Exploring the Whole Value of Corporate Volunteering

Abstract

Volunteering through the workplace is growing, with companies investing millions of dollars into it but possessing little knowledge of its value. This paper explores the value that a corporate volunteering programme (EDP Group) generated. The analysis was based on a new model, the “whole value model”, which resulted from the adaptation of a model that Andrew Haldane advocated in 2014. It showed that a corporate volunteering programme could generate an estimated average of at least € 3.55 for every € 1 invested and the potential return on a volunteer hour was guaranteed to be 5.75 times higher than its costs. This case study showed that the economic value was a small part of the whole value generated (estimated to be at least 22 times larger than just the economic value). The study facilitated the setting and testing of a new model for the value analysis of corporate volunteering.