As one of the Digital in Volunteering partners, I’ve been described as a Luddite more than once.
Usually, it’s because I’ve not immediately jumped on board the latest bit of kit or I’ve asked whether technology is really solving the problem we think it is. It’s rarely intended as a compliment.
But the more I think about it, the more comfortable I am getting with the label.
The original Luddites weren’t simply against technology. They were asking questions about how it was being used, who benefited from it, and what might be lost along the way. As volunteer managers, I think those are questions we should still be asking.
As we mark International Volunteer Managers Day and reflect on this year’s theme of legacy and leadership, I’ve found myself thinking about the people who shaped my own approach to volunteer management. None of them are memorable to me because of the systems they introduced or the processes they designed. What I remember is how they worked with people.
They knew when to follow a process and when to use their judgement. They listened. They built relationships. They understood that volunteering is wonderfully human and often a bit messy.
Technology has transformed our profession, and in many ways for the better. We can reach more people, reduce administration and make volunteering more accessible. I use AI myself and can see enormous potential in it.
But I do sometimes worry when I hear phrases like, “The system won’t allow it.” As in, “we can’t add in this step of a volunteer journey because the platform doesn’t support it”.
At that point, it’s worth asking whether the technology is supporting our decisions or starting to make them for us.
I don’t believe AI will replace volunteer managers. If anything, I think it makes the human parts of our role even more important. A system can identify patterns, but it can’t build trust. An AI tool can draft a message, but it can’t make someone feel welcomed, valued or understood.
Those things still happen between people.
Maybe that’s why I’ve become more interested in decision literacy than digital literacy. Of course we need to understand technology, but we also need the confidence to question it. To ask whether a process reflects our values, whether the data tells the whole story, and whether the most efficient solution is actually the best one.
When people remember our legacy as volunteer managers, I don’t think they’ll remember the platforms we used. They’ll remember whether someone took the time to listen, encourage them and help them find a meaningful place to belong.
So perhaps I am reclaiming my inner Luddite.
Not because I’m against technology, but because I believe volunteering will always be, at its heart, about people.
And that’s a legacy worth protecting.
Find out more about International Volunteer Managers Day via their website.
Hello and welcome to TeamKinetic’s monthly Newsletter.
This roundup is designed to keep you up-to-date with what’s going on at TeamKinetic, our partners, and across the third sector in general. So grab a brew and tuck into all the latest news.
We hope you find value in this TeamTalk. As always, we really appreciate feedback, so feel free to leave a comment, shoot over an email, or message via social media.
If you’d like to subscribe to the TeamTalk newsletter, please send an email over to me at alex@teamkinetic.co.uk, and we’ll get you on the list!
To read our roundup of stories we think you need to know about, click to go to the next page below, or choose a story from the list:
Whether you are recruiting volunteers for a large-scale festival, managing ongoing community roles, or directing volunteers to third-party portals, setting up opportunities correctly ensures you get the right volunteers in the right places. Below is a comprehensive overview based on TeamKinetic’s Midweek Masterclass Series guide.
1. Determining How Many Opportunities to Create
Before creating an opportunity, consider three primary factors to decide if you need a single listing or multiple listings:
Location: If volunteers meet at a central office before heading out, a single opportunity usually suffices. However, if they meet at different starting locations, separate listings should be created.
Time: Distinct volunteering times generally require separate listings so volunteers can choose times that fit their schedules. Sessional opportunities can also be used if the core activity remains the same across different time slots.
Activity: When tasks and roles differ significantly from one another, set up separate opportunities to allow volunteers to apply based on their interests and skills.
2. Fully Managed vs. Self-Managed Opportunities
TeamKinetic supports two setup types depending on where volunteer management occurs:
Fully Managed: Built for providers who want to handle applications, attendance, hours logging, and communication directly within TeamKinetic.
Self-Managed: Functions as an advertisement tool. Volunteers are redirected from TeamKinetic to an external site or internal portal (commonly used by large charities like Barnardo’s or Macmillan).
