Category: News & Views Page 28 of 42

Volunteer management – Understanding your volunteers

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On 30th January 2019

In Community, News & Views

Volunteer management isn’t easy, it takes a passion for people, commitment to your cause and bags and bags of organisational skill.

To have an effective and engaging volunteer programme, it is key to know your volunteers and understand what drives them to volunteer.

So can your volunteers be categorised and can that help you understand them better?

NCVO definition

“We define volunteering as any activity that involves spending time, unpaid, doing something that aims to benefit the environment or someone (individuals or groups) other than, or in addition to, close relatives. Central to this definition is the fact that volunteering must be a choice freely made by each individual.”

Oxford dictionary definition

“A person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task.”

Those definitions are pretty broad and all volunteer managers understand the danger of pigeonholing your volunteers,  definitions can be problematic! The term Volunteer holds very different meanings to each individual.

Every volunteer has their own reason, motivation or story to volunteer, and no volunteer is the same. What the data we have collected here at TeamKinetic has demonstrated is that there are some general volunteer categories and themes that we can use to gain a deeper understanding of the types of volunteers you may have within your organisation:

One-time volunteer and Event Volunteers 

One-time volunteers are individuals who volunteer as a one-off and move on to the next opportunity/event or are never seen again! These types of individuals can still be regular volunteers, but will only volunteer when they have the time to do so or do so at events or roles that excite them specifically.

They are often quite self-contained roles that are well-defined and associated with a high-profile and exciting event. That in itself generates excitement for the volunteer to say ‘I was there.’ These are often one-time positions that require minimal training and experience but are fun days out for the individual.

Some of you reading this might think; why would I want to invest in a volunteer that isn’t committed to helping me regularly? 

Research from Glasgow 2014 and London 2012 suggests many of the volunteers who applied were new to volunteering, and sadly many who did volunteer did not go on to do more volunteering after the event, even though the levels of satisfaction from being involved were high.

The sense of community, enjoyment and empowerment of being part of the event can quite quickly fade post-event, but on occasion, it can prove the catalyst some people need to start them on a journey to much greater community involvement.

Micro-volunteer

Research conducted by the NCVO suggests that micro-volunteering is on the rise and has the power to make a difference to organisations. In order to be impactful organisations must engage and appeal to these types of volunteers by providing quality volunteering opportunities that suit their aspirations and lifestyles.  These types of opportunities are often possible via technology, such as phones, tablets or computers. Others have referred to them as ‘Armchair Activism.’

These opportunities are attractive to individuals who often have limited time, but still, want to have the feeling that they are making a difference. Opportunities vary from, the ice-bucket challenge to tweeting your MP. This type of volunteering can also act as a gateway to individuals, and if their experience is positive and they feel they are making an impact, you can look to engage them in further work.

Skills-Based Volunteers

Skills-based volunteers are individuals who often assist with tasks that require additional and specialist knowledge, or they develop this type of knowledge through their volunteer experience. Skills can be varied, examples include updating website data, running the social media accounts, taking phone calls, and providing accountancy or legal advice.

Volunteers often have the desired set of skills that many organisations need. These individuals who possess these professional skills and offer them pro bono may have many reasons for their desire to be involved.  There is always a high demand for these types of Volunteers. As an organisation, it’s important to know why these volunteers want to be involved.  It’s also important to make them aware of the impact they have on the organisation. This can make the volunteer feel appreciated and that their skills are bringing value to the organisation.

Lifelong / Regular volunteers 

Lifelong or regular volunteers are often people who volunteer for an organisation that they feel a significant emotional connection to.  Regular volunteers are happy to help meet an organisation’s expectations and the individual’s commitment to the role can be significant. Roles can vary but include positions such as a charity shop assistant or a coach within a sports club.

Organisations depend on these volunteers as they are core members of the organisation’s community. Regular volunteers usually take on positions that require a higher level of responsibility and therefore need regular training and appropriate support to ensure that they can fulfil what is expected of them.

These types of volunteers are so important to the long-term survival of many organisations, they feel especially close to the cause and their work. They are often overworked and if not managed correctly they can make others nervous to get involved, as the levels of commitment they show are superhuman and this scares off other volunteers from getting involved.

Does Age Matter?

Research has shown that both the 16-24 and 65+-year-olds are the most likely groups to volunteer. This makes sense as many universities provide students with opportunities to develop skills and experience for the world of work, whilst helping great causes. Likewise, many older volunteers provide support to organisations due to being retired but still wanting to stay active and part of the community.

Age will certainly play a role in how you incentivise and communicate with volunteers. As well as the length/type of role, and level of commitment required from them!

An appreciation of your volunteer audience will impact your roles on offer. So it is important to be aware of how you advertise, the language you use and the types of rewards and recognition you may wish to offer. 

Good volunteer management!

The best and most effective way to understand your volunteer is the initial first part of their volunteer experience. By having a well-thought-out recruitment process, volunteer managers can make sure that volunteers are well selected and given roles they can excel at but also enjoy. This also ensures that volunteers are aware of the variety of opportunities available to them.

