Category: News & Views Page 30 of 42

3 Simple things you can do to say “Thank you” to your volunteers more effectively

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On 8th June 2018

In Volunteer Management

Volunteers’ Week is a great celebration of the effort and value volunteers provide. But let’s not let it end here! We need to keep on celebrating. Make sure you say “Thank you” to your volunteers, helpers, doers and anyone that makes it happen.

Volunteers Week 2018 – 1st to the 7th June

TeamKinetic shares 3 simple insights from its Volunteer Management Software on how to say those two important words “thank you”

Tell your Volunteers what impact they have made.

Saying ‘thanks’ is a good start, but if you want to supercharge the impact of your thank you, look at how you can convey the difference that volunteer has made.

Now it’s not always possible to send out personalised messages to every volunteer, but you can quickly summarise what volunteers mean to your service or organisations and what has been achieved collectively.

Using TeamKinetic, many of our customers are able to send personalised, impactful thank you messages directly to Volunteers immediately after they have finished their work.  We have seen volunteers twice as likely to volunteer again when someone says thank you and takes the time to explain what a difference they made.

Put a little thought into your “Thank You”

Every volunteer manager knows they rely on superstar volunteers. The person who will turn up no matter what.  Where you have someone special, let them know. It does not have to be expensive or time-consuming, you just have to get a little creative.

If you’re not the creative type, why not look at some of the great ideas suggested by the Scouts.

TeamKinetic’s real-time reporting makes it simple to know who your superstars are. It’s easy to see which individuals you simply could not live without from our Volunteer dashboards.

Be authentic, be consistent.

People can soon tell if the messages they receive are just automated messages. Don’t be a robot! Put some personality into it when you say “Thank you” to your volunteers.

Having said that, there are some really useful messages that you can set to run automatically and can make your volunteer offer more consistent. Wish your volunteers a Happy Birthday, tell them when they have been with you for a year, or when they pass a milestone such as 100 hours volunteered.

TeamKinetic has been busy developing its milestones function.  This will make it even simpler to build up a range of fantastic, motivating and inspiring messages to keep your volunteers hooked on helping.

All that is left to say, is Thank You for reading, I hope it makes a difference to your volunteers and I look forward to hearing what works for you and your teams.

Happy Volunteers Week

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.

Liverpool FC Foundation are bringing volunteering into the digital age to support their work in Merseyside and beyond

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On 7th June 2018

In News & Views, Sport

LFC Foundation

Liverpool FC Foundation is the first professional football club’s community programme in the world to launch a digital volunteer portal for their outreach programme.

The club’s Foundation has joined a host of other sport and voluntary organisations already supported by TeamKinetic, which aims to make it easier for volunteers to make a difference in people’s lives and communities. The portal will improve the recruitment and deployment of volunteers across all of Liverpool FC Foundation’s activities.

For 20 years LFC Foundation’s outreach programme has benefitted many of the communities in Merseyside and beyond. Through various initiatives and programmes, the foundation has embedded itself within the community. This includes supporting young and old, military veterans, those in need of some emotional support or even those just looking for something to do in the holidays. These programmes all share a focus on one or more of three fundamentals of community, skill and wellbeing.

Coach and Players working together

LFC are using TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software, which has already logged nearly one million voluntary hours of various organisations. These hours are making a difference in people’s lives and communities and LFC Foundation’s involvement will only increase the impact this makes.

Dawn Georgeson, Volunteer Project Lead at Liverpool Football Club, said:

“The new online volunteering portal provides volunteers with increased access to the opportunities available and enables them to sign up at their own leisure. This makes the process of volunteering more convenient and the process of tracking the opportunities is much clearer for them. The software will also support LFC Foundation by reducing the time spent on administrative tasks and paperwork. This will then be complemented by the intelligent reports the system makes available. All round the software is supporting the role of volunteer managers.”

Chris Martin, Founding Director at TeamKinetic, said: “TeamKinetic has a long history in sports volunteering, so it is really exciting when we can work with a partner such as Liverpool FC and look to make a real difference to those at the community level and enable them to do more. Liverpool FC is world renowned and we’re delighted to welcome them on board and keen to see how we can we can help them use their brand to do even more good work. We look forward to supporting Dawn and her team, who have been doing a great job and we are confident that TeamKinetic will only add to their success.”

£10K Give Away – Celebrate Volunteers Week and TeamKinetic’s 10th Birthday with #TK10GIV

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On 31st May 2018

In News & Views

TeamKinetic Ten Year £10,000 Give Away

This year TeamKinetic is celebrating our tenth year helping to build volunteer communities! We thought to celebrate this alongside Volunteers Week 2018 and do something special.

Celebrating 10 Years of TeamKinetic

In ten years of business, we have grown to become a trusted partner for many organisations that help volunteers. Our flagship Volunteer Management Software is one of the most advanced and complete volunteer management systems available, and each day we continue to plan its development to meet the needs of our customers and the sector. We now serve hundreds of happy organisations across the globe and have logged nearly a million volunteer hours.

To celebrate we wanted to do something special. Of course, we considered the obvious choices for a tenth birthday, such as a trip to the zoo or a bouncy castle party. All of which were very tempting, but, we realised that spaces might be a tad limited. Instead, we made the decision to do something that everyone would appreciate, enjoy and access: A £10,000 give away*.

