The Dobrometr aApplication as a Tool for Quantifying the Economic Value of Volunteering

Abstract

Individuals and companies alike make considerable efforts in various charitable activities such as volunteering. This sector is also supported to some extent by the state. Organised volunteering is costly and companies struggle with reporting its value. Nevertheless, reporting and quantifying volunteer activities can help organisations to differentiate. The most telling value in this context is the evaluation of the impact of volunteering, but this is usually very analytical, time-consuming and costly. Quantifying volunteering is made feasible by a concept known as the value of volunteering. It does not capture the benefits of volunteering, but quantifies one dimension of the overall value of volunteering, volunteering time. To quantify the economic value of volunteering, the Dobrometr application was developed in cooperation between the Hestia centre for volunteering and the College of Polytechnics Jihlava, Czech Republic. The aim of this paper is to present the application and explain its use in determining the economic value of volunteering through the proposed method, thus facilitating its calculation. From the given date, number of hours, and type of activity related to the category, the value of volunteering is calculated. The collected data on the value of volunteering is further used to support the management of individual volunteer organisations. Information and communication technologies are used in the implementation of the application, which includes both a web application and a mobile application. By describing some of the features of the application, the paper further discusses its deployment. The application was developed within the project "Czechia Counts on Volunteering" (a TA CR project). The creation of the application was supported by in-depth research of both theoretical sources and organisations working with volunteers across the society. The aim was to create not only the conditions for organisations in practice to calculate the value of volunteering, but also a solid framework for interpreting these results.