Third Sector Impact engages national and European stakeholders in all aspects of the analytical process in bi-directional exchange: from research to practice and from practice to research. This will have numerous benefits for third sector practitioners:

• Creating awareness among individual organizations that they are part of a larger collective with common characteristics and the potential for more effective common action;
• Equipping sector leaders with solid data demonstrating their contribution to European economic and social development, thus giving them more effective advocacy tools;
• Recognition of the important contributions of volunteer work, thus giving volunteers greater visibility, recognition and recruitment power;
• Third sector management improvement by providing data against which organizations can benchmark progress;
• Third sector leaders can more easily identify changes that might be needed in their national laws or regulations in order to enhance their ability to contribute to the quality of life;
• Third sector practioners will find valuable information on these pages to support above defined goals.

Volunteer Action

Workbook on Employee Volunteering
TSI European stakeholder organisation European Volunteer Centre (CEV) published a toolkit to help volunteer-involving
organisations develop employee volunteering. It guides the user through a process that emphasises the importance of ensuring a common understanding in the organisation about the purpose and added value of employee volunteering projects and explains the different possible models. It is available in six languages other than English: Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Polish and French.

Volunteerism in the Post-2015 Development Agenda
Volunteerism’s contribution to development is significant, but not adequately recognized. The post-2015 process offers an unprecedented opportunity to advocate for volunteerism and the values it stands for as an integral component of the new development agenda. The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is actively involved in this process: at country level through the work of its volunteers, and at global level positioning volunteerism in the new Sustainable Development agenda together with volunteer groups. Recently, UN volunteer groups have taken an increasingly active role in successfully positioning volunteerism in the new development agenda and given statements at every interactive dialogue held as part of the intergovernmental negotiations for the post-2015 agenda.

Reports

Franca Maino and Maurizio Ferrera (eds): First Report on Second Welfare in Italy 2013
The crisis of the traditional public systems of social protection has spurred the search for new ways to respond to citizens’ needs.” This Report refers to initiatives carried out by companies, associations, foundations and other third sector organisations that the authors of the study count under the definition of second welfare. It describes its achievements, promises and pitfalls, offers insight in the status quo of the Italian welfare state in transformation and adds a comparative perspective to Europe.
The full report in Italian is available here.

Books

Social Enterprise and the Third Sector. Changing European Landscapes in a Comparative Perspective
Jacques Defourny, Lars Hulgård, Victor Pestoff, Routledge 2014

This book presents the most comprehensive set of contributions reflecting the European-wide debate of concepts about social enterprise and the third sector, but with frequent connections to developments in other parts of the world. It is a resource for both researchers and practitioners.
Read more.

Policy Recommendations

How to facilitate civil society participation in Europe?
A recommendation by German TSI stakeholder B-B-E (in German)

Social Impact Measurement for Social Enterprises
A recent policy brief by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) identifies key issuess and recommendations for  impact measurement of social enterprise activity.

Webinar

Ksenija Fonovic and Megan Haddock of TSI partners SPES Italy and Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies organised an exciting webinar on measuring volunteering based on the new ILO Manual on behalf of the International Association for Volunteer Effort. Watch Making Volunteers Count: What You Need to Know About the New Volunteer Measurement Standards for Government Statistics Agencies.