TeamKinetic’s volunteer management system allows all volunteers to create their own profile. This allows them to search and find opportunities that providers are advertising. Volunteers can also upload supporting documents to showcase experiences they have had in the past making the volunteer management process that much easier.

Volunteer managers are able to review volunteer profiles, run inductions, record data and get an insight into the individual and which roles they would benefit from. This is a key feature in allowing volunteer managers to distinguish between a one-off volunteer for an event, a volunteer with the desired skill set or someone that is able to commit to a regular role and who will form a long-term commitment with the organisation.

Additionally, the system allows volunteer managers to receive and provide feedback to volunteers. A perfect way to evaluate the effectiveness of roles and making sure volunteers are content with the tasks they undertake. TeamKinetic is centralised around helping voluntary organisations achieve their goals, which is why also offer a FREE version of our volunteer management system. 

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

 

Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

Masters of Scale and Nancy Lublin – must listen podcast for the socially aware

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On 12th December 2018

In News & Views

If you’ve not yet joined the rebirth of the podcast then you are definitely missing out!  ‘Podcasts’ I can hear many of you shout with a mix of confusion and derision, ‘what have Podcasts got to do with volunteer management?’

This form of media is exploding right now. Its unique in its ability to democratise content creation, as it is so cheap and simple to create. It offers a unique space for long-form interview and spoke word.  These longer interviews and deeper examinations of issues at the heart of our sector are really insightful and give you access to thinkers from a much wider section of academia and public life than you may otherwise access.  So over the next few weeks, I’m going to be sharing a few of my favourites with you, and hopefully, open your eyes to some amazing people and their ideas.

I’m starting with the Pod that inspired me to write this page.

Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman the founder of LinkedIn with his guest, social entrepreneur Nancy Lublin.  The Founder and CEO of Crisis Text Line.

In each episode, Reid shows how companies grow from zero to a gazillion, testing his theories with legendary leaders. Masters of Scale is the first American media program to commit to a 50-50 gender balance for guests. It won the 2018 People’s Voice Webby for Best Business Podcast.

Nancy Lublin, for those that want to know a little bit more before they commit their ears to this Pod, is an American social entrepreneur who launched Dress For Success, a charity to empower women across the globe.  Lublins next challenge was to turn around the youth volunteer service dosomething.org, before finally launching her current project crisis text line. I won’t give the story away here, you need to listen, but it’s a story that I think anybody who leads in the voluntary sector will be able to relate to  What is interesting is Nancy’s particular method of dealing with problems.

Hoffman uses the interview with Lublin to demonstrate the importance of ‘grit’ for any would-be entrepreneur. I enjoyed this Pod as Lublin explains how to effectively ‘pivot’ a charity as you would hear a more traditional CEO talk about change management in their business.  She explains brilliantly how to take advantage of technology and the insight that technology can provide if used well.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topics discussed in this podcast in the comments section below.  If you have a story of technological success or failure in the voluntary sector I’d love to hear your story.

So if you’re interested in how as a voluntary sector leader, you combine technology and service delivery in the most effective way, give this 30 minutes of your time.  You can download the pod from any of the podcast apps, I’ve put some links below for those who want them.

Click me to listen on itunes   Click on me to listen on Stitcher

 

 

 

The Sports Volunteering Research Networks impact on volunteering

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On 12th December 2018

In News & Views, Sport

TeamKinetic is proud to have created a new website for the Sports Volunteering Research Network. TeamKinetic sees the role of research in the voluntary sector as essential for growth, sustainability and resilience.  Linking high-quality research to practitioners is one of the key areas of development for the sector. 

volunteer management software, Sports Volunteering Research Network

Sports Volunteering Research Network

The Sports Volunteering Research Network

The UK SVRN has run since 2006 and was founded by Dr Geoff Nichols of Sheffield University.  It was reconstituted in its current form in 2012. The network aims to assist the progress of new ideas and practice in sports volunteering; which is key for understanding the direction of the sports and third sector. SVRN meet twice a year to present new research and discuss ideas.

The SVRN is completely independent. However, they work with a number of organisations such as Sports England, Sports Wales, Sport and Recreation Alliance, and NCVO.  The network is growing,  and it allows anyone with an interest in sports volunteering to join the SVRN.

Sports volunteering is important to us and our customers. Here is a taste of the quality information and research papers you will be able to find on the new website.

volunteer management software, volunteers system, volunteering

Sports Volunteering Research Network

Dr Fiona Reid,  Lecturer in Events and Sports Management at Glasgow Caledonian University and vice-chair of the SVRN said “We are a network of researchers and practitioners who want to share resources and information and best practice about sports volunteering. The website allows us to share our archives and allow more people to access our work.

We hope that it will facilitate the network and increase our reach to those that may not have heard of us before.”

Chris Martin, Director of TeamKinetic said  “its a real pleasure to support the work the of Sports Volunteer Research Network, Teamkinetic are committed to the development of high-quality research and the sharing of best practice. The people behind the SVRN are leading the way in bringing together volunteer managers academics and organisations that are raising the profile of volunteer management.

