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How To Get The Best Out Of Micro-Volunteering

Over the past 20 months we have seen organisations transform and adapt in order to continue helping those they serve. One way they have adapted is through micro-volunteering. We’ll be covering just what micro-volunteering is and how you can really get the best out of it! 

What is micro-volunteering?

Micro-volunteering consists of people taking small amounts of time out of their day to volunteer; we’re looking at up to 30 minutes on a particular task, maximum. These tasks can be broken down into small parts, in which one volunteer can complete just one component. It’s convenient and low commitment actions appeal a lot to potential volunteers who may only have limited free time. Micro-volunteering takes numerous small contributions and accumulates them together to make a difference.

While the majority of micro-volunteering takes place online, through signing petitions and sharing/retweeting to spread awareness- it doesn’t have to be. You could be taking part in a run, sorting through recycling or baking for an event.

Micro-volunteering is good for organisations and it doesn’t take away from traditional volunteering. Volunteering long-term, micro-volunteers aren’t who you should be looking at. They cannot be deemed as reliable. So, if your organisation is looking at micro-volunteering, make sure that your opportunities fit the micro-volunteering mould; don’t change a traditional opportunity for the sake of it- you’ll find more often than not, it simply won’t work.

Plan Correctly…

If your organisation is thinking of using micro-volunteering, they have the chance to save themselves time and money, if planned correctly. 

Start Planning. What’s the opportunity? Who’s going to manage this within the organisation? 

Get Advertising. Use various websites and social media to promote your micro-volunteering opportunity. 

Quick Management. Find your volunteers, get them started and confirm they know what it is they’ll be doing (there still needs to be some management even if the opportunity is small). 

Recognise and Reward. Send volunteers some feedback on their completed opportunity and tell them about their impact. 

The Pandemic Effect on Micro-volunteering…

As organisations rethought their volunteer programmes throughout the pandemic, micro-volunteering and the digital opportunities it provided was the gateway organisations needed to carry on. Organisation’s now face whether they keep micro-volunteering up now we return back to ‘normality’. 

At AVM’s annual conference, it was mentioned that micro-volunteering should have as little bureaucracy as possible. These aren’t the volunteers you so much rely on, but they can massively make an impact within your organisation. Relationships with micro-volunteers are different from your traditional ones (mainly because you can have hundreds of micro-volunteers, so personal relationships will be hard to maintain!) 

Benefits and Considerations

As we’ve hinted at, micro-volunteering does have some benefits for organisations. Currently the biggest barrier to volunteering is time. The world we live in now is fast paced, and people find that they don’t have enough time to get everything done; micro-volunteering is perfect. The flexibility of smaller tasks is appealing to many, but remember, new volunteers may be worried that they have to pledge a long-term commitment of some sort. With micro-volunteering they don’t have to.

Micro-volunteering opens you up to have a wider range of skills at your disposal (so to speak.) As volunteers are only engaged for a small amount of time, you might find that you have a group of volunteers with the same skill. Opportunities can now be split and completed quickly and efficiently: it’s a win-win. Your organisation will be getting the help it’s looking for, while volunteers haven’t lost too much of their free time.

A challenge with volunteers from an organisation’s perspective is making sure that you reach the micro-volunteering demand, especially because you’re dealing with quick opportunities. Along with this you’ll also need some sort of support for these volunteers. While they aren’t directly linked to your organisation, they’ll still need some support and direction from you. To do this, having a support tool kit you can send to your micro-volunteers with all the information they might need will set them on their way and means you can focus on other aspects of your organisation.

While your relationship with micro-volunteers is different from your traditional volunteers, you should still collect feedback (from them and from you!) As we know, micro-volunteering can be set at an arm’s length, especially for those opportunities completed online so volunteers may never know the impact they’ve made within an organisation – so make sure to let them know!

How do you know whether your organisation can use micro-volunteering?

Despite what the title says, not every organisation will work well with micro-volunteers (sadly). If you’re struggling to figure out whether your organisation would benefit, we might be able to help. Micro-volunteering is good for organisations that: 

  • Have the potential to attract a large pool of diverse volunteers; especially those who may not have a lot of time on their hands. 
  • Have a strong path for potential micro-volunteers to transfer into a traditional volunteer role (this may be letting micro-volunteers know where they can register their interest etc.) 
  • Have ideas around building motivation for micro-volunteers to keep them interested in the progression of your organisation, whether it be to volunteer or just to keep in touch. 
  • Offer new micro-volunteering opportunities to existing volunteers. This is really important now that we’re coming out of the pandemic, because volunteers’ perceptions and safety concerns have changed.