That’s right a £10K give away.

 

What’s included in the 10K give away?

1 x TeamKinetic Enterprise Edition Volunteer Management Software (worth over £3000). For one lucky winner’s organisation, a one year license for our bespoke volunteer management system.

2 x tickets for TeamKinetic’s annual volunteer conference. On the 12th September 2018 TeamKinetic welcomes a host of industry and thought leaders to Manchester to join us for the annual conference. This year’s event is our best to date, with speakers including Kristen Stephenson (Head of Volunteering at Sports England), Fiona Liddel (Volunteering Development Manager at WCVA), and many more.

£10,000 worth of Free upgrades from TeamKinetic FREE to TeamKinetic COMMUNITY. This version of volunteer management software is hosted on our national volunteer website, TryVolunteering.com.

 

So how do you get involved with the #TKGIV?

To enter you just need to follow these simple steps;

On Friday 1st June 2018, Volunteer Week will start. At 9:00am TeamKinetic will be tweeting:

“ VOLUNTEER MANAGERS IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE #Volunteersweek

@TeamKineticUK are throwing a £10,000 Give Away of Volunteer Management Software & More

Simply retweet, tag two other volunteer managers and include these 2 hashtags #TK10GIV #Volunteersweek”

And you will automatically be entered. 

 

The Small Print:

This competition will run from 9:00 am on 1st June 2019 until 11:59 pm the 7th June 2018. The winners and how to access the free upgrade to TeamKinetic Community will be announced on TeamKinetic’s Twitter Channel (@TeamKineticUK) at 12:00 pm on Friday 8th June 2018.

Full terms and conditions can be found at teamkinetic.co.uk/10k-giveaway

TeamKinetic is excited to be giving away these prizes, we hope you will be able to support us and many other organisations by spreading the word across your own social media channels.

TeamKinetic Academy

TeamKinetic 4th Annual Volunteering Conference

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On 31st May 2018

In Events and Conferences, News & Views

TeamKinetic’s Annual Volunteering Conference 12th September 2018

Every year TeamKinetic runs an Annual Volunteering Conference at Manchester Metropolitan University. This year, the event is being run in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University’s Business, Sports Policy and Law Department and GreaterSport. Collectively, we aim to host an insightful and inspiring event for all those in attendance through a series of talks and break out workshops focused on volunteer management.

Previous events have drawn a crowd of over a hundred and this year we are hoping to host our largest to date. With an incredible list of speakers and attendance from a variety of roles in including volunteer managers, events coordinators, community engagement officers, sports development, HR and Operation staff, and more, this is not one to be missed.

To purchase your ticket please visit one of the followiing:

TeamKinetic Customer Tickets (You will need the password available on your dashboard to access this page):

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/teamkinetic-customer-conference-tickets-46520590338

Non-Customer:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/teamkinetic-4th-annual-sports-volunteering-conference-2018-tickets-46610728945

TeamKinetic Customer Exclusive Pre – Conference Day

Tuesday 11th September

10:00 – 17:00

TeamKinetic will be offering a free event on 11th September 2018 specifically for all of our customers to attend. The exclusive event provides the perfect opportunity to discuss TeamKinetic’s future software development, talk about how other similar sectors professional use the software and attend workshops master classes.

TeamKinetic 4th Annual Volunteer Management Conference

Wednesday 12th September

9:00-17:00

Speakers confirmed for the event include:

Denise Larrad – BBC Sports Personality 2017 Unsung Hero award winner

Volunteer Denise Larrad has been named the BBC Get Inspired Unsung Hero award winner at the Sports Personality of the Year 2017 ceremony.

A mother of two, 56-year-old Denise Larrad was selected to be a torchbearer for the Olympic Torch Relay at the 2012 Games. She was selected for her outstanding contribution to fundraising work by Asda, her employer. After being chosen to carry the Torch for the Games Denise had one sole aim – to get the people of Hinckley, Leicestershire, active.

Despite working night shifts in a warehouse, she finds time to help lead walking, orienteering, running and general fitness classes for children, families and the elderly. With a host of different activities and exercises sessions, Denise motivates and nurtures participants to be more active.

She is a trained walk leader, putting on weekly sessions for the elderly on behalf of the charity Age UK and also organises orienteering courses across the borough in town parks, woodlands and schools.

Title: Understanding what motivates volunteers?

In this talk, Denise is going to share her experiences and motivators which led to her becoming such an inspirational volunteer, with an emphasis on how you can emulate the same in your own volunteers.

 

Kristen Stephenson – Head of Volunteering at Sport England

Kristen has recently joined Sport England as Head of Volunteering and leads on managing the 32 projects across their Volunteering Funds and supporting the delivery of the strategy ‘Volunteering in an Active Nation’. These funded projects are focused on getting young people involved in making a difference through social action, sport and physical activity and creating opportunities to get people from economically disadvantaged areas involved in volunteering.

Kristen’s previous role was with the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) where she led the work on volunteering ranging from policy work to influence decision making in government and writing practical resources on volunteer management.

She has experience of working with a diverse range of organisations to develop their approach to volunteering including charities big and small, the police, museums, galleries and the NHS.

