Calculating the Value of Volunteer Contributions for Financial Statements

Summary

There is currently an extensive body of evidence indicating that volunteer labour plays an important role in the workforce of nonprofits but it remains unusual to include volunteer contributions in financial statements. After discussing some of the issues related to the inclusion of volunteer contributions in financial statements, this article presents two examples of how this might be done. The article is divided into the following sections: evidence of importance of volunteers in nonprofits; some of the issues involved in measuring volunteer contributions; the circumstances under which accounting regulatory bodies allow for the inclusion of volunteer contributions; two models for including volunteer contributions within financial statements for nonprofits; and a final discussion. Techniques that each model (the Community Social Return on Investment model and the Expanded Value Added Statement), uses for a comparative market value for volunteer contributions are discussed.