This website we have helped develop is another useful tool in their work. We look forward to supporting them in the future.”

Visit the new website at sports-volunteer-research-network.org.uk and tell us what you think.

TeamKinetic and SVRN want to create a resource for everyone who works with volunteers, if you want to find out more about the work of the SVRN or to attend any of their fantastic free events visit the site now and join the network.  Its totally FREE and they don’t bombard you with rubbish emails.

TeamKinetic is centralised around helping build better volunteer communities by providing great tools for volunteer managers that save time, increase impact and improve insight.

For more information on how we can help visit our website or contact us on – 01619145757

Common problems in volunteer management

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On 11th December 2018

In News & Views

Over the last decade, we have worked with many organisations, helping them improve their volunteer management. We have found some common problems in volunteer management.

As you know being a volunteer manager can often be a lonely job.  TeamKinetic feels that it is important to get volunteer managers talking, sharing good practice and working together, this is important for the growth of the third sector and volunteering as a whole.

Recruitment Issues

Recruiting enough volunteers is one of the most common problems we hear. Our software looks to help resolve this common volunteer management issue. Although this may seem a monumental task to find the help you need, sometimes it can be simpler than you think.

Here are a few of our suggestions:

The rise of social media is a wonderful thing for the voluntary sector. Social media being free is a blessing for many industries and the voluntary sector is no different. Over one billion people are on Facebook and Twitter meaning there is an audience out there, you just have to appeal directly to them. There are many pages offering tips on how to use social media properly – cracking this medium may be the way to grow your volunteer base.

Do you know your volunteers, do you know what social media, if any they use?
Do you have the IT skills to communicate with your volunteers through the most appropriate channels?

Modern marketing isn’t the only way to attract new volunteers, more traditional means of communication should never be ignored. How do you engage with older volunteers, who are not on social media? How can you start a word-of-mouth campaign to build your support. Ideas like refer a friend or linking to existing groups such as rotary or taverners work well. People tend to respond positively to a review from people they know and trust.

Don’t ever discount the power of good posters or interesting newsletters.

Keeping Volunteers Interested

Retaining a volunteer is much cheaper than recruiting a new volunteer! Improving your retention should be a priority for anyone working in volunteer management.

How do you keep your volunteers for longer?

Theories of behaviour change suggest that for people to make a significant and sustainable change to their behaviour, their motivation must be significant or that change of behaviour will not be long-lasting.  If you want to help motivate a volunteer to stay involved, you must call to their primal instincts.

What you are doing as a volunteer makes a difference! We could not do this without you.  We need you!

It’s just good manners to say thank you to the people who help you. Say thank you right and that person will come back time and again.

Recognition is tricky, as no one volunteer is the same and some people feel uncomfortable being made a fuss of.  However, it is important that you recognise people’s efforts. Be it a Christmas party, a summer dance or a cup of tea with the team, getting your volunteers together to say thank you properly and to tell them how important they are, how indispensable they are and what a difference they make.  Appreciate your volunteers and remember to show and share that appreciation.

Timing Opportunities

Knowing your volunteers and understanding them is vital in volunteer management. For you to cater to the needs of your volunteers do you understand the demographics, motivations and barriers to participation? Examples of this might be, are you volunteers 18-24, are they students, unemployed, have children, are they likely to be in work during the day? How do I optimise my session times, recruitment and opportunity description to appeal to my target audience, do I know what motivates them and what prevents them from doing more?

Do I have the data to find out what time is best for my volunteers?  Do I have the tool available to learn through insight?

Volunteers appreciate you fitting opportunities around them. To offer them what they want, when they want to do it.  Boosting volunteer enthusiasm, because they know you’re taking their personal situation into account.

TeamKinetic – The Solution!!

Of course, we think a great way to solve many of these issues and more besides effective volunteer management is software. What’s even more obvious to us is the volunteer management software that you should use should be built using open data principles, work on every device and be super easy to use.

TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software has a system that can suit everyone no matter how large or small. We would be more than happy to have a chat with you regarding your particular volunteer management needs. We work across the sector with Universities, National Sporting Governing Bodies, volunteer centres, charities,  major events, hospices, hospitals, museums, parks, community groups and Sports Clubs.

If you think that your organisation could benefit from having more time to help more people, please feel free to get in touch.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

 

Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

How volunteering improves mental health

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On 7th December 2018

In News & Views

Mental health is a growing problem, approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year, as reported by Mind. Women are most likely to suffer from a mental health issue but males are more likely to take their own lives, at 78% of all suicides. While it can’t be the answer to everything, it has been said that volunteering improves mental health.

Causes Of Poor Mental Health

Many believe that the NHS is underfunded for the treatment of mental health. The King’s Fund reports that 23% of NHS activity is dedicated to treating mental health whilst only 11% of the budget is allocated to the issue.

Demand for help is up, but services are diminishing as a result of austerity. Recent figures show a 30% fall since 2009 in the number of hospital beds for people with acute mental health conditions. This follows the revelation in November 2017 that two-thirds of children referred for specialist mental healthcare are not receiving treatment. The charity Barnardo’s warned that ministers were “sleepwalking” into a deeper crisis in children’s mental health, after the government’s response to a parliamentary select committee report and green paper failed to promise urgent action to plug “gaping holes” in services.

