Charity Archives - Page 3 of 3

Category: Charity

Reducing The Scare For Social Care

On 7th August 2020

How is COVID-19 affecting social care charities and what they can do to manage volunteers during and after the pandemic.

COVID-19 has impacted us all in different ways. For charities, this impact has resulted in a significant loss of income with ‘only 60% of the public [saying] they’ve given to charity in the last 3 months, down from 69% in January this year’. Social care charities have been particularly hard hit. As not only have they seen a reduction in income but people are more reliant on their services during this pandemic.

Pandemic to TeamKinetic

As lockdown has started to ease many organisations are starting to explore how their volunteers can return to their roles. For social care organisations this comes with some specific risks that need to be carefully assessed and managed before volunteers can return fully. Here at TeamKinetic we have been looking at how our technology might be useful in managing and mitigating some of these risks.

PPE

Many roles involve close personal contact for your volunteers so appropriate PPE is necessary. It is essential for volunteers to wear their PPE if their is a potential of working in close proximity or going to people’s houses. Although we cannot provide this, we can make it easier for you to make your volunteers aware of when to wear and how to wear. This can be done through training which can be made mandatory before a volunteer joins an opportunity. The training can include information on where volunteers would need to wear PPE and also demonstrations on how to wear them correctly.

House visits may be a possibility for some of your volunteers, so risk assessments can also be uploaded on to each opportunity.

Recruiting New Volunteers

64 – 75 year olds are the age group most likely to volunteer but since the pandemic started there has been a huge decrease in this number, with this age group more at risk if they catch the virus. Volunteers will be less likely to return to their volunteering roles because of this, meaning there will be less people available to undertake the essential work your organisation needs to do.

You may be worried about recruiting new volunteers but with our software the on boarding process is simplified. Once a volunteer registers there profile will be available to view and they can begin to complete any training for join opportunities. This then allows you to track their training or provide additional online support, all of this done through the web.

Our research also demonstrates TeamKinetic is more effecting at recruiting younger volunteers. This could be down to our digital tools that let you share to social media or the fact young volunteers like a digital approach.

Spending Money More Effectively

At a time when there may be a shortage of cash, it’s important to invest it in technology that can offer significant return on investment. Volunteers have never been more important. So, investing in a good volunteer management software will increase your volunteer retention and should lead to significant efficiencies in how you deploy and manage your volunteers workforce. “This sounds expensive though” you say, but what if I told you there is a more affordable software?

TeamKinetic Can Help

TeamKinetic volunteer management software is free for 30 days. Starting a free trial is easy, just go to our website to get started! Our system can help you create volunteering opportunities, recruit volunteers, and unite you with your community.

For example, the introduction of our community task dashboard makes it even easier to create COVID-related volunteering opportunities to help the vulnerable people in your community.

Don’t hesitate to reach out on social media! You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. You’ll see examples of the features we have to offer and some of the people we already work with.

If you have any questions call us on 0161 914 5757 or visit our website to chat to us online.

Nightstop: The Service Hoping To Prevent Homelessness

By Alex Evans

On 23rd September 2019

In Case Study, Charity, News & Views

Across Greater Manchester, 5,564 people are homeless. Homelessness in Manchester City Centre has dramatically increased over the past 5 years.

What is Nightstop?

Nightstop is a service run by Depaul UK. It provides young homeless people with emergency overnight accommodation. Saving them from facing a night on the streets or an unsafe place. The services are run by communities and charities in more than 31 locations around the UK, including Manchester, Birmingham, and Glasgow.

Nightstop is a unique project which relies on volunteer hosts to provide a safe, welcoming place for young people in crisis. These hosts are ordinary members of the community who volunteer to open their homes to young people aged 16 to 25. In 2018, they had 603 registered volunteer homes which helped provide a safe place for 1,224 young people to stay the night.

Why it’s needed

The service they provide is admirable, opening your home to a stranger can’t be easy but these volunteers are helping to tackle what has, unfortunately, become quite a big problem in Manchester. Recent research shows that Manchester has one of the highest rough sleeping rates in the country, as well as the highest number of deaths of homeless people. This is an issue that needs to be addressed and Depaul are doing that through all their work – including this service.

We recently visited the Nightstop Greater Manchester offices to meet with the team and learn more about what they do. We got some great stories from some amazing volunteers as well as their service manager. The work they do for homeless young people is inspiring.

Nightstop, volunteers, volunteer management software, volunteer management system, volunteer management, TeamKinetic, — **From left to right:** **Rosemary** (Volunteer), **Dave** (Nightstop Service Manager), **Beth** (Community Partnership Coordinator at Depaul UK), **Milo** (TeamKinetic).

We’ll be uploading a new video from our visit to Nightstop every day this week, either on YouTube, social media, or both – so keep your eyes peeled!

Watch all the videos on YouTube via this playlist. Also, follow us on Twitter and Facebook to see content exclusive to socials. Also, follow Depaul UK and Nightstop/Nightstop Greater Manchester to keep up to date with their great work.

Update: all interviews with the individual volunteers and the service manager are now available via this playlist below:

Think you could be a Nightstop host?

If these stories have inspired you and want to volunteer for yourself, you can do so by visiting the Nightstop website.

You can also contact Nightstop Greater Manchester by:
Email: nightstop.gm@depaulcharity.org.uk
or Telephone: 0161 507 3414

Not from Manchester? You can find contact details for your local Nightstop here.

