The Social Added Value of nonprofit and voluntary organizations. Two concept mapping studies

The paper reports the findings of a research carried out thanks to the collaboration with the local service centre for volunteerism of Veorna. The project aimed at realizing assessment tools for accounting the social value of Non-profit and Voluntary Organizations (NPVOs). Following the psycho-sociological concept of Social Added Value (SAV) broadly defined as the series of relational benefits to one community brought by NPVOs, two separate studies using the participatory mixed-method approach of the concept mapping were realized. Study 1 involved volunteers while Study 2 addressed the perspectives of non-volunteers. Thanks to the confrontation of the findings of these studies, the paper presents a co-constructed model of SAV which confirms and extends the current perspectives by adding the novel elements such as values, local presence, and community development. The paper concludes by narratively discussing the results in order to advance new vistas for research and practice.