VOLUNTEERING INFRASTRUCTURE

7. Regular and systematicresearchSystematic and stable provision of data on volunteering does not exist.The body responsible for the population surveys, the National Institute ofStatistics (ISTAT), carried out the last census on non-profit institutions in2003, publishing its findings in 2005, and is due to carry out the next one in2012. Various research institutions and CSVs themselves promote significantresearch and in the last years particular attention was given to testingmechanisms for the evaluation of social impacts of voluntary activities.So far, for the measurement of the economic impact of volunteering, the ILOManual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work has not been used, but promotionis being done through the European Volunteer Measurement Project (EVMP)to make it become a stable institutional tool. It is the Italian Association ofBanking Foundations, together with major national networks including CSVnet,that provided the initial grant for the preparatory phase of the EuropeanVolunteer Measurement Project in 2011, through which the partners, theEuropean Volunteer Centre (CEV), the Johns Hopkins University Center for CivilSociety Studies and SPES, organise the promotion and initial training for theadoption of the ILO Manual by the national statistical offices. This couldprovide a break-through in the provision of accurate and comparable data onthe number of volunteers, their profile, the activities they perform and theireconomic contribution. Within the EVMP, the Manual was translated intoItalian, debates and small scale implementations were organised, a constructivecollaboration with ISTAT developed and wide stakeholder support for theimplementation of the Manual was built. ISTAT is to implement the Manual in2013.“Manifesto forVolunteering inEurope” statesvolunteeringactivities arepro-bono, butthe estimatedcorrespondingreal cost shouldbe valorised.The valorisation of hours of voluntary engagement was recognised asco-funding in a public body supported project, namely within the yearly call forinnovative projects of local voluntary organisations by the National Observatoryfor Volunteering, governed by the Italian Framework Law on Volunteering266/1991. It is a call of the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policies,responsible for volunteering policy at the state level and also the EuropeanYear of Volunteering 2011 National Coordinating Body. It was introduced for thefirst time in 2010, in response to the demands of the National Observatoryfor Volunteering and further to the common political platform “Manifesto forVolunteering in Europe”, where this is expressly claimed. Volunteering activitiesare not at cost, but the estimated corresponding real cost may be valorised. Thevalorisation of the activities performed by volunteers during a project mustnot exceed: for ordinary activities, the ceiling of the hourly rates foreseen inthe contracts of social cooperatives; for professional services, either highlyqualified or not foreseen in the contracts of social cooperatives, the ceilingof the specific hourly rates provided by professional registers and from theircharters of professional services. The activity performed by volunteers - asdefined in the project description and in the economic plan – is subject tovalorisation only within the share of the 10% that the applicant organisationhas to provide.217 Volunteering infrastructure in Europe 15 Italy