1. Assessing the impact of the third sector in Europe: Concepts and evidence Brussels, November 9th 2016
Karl Henrik Sivesind

2. Assessing the impact of the third sector in Europe: Concepts and evidence
What is Third Sector Impact?
Impacts analysed by the TSI-project:
Individuals
Society
Organizations
The context-dependency of third sector impact:
Different Third Sector models in European regions
Does the European third sector make a socio-economic impact?

3. What is Third Sector Impact?
Activity of volunteers or third sector organizations
Direct or indirect, medium to long-term consequences
Effect on individuals or the community ranging from neighborhoods to society in general.
Impact goes beyond and above the outcome that would have happened without the third sector activity

4. Impact Value Chain
Input
All resources (financial and human resources, products etc.), invested in the activities of an organisation.
Activities
Specific actions, tasks and work carried out by the organisation to achieve its objectives.
Output
Tangible products and services that result from the organisation’s activities that can be measured directly.
Outcome
Specific changes in attitudes, behaviors, knowledge, skills etc. that result from organization’s activities.
Deadweight
The extent to which the outcomes would have happened anyway is called ‘deadweight’
Impact
The portion of the total outcome above and beyond would have happened anyway.

5. Impact areas
12 TSI working papers review research and present new evidence:
Well-being and quality of life
Innovation
Civic engagement, empowerment, advocacy and community building
Economic impacts
Human resources impacts

6. Impact on individuals
People that choose to volunteer may already have characteristics assumed to be possible impacts of the third sector. Problem of self-selection
Marginalized groups are less likely to become involved in voluntary organizations
Analysis of volunteering in 23 European countries finds positive effects on political engagement
Marginalized groups may have the greatest potential for impacts: Analysis of unemployed in 32 European countries shows effect on subjective well-being and mental health

7. Impact on society
Societies with a larger share of employment in the third sector have higher levels of social trust
The third sector is an important infrastructure. Civil society contributes to social capital
In the transformation of the post-communist countries, the third sector organizations have tried to expand the public sphere and promote civic liberties
Success depends on previous history but also on the present political openness towards civil society

8. Organizational impact
Analysis of impact on the organizational level is often done as a response to requirements by funders to prove the impact of specific projects.
Impacts that do not affect a particular stakeholder do not come into the calculation, such as environmental impacts
There is need for further development of indicators of impact, in particular related to volunteering
Ready-made concepts for organizational impact measurement may not have indicators for distinctive Third Sector impacts

9. The context-dependency of third sector impact
Different socio-political conditions can explain the main differences between country clusters:
Post-communist countries: Low TS welfare employment, low levels of volunteering
Southern European countries in the middle range on TS welfare employment and low on volunteering
Welfare partnership countries are very high on TS welfare employment and above the middle on volunteering
Scandinavian countries are high on volunteering but low on TS welfare employment
Countries with high share of employment in the welfare area and large public welfare expenditures, had faster employment growth in the third sector than in the rest of the economy through the financial crisis: Welfare partnership countries

10. Volunteering as share of total employment and welfare costs

11. Does the European third sector make a socio-economic impact?
Third sector impact can be detected on individual, organizational, and on societal level
However, systematic reviews of research do not support unconditional and general claims about improvement of health, wellbeing, innovation, social capital, empowerment, or economic development
Only by using the best available sources of data and suitable methods, can we understand under which circumstance the third sector and volunteering can have positive impacts

12. How to promote the Third Sector’s socio-economic impact?
By improving the frame conditions of the Third Sector, it is possible to promote distinctive impacts (civil society), volunteering, and employment growth (welfare services)
This is important input to policymaking in each country and on the EU level
More about this in the third panel about Barriers for TSOs