Title: Volunteering in an Active Nation: How cross-sector collaboration can unlock the potential of volunteering in sport and physical activity

Kristen’s presentation will look at the important role cross-sector partnerships and collaboration will be to delivering Sport England’s volunteering strategy. She will draw on her experience in volunteering development in the voluntary sector and her current work at Sport England to explore what opportunities there are for volunteer managers in sport to learn from the voluntary sector and provide some interesting examples of how the two sectors are already working together to develop volunteering at a national and local level.

 

Mike Howlett – Volunteer & Citizenship Lead at Sefton Volunteer Center

Mike has been involved with the Voluntary, Community & Faith Sector on Merseyside for over 20 years, 11 of those in a paid capacity. His experience of volunteering includes fundraising, service development, training and stints as trustee and chair.

He joined Sefton CVS during Volunteers Week in 2007 and as a Development Worker before taking on a variety of roles involving the management of volunteering services and the strategic development of volunteering throughout the borough. The common theme throughout his work has been the support of local VCF Sector organisations in developing their volunteering programmes through the provision of information, advice and training.

Title: Widening the Net

Are you making the most of the resources available to you from outside the Sports Sector? This session will explore how diversifying your volunteering roles and engaging the wider community can help you to develop your organisation, and provide hints and tips regarding organisations and tools that might help.

 

Claire Jones – Head of Volunteering at Halton and St Helens Volunteer Centre

Claire has a passion for the Voluntary Sector, dedicating her career to supporting organisations and individuals to make a difference to their chosen communities through developing their systems and approaches to their people. Engaging in volunteering has been a part of her life from an early age, raising money for various causes, volunteering with women, girls, young carers and ex-offenders through to strategic decision making on trustee boards.

She joined VCA in April 2001, holding a variety of development and management roles and has a specialist knowledge in the strategic development of volunteering. This has been shared through a variety of mediums, including training, workshops, group and individual support. Key achievements include supporting the redevelopment of the National Volunteer Centre Quality Accreditation system and process; leading the success of local accreditation of our Volunteer Centres for 4 consecutive waves and securing new and innovative services for volunteering development.

Title: Supporting and Supervising Volunteers

Involving volunteers can be increasingly more complicated as our roles change and the time we have available shrinks. In such a busy world it can be difficult to implement effectively. This session will help you explore the benefits of good support and supervision for your volunteers and look at ways you can put it into practice.

 

Chris Martin – Founding Director at TeamKinetic

Chris had many years of experience working in the leisure industry, sport and at Manchester City Council before becoming one of the founding directors of TeamKinetic. For the last ten years, he has actively operated within the third sector, helping organisations to evolve their volunteer management.

Title: The use of rewards and incentives for volunteers

TeamKinetic has extensive data on how the use of gamification, incentives and rewards can impact your volunteers both in a positive and negative manner. In this session, we will explore how rewards and incentives can be used to keep your volunteers engaged and motivated.

 

Will Watt – Director of Product at Jump Projects

Will has a diverse resume, with experience working in publishing (Viz), digital publishing (BBC), music (NME) and the Sports Sector.

His voluntary experience includes founding the King’s College Old Boys FC; and set up ‘The Swimmer’, a community cold water swim run across London and also runs his son’s U9s Old Alleynians RFC team.

Title: The behavioural science of volunteering and how it varies for different groups in society – with a focus on ethnic diversity and low socioeconomic groups

At Join In, a charity set up to continue the legacy of 2012, Will carried out research into the economic and well-being value of sports volunteering, presenting the findings in a case study for Lord Gus O’Donnell’s ‘What Works Centre for Wellbeing’. Will has continued this work and founded Jump. Jump measure the well-being impacts of physical activity and volunteering whilst understanding the motivations for more people to do both.

Will was also responsible for the development of the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year #bigthankyou campaign and helped to organise the UK’s biggest sports day in 2016.

 

Chantel Scherer – Director of Marketing, Communications and Member Engagement at Sport & Recreation Alliance

Chantel Scherer is a senior communications professional with over 20 years’ experience implementing successful, integrated, strategic communications across large, complex organisations – working with volunteers for the last 15.

The Sport and Recreation Alliance is the voice of the sport and recreation sector and works to get the nation active. Chantel is Director of Marketing, Communications and Member Engagement and she looks after the Join In brand, which was set up after the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to capitalise on the power of major sporting events to benefit grassroots clubs. Sport has the power to change lives and bring communities together and nurturing and growing volunteers is an important aspect to this.

Title: Using behavioural science to recruit and retain volunteers more effectively

This session will uncover the latest research on recruiting, retaining and rewarding volunteers. Chantel will share some of the GIVERS research and how the Sport and Recreation Alliance is supporting the sector to get more grassroots volunteers into sport.

 

Crewenna Dymond – Head of Volunteering and Youth Impact at YHA England and Wales

Crewenna Dymond has been Head of Volunteering (and more recently also of Youth Impact) at YHA for 12 years and has worked with volunteers all her working life, holding earlier positions at BTCV (as it was then), Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and as a youth worker. Tasked with putting the young people back into volunteering with the Youth Hostel Association the number of active young volunteers has grown from a handful to a quarter of all active volunteers in 10 years. A Geographer by background with a PhD in biodiversity and wilderness quality, she helps YHA run its small remote hostels as a Volunteer Manager and also supports some children’s and aid charities.