Note: System tracking for self-managed opportunities is limited to initial click counts; hours logged and feedback cannot be captured automatically within TeamKinetic.
3. Controlling Access: Restrictions & Onboarding
TeamKinetic provides a flexible restrictions interface to filter or guide volunteers during onboarding:
Key Onboarding Controls:
Roles / Flows: Require steps (e.g., attending an interview or uploading ID) before a volunteer receives final role approval.
Applying vs. Joining: “Apply First” creates a shortlisting process where admins approve applicants, whereas “Join” allows direct sign-ups.
Ask for Experience: Prompts volunteers with an open text box upon applying to capture relevant background details.
References: Automates emailing nominated referees and holds application status for admin verification.
Admin Override: Administrators and providers can bypass all restrictions when necessary by manually adding a volunteer to a session using the green + icon.
4. Promoting and Sharing Opportunities
Maximise reach or maintain privacy using built-in promotion options:
Secret Opportunities: Keeps listings hidden from public search pages while allowing direct link sharing.
Accessibility Marking: Flags roles suitable for volunteers with physical accessibility requirements.
Events: Groups related opportunities under an umbrella campaign (e.g., Summer Festival) so volunteers can view all related roles on a single page.
LinkWide & Partner Sharing: Allows sharing opportunities across affiliated networks or national platforms (such as Do-It or The Big Help).
5. Documents & Surveys
Document Downloads: Providers can attach guides, shift maps, or forms for volunteers to read or complete prior to their shift.
Document Uploads: Volunteers can upload completed health & safety forms or worksheets directly to the opportunity. Uploaded files remain confidential and visible only to the volunteer and the respective provider.
Surveys: Integrated post-activity surveys can be attached to gather feedback and evaluate volunteer experiences.
We were very proud to sponsor the Aspiring Heads of Volunteering programme, developed by Dr Helen Timbrell and Charlotte Witteridge. As part of our sponsorship, we were able to offer one lucky recipient a free place on the programme.
Our winner was Pippa Vidal Davies, Volunteering Manager at Culture Leicestershire (Leicestershire County Council). She’s been kind enough to supply us with her reflections after each session, you can read her Aspiring Heads of Volunteering programme diary below…
(Use the ← arrow →keys on the book to navigate!)
Using a screen reader or just prefer plain text? You can read the text-only version of her reflections on the next page of this blog by clicking here.
Final Reflections Q&A (Monday 5th October)
Pippa also joined us for a final reflections call where we asked her a few questions about the overall programme, here are the highlights from our chat…
How did the Aspiring Heads of Volunteeringprogramme align with your expectations going in? Was there anything that surprised you from the experience?
Charlotte and Helen hold so much expertise themselves, so anything that’s got their name on it, you’d know that it’s going to be good. The thing is, I wasn’t expecting it to be as good!
The fact that there were fidget toys available on the table for you, or the fact that they had postcards when it’s very difficult to describe how you’re feeling, you could just go to a postcard. They’d just considered every single little aspect of the course, which made it really, really wonderful.
What was your single biggest “aha!” moment?
There’s been quite a few! I think the biggest “aha!” moment was just that investment in reflection. Reflection does not come to me easily.
My previous roles have always been very operational and hands on. I went from [being] a volunteer coordinator, to now managing a team of volunteer coordinators.
I do think my preconception of a role in a managerial position, in a leadership position, is that you need to be an expert in your field and be shown to be an expert throughout by doing things and holding all the knowledge. But that “aha!” moment, that reflection, that investment in yourself of going “actually, let me think about this before I go straight into doing”.
In what ways has the programme shifted your perspective of what it means to be a head of volunteering as opposed to a volunteer manager/coordinator?
One came quite early on in terms of the breadth of the head of volunteering role. It’s no longer head of volunteering by itself. You can be an expert within volunteering. But that’s not the only thing that has been expected of you. It’s ‘Head of Volunteering and Marketing’, ‘Head of Volunteering and People’, ‘Head of Volunteering Communities’.
