What if there was no Leaders Forum program? Based on the contribution of LBWR graduates in volunteer hours, we have decided to model an alternative universe, where leadership programs don’t exist, and the community organisations and volunteer groups are having to buy in professional support to undertake the work and contribution currently provided through the Skills Bank.
$382,686 annual cost
To model the impact, we have assumed a base rate of $75 per hour for professional support, which sits somewhere in the middle of the hourly rate on the consulting spectrum of marketers, project managers, web developers, accountants, facilitators and so on.
So where did we get to? $382,686 – The estimated annual cost to the Ballarat community if it had to buy in the support currently provided by a group of 25 Leadership Ballarat Graduates, based on a simple hourly rate comparison. $13,776,696 – The collective cost to the Ballarat community if it had to buy in the support provided by the Skills Bank since the inception of the program in 2006. The scary part about the numbers above, is that there is no modelling to show the cost in hours that would be required in community fund-raising in order to buy in the support that is currently provided by LBWR volunteers. An alternative view would be to assume that the volunteer cost would be shifted to Local or State Government, in which case the administration costs of running the funding programs that would be needed to support volunteer groups would add significantly to the numbers above. Even scarier still is the possibility that the volunteer and community groups currently providing services to the community simply ceased to exist due to a lack of volunteer support, financial support and capacity. It would be an eye-watering outcome to model the cost to Government to fully deliver those services on behalf of the community.
Learning
“Get out of the program what you are prepared to put in”
$13,776,696 collective cost 18
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