Title: The benefits of focusing on the volunteer journey to aid recruitment and retention of volunteers

Ten years ago YHA benefitted from the support of around 500 volunteers annually. Now there are around 3,000 people giving their time to our charity in a wide range of flexible as well as committed roles. During that time we focused on establishing a consistent and comprehensive volunteer journey, that treats volunteers as customers as well as colleagues, and by 2014 we were pleased to achieve the Investing in Volunteers Award. Last year YHA transformed volunteer management by moving to an entirely online volunteer management system (TeamKinetic) which is changing how we plan for, recruit, organise and engage with volunteers. In this workshop, we will explore what a great volunteer journey looks like and how the online tools can help us engage more young volunteers and modernise our ways of working.

 

Fiona Liddell – Volunteering Development Manager at Welsh Council Voluntary Action (WCVA)

Fiona Liddell has worked within the volunteering team at WCVA, in several different roles, since 2003. Currently, she is Volunteering Development Manager with responsibilities for the strategic development of volunteering and volunteering services in Wales.

Recent projects include Volunteering Spirit Wales, a two-year project which aims to improve the quality of event volunteering in Wales and the development of online learning modules on volunteer management, to support the Welsh Government Fusion programme.

Fiona set up the Wales Volunteer of the Year Award scheme in 2004. She is the author of the WCVA publication Recruiting volunteers – a manual of good practice and has developed and delivered training in volunteer management.

Previously she has worked in International Development, Health Promotion and has, jointly with her husband, run a training and retreat centre in mid-Wales. Voluntary roles have included school governor, helping at a community cafe in the Rhondda and at conversation drop-in sessions for asylum seekers, stewarding at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff and mentoring a young person through the I million mentors scheme.

 

Laura Hamilton – Seven steps to successful volunteer engagement

In a rapidly changing world, how can we ensure that our volunteer programmes stay attractive, relevant and rewarding?

This workshop will explore:

  • The latest trends in volunteering
  • New approaches and perspectives on volunteer engagement
  • Working with volunteers of different ages
  • How to build great relationships with your volunteers

Laura is a consultant specialising in volunteer involvement and volunteer management, with over 17 years’ experience in the field. She has worked in both volunteer infrastructure and volunteer-involving organisations and is passionate about growing and developing successful volunteer programmes.

Will you be there?

TeamKinetic are looking forward to welcoming many faces both new and old to the conference. We hope you are able to join us.

If you require more information or have any question, please do not hesitate to get in contact.

james@teamkinetic.co.uk

Free and Paid Volunteer Management Software: What is the difference?

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On 30th May 2018

In Application Features and Tutorials, News & Views

TeamKinetic has been providing volunteer management software to third-sector organisations for over ten years. As part of our service, we also provide free volunteer management software to organisations through our national brokerage website tryvolunteering.com providing TeamKinetic FREE.

This is the perfect opportunity for organisations to test the benefits of advertising opportunities nationally, understand the benefits of volunteer management software’s reporting functionality and test the responsiveness of volunteers to join opportunities through an online portal. TeamKinetic FREE lets you manage an unlimited number of volunteers on one opportunity.

To help understand the benefits of volunteer management software, TeamKinetic have put together this short guide:

What is volunteer management software?

‘Volunteer Management Software’ is a term coined to describe a built-for-purpose computer system which can be used by voluntary organisations to recruit and manage volunteers.  It creates an online portal for volunteers to access advertised opportunities, which in turn makes volunteering more accessible. There are various systems available on the market. Each provider of volunteer management software takes a different approach to delivering their software system and this is reflected in the functionality, features and design.

Who uses volunteer management software?

Volunteer management software is used by many voluntary, non-government, education, health and sport organisations. The staff that use the systems often include volunteer managers, community engagement officers, events coordinators, sports development officers, volunteer coordinators, HR and operation staff, and many more.

What does volunteer management software do?

Volunteer management software helps organisations to reduce the amount of time spent on administrative tasks. The software also helps to recruit and deploy volunteers. Depending on the software provider, additional functionality may be available, such as reporting features, social media sharing, communication tools and much more.

What is the difference between free and paid versions of volunteer management software?

Free volunteer management software often has limitations or simplified functionality. As more functionality, reports and functionality increase, so does the price of the software.

TeamKinetic provides several volunteer management software options to match the needs of different organisations. We have one free version and three paid versions of volunteer management software.

TeamKinetic FREE is a free volunteer management software system that is hosted on tryvolunteering.com. You can’t control the look at feel of the site, but you can advertise opportunities and invite volunteers.

TeamKinetic ADVANCED and TeamKinetic ENTERPRISE are both bespoke systems that are hosted on their own domain and include higher functionality features. You can find out more about this on our website.

What features and functionality does TeamKinetic FREE include?

TeamKinetic FREE is a national volunteer brokerage system with advanced volunteer management functionality; it acts as a virtual portal for volunteers to find voluntary opportunities. Removing the restrictions of traditional volunteering sign-up, your organisation will be bought into the digital age and will save valuable time, previously spent on administration tasks.