So it’s making sure that, if it is something I want to explore in future, I need to focus on other skills away from volunteering. Or skills that I can transfer over to volunteering, rather than just become a subject expert within volunteering.
It’s just made me realise how much in my infancy I am. It’s not from lack of confidence in myself, it’s just appreciating that I’m at the very start of a leadership position and wanting to build up through there. It doesn’t feel unattainable. I just appreciate all the things that you need to accomplish before you are even confident to apply for a head of volunteering role.
A key part of being a head of volunteering is shifting from the daily operations to the strategic and strategic vision. What do you think you got out the programme that best equipped you to do that?
Quite a few actually, there were so many frameworks! They talked about T shaped leadership, so making sure that it’s both operational and strategic.
They also gave us a leadership reflection wheel, so you can score yourself in terms of the skills that you’ve got and then know which areas that you need to focus on yourself. And then I kind of merged two models together that were incredibly useful – a stakeholder map alongside their circle of influence.
It made me realise some of the areas that I was putting the most amount of resources in terms of time, in terms of attention and brain space, were areas that I couldn’t control or influence. And in terms of the stakeholder group, sat very low versus all of the stakeholders. So that was incredibly powerful.
How confident do you feel now about advocating for volunteering at an executive or board level?
Oh, well, actually really confident. That’s where I would have said I’ve seen the most improvement.
Previously, I might have shied away from difficult conversations with my line manager or from my senior leadership team. So it’s given me a lot of visibility within the senior leadership team and also within regional networks.
Did the programme change how you approach stakeholder management and cross departmental buy in? If so, how?
Yes. I did it alongside my line manager, so it was touched upon with the Johari Window Model. It basically acknowledges that people only know what you tell them. It’s making sure that you appreciate what information you’re keeping about yourself and what you’re open to share. It’s pushed me towards being more open and more vulnerable about what I require and what I need.
By being able to be quite self aware with my line manager and also having more confidence in being open and vulnerable with them in terms of who I am and what I need, I was able to do that stakeholder mapping alongside her. So that’s framed my mind my way of working much better.
And she’s also been made aware of, you know, there are a lot of pressures towards focusing on areas that I don’t have much control over. So “how can I best support Pippa to address that?”.
What’s the first change or new initiative you plan to implement in your current role based on what you’ve learned?
The action learning sets!
You can designate some time within a group of people whereby each of you presents a challenge. As a group you decide what challenge you want to focus on, and then the presenter has got the ability to expand on that challenge whilst the rest of the group ask open questions to allow that person who’s presenting to come to the solutions that best suit them.
I think it’s a mindset that I’m most excited about. The fact that you don’t go in into problem solving mode or advice mode, you’re actually empowering the person to come to the solution.
What do you anticipate being the biggest challenge in applying the learning to your organisation?
Historical workings. So being able to overcome the “Oh, but we’ve always done it this way”. The bureaucracy and red tape within council settings specifically, that means that things have been done a certain way for decades and being able to have that culture change shift without exhausting yourself.
Where do you feel you may still have some skills gaps? And what ongoing support/resources do you think you might want/need from the alumni programme to become a head of volunteering?
So, actually, the first session [on the AHOV Alumni Programme] that Helen and Charlotte announced, in terms of what to do if you’re supposed to be motivating people that you don’t directly manage. That is definitely an area that I was very excited when Helen and Charlotte announced that. Because I think that’s a challenge that particularly applies to myself. So it’ll be good to hear the tips and tricks with that.
How will you measure the success of the new strategies that you’re going to implement?
The development plan. That was one of the things that they encouraged us from day one, is being able to have a development plan for oneself. And I think I just need to hold myself accountable.
They also made us do an exercise around values. So the Values Institute in terms of what values we’ve got, and practical ways that I can continue staying true to my values, or reflecting on how my values are being met week-by-week. I think that that’s definitely another tool that I’ll be using.
Out of the way the programme was structured, what did you get the most out of?
