Press Release

Full Value must replace muddled concept of Added Value, says NCVO

19 March 2008

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) is calling on charities to consign the concept of “Added Value” to the scrapheap today as it launches new thinking on “Full Value”.

As charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises increasingly think about how they demonstrate their worth to funders and the public, NCVO believes that the focus on “added value” has been muddled and unclear. NCVO is therefore launching a series of new publications, funded and developed by the Performance Hub, encouraging organisations instead to think about the full value they bring to society.

The new guide on “Full Value” will be launched at a meeting of the ImpACT coalition today, where NCVO’s Head of Performance, Richard Piper, will argue that “added value” is a flawed concept. Claims about the voluntary sector’s “added value” are crude generalisations, which attempt to identify supposed sector-wide traits rather than focusing on what individual organisations are able to offer.  He will argue that “added value” has caused confusion in public service commissioning where voluntary organisations are expected to deliver benefits that would not be expected from a private sector provider or public agency.

NCVO will encourage charities to explore the “Full Value” approach, which includes thinking about their:

Primary outcomes: The benefits organisations achieve for their main users.
Secondary outcomes: The wider changes that they achieve – for example, to the local community through increased employment levels, buying locally sourced products, building a stronger civic culture or reducing crime.
Enjoyment: The satisfaction that all people (users, staff, trustees, partners, funders, etc) get from their engagement with an organisation.

Richard Piper, Head of Performance at NCVO, will say:

“By putting these three things together – core outcomes, secondary outcomes and enjoyment – you get a better sense of the “Full Value” of civil society. This is an important alternative to the dangerous and confusing concept of “added value”. By adopting such an approach, charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises can make the most of opportunities to show their worth to others. Organisations in our sector should focus on the broad, specific value they actually create, not some presumed stereotype.”

As part of the “Full Value” launch today, NCVO is publishing a Performance Hub think piece “Full Value: Public services and the third sector”. This think piece argues that this concept will allow voluntary organisations to better influence the shape of public services so that they meet the needs of their users. It also argues that talking about “Full Value” instead of “added value” will help both the procurers of services and bidders to understand and communicate with each other better.

The guide, “True Colours: uncovering the full value of your organisation”, is also being published today, which challenges charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises to properly appreciate their “Full Value”; and to communicate it to others. The guide explains how promoting an organisation’s value and success is essential if, over the medium term, it can achieve its primary purpose of making a difference to the world.

The ImpACT Coalition meets from 9:30am at NCVO, with the “Full Value” seminar running from 11am to noon.

To attend the seminar or for copies of “Full Value: Public services and the third sector” and “True Colours: uncovering the full value of your organisation”, please contact Pete Moorey in NCVO’s Media Office on 020 7520 2468 or pete.moorey@ncvo-vol.org.uk. 

• Copyright 2008 Dod's Parliamentary Communications Ltd
• About ePolitix.com
• Stakeholders
• Contacts
• Terms & Conditions
• Blog guidelines