In all versions of TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software volunteers can access all of the same features. These features include:

  • the ability to join opportunities,
  • Create a profile
  • track achievements
  • add CPD and qualifications
  • track opportunities attended
  • log hours

Search for opportunities, events and training by:

  • keywords
  • categories
  • activities
  • distance and date
  • leave opportunity feedback
  • share opportunities on social media

As an opportunity provider you can:

  • Create a profile for your organisation
  • Create opportunities
  • Manage unlimited volunteers
  • Group volunteers
  • Check DBS
  • Request references
  • Access automated emails
  • Upload documents
  • Restrict opportunities
  • Share the opportunity onto Do-It

Using TeamKinetic enables you to report on essential KPIs and Data, including:

  • Gender of Volunteers
  • Volunteer Ethnicity
  • Volunteer Age Groups
  • Volunteer Group Membership
  • Hours Logged by Category
  • Opportunity numbers by category
  • Monthly cumulative logged hours
  • Unique Active Opportunity Sessions
  • Available Opportunity Sessions

All of this data is available for download in a CVS file.

What if my organisation needs its own system?

As mentioned, TeamKinetic also provides bespoke volunteer management software systems which can be integrated into your organisation’s current website. We are more than happy to discuss the pricing of the system, the specification required and which version would best meet your organisation’s needs.

Where can I find out more / Can I discuss this further with you?

TeamKinetic is always happy to help and support voluntary organisations and we will happily discuss which option of our software would be best suited to your organisation’s needs. Speak with one of our specialist Team 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.

Wales Council for Voluntary Action Welcomes TeamKinetic’s Volunteer Management Software

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On 14th May 2018

In News & Views

We are pleased to announce our bi-lingual system for WCVA is very close to becoming live for volunteers. The new system will provide an integrated platform for volunteers, volunteer centres and opportunity providers to communicate and manage opportunities.

WCVA Screenshot

WCVA Volunteer Portal

Already the system is being populated with opportunities on a temporary domain so that when the system becomes available for volunteers in June they will have plenty of exciting options to chose from.  The system will be integrated on the same pre-existing volunteering all-Wales database previously used:  www.volunteering-wales.net .

Once a volunteer has followed the simple five-stage sign-up form, volunteers are able to start searching for opportunities straight away. These opportunities can be searched for by keywords, distance and interests.  Volunteers can also track their progress and development; as they are able to log hours, track opportunities joined and receive incentives through digital badges. Opportunities can also be shared on social media channels such as Twitter, helping to further amplify volunteer engagement.

Organisations have access to a range volunteer management tools including reports,  rotas and events planning, log hours on the behalf of volunteers and communication features. These tools help to reduce time spent on administrative tasks, so organisations can focus on supporting volunteers and identifying new opportunities.

Commenting on the use of the TeamKinetic Fiona Lidell, WCVA Volunteering Development Manager, said: ‘We are pleased to be able to offer a user-friendly and efficient platform to encourage and support volunteering in Wales. At the same time, we recognise that not everyone wants, or is comfortable with digital systems. That is why we will continue to offer a parallel face to face service through local volunteer centres’.

You can read a volunteer’s experience signing up and using the system here.

To find out more information on our TeamKinetic, please feel free to get in contact:

Email:                    james@teamkinetic.co.uk

Phone:                                 0161 914 5757

For over ten years TeamKinetic has been developing innovative technological solutions for third sector organisations. We pride ourselves on our volunteer-centric approach and intuitive design.

Volunteer Management Software that WORKS.

TeamKinetic Case Study: Seashell Trust Finds A Functional Solution to Volunteer Management

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On 8th May 2018

In Case Study, Charity, News & Views

Seashell Trust is home to the Royal School Manchester, a non-maintained special school, and the Royal College Manchester, an independent specialist further education college. Both school and college are residential and together cater for students from the age of 2 to 25. Students who attend our school and college are able to access on-site residential and short break facilities. A range of services are available to students, including an all-inclusive sports facility, specialist therapy, as well as staff with expertise in autism, multi-sensory impairments and behaviour management. We also offer a wide range of inclusive sport, health and leisure activities for the community including our students and staff.

With a team of 540 staff, two-thirds are full time and a further 150 volunteers, the charity’s workforce is large and mobile. The responsibility of managing the voluntary services within the Charity falls upon Stephen Pearson, Volunteer Coordinator.

The following case study explores how TeamKinetic has supported Steve and Seashell Trust in its volunteer management, improving the recruitment and retention of volunteers.

Firstly, please can you explain your role at Seashell Trust?

As volunteer coordinator, I am responsible for overseeing all of our voluntary services, from the recruitment, compliance checks and safety requirements for opportunities. I also work within the organisation to identify and develop opportunities for our volunteers, making sure the departments can support, develop and manage volunteers.

My role involves community engagement, sport and recreation, family support and outreach work, throughout all of these we try to encourage involvement from other organisations. I also look to manage our corporate voluntary services, as find many businesses and large organisations allow their staff two to three days of volunteering a year.

Why did you start looking for volunteer management software / How did you come across TeamKinetic?

Previously, we depended greatly on the use of excel spreadsheet as our database. This caused us challenges when trying to sharing or accessing with other users, such as when we wanted to produce reports.

We needed more functionality that came with a purpose-built software: the ability to sign up to opportunities through a website portal, to advertise opportunities online, the ability for volunteers to leave feedback.  Whilst exploring the different options available to us, we noticed with TeamKinetic software, opportunities can be shared in a network of connected organisations if opted in for. This provided volunteers with the unique opportunity to be able to join opportunities from different providers, but within the same area for example.

