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By Piotr Sadowski, Volonteurope.

Why is social impact measurement important? What is civil society’s and researchers’ understanding of social impact of volunteering? What is the purpose of organising collaborative work across Europe to better understand the trends, practices and differences in how the social impact of volunteering is measured? These were just some of the questions that the Volonteurope Impact Measurement Working Group, made up of Volonteurope members and partners from across the continent, pursued during its second face-to-face meeting in London in September (you can read about the first meeting here).

We know that the EU sees volunteering as a pathway to social cohesion, solidarity and active citizenship. More than 100 million people volunteer in the EU – in education, sports, human rights, environment, health and social services, just to mention some of the areas where volunteers, by offering the ‘gift of time’, make a massive difference to the lives of others and their communities. But how can we measure the social value of these positive differences being made, every day, across Europe? There has been significant work done already at global level on measuring the economic value of volunteering. But we still feel that not enough, coordinated, work has been done on measuring the social impact of volunteering. Or, rather, different countries and stakeholders have done work and undertaken research; however, the Volonteurope Working Group hopes to make the connections between these pieces of work and arrive at some common European proposals in best practices for measuring the social impact of volunteering.

The Working Group meeting in London in September considered a number of immediate issues requiring clarification. Amongst them, what is social impact? Our experts agreed that social impact considers physical and mental health, education, social capital, trust, social networks, team work, quality of community life, relationships, self-sufficiency, crime and violence, addictions, access to services, housing, employment, inclusiveness, awareness of community or society, liveability, democracy and representation. Social impact also considers community cohesion, social networks, changes that happen to a person as a result of engagement, isolation and loneliness. They also proposed that there are four levels of impact: volunteers, beneficiaries, organisations and communities. Impact can be felt at the personal and at the societal levels. Impact measurement is a process. We need to be careful to distinguish between the impact of a service or programme with the impact of the volunteering within that.

It is also important to distinguish between immediate and cumulative impact, direct and indirect, positive and negative. Communicating and disseminating impact can help engage new audiences in volunteering as it helps change perceptions in society. Furthermore, we need to realise that social impact has different meanings in different countries. Societies have a variety of attitudes towards collective life, community, individualism, success etc. What mix of subjective and objective indicators do we use? Our expert group has proposed that it would be important to identify those tools where we can apply the same questions across Europe and gain comparable results.

What does the Working Group want to achieve? The meeting in London confirmed that the Group needs to come up with something very practical, achievable, valuable and sustainable, as well as useful for other organisations and actors in Europe, something which will be applicable despite country-specific realities and circumstances. As the next steps, the Working Group members will pair up according to their own needs and test existing social impact measurement tools; the progress of this will be documented and results communicated, while the testing itself will allow the Volonteurope Working Group to share best practices and knowledge, and provide guidance to European civil society on impact measurement. We are also proposing to write (in the longer-term), a position paper with recommendations to EU institutions and civil society. In the shorter- to mid-term, the Group will also develop webinars to share best practices and provide guidance on social impact measurement. These will include developing a number of universal indicators the can guide social impact measurement across Europe, and this way help us to build a network of organisations and researchers to strengthen the position paper recommendations, and further share the gathered knowledge.

The Group also agreed that as part of the ongoing work, it is important for the Volonteurope network, its members and partners, to be actively raising the profile of social impact measurement, and highlighting the value of doing so. Thus keep checking back on our monthly newsletter, which will from now on include a dedicated section featuring a different tool, every month, for measuring the social impact of volunteering. We will also be sharing any relevant papers, reports and case studies from the members of the Working Group, and we invite all our members, partners and readers to contribute with their own experiences, particularly if they are not directly involved in the activities of the Working Group.

The Working Group will hold a virtual meeting towards the end of 2015 or beginning of January 2016, while the provisional date for the next physical meeting has been set for the 17 March 2016 in Amsterdam, a day before Volonteurope organises its final policy conference on the “Rural Isolation of Citizens in Europe” work strand.

Full article.