I think the face-to-face of having the start and the finish allowed to build relationships that, if we didn’t have that face-to-face at the start, it might have been a little bit harder, especially with the icebreakers that we had.
I think the pre-coursework was really well chosen and one that would directly was relevant to what Helen and Charlotte were presenting on the day. All the case studies and the pre-work that they gave us, I would say. And the fact that they gave us time to do it was the best bit.
If you had to summarise the experience overall, what would be your closing statement about it?
So it’s that reminder to invest in yourself, in your learning, in the networks that you have. Well, that can be made available to you through being part of this. And just the reminder that. You need to put that time and that effort to realise who you are as a leader, who you want to be as a leader and what you need to put in place to make sure that that happens.
The next steps for me really are just that commitment to doing that, using the alumni programme as a way to be held accountable through it, and the development plan.
And just… anybody should do it- Everybody should do it!
Want to find out more about the Aspiring Heads of Volunteering™ Programme?
Applications for the 2027 programme are open from Oct 12 – Nov 6 – visit their website via this link to find out more information and apply.
Hello and welcome to TeamKinetic’s monthly Newsletter.
This roundup is designed to keep you up-to-date with what’s going on at TeamKinetic, our partners, and across the third sector in general. So grab a brew and tuck into all the latest news.
We hope you find value in this TeamTalk. As always, we really appreciate feedback, so feel free to leave a comment, shoot over an email, or message via social media.
If you’d like to subscribe to the TeamTalk newsletter, please send an email over to me at alex@teamkinetic.co.uk, and we’ll get you on the list!
To read our roundup of stories we think you need to know about, click to go to the next page below, or choose a story from the list:
Over the last couple of years, we’ve jumped into the festival space, partnered with the Association of Independent Festivals, and gained a better insight into how the festival world operates. Naturally, we also wanted to explore the landscape of Festival Volunteering and see whether our digital approach fits into their world.
Since welcoming several new Music and Arts festivals as partners this year, I wanted to better support them by learning more about their day-to-day operations.
To do that, I decided to get involved myself.
Over the summer, I signed up for two very different festivals and joined their volunteer teams, connecting with other volunteers and learning more about why they love these events.
The UK Festival Scene
The UK festival scene is a special and sentimental space for many of us, with roots stretching back to the Jazz and Folk events of the 1950s and 60s. The launch of Glastonbury Festival in 1970, then known as ‘Pilton Festival’, pioneered our modern concept of a festival, a movement that influenced the live music and arts industry globally.
Today, most people have a tale of that one heroic event that shaped them. Regardless of age and despite debates over which event was “better” or how things “used to be,” everyone I spoke to returns year after year for the same reasons: pure joy, connection, escapism, and a sense of freedom rarely found in everyday life.
Before discussing volunteering, we simply wanted to hear how long people had been involved in festivals and what their ‘why’.
“I’ve been attending for about 20 years. It’s the hedonism, the escape, the freedom, touching grass and dancing, the connection with like-minded people. Initially it was the music, but over time it’s definitely the least important factor. Spending time with loved ones in a beautiful space for escapism.”
“9 years. I love the separation from normal day to day life where you can relax, wander and wear outfits you enjoy that you don’t have an excuse to wear anywhere else.”
While I can’t compete with 20 years, I have 8 years of experience under my belt. For me, the main draw is complete immersion, an opportunity to disconnect from daily routine for 3 to 5 days while spending quality time with friends. The connections I’ve made while camping in fields have led to some of my longest-lasting friendships.
Why should we volunteer at festivals?
So why volunteer when you could just enjoy the music and all of the above?
Well, there’s one obvious reason: you often get a free ticket to the event, and with the cost of living rising, this prevents people from being priced out of the events they look forward to each year. It’s, of course, the most obvious reason from an outside perspective, since it’s easily measurable, but it was the immeasurable reasons people shared that felt the most genuine and impactful.
Volunteering became an extension of community and connection with volunteers prioritising the sense of belonging and the opportunity to meet new people, often forming long-lasting friendships with like-minded individuals and fellow crew members. One volunteer I spoke to had also used volunteering to open the door to countless new skills.