How have you found TeamKinetic meets your organisation needs?

Firstly, I believe the software has benefitted Seashell Trust, as everything is now available remotely through the cloud.  On the most basic level, it supports us as opportunity providers with recruiting, monitoring and reporting the activity of our volunteers. It provides our volunteers with a professional interface for them to find opportunities and interact with us an organisation.  It enables volunteers to register their interests online, access and join opportunities available, update their profiles with their DBS and CPD documentation and track the opportunities they have participated in.  These functions are only further enhanced when you consider how easy the system is to use.

TeamKinetic provides a better user interface for opportunity providers to communicate with volunteers, by providing plenty of options, from email, social media and text messaging. Combined with the feedback functionality for volunteers, the software creates a greater emphasis on communication, which helps to keep volunteers engaged.

Do you have any other comments or anything to add?

For other third sector organisations, I would highly recommend that they have a chat with the guys from TeamKinetic. The software they provide is exactly what it says on the tin, it works from an administrative point of view. You just have to point and click, the results are there. The software is colourful and visual, meaning it’s not a bore having to use and then there is plenty of support and assistance available to get the most from the software. The useful help guides and training manuals, combined with the specialist support provided by the team is really good.

As a product, I feel it is leading the market, with its regular updates, advanced functionality and the support provided. I think it really is one of those products that ‘does what it says on the tin’. We live in a digital age and if you are serious about keeping volunteers and recruiting new ones, then you have to change with the times. Something that I think TeamKinetic does.

Thank you, Stephen, for both your time and answers.

To find out more or to book a demonstration contact TeamKinetic at: 0161 914 5757

For over ten years TeamKinetic has been developing innovative technological solutions for third sector organisations. We pride ourselves on our volunteer-centric approach and intuitive design.

Volunteer Management Software that WORKS for Third Sector Organisations.

TeamKinetic Academy: Facebook Live Training Dates for TeamKinetic 1.0

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On 24th April 2018

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

facebook-live-brand-awareness

With so many new features and products in TeamKinetic 1.0 (TK1.0) we thought it would be best to invite you all to a series of master class sessions with Steve and the team.  This new version has the potential to take your volunteer management to a new level.

Join us on Facebook to see our interactive demos and join in the conversation directly with Steve.  As you know we love to talk through how and why we have made some of our changes. We also love to hear yours and your volunteers thoughts and feedback and this heavily informs our next versions.

These sessions are designed to be short and easy to follow, with loads of opportunity for you to ask questions.

References Wednesday 25th April 13:30
TeamLeaders Friday 27th April 13:30
Setting Maximum Sessions Wednesday 2nd May 13:30
TeamKinetic Chatter – Opportunity Chat Rooms Friday 4th May 13:30
Managing External Opportunities Wednesday 8th May 13:30
Reporting Update Friday 11th May 13:30

If you can’t make one of these sessions, don’t worry, we will be keeping the video on Facebook, as well as adding it to our YouTube channel and where appropriate putting them into the help documents.

Of course, you can always get in touch via the support tickets, email, phone or chat function. We want to know what you think, so please get in touch.

We look forward to seeing you this Wednesday for the first session

To find out more information on TeamKinetic, please feel free to get in contact with one of our Team by:

Email:                    james@teamkinetic.co.uk

Phone:                    0161 914 5757

For over ten years TeamKinetic has been developing innovative technological solutions for third sector organisations. We pride ourselves on our volunteer-centric approach and intuitive design.

Volunteer Management Software that WORKS for Third Sector Organisations.

 

TeamKinetic Academy: TeamKinetic V 1.0 Software Update

By

On 23rd April 2018

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

TeamKinetic is pleased to announce on Sunday, 22 April 2018, the latest update of our volunteer management software went live.Combining the Volunteer, Access and Club Kinetic into one singular application. TeamKinetic V 1.0 brings with it a host of new features and functionality, in this blog we look to explain specifically what they are:

Why TeamKinetic v 1.0?

We have now fully integrated Volunteer, Club and AccessKinetic and our old version numbering was based on our VolunteerKientic releases. So it’s time for a new beginning.

What should I look out for in this release?

This is a huge update with great additions to TeamKinetic’s functionality as well as under the hood changes to improve speed and reliability.

Look out for TeamLeaders, volunteer referencing, our new ‘Focus’ design, Android and iOS apps, more customisation and GDPR compliance.

Check out the new features on the demo site before they go live on your site

To access the demo site as an admin click here

From here you can see the new layouts, features and improvements.

 

Data Protection and Security

GDPR changes

You can see a summary of the changes we have applied for GDPR here

Information Governance ToolKit

As part of our commitment to the highest standards of data protection and information governance, TeamKinetic has undergone extensive self-assessment and external assessment by the NHS Information Governance team.

Apps and mobile

iOS and Android

As the march to mobile’s dominance in how many people interact with digital technologies continues, TeamKinetic have been working hard to catch up with this trend and provide an effective user experience available across all mobile devices. We have created a single mobile app that all volunteers can access.

Version 1 of the iOS and Android App is now available for your volunteers from the Apple App store and the Google Play store.  From your mobile device, you can access the app store and SEARCH “TeamKinetic” and you will be presented with our app to download for FREE.

