Volunteering: the need for accounting valuation

Because
volunteering is essential to associative life and is a considerable economic issue
( estimated at close to one million full-time jobs in France), it can be
considered as a resource. Valuing it in accounting is therefore sensible.
What is
Volunteering?
In 1993 a
report from the Economic and Social Council defined the volunteer as an
individual who freely undertakes to conduct a non-salaried action outside his /
her professional or family time. In other words, volunteering is "a gift
of time freely given and free" .
On the
accounting side, the definition of volunteering is close: "voluntary
contribution in kind which is without consideration". A volunteer can not
receive remuneration and must not be subject to any subordination .
The value of
accounting valuation of volunteering
Since
volunteering does not generate financial flows , it is not systematically
subject to an accounting valuation . However, it allows to account for the
social utility of the volunteers and to give the most faithful picture possible
of the activity of an association .
It can also
have many other objectives:
Make an
association's own resources transparent
Highlighting
the importance of volunteering for the entity and the need to retain
Estimate the
actual cost of the associative project
Show the
"partners" how volunteers contribute to the leverage of their funding
Prove the
disinterested nature of management
Relativize
costs in light of the actual number of speakers
However, this
approach to valuing volunteering is criticized by some arguing that generosity
is priceless .
Comments
Post a Comment