“I’ve helped build a bar from oak pieces, worked on that same bar, worked in kitchens, helped convince people to take their tents home and sort their rubbish for recycling, worked on decor, and helped run a workshop – all sorts!”
The reasons that people volunteer at festivals also vary by their age or life stage. On the final morning of Kendal Calling, I found myself sitting in the camp with some fellow volunteers whom I had recognised two weeks earlier at Beatherder. These guys knew the circuit and were part of the furniture as festival volunteers go, carrying nicknames people knew them by exclusively.
Their camp setup had been refined over the years, even including guitars and portable amplifiers to jam in the campsite; I couldn’t help but join in. One of them had retired and had met the other years earlier, while volunteering at another festival. Having reached the end of his career, what better way to spend time than travelling up and down the country meeting new people, sharing stories, and “having a right laugh” as he put it.
What I found most interesting personally was seeing the festival’s inner workings, the behind-the-scenes operations and different teams that bring it all to life. Combined with the staff campsite community, ‘Access most areas’ wristbands, and warm showers, it’s hard to go back to being a regular attendee.
The Dealbreakers
But it can’t all be positive, right? I also explored what holds people back from volunteering at festivals, and there’s a clear divide.
Some things are unavoidable, like missing parts of the show; there is a definite fear of missing out, which is why people often turn up a few hours early to claim favourable shifts. Another element that people reported holding them back in the past was the anxiety that stems from the fear of the unknown, but given that we spoke on the other side of that mental barrier, it’s clear it was worth it in the end.
On the flip side, some aspects felt avoidable. We explored the barriers to entry, i.e., financial requirements like deposits, complex application processes, and general hesitation about committing to an unknown experience. If you paired a festival with a modern system and some clear communication, could this be resolved? We’d like to think so. The above points are very volunteer-centric, and while we’re here to support volunteers, we also need to consider the challenges organisers face that contribute to these outcomes.
Volunteer management challenges
Quite by chance, I ended up chatting with a member of a management team who opened up about the hurdles organisers face. A major theme was the clunky, fragmented workflows and the weight of the admin. Without centralised digital tools ready to go, shift allocation and volunteer training often happened right on the ground. This created major bottlenecks and strained the accreditation and check-in process. Even though the events I joined were impressively managed, it became obvious how easily larger festivals, especially those with many new recruits, could quickly find themselves under serious pressure.
Collaborating to improve
For us, these challenges reinforce our need to support the sector. We believe that technology should not be an added burden, but the invisible thread that holds these operations together.
Through our partnership with the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), we aim to create a modern, accessible platform that connects festivals through a centralised network of reliable volunteers. This provides festival organisers and staffing providers with a trusted brokerage portal and offers volunteers a platform to discover new opportunities.
Organisations can access intuitive tools for recruiting, shift scheduling, and volunteer management at a reduced rate, fostering a connected community.
Volunteers can take charge of their experience, track their achievements, and leverage a unified network to discover their next role.
This helps address issues highlighted by volunteers by making roles more visible, simplifying application processes, and potentially waiving deposits for committed individuals.
We tested our ideas with a handful of real volunteers…
100%
of volunteers said it would be beneficial to have access to a variety of opportunities from different festivals via one portal.
100%
of respondents said only having to register once would make it easier to explore new volunteering opportunities.
We also discussed the currency of trust in volunteering and the potential to waive the deposit for trusted volunteers.
Many of the volunteers felt that removing the deposit requirement would significantly reduce a major barrier to participation, particularly for those with limited financial means, for whom current upfront costs are prohibitive.
“I’d love that! That is why I can’t go to some festivals this year, because deposits are super high, and I just can’t afford it, even though I have volunteered a couple of times already.”
There were also reservations about its implementation. “Defining a “trusted volunteer” could be subjective and potentially create a sense of division among staff.”
It’s definitely something to consider, and constructive feedback can be the most influential in shaping new ideas.