It’s believed that social media plays a massive role in poor mental health. A study of 1,000 young people in the USA found 41% of respondents stated that social media platforms make them feel anxious, sad or depressed. The suggestion is social media makes young people feel anxious. Ben Jacobs, a DJ who has more than 5,000 followers on Twitter, decided to go on a hiatus from the platform in January 2016 and has found the break really beneficial. “Twitter did indeed make me feel anxious from time to time as it slowly dawned on me I was concerning myself with the feelings of the thousands of strangers I followed, while they didn’t necessarily know who I was.”

Volunteering And Mental Health

Studies show that volunteering improves mental health. It allows you to get rid of negative feelings and emotions such as anger, aggression or hostility that have a bad impact on our mind and body. Engaging in random acts of kindness can help decrease these feelings and stabilise your overall health. 94% of people who have volunteered in the last twelve months say that it improves their mood. Statistics such as this suggest that volunteering can improve poor mental health.

Volunteering also improves self-esteem. As the statistic above proves, voluntary work can improve your overall well-being. It makes you feel better about yourself. Research shows that knowing you’re making a difference to someone else makes you more confident and content.

Another reason to volunteer is the amount of life satisfaction that it can bring you. NCVO say that volunteering can boost happiness, therefore reducing symptoms of depression and other mental health issues.

TeamKinetic – Proud Of Our Friends

We make volunteering easier for organisations that help others. They help to recover, improve and prevent poor mental health. In September 2018, members of TeamKinetic went down to the Liverpool FC Foundation. We spoke to a number of volunteers on the ‘Respect For All’ activity day. They all gave great praise for the work the foundation does. Many felt the foundation had a positive impact on them. One person even said ”The foundation means everything to me.”

We also work with several hospitals, such as Warrington Halton Hospital, and many NHS Trusts. They do remarkable work every day to contribute to the positive well-being of others. TeamKinetic are very proud to be associated with these organisations and show full gratitude for the work they do.

For those interested in a volunteer management software that can help you the same way we have helped many others, please visit our website to book a demo and we would be happy to talk with you further.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

 

Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

TeamKinetic Christmas Giveaway

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On 4th December 2018

In News & Views

The Christmas TeamKinetic is continuing its ambition of helping build stronger volunteer communities across the globe!

What’s Christmas without giving a little back, right?

volunteer management software UK, TeamKinetic, volunteer system

Gift

TeamKinetic Christmas Giveaway

Each year as we are growing across the voluntary sector, we are fortunate to work alongside some tremendous organisations that make a big impact in their communities.

Our volunteer management software allows organisations to manage volunteers no matter what size; big or small, and is providing opportunities right across the world. Seeing the great diversity our on our users and the impact their volunteering has on their communities fuels our commitment to build the very best software we can.

The festive season is a time of coming together and celebrating all the good in the world. It’s a time to think about being kind and generous (not to say that this cant is done all year round). However, this time of the year can also be a tad hectic and a long haul for voluntary organisations. Cuts made by the government have made it difficult, and often demand on services goes up during the colder months.

So this Christmas we wanted to give one lucky organisation the chance to win 6-months on TeamKinetic Enterprise, normally worth about £3000!

What’s this giveaway mean?

1 x TeamKinetic Enterprise Edition Volunteer Management Software (worth £3000) for 6-months.

This will allow the lucky winner to have their own fully customisable bespoke website with no limit on the number of volunteers they can recruit.

More information on what is included in the Enterprise system can be found here.

How can I win this fantastic festive giveaway?

To be in with a chance of winning this incredible Christmas giveaway all you have to do is one of the following:

Follow us on Twitter on @TeamKineticUK and retweet our giveaway post pinned to the top of our page

or

Follow our TeamKinetic Linkedin page.

 

It’s really as simple as that!

Spread the word to your volunteer manager colleagues and you could be responsible for them getting an early Christmas present.

Terms and Conditions

The TeamKinetic Christmas giveaway will run from the 2nd of December until 11:59 PM on the 31st of December 2018. One entry per person (This does not restrict different individuals in the same organisation to enter the giveaway). The winner will be announced on all platforms in the new year! Further information will be provided to the winner on how to access the prize.

For any more information or if you would like a demo of our volunteer management system, visit our website or contact us on 0161 914 5757

5 Reasons why YOU should volunteer

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On 23rd November 2018

In News & Views

Want to be happier, feel more fulfilled and live in a nicer world? Here is why you should volunteer.

1. Volunteering is a great career booster

Volunteering is a great CV booster that can set you apart from the rest. If you and another candidate look the same on paper what will you have to differentiate yourself?

Volunteering is a surefire way to get you ahead of the competition and secure your next career move. Lots of companies allow employees to take volunteering days.

Career-boosting volunteers used their experience as a great way to network and meet influential people. Want to work in event management? Volunteer in events. Want to work in Football? Volunteer at a local club. Simple!