Below you can see how this should look.  The Apps are only accessible to your existing users.  All new users must create an account via the website before they will be able to use the app. This is just for Volunteers at the moment, but still includes all the basic features you would expect including searching for opportunities and logging hours etc.

This is our first attempt in the mobile space so as always we welcome your feedback on your experience as we will look to improve this over the next 12 months.

We plan to prompt users to download the app when they log onto the site. App Acreen Shots

TeamKinetic now on Google Play and iOS APP Store.

Design and usability improvements

Volunteer opportunity management area

Making it easy for a volunteer to manage their opportunities continues to be of the greatest importance to our design process as this significantly influences the volunteer’s engagement with the site.  We have looked to bring all elements of opportunity management into a single area so a volunteer can easily join/ leave sessions, leave feedback, log hours, see a map of the opportunity location and join the opportunity Chat.

Using the new focus layout, volunteers can quickly see the navigation and actionable areas of the page.

1 Design Improvements

More customisable emails

It has long been our ambition to give you the ability to edit all emails that the system sends.  Over the next few months, you will notice the editable ‘customise emails’ list will grow as we expand this function.

Combined viewing and editing volunteer profile page

Volunteer information is now neatly and logically situated on a side menu, allowing easy access to all their information.  We have removed the EDIT button and instead made the fields editable directly from each page.

Combined viewing and editing opportunity page

We have replaced the opportunities green menu bar and replaced it with a slicker side menu, removing the need to scroll down endlessly to find what you are looking for.

 

Shorter improved menu for volunteers

In design, less is often much more. This is why we continue to strive to reduce clutter and simplify the volunteer experience.  It has been our aim to have all key volunteer functions only one click away from the front page.

The Volunteer front page acts as a snapshot of everything that volunteer needs to know.  This will continue to be a work in progress as we look to improve the user experience, but this is the largest overhaul to the volunteer pages since we started some 10 years ago. As always are keen to hear your feedback.

Full set of sharing icons for volunteers to share opportunity details to social media

5 social sharing

Where possible we have tried to make it simple for volunteers and providers to share their opportunities via existing social media, leveraging their existing audience reach.

“If you want more volunteers you need to ask!” is the simple advice when it comes to volunteer recruitment.  Building an audience for your opportunities using social media makes asking even easier.

Simplified volunteer qualification and document upload and review

Many opportunities require volunteers to hold specific certified skills or qualifications, these might be achieved through in-house training or awarded by an external body. We have simplified how a volunteer can record their qualifications and training.

We have also added the ability for Admin users to be able to add training and qualifications on behalf of volunteers and lock these documents so volunteers can not remove or alter them.

Each volunteer now has a single page where they can quickly review all relevant certification and training.

New Features

References       

References…References…References!!! The bane of many volunteer managers lives.  All that paper flowing around, and waiting for people to respond can be a nightmare.

TeamKinetic now offers a complete digital solution, allowing you to create your own custom reference forms which are automatically emailed out to referees.  When the referee completes the form, they are automatically attached to the volunteer ready for you to review.

This mean no more referees getting bombarded with the same referee form, as they can be reused for other opportunities.  You can also create higher level reference forms for more demanding opportunities, allowing you to customise your questions in relation to the role.

Say goodbye to references stuffed in filing cabinets and say hello to the digitisation of your entire volunteer reference system.

TeamLeaders

Teams of volunteers often have a leader, someone who has been volunteering for years, the ‘go to’ person when things go wrong.  For many organisations this person is a very valuable asset to your volunteer programme, and often knows what is happening on the ground more than the administrator or the provider of the opportunity.

You can now mark these people as TeamLeaders within the system, giving them a superior status, and more importantly allowing them to confirm when volunteers have attended.  This automatically logs the hours on behalf of the provider allowing a more accurate representation (in real time) of what is happening on each volunteer opportunity.

Maximum sessions per event

When an exciting event is added to your system there is often a rush by volunteers to get on the best opportunities, as many volunteers will be aware that they may not be accepted for every one they apply for, they often try and join many more than they can practically manage.

For this reason we have built a ‘Max Limit’ function into each event, allowing you to stipulate how many sessions each volunteer can join on a single event.

Map view when searching opportunities

Over the past few months we have had a number of requests to make it more simple to find opportunities based around a particular location.  The addition of a map view whilst searching opportunities offers a very effective visual tool to help volunteers look for opportunities that are near them.

Opportunity chat rooms

Do your volunteers use facebook groups or WhatsApp to communicate amongst themselves?  This can pose some potential risks to you and your organisation. To understand more about these risks read our article on the subject here.  To mitigate the need to use external sites such as these we have added an “Opportunity” chat room.  This is an area where volunteers can talk to other volunteers or the provider on an opportunity.

User safety is of paramount importance so we have equipped the chat room with language filters that limit the use of offensive language, as well as users having the ability to report offensive or inappropriate comments.  Only volunteers on that particular opportunity can use these rooms, so access is strictly managed and people can be removed or blocked from commenting if they are not using the chat room in good faith.

Volunteers do not automatically share any personal data with each other in the chat unlike with other social media.

This function can be disabled for your application if you do not wish to use it, we want to improve the social side of volunteering in a safe setting and we saw this as an important first step.