Hopefully those bullet points can give you some insight into whether, or how your organisation can start to introduce micro-volunteering into its daily process. It’s clear to see how this kind of volunteering has become popular in recent times, especially as the past 18 months have transitioned onto online platforms. If you’re thinking that micro-volunteering is something you should be adapting into your company, you might need a good volunteer management system…

Need a good volunteer management system? Look no further. 

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 on how we can assist with your volunteer management and getting the best out of all your volunteers, visit our website or contact us on 0161 914 5757.

Why Charities Should Be Using Technology To Manage Volunteers…

Having a strong pool of volunteers is absolutely crucial for charities; and technology can be the solution to effectively recruit new volunteers. We’ve seen recently just how much technology has connected us, bringing people together – exactly what charities are looking for.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) have recommended that charity organisations move to digital outputs in order to become as accommodating for potential volunteers as possible. We want to cut through current barriers stopping people from volunteering.

Managing volunteers on a digital platform builds a community, and improves communication, not just between organisations and volunteers, but between volunteers themselves too! You’ll find that everyone will be more focused on your organisation’s cause.

Richard Cooper, Director of Programmes at the Technology expresses that one of the biggest issues in charities is the lack of understanding on how technology can help. Well, we can help with that!

Why Technology/Digital?

So, why digital? You can find the right volunteers for you. With constantly changing volunteer pools, digitally advertising your opportunities gives you new options. When you promote your opportunities, you’re able to tailor your language to the volunteers you’re looking for. If you already have a good volunteer pool, you can use them as a reference… How would you promote them? What tone would you use? 

By having a digital sign up/application process, you have all the information you need on a volunteer’s profile, in one centralised system. By registering online, volunteers can instantly gain access to your opportunities, and start volunteering as soon as possible! 

If your charity has an onboarding or training process that volunteers have to complete, you can transfer this onto volunteer management systems too. Your processes are now streamlined and you can attract more people than ever; a digital initiative by Age UK a has amassed a 50% increase in their sign up conversions.

Perfect your Two-way Communication:

You might think that it’s all well and good having volunteers sign up, but for charities human connection and having that relationship between one another is crucial. So how do we achieve that online? 

Communication between a volunteer and organisation should always go two ways: it’ll help you keep attracting and retaining volunteers. With digital systems, that communication is always open. You can build a relationship through email, chat box, or even SMS text all from one place. 

This not only shows your support but can also be used to recognise volunteers. For example, within TeamKinetic’s system you can leave feedback (on both a volunteer and organisation side) thanking the volunteer in question for completing the opportunity. The Charity Retail Association (CRA) has expressed how showing appreciation can really motivate a volunteer – and we agree! 

Digital systems also offer new ways to recognise and reward your volunteers too! To come back to TeamKinetic, you can create custom achievement badges such as ‘volunteer of the month’ or enable ‘HourTrades.’ HourTrades are vouchers that volunteers can swap their logged hours for. This gives them a reward (the reward is up to you!)

Has the Pandemic moved technology forward?

It doesn’t seem a surprise that the pandemic has thrown volunteering into a more digital design. Using digital platforms throughout the pandemic to work and volunteer have doubled compared to pre-pandemic rates (82%). This has meant that volunteering through the pandemic was able to continue, with new digital systems improving service accessibility by 45%. Technology has been able to improve the ease of access towards volunteering over the past 18 months, and if we look more into the future, digital platforms are here to stay.

One of the concerns surrounding moving to digital, is the lack of skills paid staff had. Yet over the past 18 months to 2 years, there’s been an increase of 73% of required staff increasing their level of digital skills. It seems the pandemic has only increased the rate at which charities are moving online and taking a more technology based approach. This is reminiscent of the work towards Volunteer Passporting, which we wrote a blog all about too!

The processes of time-consuming and complex processes are a thing of the past, streamlining your volunteer management digitally offers a comprehensive service, for your managers and your volunteers.

Want To Know More?

Here at TeamKinetic we can get you set up quickly and efficiently, so you can start to recruit, retain and realise the potential of your volunteers… 

Start a free trial with TeamKinetic here. Or alternatively email chris@teamkinetic.co.uk or call on 0160 914 5757.

How to Increase Volunteer Retention (and keep it!)

Now that life is returning to normal – or as normal as it can be – you might be wondering the best practice when it comes to volunteer retention.