2. Helping a good cause 

Do you want a sense of satisfaction and contentment, research tells us volunteers are happier and feel greater levels of trust in their community.

There are many reasons why people all over the world volunteer. Often its because they have been directly affected by a cause or issue. People want to give back to the organisation or cause that helped them in a proactive way, people like to feel that they can make a difference.

Working to make a difference about things you care about will make you feel better!

3. Personal improvement 

Get out of your comfort zone and volunteer. If you have never done it before getting started can be tough! But it is sure to develop you as a person. Volunteers often report higher levels of confidence and self-esteem.

The skills you gain from volunteering can help you improve your everyday life. Volunteering in itself can make you feel both humble and good about yourself.

Who wouldn’t want that?!

4. Health benefits 

Research reports that volunteering can actually make you a healthier and happier person. For instance,

94% of volunteers say that after 12 months of volunteering, they feel physically more healthy and their mood has improved.

96% of people who have been volunteering for at least a year say that volunteering has given them a purpose in life.

Want to read more about the health benefits volunteer offers here.

5. It’s Fun!!

like most scenarios in life, volunteering will be what you make it and if you want it to be fun it will be fun!

Volunteering is a great way of establishing relationships and making a whole new set of friends. It gets you out and is a fantastic cure for loneliness.

Doing something you enjoy, with people who can become your friends, whilst potentially helping others.  It’s a win-win.

So what are you waiting for? Get searching and find something to volunteer for today.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

 

Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

TeamKinetic v1.2.0 Release Notes

By

On 22nd November 2018

In Application Features and Tutorials, News & Views, Technical Updates

This December, TeamKinetic has an early Christmas present for our customers. We will be releasing one of our largest ever update with some significant improvements and extra functionality across the board.  Below are the biggest changes.

  • Session Names
  • Use of “Google places” to search and create opportunity locations
  • Complete re-write of the opportunity apply process
  • Custom Open-badge awards
  • Lots more customisation options
  • Our POD system for enterprise clients
  • Day schedule report available for everyone
  • Invite new volunteers via email (for providers and admins)
  • New search and download options for criminal checks
  • All transaction emails sent via Mandrill for improved deliverability

As well as the raft of 150 or so bug fixes, minor improvements and speed gains.

We will be sending a notification to all our customers pointing you to this blog and also to encourage you to login to the beta site (using your normal login details) and give some feedback on the new features.

LOGIN AND TEST THE BETA SITE HERE

Your feedback is essential. We take your feedback seriously and it helps us understand your needs and issues. You also help us spot potential bugs and operational considerations that we may not have considered for this update. We take every care to test the application before we update the code but we don’t always have a test that fully represents your exact usage, so we ask you to login to the beta site and try it out for yourself.  

If you do find any issues or would like to raise some concerns, you can send feedback using any of the following ways.

  1. Complete a support ticket in the HELP menu.
  2. Send us an email and put in the subject line “BETA SITE”
  3. Call us here at the office on 0161 914 5757 and press option 1 and talk to Support Team.
  4. If you have not done it yet, join our Facebook ADMIN group and send us a message.
  5. Send us a Tweet telling us what you think of the new features.

Named Sessions

When creating or editing opportunities you are now able to name sessions. This is great if you have an opportunity that might have sessions on at the same time, say water stations along a marathon route. Using this new feature you could have 5 sessions within the one opportunity, all at the same time but identify them as, Station 1 – at 5Km, Station 2 – at 15 Km and so on.

New and Improved Search

Many of you will have already tried out the new search at various points along its beta testing. We have been able to incorporate much of your suggestions and it should now be much easier for volunteers to find opportunities.

You can now enter a place name in the location field and not just a postcode, this lookup is powered by Google Places which have over 2 million defined areas and places. This is a great improvement as its now possible to perform a search like; show me opps within 2 miles of Liverpool, or Bristol University and so on.

There are extra filters like accessible and expenses paid and the sorting algorithm has been improved. If a search is entered the results are automatically ordered by relevance and those opportunities with the search terms appearing closest together will be at the top.

The new search also prevents empty searches resulting in hundreds of unfiltered opportunities being returned. For those of you lucky enough to have hundreds of available opportunities a user will be asked to enter at least a distance or a search string in order to limit the number of search results.

New Opportunity Applying Process

The applying process for opportunities has now been improved greatly. When an opportunity is marked as APPLYING, volunteers will be able to view the opportunity and its sessions but will not be able to join any sessions. Instead, they are asked to “apply”. At this point, any pre-requisites demanded by the opportunity are completed and then they are passed to an “New Applicant list”.

The applicants for the opportunity are visible on the opportunity management page for the admins/providers. From there you can view their details and pre-requisites and decide whether to approve or deny the application.

Approved volunteers are informed and are then able to join sessions as normal. Denied volunteers are also informed but are not able to join sessions or reapply as they remain in the applicant table as unsuccessful.

Open-badge Awards

You can now create your own badge awards to give to volunteers. These are designed around the OpenBadges system and volunteers will be able to store these badges in their own external badge backpack and use them anywhere where OpenBadges are accepted.