Ultimately, the future of festival volunteering requires digital efficiency paired with the human connection that makes these events so special. By simplifying the administrative burden for organisers and removing barriers for volunteers, we can foster a more inclusive and connected festival community.
We are excited to continue this journey, listening to your feedback and building the tools that support everyone involved in creating these unforgettable experiences.
If you’d like to get in touch about volunteer management for festivals, contact finn@teamkinetic.co.uk
Its time again already for a supercharged new release from TeamKinetic. This release focuses on the volunteer experience with a brand new, entirely revamped and nicer looking interface.
Brand New Volunteer Interface
It combines all the great functionality that volunteers had access to in a familiar way but improves all aspects of the look, feel and experience. We have maintained our high standards of accessibility but at the same time upped the small and friction free interactions that make you go ahhhhhh.
The new look is not just skin deep either, we have added plenty of quality of life improvements, even if the foundational functionality is still the same.
You can now easily search through all your messages, search your resources, update expenses and resubmit expenses; more on that later.
We have also spent a lot of time improving the experience on mobile devices with touch sensitive sliders and scrollers, reactive scrollable tables that wont break the layout and an improved navigation and menu system.
You may notice the feedback section also has some extra knobs and whistles which we’ll cover later.
New Day Schedule Report
For those of you that run events or have days with many sessions all cramped in, the new day schedule report is going to help you massively.
We are still actively developing this and getting some fantastic feedback from users and you can give the beta version a go right now straight from your own day schedule reporting page.
The key areas we were trying to improve were overview, ease of checking in volunteers and getting all the info you need without having to open overlays. The old version of the layout is still available in this beta version for comparison.
We also realised that not everyone has the same configuration of sessions across days so we have provided two alternative layouts that each offer a different experience.
The matrix view is fantastic for seeing everything at once; all the sessions (with names) are down the left hand side and all the volunteers on each of those sessions on the right.
It might be a bit much though if your sessions have lots of volunteers, rather than lots of sessions. So we also have the split-pane view. This view breaks down into each day, so you see all the sessions on that day and all the volunteers. Great if you only want a single day overview and also if you have lots and lots of volunteers, which might make the matrix view a little unweildy.
In both cases you can quickly and easily tell what volunteers are where and check volunteers in and out. Let us know what you think and any suggestions you have via support ticket.
Provider User Update
Originally TK only allowed a single login for each provider, and these details were stored in the provider record. You will all be familiar with this layout and you can update this central login from the provider profile pages.
We have now supported multiple users for each provider for a few versions now so its time to retire that central login that causes some confusion sometimes.
From 2.8.0 onwards every provider account will have a contact name and contact email address to connect with the provider organisation, but will have no login assoaciated with it.
All provider users logging on will use their individual provider user accounts. These have a already been created for old provider accounts. Newer accounts in the last year or so have had these user accounts created when the provider registered.
We hope there is minimal disruption, but any provider that can’t login due to a password mismatch can simply use the reset password link on your provider login page to get going again.
Feedback Improvements
As you might have noticed on the new volunteer interface, volunteers can now add to their feedback in a proper feed so the updated are independently stored and dated and not just appended to the original feedback. The volunteer can also update the original feedback.
This same functionality will also be available for providers if they want to add to the feedback for long running opportunties.
We have also added a little heart icon for volunteers to say thanks back directly for any feedback or kudos a provider sends their way.
Better Expenses
Volunteers can now update expenses and do not have to delete and recreate if they make a mistake – hooray! Editing is only available if the admin has not started processing the expense yet. It is already being processed the volunteer will have to contact the admin to make changes.
For administrators, you can now optionally mark a refused expense as re-submittable. You can explain why the expense has been refused and feed it back to the volunteer…they can read the reason and update the expense claims accordingly, like providing a receipt.
As with resources and messages, volunteers can now quickly search through their expenses.
More Filters – Always more filters!
You can now find applications in particular statuses in particular opportunities by combining the old application status filter and the new applied for opportunity filter.