Over lockdown you might have lost volunteers. Research suggests the number of volunteers in charity shops fell by 20% as a result of the pandemic. These people might have moved into full-time work, they might not feel comfortable coming back due to health/personal reasons, or maybe they just no longer have time to give anymore. 

But don’t worry! There are many ways to recruit new volunteers and make sure you retain them too.

Here are our top tips when it comes to solving the issue of poor volunteer retention rates.

Keep Volunteers Happy

A happy volunteer is a motivated and loyal volunteer. But what makes them happy? Well that’s a hard question to answer. Everyone is different but the key fundamentals should give you a good start: 

Good Communication

If you consider volunteers to be essential to your organisation, remember to check in with them regularly. Their opinions matter and can help you improve your volunteer programme, leading to increased recruitment and better retention rates.
Many might communicate with volunteers through things like WhatsApp and Facebook groups, but have you considered alternatives? Any good volunteer management system will allow you to communicate with your volunteers in a range of ways all through one medium. For example; emails, SMS Texting, Social Media sharing, and opportunity chat rooms are all possible in TeamKinetic.

Be Flexible

These options are available when creating an opportunity on the TeamKinetic system

If you’re experiencing a lot of absences from your volunteers, maybe it’s a sign of unhappiness and/or stress. Giving them flexibility (i.e. multiple shift times & dates and/or an option to work from home) could be a way to improve this. Giving volunteers a range of ways to help out can make them feel valued. You’re not just trying to fill a position – you actually appreciate the work they’re doing for you. Which brings us to our next point…

Show Appreciation

Even though they’re giving their time for free, it’s still nice to be acknowledged every so often. Showing appreciation doesn’t just stop at sending them a thank you card, it can also involve how they’re treated on the job. Ensure volunteers feel valued in their positions, give them good quality training materials and empower them.

Access to Good Quality Opportunities

An example of an opportunity on the TeamKinetic system

Firstly, make sure all information about your opportunities (and ways to apply) is easy to access for your prospective volunteers. Making opportunities easy to find means that you’re increasing the amount of people you could reach. This could in-turn increase the quantity and diversity of people who want to volunteer for you.

Secondly, making the opportunities you’re offering of a good quality. Giving volunteers good work means they’ll actively want to keep giving you their time and you’ll both get much more out of the whole experience. However, not only do your opportunities have to be worthwhile, but the way you describe them does too. Provide as much information as possible, including all the key details (times, dates, location, etc.) as well as highlighting the skills they can develop.

Upgrading Your Volunteer Management Solution

Perhaps you’ve read these tips and want to use them, but implementing them may seem like a mammoth task. Well, have you thought about volunteer management software? It may seem like an extra expense you don’t need, but the tools you’ll receive access to will improve your volunteer programme and save you massive amounts of time! 

With features that fulfil everything mentioned in this article, why not give it a try? You can start a free trial with TeamKinetic now. Once you’re up and running with a trial site, we’ll contact you to ask if you’d like a demo with Chris. This will give you a personalised, in-depth look at the system and all its capabilities.

With no obligation to pay anything until you’re sure our system is right for you it seems like a no-brainer.

TeamKinetic 2.05 Interim Release

We have had a busy few weeks and have rolled out another interim release packed full of useful changes and updates suggested by our users.

Additionally we have also updated our infrastructure over the last few weekends with minimal distruption. All our servers and virtual environments are now on the latest server operating system and our database has also been updated to a new version. We’ve also thrown some more hardware at the application and I hope you have noticed some snappier responses.

Custom emails for opportunities

You can now add a custom email to an opportunity that is sent when a volunteer joins INSTEAD of the universal email (the universal email remains accessible and customisable as before). So if you have a special message to give to volunteers that join certain opportunities here is your chance.

It’s super easy to use and access, quick check box to say you want to use a custom email then you will see the normal editor window where you can craft the email.

Administrators can add an attachment to these emails from the normal list of email attachments you are used to seeing in the bulk email and email customisation areas.

Remember, this email is sent INSTEAD of the universal one, so be sure to include full details.

Custom email for role applications

Just as above, now when super admins are creating or editing roles they can add a custom email that is sent when a volunteer applies for that role.

It all works identically as for custom opportunity emails, and once again is sent instead of the universal email.

Close applications for an opportunity

Admins and providers can now hit a button on the APPLICANTS tab for apply first opportunties which will close applications for the opportunity without closing the opportunity. This enables already accepted volunteers to carry on as normal, and access new sessions, without attracting any new applicants.

Opportunity image enforcement option

Super Admins can now elect to switch of the mandatory upload of images for each opportunity. This option is OFF be default.