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

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

By Rolf Herbert

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 Case Study: Youth Hostel Association (YHA)

By Rolf Herbert

On 28th March 2018

In Case Study, Charity

YHA England and Wales has over 120 YHA Hostels, another 25 franchise sites and 35 affiliate sites across the UK, and is the largest hostel provider in the UK. In its 85 Years of operations, YHA has been operating as a charity that aims to enable young people and schools, families and friends, travellers and individuals to explore, learn and relax the length and breadth of England and Wales. A vital part of this has been the involvement of volunteers who support the running of YHA.

YHA - Team Photo — Katie, Abigail, Jamie, Ros, Crewenna and Robert YHA Volunteering & Impact Team

Crewenna Dymond has been Head of Volunteering at YHA for the last twelve years. She has overseen the transition from the use of Excel sheets, paper files and a CRM system to using TeamKinetic for volunteer management. One year on, Crewenna shares her experience using TeamKinetic and the impact it has had on YHA’s volunteering.

How did you previously manage volunteers?

Previously, volunteers would have to call either the Volunteering Team or a local YHA directly to find when and where opportunities were available.

Once a volunteer had expressed interest in joining an opportunity, they would need to complete a PDF registration form, obtain references and potentially a DBS, depending on their role. Each of these items had to be processed manually and added to a physical paper volunteers folder. The process which was very timely, resulted in duplication and was very inefficient.

We also had a CRM system which was great for recording activity that had already happened, but there was nowhere to put in future activities, we always had to do this with an Excel spreadsheet.

The lack of a singular system also led to much confusion between volunteers and hostels, because there was nowhere to record what agreements had been made.

Why did you decide to look for a volunteer management software?

Despite all the difficulties of our system, it was an internal audit that sparked the need for a singular system to be put in place. There was concern that our data was spread across multiple areas leading to a higher risk to YHA than if it was to be held in one area/system, with an appropriate backup.

During the planning process, we looked to develop our current CRM system, but with the cost incurred, the continuous updates required and still no online tool for volunteers to use, we realised it would be more cost-effective to find a built-for-purpose system.

We looked at other competitors for volunteer management software before selecting TeamKinetic. We needed a system that looked and felt like the YHA website and the decision was made to use TeamKinetic because it could do this, it had the appropriate functionality and as a UK-based company, its data policies were aligned with GDPR.

Using TeamKinetic creates a singular place for the Volunteering team, Hostels and Volunteers to find and access information on the opportunities we have available.

How was the implementation process of TeamKinetic?

Before we imported our volunteer data to the system, we wanted to cleanse it (preparing for GDPR). We started with over 12,000 volunteers on our paper files. We decided to remove any volunteers who had been inactive for the last three years and the remaining 7,500 volunteers were invited to join the new system.

When the system went live in May 2017, we had 7,500 volunteers. Within 10 months using TeamKinetic we now have 10,500 registered users.

What benefits has TeamKinetic provided?

For volunteers it is the self-service side of the software, they are able to go onto the system and see everything they have booked onto, and log their hours, leave feedback and see their own progress.

For the opportunity providers, in our case the Hostels, the TeamKinetic framework has ensured opportunities are much more specific than before, including times, location and the responsibilities of volunteers. The Hostels are much more considerate of the benefits for volunteers and what is offered to them in return for their time because this is explained on all the opportunities pages of the website. This has led to a better experience for our volunteers, encouraging them to volunteer with YHA.

For our hostels, the biggest benefit of having TeamKinetic is the opportunity to create communities within their volunteers. Through the software, volunteers can be grouped into cohorts and communicated with via email or text. This direct communication enables opportunity providers to directly engage with their volunteers like never before. TeamKinetic has opened the door for opportunities to be advertised locally and attract those close to the hostel to get involved. We are finding the time it takes us to develop new opportunities is much shorter, making for a much more efficient process.

In terms of the benefit to us in the Volunteering team, it helps greatly to have everything in one place and having instant access to any of the information needed is very helpful.

How have you found the training, support and use of TeamKinetic?

Steve, the implementation consultant at TeamKinetic, took us through our training and showed us how to use many of the features. We could then refer to the training videos or training manuals both available online if we needed any further support. Of course, if there is anything additional that I need I can always access the team by calling their offices or emailing them or submitting a customer support ticket.

How did your volunteers find using TeamKinetic?

New volunteers have got on and used the website because they did not have any previous expectations. For these volunteers making full use of the Events pages has helped us to help them find the opportunities of most interest to them easily. Volunteers with less experience of using web-based technology have generally been positive about using it and with some tips and training, they have adjusted to the new ways of working fairly successfully.

We have found that the age of our volunteers is dropping. Around six or seven years ago, the average age for our volunteers would have been around 55. Now, over half of registered users are under the age of 26. We believe this is because the user-friendly system is something younger people are comfortable using, making it really accessible to them.

Do you have any other comments?

A couple of years ago we would have felt the cost of a volunteer management software system would be too much, it would be too much of a challenge and too much work to change systems. Having gone through the whole process, it’s actually not! For such a multi-site organisation to be able to transfer across to new systems in under four months, I’m sure smaller organisations will be able to do it much faster.

Thank you for your time Crewenna.

If you have any further questions or would like to learn more about TeamKinetic’s Volunteer Management Software please do not hesitate to get in touch with one of our team.

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

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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 charities big and small can help the NHS | Voluntary Sector Network | The Guardian

By Chris Martin

On 24th November 2015

In Charity, News & Views, NHS

With public health under new budget pressures and no sign of abating cronic health needs the Guardian discussion on the roll of the Voluntary sector offers some interesting arguments.

http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2015/nov/24/how-charities-can-help-the-nhs