There has of course been the usual raft of minor annoyances and bug fixes and some efficiency improvements to help keep everything running smoothly.
The latest penetration test has been completed and is available on request. We received zero critical and zero high notifications.
Hello and welcome to TeamKinetic’s monthly Newsletter.
This roundup is designed to keep you up-to-date with what’s going on at TeamKinetic, our partners, and across the third sector in general. So grab a brew and tuck into all the latest news.
We hope you find value in this TeamTalk. As always, we really appreciate feedback, so feel free to leave a comment, shoot over an email, or message via social media.
If you’d like to subscribe to the TeamTalk newsletter, please send an email over to me at alex@teamkinetic.co.uk, and we’ll get you on the list!
To read our roundup of stories we think you need to know about, click to go to the next page below, or choose a story from the list:
Hello and welcome to TeamKinetic’s monthly Newsletter.
This roundup is designed to keep you up-to-date with what’s going on at TeamKinetic, our partners, and across the third sector in general. So grab a brew and tuck into all the latest news.
We hope you find value in this TeamTalk. As always, we really appreciate feedback, so feel free to leave a comment, shoot over an email, or message via social media.
If you’d like to subscribe to the TeamTalk newsletter, please send an email over to me at alex@teamkinetic.co.uk, and we’ll get you on the list!
To read our roundup of stories we think you need to know about, click to go to the next page below, or choose a story from the list:
In April, we released a fantastic new update to the TeamKinetic volunteer management system that included three features we’re really excited about: Flows, Multi-Location Opportunities, and volunteer Find a Friend.
We’ve already covered the first two in other content, now it’s time for us to shine a light on the feature that we think will really boost community amongst your volunteers…
What is ‘Find a Friend’ in TeamKinetic?
Find a Friend does what it says on the tin – it allows volunteers to see other volunteers who have signed up to an opportunity. And now you’re probably thinking: “Hold on, what if I don’t want to share those details? What if my volunteers don’t want to share their details?”
Well don’t worry! There are plenty of settings to restrict this in a way that works for you, whether you turn it off completely or limit what is seen, and your volunteers have to opt-in too. You can also toggle sharing in every individual opportunity, so its very flexible.
Ultimately, Find a Friend aims to boost your volunteering community and build stronger bonds between your volunteers.
What are the restrictions?
If you’re a Super Admin user, you can head on over to Settings – Options – Opportunities and scroll all the way to the bottom. There, you’ll see a set of options around this feature, and you can control it to fit your organisation.
You can choose:
whether it’s on at all and showing the volunteer photo and name
whether to enable messaging between volunteers
whether to share volunteers’ mobile numbers
when volunteers can see this information
Once the overall setting has been turned on, the usage is decided on an opportunity-by-opportunity basis. When creating an opportunity, you can choose whether it is switched on or off.
By default, all volunteers are opted out of allowing their details to be shared. When a volunteer joins an opportunity that has this feature enabled, they’ll receive an email asking them to opt in.
Volunteers can update their choice at any time from their dashboard in the Notifications and Permissions section.
Why use Find a Friend?
Using this feature can encourage group volunteering and foster a greater sense of community amongst your volunteers.
Many people new to volunteering may want to volunteer alongside their friends to begin with. This enables them to find out which sessions their friends are on and book onto the same sessions.
Alternatively, a volunteer may make friends while volunteering for you and want to stay connected with these friends, continuing to volunteer alongside them.
We understand that not everyone will want to share data, and that some organisations will want to share more data than others. That’s why we’ve developed a variety of settings in relation to the Find a Friend feature.
However, if you think there’s still room for improvement, please let us know. This is a new feature after all, and we’re always looking for ways to keep developing TeamKinetic! You can send feedback directly to our development team via Support Tickets. Or you can send an email to any of the team, or pop into the live chat to let us know your thoughts.
We’re also hosting a masterclass all about the volunteer Find a Friend feature for all TeamKinetic users. You can book onto that now for free via Help & Support → Masterclasses & Training.