Information about the opportunity the intial role application was for

When a volunteer first applies for a role we record which opportunity this was on. We used this to enable the auto application to the opportunity if it was required, once the role applicaiton was complete and successful.

We have now started to show this information on the role management page so you know which opportunity the volunteer was originally interested in.

The volunteer also gets this information, along with a link to the original opportunity so they don’t need to hunt around to find it.

New and fixed reports

We have added a pie chart showing the proportion if volunteers on events and opportunities that have reported as having special needs or disabilities, downloadable of course.

The pie chart showing the ethnicity of volunteers on opportunities and events was not using distinct volunteers, but all the joined sessions. This has been fixed and is now accurate and the total volunteers will match the number given in the summary for volunteers.

Improved profile editing for volunteers

The layout when editing the profile for a volunteer has been tidied up and the various layouts for external volunteers, provider editing pages have also been improved.

We have split out the location aspects of their profile from their personal details, so you can update and edit independantly. This will help where location details have not been recorded properly but you still need to update other aspects of their profile.

Feedback report is now downloadable

Added a download button to the feedback report page so you can grab a full list of all the feedback at anypoint.

New filter for searching volunteers

You can now choose in the TYPE filter, to show volunteers that will and that will not receive bulk emails. A volunteer only receives bulk emails if they have opted in, have a valid email address, and have been granted access.

Faster searching

The opportunity search page speed has been improved by excluding distance calculations where possible and also using a boundary box method of finding matching opportunities rather than calculating the distance from the volunteers location and all other opportunites.

This is not as accurate but much faster and the accuracy is perfectly acceptable for this search. This means that empty or null searches, which are by far the most performed search such as;

https://volunteering-wales.net/volunteers/search

can return the maximum 250 opportunities in less than a second.

Providers having multiple accounts is now optional

The ability for providers to create their own sub accounts for collegues to use to login is now an option. You can find it in the super admin menu > options > everything else tab.

Better ordering of completed opportunities for volunteers

When volunteers view their opportunity tab in their dashboard, completed opportunities were ordered by their start date (age). We’ve switched this around now so that the opportunities are ordered by the date of their last session on that opportunity. So the opportunity that was mostly recently completed is at the top.

In app criminal checks

We are just finishing our initial development of in app criminal checks with KnowYourPeople in the UK. This wil mean you can fill out a simple form in the app, send it off and within 24 hours or so you will have the completed criminal check details available on the volunteers profile.

They will also send the certifcate to the volunteers address and your organisation name will appear on the certificate.

We don’t have finalised prices for the each check, but we are confident they will be less than £12 per check for the enhanced version.

If you are interested in trialing this new feature please get in touch.

Should you still be working with online volunteers post-covid?

Now we’re heading back to ‘normal’, should you still be working with online volunteers? YES! By recruiting online volunteers from quite literally anywhere you’re expanding your reach. When it comes to volunteering: the bigger your reach, the better! Virtual volunteering slots here perfectly. 

In today’s blog post, we’re outlining the ways you can make sure your virtual opportunities stand out from the rest. 

Making Your Opportunity Stand Out

Your Opportunity Title. When creating your opportunity, make sure your title is compelling and attractive. A volunteer is more likely to join an opportunity that instantly excites them, so having a strong title is key. It’s also worth mentioning somewhere in the title that the opportunity is remote. 

Opportunity Description. Simply, don’t post the full list of details. Searching volunteers are likely to be leading with emotion – and a long description of there duties isn’t going to entice them. We suggest giving snippets of their duties but focus on explaining the impact they’ll be making.

Jargon. For a number of volunteers, this is their first time volunteering. Any specific language or acronyms should be left out. It’s most likely going to confuse potential volunteers, so keeping it as simple as possible will get more interest from new volunteers.

Calls To Action. Give potential volunteers the ‘next steps’ for joining an opportunity. Your opportunity should always have contact details too, for any other questions or support they might require. 

Image Use.  The use of imagery taps into volunteers’ emotions. Using the right image can trigger mirror neurons in the brain, so the volunteer feels the emotions portrayed in an image. Your images can also show that your organisation is inclusive to all. It’s important that your imagery is right, and sends the right signals to those browsing. 

Checking Your Posting. Once your post is complete, make sure to double check it. Go through and check that all the information is correct as well as looking out for any spelling/grammatical errors. It’s also worth, once posted, looking at the opportunity through a potential volunteer’s eyes – do they have everything they need to join? 