TeamKinetic, Volunteer management software

OpenBadges are a great way to reward volunteers in a way that enables them to build a recognisable portfolio of achievements that they can use to develop their skills everywhere.

Once a badge has been ‘baked’ into their backpack they can choose where and with whom to share that achievement.

In this first iteration, you can only award badges manually using the volunteer profile. We are looking at the possibility of creating automated awards based on a number of criteria; hours, opportunities, length of service etc.  We would love to hear your ideas about the kind of badges you might like to have?

You can get some help designing badges with the great online tool badge.design.

Extend The Customisation Of Your Site

We have opened up more of the system for much greater customisation by the super admins.

Using the super admin menu you are now able to customise all “registration form labels”, “help titles” and “help content” right from the SETTINGS menu.

Fancy a new front page look? Then check out the new LOOK & FEEL menu and enter your own HTML code for the front page and get a quick preview before saving and making live.

For power users, there is a CSS section where you can change the entire site style if you want. You can target home page elements, links, containers and change margins, colours and anything else you want. The custom CSS file is loaded after all defaults so you can override any existing settings.

If you would like your site to be updated but don’t have the skillset to do it, in-house, drop us a line and one of the team will get in touch to talk through your ideas and potential costs.

POD System

Enterprise clients can now choose a new type of application structure that we call PODs. This enables you to split up the administration of providers and opportunities into PODs and assign administrators to those PODs.

POD administrators only have access to the providers in their POD and the opportunities they have created.

Each POD also has an editable mini homepage that the POD admins can create to advertise their own opportunities.

It’s a great way to enable separate departments within a larger organisation some autonomy whilst keeping all your opportunities in one place for your volunteers.  If you think the POD might be something you and your organisation would like to know about then get in touch with our sales team on 0161 914 5757 and they can talk you through the options.

Day Schedule Report

The day schedule report is available from the REPORTS menu and offers a quick insight into the activity on any day across all opportunities and events.

Simply pick your time period and the report will return all sessions that are  happening within that period, including the volunteers on each session and stats about that session. You can also check in volunteers right from this screen which will log their hours for that session.

Its a super easy way to keep track of what’s going on over the days and weeks ahead.

Invite Volunteers via Email

Invite your existing volunteers via their email address. Just paste a list of comma separated emails or upload a CSV to send out an invite email with a link to reigster on your system. Maintains a list of all invited volunteers and lets you know if they have registered yet. Providers can also upload their own separate lists and if volunteers join via the Linking address in the email, they will automatically be linked to the provider sending the invite.

For administrators you can find it in the SETUP section of the settings menu. For providers it is in the VOLUNTEER menu.

Search and Download Expiring Criminal Checklists

Search for volunteers with expiring criminal checks and also for those criminal check applications that are overdue and download the results.

An enforced maximum validity for a criminal check has been added to your application options screen. Whenever a criminal check is added this date represents the maximum allowable time before the check expires. If an expiry date is entered which is beyond this date it will be reduced to the maximum allowable period.

This ensures that all criminal checks on the system have an expiry date and the new search page makes it easy to find expiring checks and get prepared.

All Transaction Emails Sent via Mandrill

All our transaction emails, that is emails that are sent automatically in response to an action like joining an opportunity, are now sent via Mandrill. Mandrill is one of the largest transactional email platforms, sending billions of messages a month.

This move will aid deliverability and reduce false spam alerts.

That’s the big stuff

This update contains a lot of improvements to TeamKinetic, we encourage you to try out the beta site for yourself. We welcome your thoughts and your feedback, so please don’t be a stranger and get in touch.

Facebook Live interactive sessions are coming soon on all these new features and more, join our ADMIN’S Group now and don’t miss out. 

 

How do you engage student volunteers?

By

On 21st November 2018

In Case Study, Education, Volunteer Management

For Universities across the UK, helping students develop an understanding of positive social action through volunteering is seen as a vital part of the student experience. Many universities are trying to find new ways to engage student volunteers and offer them an exciting variety of opportunities that appeal to an ever more diverse group.

Find out how TeamKinetic is fast becoming the fastest-growing volunteer software choice for universities in the UK and how it has helped manage large numbers of volunteers with simplicity and through technical innovation. 

Volunteer management software, Volunteers, Volunteer system, volunteer software
Volunteers walking

Students in numbers

When given the opportunity students can make a big difference and more importantly, want to make a difference to their university and the wider community. The benefits of volunteering for students are multi-faceted; opening doors to students via experience and improved networks, as well as being good for mental health and wellbeing.

Universities should be harnessing this potential and developing good volunteer programs. Higher education institutes are perfectly placed to take advantage of the thousands of new students that enrol each year.

There is still so much untapped potential for universities, students and the cities and towns they live in.

TeamKinetic’s volunteer software encourages volunteer managers to create high-quality opportunities that through social media and effective search technology, student volunteers can find, join, enjoy and get recognition for their efforts.

The figures above demonstrate the need for a volunteer management solution that is scalable. Managing a volunteer program IS achievable without volunteer software, however, using one can prove to be the difference between GOOD and GREAT.

