lower cost than would be possible by employees only. Clearly, with or
without the volunteer labor, Meals on Wheels has a significant economic
impact. . . .
. . .[The book What Counts proceeds] on the assumption
that even though services are supplied by organizations set up for a social
purpose (social organizations), their economic impact must still be considered
both within the broader society and within the organization. Moreover, the
accounting must not only be for paid labor but should also include the important
volunteer contributions that add to the value of social organizations. Similarly,
the accounting should illuminate the impact of such organizations, not simply
categorize their expenditures.
Permission
is granted for organizations to reprint this excerpt. Reprints must
provide full acknowledgment of the source, as cited here:
Excerpted from
What Counts: Social Accounting for Nonprofits and Cooperatives
by Laurie Mook, Jack
Quarter, and Betty Jane Richmond (Sigel Press, 2007). Found in the Energize, Inc. Online Bookstore
at http://www.energizeinc.com/store/5-227-E-1. |
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Energize, Inc. 5450 Wissahickon Ave., C-13 Philadelphia, PA 19144 [email protected] www.energizeinc.com
Energize empowers and inspires leaders of volunteers worldwide. Our specialty is creating and selecting the most relevant, innovative resources in volunteer management. We're advocates for the power of volunteers and for the recognition of the leaders who unleash it. About Us |
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