Are You Screening Your Volunteers?

Now that you’ve perfected your opportunity listing, and you have a set of virtual volunteers, the screening process can begin! What should you be considering when it comes to your volunteering screening process? 

At the outset, you need to find out where your volunteer will be working. Are they going to be in a pace that’s quiet and private, or will they be in a busy environment? The key thing is that they are able to volunteer effectively in the place they’ve set up. 

To ensure your volunteer is working effectively, are their any supplies or training required? Ensure that your volunteer has completed their training steps, and can access everything they need to start volunteering; this check makes sure there can be a smooth process into the opportunity, because there’s no stop/starting as a volunteer doesn’t have access to something important. 

Volunteers will be interacting with a number of different people – let them know the basic information on how they should interact. This can help build up a volunteer’s confidence, so they interact with the organisation and those it helps more. 

Make sure that you’re frequently staying in touch with those who virtually volunteer, over email, chat or video call. You can touch base weekly or monthly, building up a relationship that keeps them returning to volunteer. Establishing this relationship is important, volunteers want to feel seen and heard, like they aren’t just on the outskirts of the organisation. 

Volunteer Motivations

You can also match volunteers with other opportunities you think they might be interested in. One way you can do this is through understanding your volunteers motives. VolunteerPro teaches a lot about a set of motivations a volunteer is likely to have, and how they can be applied by volunteer managers. Their motivations are: 

  • Values: Where in which volunteers take something meaningful from the hours they spend volunteering. 
  • Careers: Opportunities open doors for volunteers to advance in their careers or network with likeminded people from their industry. 
  • Social: Volunteers can find themselves in emotional and supportive environments which they can also benefit from. 
  • Enhancement: Volunteering gives leadership development to volunteers and changes their perception of power to some extent. 

Volunteers that are open and motivated are most likely to have more than one goal in mind, rather than running on one single purpose. For some, they might not yet realise what those goals or motivations are, but they want to help in any capacity. 

Think it’s time to invest in volunteer management software?

You can start a free trial of TeamKinetic on our website. This will let you check out all our features for 30 days. If you like what you see, contact us to book a demo and see how we can help your organisation manage your volunteers!

How to get young people volunteering at heritage sites…

The HistoricScot Youth Forum was established to understand how to get young people volunteering and involved in the heritage sector. Historic Environment Scotland (HES) have been involved with Young Scot, in a 24 month partnership to help expand the engagement, participation and involvement of younger generations from different backgrounds to influence their activity and decision-making processes.

In previous conversations, there has been a multi-generational issue, especially regarding younger generations. Over the past 18 months, Young Scot have been tackling this problem of the lack of young generation involvement. Their results are presented in this report and contribute towards the Historic Environment Scotland 2019-22 corporate plan.

The report is spilt into three key themes: Community and Schools, Volunteering and Work, and HES sites all with a focus on future engagement of young people within the heritage sector. These recommendations are based off results from surveys.

Community and Schools Responses

For many, school is the first time people will engage with the historic environment. It’s highly likely that those who engage with historic environments as an adult have had experiences as a child, so ensuring sites are engaged with schools is crucial. 

The majority of young people nowadays find their information through online social media platforms, so if they aren’t connected to HES platforms, they aren’t going to be engaged with it. For 32% of respondents, they didn’t have a connection to historical places around Scotland, despite 47% expressing interest. 

Through their research, Young Scot have created these recommendations for the future: 

  • Start discussions with marginalised communities about how their heritage can be represented. 
  • Create history resources that are widely accessible for young people to learn and connect with. 
  • Develop relationships with schools and spread awareness of HES in classroom settings. 
  • Facilitate and engage with schools who have decided to visit sites and keep them engaged afterwards. 

Volunteering and Work Responses

Volunteering can be an important factor for individuals entering employment into the sector. Survey results show that 3/4 of respondents hadn’t considered a career in the historic environment but 60% of people wanted to know the ways work opportunities can engage them. Currently, the heritage sector attracts volunteers that are male around the age of 35 (according to Young Scot research). 

Lack of awareness towards employment, partnered with minimal advertisements are just two of the barriers which stopped people volunteering. If no one can see the opportunities, your pool of volunteers are significantly reduced.

In regards to young people, offering roles in areas they’re passionate about provides them with purpose and will help younger generations gain interpersonal skills they need. It’s especially vital now that these generations have lost time for social encounters due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

For Volunteering and Work, Young Scot had the following recommendations:

  • Create an online space for young people to showcase who they are and their skills for quicker sign up or applying opportunities. 
  • It’s imperative that those with or without the internet have equal access to opportunities
  • Start promoting your volunteering opportunities on the platforms where young people are, such as Instagram and Twitter.
  • For new volunteering roles, tailor the opportunity’s advertisement to a diverse group of young people through language, tone and imagery.

