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Whereas entrepreneurship theory has long been focussed on economic wealth creation, it has in addition been recognised as a driver towards the development and creation of ‘social’ wealth. The philosophy of adopting and adapting business approaches to management of not-for-profit organizations has steadily grown. For example, it has been largely accepted that volunteers need to be ‘managed’ according to the principles developed for the management of paid workers, albeit with some adaptation to account for the voluntary nature of the workers. This paper examines the financial and social value of volunteers, especially in the light of the recent financial crisis as it has become clear that developing and running a sustainable not-for-profit organization is only possible if the organization adopts innovative approaches to the generation of revenue including the ‘employment’ of volunteers to run the business. This paper draws on different sources, including data from a recent survey concerning volunteer involving organisations in WA.