How volunteers have an economic impact on the sport, fitness and recreation industry

The economic benefits of volunteering in Victoria

In 2019, it is estimated that volunteering in Victoria enabled at least $58.1 billion worth of benefits across the State. The sum of commercial benefits worth $31.8 billion and civic benefits valued at $26.3 billion. The Gross Value Added of volunteering to the Victorian economy is $8.2 billion, or 1.8% of Victoria’s Gross State Product of $446.1 billion.

Producers’ surplus

$1.2 billion is distributed among all Victorian firms who contribute intermediate (such as partly finished goods and/or services that are used as inputs in the production of other goods and/or services including final goods and/or services) or final goods and/or services that are consumed as a result of volunteering in Victoria, and not just volunteering producers.

Socio-economic impact (in $millions)

Our study found that 56.9% of volunteers believed their volunteering added an average of 35.9% value to their productivity in their paid employment. Therefore, the extent to which volunteering in Victoria improved the productivity of individuals in 2019 (a benefit enjoyed by their employers) is estimated to be $30.5 billion.

Employment

The expenditure associated with volunteering in Victoria is estimated to generate in the order of 71,364 jobs, of which 47,467 are full-time. This refers to jobs created economy-wide and not just in the volunteering sector. This realises a wage benefit of $5.0 billion that is directly returned to households, with an equivalent welfare cost avoided by government.

Taxes

Volunteering-related expenditure of $8.7 billion (direct costs) generated approximately $1.9 billion in tax revenue for the government.

The costs of volunteering in Victoria

The total social & economic cost of volunteering in Victoria and its related enterprises in 2019 is estimated to be $15.9 billion.

Of these expenses, volunteers reported being reimbursed an average of $212.65 (12.4%). Therefore, on average they were out of pocket by $1,497.11. Once this value is multiplied by the estimated number of volunteers in Victoria, this equates to volunteers in Victoria having net outgoings of approximately $3.9 billion, or $6.69 per volunteer hour.

Volunteers directly spent $3.9 billion in support of their own volunteering. This is almost as much as volunteering-involving organisation’s expenditure of $4.8 billion.

Using median wage data for each age cohort; allowing an additional 15% for superannuation, payroll and administration costs; and, discounting for volunteering that occurs outside Victoria (1.8%), it was found that the cost to the community of replacing volunteers’ labour in Victoria would be $19.4 billion. 

To demonstrate the scale of the volunteering sector, we compare the cost to replace voluntary work in Victoria with the total compensation of employees in the government and private sectors. The volunteering sector is over one and a half times larger than the Victorian government sector and nearly half the size of the private sector

The two peak industry bodies have entered a formal partnership to further develop their co-operation in the field and explore new ways to promote and positively impact volunteering in the Australian community.

Volunteers play a critical role within the Australian sporting landscape with over three million Aussies contributing across all levels of sport. With approximately 72% of sport and recreation roles held by volunteers, the sector depends on them to coach our players, manage our community clubs, and provide positive sporting experiences for participants at all stages of life.

The partnership announcement follows the publication of data earlier in the year showing a 65% decline nationwide in the volunteer workforce as a result of the pandemic.

Sport Australia Acting CEO, Rob Dalton said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted sport in Australia and the role of the volunteer is now more important than ever. We need our volunteers to help rebuild our sporting communities and contribute to our social and economic recovery.

“Recent Sport Australia data shows that up until August 2020, over two million volunteers in sport had not resumed their usual volunteering levels, which illustrates the gravity of the challenge the industry is facing and the need for a coordinated approach between our organisations and our partners in the sports sector to address it.

“Our partnership with Volunteering Australia will enable us to work together and alongside the sector to develop a range of strategies to overcome the barriers for getting people back out into their communities and sporting clubs.”

The latest Sport Australia data indicates 57% of sports volunteers had not returned to any sports volunteering activity by August, while roughly a third of adults and children who expected to play at least one sport between April and December were back playing the same number of sports and a small number (2% of both groups) were playing more sports.

Mr Dalton said the challenge was not only bringing volunteers back to sport but providing a plan to support them in a complex environment.

“There has been a singular focus on encouraging participants back to sport, but without volunteers there is no return to play and our data is showing that volunteers are returning to sport at a proportionately slower rate than participants.

“We are looking to deepen our understanding of the challenges for sports in the recruitment and retention of volunteers and work collaboratively across the sector to identify opportunities to support them,” he said.

Sport Australia and Volunteering Australia have identified three key focus areas to explore under their new partnership – attracting more volunteers to sport; reducing barriers to volunteer recruitment; and increasing volunteer retention and quality of experience.

Volunteering Australia CEO, Mark Pearce said: “Participation in sport has the capacity to improve lives, strengthen communities, and hurdle language and cultural barriers like few other endeavours. Whilst we celebrate our sporting achievements, these wouldn’t be possible without the committed efforts of over three million volunteers who support participation at every level.

“Volunteering Australia is therefore delighted to be partnering with Sport Australia to ensure Australians have the opportunities to offer the time and expertise so vital to guaranteeing sport in our country continues to thrive.”