Authors
Chief Economist
Senior Manager, Economics
Multicultural hubs are places, organisations or spaces that bring people together across cultures and faiths. They play a pivotal role in strengthening social cohesion, participation, and wellbeing. While the social benefits of multicultural hubs are vast, their benefits are difficult to capture in traditional financial terms.
BDO’s economic advisory team explains how Social Return on Investment (SROI) can translate social outcomes into economic evidence. Using this approach, our team estimated that a single multicultural hub generates over $7 million in annual social value for South Australia - more than $2 for every dollar invested.
SROI is a specialised framework that evaluates the social returns of activities relative to their costs. There is no single global SROI standard. As a result, organisations have developed context-specific models, such as the NSW Department of Communities and Justice. These approaches do not always transfer well to multicultural, community and volunteer-focused settings.
To address this gap, BDO designed a robust, purpose-built framework informed by leading local and international practice. It is designed to capture the broader contributions of multicultural hubs, particularly those powered by community participation.
Our approach starts with a program logic model, built from data, evidence and stakeholder insights. It maps inputs, activities and outputs to outcomes and longer-term impacts.
We then identify which outcomes can be measured and monetised. Using established valuation methods such as:
We then adjust for factors such as:
Finally, we compare these values against the organisation’s expenditure or the funding to estimate the benefit received by the community for every dollar invested.
SROI depends on data quality and availability. Not all outcomes can be quantified or monetised, so results are typically conservative. Even so, SROI extends beyond traditional economic analysis to recognise the benefits of social impacts that can otherwise remain overlooked in funding and policy decisions.
The Multicultural Communities Council of South Australia (MCCSA) is a leading multicultural hub based in Adelaide’s CBD. MCCSA delivers programs across sectors such as disability, aged care, and youth engagement, while supporting employment opportunities through targeted services.
As a community organisation, MCCSA relies on funding from the state government, the Commonwealth, and philanthropic organisations. BDO’s SROI model is supporting MCCSA in its advocacy by demonstrating the economic value of its programs and services to the community in South Australia.
BDO’s analysis estimated that MCCSA generates:
The program logic model constructed for MCCSA demonstrated that various inputs, such as staff and volunteers, funding, and venue access, generated outcomes across four key impact areas in 2024/25:
Stories shared by volunteers make this model clear.
"This experience of doing something positive at a personal level for the community has been amazing and has given me a great sense of joy and immense satisfaction."
- Marie, Aged Care Volunteer Visitor’s Scheme Volunteer
Using BDO’s SROI framework, MCCSA quantified and monetised outcomes, including:
BDO used QALYs to calculate the value of social connectedness and the volunteer wellbeing across 695 unique participants and 160 volunteers.
“The Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme adds value to people’s lives and provides them with opportunity to have company of another person; it touches their hearts, their minds and their souls.”
- Annemarie, Aged Care Facility Staff Member
After adjustment for attribution, deadweight and duration, the estimated social connectedness and wellbeing in this impact area was $1.4 million.
BDO estimated the value of employment outcomes enabled through MCCSA through support, training, and referrals as well as MCCSA’s grassroots multicultural organisations. Using the full-time weekly average wage and the annual cost of local community insurance as proxies, the total social value in this impact area is $4.7 million annually.
“In less than a year, I’ve become career-focused, started a business, and reshaped my worldview in such a positive way. MCCSA has not only given me an opportunity - it has given me hope, direction, and a renewed belief in myself.”
- Kelvin, MCCSA participant
Proxies were similarly used in the inclusion and equity impact area to estimate the market value of MCCSA’s facilities hire (5,358 hours), transport services (800 hours), playgroup, and volunteering (12,000 hours). When added to the value of MCCSA’s media and publications, this impact area had an estimated replacement cost of $0.9 million annually.
BDO applied an avoided cost method to assess the social value of resilience. MCCSA’s Reconnect program, supports young people experiencing adversity, and aims to prevent disengagement that can lead to late intervention costs for government. Studies show late intervention expenses related to child protection, youth crime, unemployment, homelessness, and mental health cost the Australian government $15.2 billion annually. Based on available benchmarks and conservative assumptions, this impact area was valued at $0.1 million per year.
BDO estimated the following values for MCCSA’s activities using the SROI framework:
SROI analysis is helping MCCSA to demonstrate the value created for the community relative to the funding it receives. Beyond this case study, BDO’s framework can be applied to other community focused services in areas such as environment, arts and culture, education, support services, recreation, and more.
To discuss how SROI could support your organisation or funding strategy, contact our economic advisory team.
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