The Isle of Wight Rural Community Council has estimated in its Annual Report that the value of voluntary and community activity on the Island exceeds £80 million.
A conservative estimate is that there are 1200 voluntary and community groups operating on the Island with over 500 registered charities. The £80 million is made up of the turnovers of the many registered charities and various not for profit organisations and then adding a monetary value for the huge levels of volunteer activity.
The report used information from the IWRCC database, a ‘Snapshot’ survey undertaken in December and others sources such as the voluntary contribution of carers and Town and Parish Councillors and estimates that if all the Island’s volunteers were paid, their annual salary bill would come to nearly £20 million pounds!
Mike Bulpitt, Chief Executive of the RCC, comments, ‘The real value of local voluntary and community groups is of course their role in caring for, nurturing, teaching, protecting, the Island and it’s communities but in this day age money talks and it’s worth trying to put a financial value on their work. As you can see it’s huge.’
The full report is available to download from the IWRCC website and details the full extent of IWRCC activities over the last 12 months.