Turning students into volunteers

Having a large number of students on campus does not equate to large numbers of engaged volunteers. Understanding your audience and developing a volunteer program that is suitable for them is key for engaging and retaining student volunteers.

So how do you turn students into volunteers?

  • You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  Understand what is already happening around universities and its surrounding areas. This knowledge can be gained from talking to your students, the students union, the athletics union, the local authority or local volunteer centre’s or other 3rd sector partners.
  • Everyone needs some encouragement. Providing positive support and supervision makes your student volunteers feel appreciated. Sometimes people just need help to get started!
  • People who sense they are making a difference and that think they contributing to something important tend to be much more motivated. Supporting volunteers takes time and resource, so it is critical to never underestimate this and provide them with the correct resources (induction policy, expenses policy, risk management etc).
  • Create clear roles and descriptions of opportunities. This makes it easier for students volunteers to identify opportunities that are best suited for them.  Students often have secondary motivations as to why they volunteer, good role descriptions that take this into account help volunteers make informed decisions.
  • When recruiting student volunteers, it is essential to be fair and transparent.  They are not employees or lackies, they want to help but not taken advantage of. We all like a surprise, but the good kind! Avoid setting volunteers any tasks that you’re not willing to do.

For more information on how to effectively manage volunteers and provide them with the right resources read our blog on Volunteer Management – Making or breaking organisations.

Benefits of volunteering at University

For students and organisations, volunteering can

  • Increase confidence and develop interpersonal skills. Research has shown that volunteers felt that these skills were enhanced through volunteering.
  • Empowering students to make a positive impact on their community can change lives. Many students run regular events or campaigns, raising awareness of charities and causes. Learning through real experience is invaluable.
  • Volunteering doesn’t always mean litter picking or bag packing. Some universities provide opportunities that are in the same field of work as students studies, giving them practical experience and developing a professional network.
  • Student volunteers can provide a different perspective to a member of staff. Student volunteers can bring different ideas to providers organisations and often bring a great energy and enthusiasm as well.
  • University provides many young people with the first opportunity to get involved in the things that matter to them. University provides a level of free time people tend not have at other times of their lives. This means voluntary organisations can benefit from a really high-level of commitment to their cause.

How TeamKinetic is helping universities

Universities have the potential for thousands of volunteers, and that can make it difficult to track and manage them all at the same time.

Often, in any one university, there are multiple programs that encompass an element of volunteering. Getting a joined up picture of volunteering, However, can be difficult.

TeamKinetic’s volunteer software allows managers to carry out key tasks through its simple interface. Onboarding, brokering, quality assurance and safeguarding are all builtin. The volunteer system can be personalised to match every universities brand colours, including a tailored web address. This allows for the website to be easily identifiable to students who are looking for volunteering opportunities.

Our POD system allows individual university departments to have their own opportunities and processes, but in one combined system so you can get data and better insight into all their volunteers.

The system is designed to make the experience easy for the volunteer, opportunity provider and admin user.

Volunteers can :

  • Create their own volunteer profiles
  • Join opportunities they are interested in
  • Join opportunity group chats to keep up-to-date on any news
  • Log their own volunteer hours upon completing an opportunity
  • Leave feedback, but also receive feedback from the opportunity provider
  • Work towards rewards and incentives which can aid in personal development

Volunteer providers can :

  • Monitor applicants
  • Leave and receive feedback to volunteers
  • Send out texts and emails to volunteers by a simple click of a button
  • Map volunteer locations to create opportunities in the most populated student volunteer areas
  • Review reports on progress in order to keep improving the opportunities on offer to students
  • Reward and set incentives for volunteers to help them achieve goals. (We have some exceptional examples of TeamKinetic customers that use the reward and incentives really well, which will be discussed later on in this article.)

What these features allow, is for the volunteer manager to focus their time on developing the volunteer program and generating more opportunities for students to take part in. Less time is spent on micromanaging and completing tedious tasks.

If this wasn’t enough, TeamKinetic volunteer system allows universities to link with external TeamKinetic applications, to provide opportunities. This allows charities, sports clubs and local authorities to become opportunity providers on the university system, further increasing students ability to take part in volunteering.

Students using the TeamKinetic volunteer software

TeamKinetic got the chance to speak to Daniel Roberts one of Manchester Metropolitan University students. We got to find out about his experience of being a volunteer on the universities volunteer software and how it has impacted him. Here is what he had to say.

” The university using a volunteer management system really encourages more students to get into volunteering. I wouldn’t have found opportunities or been able to receive feedback without the system. I think the volunteer software is the main reason I completed so many hours, and it makes it so much easier to continue volunteering.

Having a volunteer profile has been key to letting me track my progress and it has given me a chance to evaluate my experiences by looking at the hours I’ve logged and the opportunities that I’ve done. This has been good for CV writing and reflecting on in interviews.

The best thing about the Teamkinetic system for me is that you create your own profile and search for opportunities through the search bar. I could pick out events here and there, and plan my time around it.”