Minimum notice for leaving a session

This particular feature has been under debate for a long time and has been asked for by a number of customers.  As an administrator, you will now be able to set a minimum notice period that a volunteer must give if they intend to leave an opportunity.

For example, volunteers will not be able to leave an opportunity less than 48 hours before it takes place.  Instead, if they attempt to do that they will be presented with a pop-up message on the screen that says if you wish to leave this opportunity “please contact the provider on Tel no…..”  And the provider can remove the volunteer from the session, but the volunteer will be prevented from removing themselves.

Please be aware of the unintended consequence of enforcing this feature.  Volunteers who can’t leave the sessions may just not turn up, and you may be unaware and under-resourced as a provider.

New sharing page for administrators to track what opportunities are being shared and from where

You can now see which systems are sharing opportunities on your search pages, and how many opportunities they are sharing.  Ideal for when you want to find out information about a particular external opportunity.

Reporting

Additional reports and quick stats

We have compiled some new exciting statistics for you and revamped the reporting library.  You can now see how a full breakdown of how many volunteers are engaged with the system including; How many have joined at least one opportunity, how many have joined and logged hours and how many have joined multiple sessions.

The reporting page is also broken down into sections by using a side menu, making it much easier to navigate. And it includes a handy DATE RANGE facility, allowing you to integrate particular periods of time.


Zooming capabilities on web analytics graph

The Web Analytics reports now include the ability to select a specific date range, allowing you to pin point particular time periods when you have done promotional drives or canvasing, so you can see in more detail what impact your work has had in regards to people using your system.

8 reporting zoom
Identifying inactive volunteers

The following definitions have been developed to create better clarity
For some time, Admin users have been asking how they can easily identify the level of participation volunteers have with your volunteer programmes.  To help simplify this process we have developed the following definitions to describe a volunteers level of participation:

A “Converted” is volunteers who have joined one or more opportunity sessions.
An “Active” is a volunteer that has attended and logged hours for one or more opportunity sessions.
A “Repeat” is a volunteer who has joined sessions on two or more opportunity sessions.

TeamKinetic hopes you are as excited about these changes as we are.

If you have any additional questions or would like to find out more, please feel free to get in touch with one of the team via email or phone us on 0161 914 5757.

Please note this list is comprehensive but not exhaustive.

TeamKinetic Case Study: How Active Stirling uses TeamKinetic to integrate volunteers

By

On 17th April 2018

In Case Study, News & Views

Active Stirling delivers sport and physical activity across the Stirling area on behalf of Stirling Council. The responsibility for recruiting, managing and deploying volunteers and sports coaches falls to a wide range of staff within Active Stirling, including Mark Findlay the Employability and Volunteering Manager at Active Stirling. The following case study explores how TeamKinetic has improved the volunteer management process.

Active Stirling

Hello Mark, can you please tell us about your role at Active Stirling?

Collectively my team oversees the recruitment of volunteers and coaches for our community programmes such as term-time activities and holiday programmes. As part of our work, we also manage the coach education programme, which is aimed at offering local clubs, coaches and volunteers training opportunities from safeguarding and protecting children, first aid courses and other similar kinds of courses.

Can you tell me about the type of volunteers you manage?

We have a range of volunteers that contribute to the work of Active Stirling, the age really varies from young sports coaches to our walking groups. In terms of the number of volunteers we have if you look at our after schools programmes we have over three hundred volunteers helping to deliver breakfast, lunchtime and after-school clubs.

How did you previously manage volunteers?

Before using TeamKinetic, many of our groups were self-contained and operated independently. Of course, this was great that they were able to support themselves, but it also meant they were isolated. Using TeamKinetic has helped us to integrate these groups, provide a single platform for them to communicate and for volunteers from different cohorts to explore other opportunities.

Why did you start looking for volunteer management software?

We needed a systematic way of recruiting, deploying and managing our volunteers. It was around the same time I visited Glasgow Life, where I had previously worked and they introduced me to the software. I then reached out to Steve and Chris at TeamKinetic and we organised a meeting and demonstration.

How have you found using TeamKinetic’s Volunteer Management Software?

We have found the benefit of the software to be in its ability to be a ‘one-stop shop’. By that I mean it has all the functionality you need from an end user, the volunteer, to the opportunity provider, Active Stirling in our case.  It has become much easier for us to signpost our volunteers to finding opportunities.

How many opportunities do you post a month?

Currently, we post between 7 and 10 opportunities each month, but we expect this to rise once have we have the system fully integrated across the company

What makes TeamKinetic a stand out product?

“The system is easy to use and is really accessible for our volunteers 24/7. As many of our volunteers are students, they are able to log on when they want to see what opportunities are available. We can also upload all our training opportunities onto the system which again is great, as it keeps everything in the one place”

Thank you for your time and comments Mark.

With experience in working in Sports, Universities and Local Authorities, TeamKinetic has been leading the volunteer management innovation for the last ten years. Having developed one of the most advanced volunteer management system currently available on the market, with a core volunteer-centric design, it uniquely puts the volunteer’s experience first.

To learn more about the benefits TeamKinetic’s Volunteer Management Software could have in your organisation, please get call or email one of our team:

T: 0161 914 5757

E: james@teamkinetic.co.uk

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