Hear from some of our customers that provide outstanding opportunities for their students

TeamKinetic work with a number of universities across the UK to provide them with their own bespoke and customised website for volunteers. Here are some of the universities that have been using the volunteer software to its potential and creating outstanding opportunities for students.

Manchester Metropolitan University

Manchester Metropolitan University has accumulated over 50,000 hours and counting since using the TeamKineitc volunteer software. This just goes to show the amount of hard work and giving back to the community that goes on within the institute. Additionally, there are 1592 registered volunteers and counting volunteering across the city in a number of diverse roles. MMU offers students a fantastic reward and recognition scheme using the system; 25 hours (Bronze) gains a volunteer T-shirt all the way up to 200 hours (platinum) Access to £100 training bursary, Linkedin and CV endorsements

University of East London

The University of East London provides students with a variety of opportunities across the city, with 702 registered students on the system and 139 opportunities. Notably, UEL provides many opportunities outside of the university such as Dementia Advisor volunteer roles and Community Centre receptionists. Which is fantastic for getting students out into the community and making an impact through social action. The university also recognises volunteers for their hard work by offering a rewards and recognition scheme.  Understanding the motivations of your volunteers is an essential part of incentivising the volunteer experience and making each individual feel valued within the university.

What the research says…

If you still don’t believe us on how student volunteering can change lives, here’s some research conducted by the Institute of Volunteering Research.

The IVR results showed that developing skills (88%) and gaining work experience (83%) were motivating factors for students that engaged in volunteering.  The results also highlighted that 51% of recent graduates under the age of 30 in paid work found that volunteering helped them secure employment.

Additional research found that volunteering developed community awareness and allowed them to integrate into the local community outside the university. 39% of non-volunteers said they would be more determined to get involved in volunteering if it was linked to their academic subject. Creating more one-off opportunities is a good way of getting people into volunteering and allowing them to experience the benefits of it. The impact of volunteering on students is significant and can change an individuals perception of things they normally wouldn’t consider on a day-to-day

TeamKinetic helps to build better volunteer communities by providing great tools for volunteer managers that save time, increase impact and improve insight. Our goal is to make volunteering easy for everyone no matter what. But don’t take our word for it, why not check out our customer reviews.

For more information please don’t hesitate to get in touch and find out how we can help you achieve your goals.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

 

Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

5 Reasons why we think volunteers are great people!

By

On 6th November 2018

In News & Views

Looking for inspiration? For many of us, it’s a big part of modern life and everyone searches for that feeling in different ways. There’s a special group of people who are often described as inspirational! People that give up their time to do better by the world, to try and make a difference where they can: volunteers.

We call these people “volunteers”. Their motivations are varied, but often selfless or at least for a goal greater than their own satisfaction and here we will discuss the 5 reasons why we think volunteers are great.

“Volunteers don’t get paid not because their acts are worthless but because they are priceless.”

As crazy as this sounds volunteers are not paid! This in itself makes them special, but it’s not because they do it for free it’s what they actually do that sets them apart. They change the lives of people because they want to and not because they are employed to.  Here at TeamKinetic, we have been able to witness hundreds of thousands of logged hours from thousands of volunteers, it’s simply wonderful to see and we hope for many many more wonderful people engaging with fantastic causes.

“One of the greatest gifts you can give is your time.”

How do you value people’s time? Is it a cost replacement?  Or is it more subtle than that, is it their very presence and the joy or comfort they can bring? This is not even considering the value the volunteer places on their own time. Valuing your volunteers is very difficult and fraught with pitfalls, but one thing we can all agree on without those people who give their time many services and people would be worse off.

“Don’t live for what you get, live for what you give.”

It is often quoted that real happiness comes from a sense of fulfilment. We would suggest that aspiring to freely give your time may be a way to achieve that fulfilment, to feel part of something greater than yourself is a particular human trait. Not to focus on what you get, or what you have but on what you can do for others. Volunteers epitomise this way of life, this is the reason many volunteers give so much.  Don’t believe us about this? Read this and see what the research says about volunteers being happier and healthier.

“Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness.”

We all have choices when it comes to how we choose to live our lives.  We can choose to be kind, and fulfil the potential every single one of us has. I’m not suggesting every volunteer is a saint – far from it. But those who volunteer are choosing to try and be kind, to try and improve their community or cause. We salute those who make that choice.

“You may not have saved a lot of money in your life, but if you have saved a lot of heartaches for other folks, you are a pretty rich person.”

The value a volunteer provides and also extracts from their experience is difficult to quantify. The idea that saving the hearts of others is worth way more to people that any amount of money sounds crazy.  But if a volunteer can help change a person outlook, improve their quality of life, share their time, wisdom and experience for the good of others, develop friendships, reduce loneliness, create opportunities for those that otherwise might not have them.  These are potentially life-changing events for the person the volunteer might help.

So we say volunteers are special, and we at TeamKinetic take this time to say thank you, volunteers, for your time, your commitment and for believing that you can make a difference.  We think you’re great.

Find out how TeamKinetic can work with you to recruit, manage, and retain your student volunteers.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

 

Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

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