HES Site Responses

Currently, heritage sites host a number of opportunities for specific demographics and it’s mainly families. Due to this, there is still work to be done in engaging young people. For many heritage sites, this age range is forgotten, when they should be included.

In Young Scots’ survey, they found that if sites became more technology based, or held more events, then visits would be more enjoyable for younger generations. In a separate matter, over a quarter of respondents cannot access all parts of heritage sites due to the lack of accessibility provided.

Based on the information from the survey, Young Scot highlighted gamification as a way to engage young people within heritage sites. Gamification is applying elements of games to other activities, normally completed as an online technique to keep people engaged. Heritage sites can use this as a technique to interest young people into engaging with their content.

The report created a number of recommendations for heritage sites: 

  • Make sure that all facilities are accessible to everyone, without this, there is a barrier against those with disabilities from accessing the heritage environment. 
  • Design new events, exhibitions and educate young people of the cultural changes within society.
  • Host events to celebrate minority groups and their heritage in Scotland’s history. 
  • Make improvements to the website and the types of content it provides: specifically where people can go to learn more. One way to do this is to create hubs for different age groups. This, along with the introduction of gamification, creates an online community where young people can meet other, like-minded people.

Conclusions…

From Young Scot’s experience with engaging in the sector, there is a disproportionate underrepresentation of those from a variety of backgrounds. Heritage sites don’t reflect the diversity of the sector, the organisation, or Scotland as a whole. This barrier in particular needs to be overcome to make HES as accessible as possible for all young people.

The introduction of the latest technology can engage audiences at a younger age; paired with a strong relationship with schools, the historic environment can recharge younger generations of their love for Scotland’s culture, past and present.

Young Scot is hoping the recommendations made throughout the report can start conversations within HES on the future of younger generations in the sector. They encourage HES to continue involving young people in future plans to make a real impact. 

Want to start engaging with your volunteers more? 

Calling all heritage sites! We’ve worked with Volunteer Organisers Network and Historic Environment Scotland to create the Make Your Mark Portal, which can promote your heritage opportunities to new audiences and helps you with your volunteer management. You can find out more about Make Your Mark here. 

If you’d like to know more about us here at TeamKinetic, and how we can help you manage your volunteers, you can access our website here.

Why I’m over the moon to be partnering with the Association of Volunteer Managers

A message from our Sales Director, Chris Martin, on what it means to be partnering with AVM.  

This month has seen the culmination of a conversation that started 5 years ago, and I’m absolutely delighted to finally announce that TeamKinetic will be the very first corporate partner of the Association of Volunteer Managers.  

Since starting TeamKinetic, I have been working away sharing the gospel of digital volunteer management. Having come from a sports and events background I was unaware of the richness and diversity of the wider volunteering world. I knew it existed, but I didn’t really appreciate the depth and breadth of it. 

As I became more enlightened about volunteering outside of my comfort zone, I was lucky enough to stumble upon the work of the Association of Volunteer Managers and their learning and development days.  

The first thing I felt when attending this event was the warmth of the welcome, and despite some of the volunteers and staff having changed over the years, the openness and welcoming atmosphere hasn’t changed one bit. It was a revelation to see this organisation run by volunteers doing what they were for the greater good of the sector. I think as early as that first session back in 2015 I was already thinking about how I could get involved.

It goes without saying that there is so much more than a warm welcome and a lovely group of people, the AVM’s work is essential and over the following 5 years we at TeamKinetic have been really proud to support their events where we could, but I always felt there was potential to do more.

Being the first at anything comes with its own set of challenges and this was no different.  As an organisation, the board at AVM needed to develop its own understanding of how a partnership might work and what it might like to offer a potential partner. They also wanted to make sure that any organisation they worked with share their values and beliefs about volunteer management. Over the last 5 years it’s been a real pleasure getting to know some of the people who make AVM what it is, working on the occasional project and talking about how we might support each other’s work. So although we are now announcing our official partnership, it feels like we have been unofficial partners for quite a while.  

So, here we are, the very first corporate partner and we are so excited to get started.  

It’s my hope that as TeamKinetic we can bring some real value to the AVM. TeamKinetic’s mission is to make volunteering easier and we want to share with you our experience and knowledge about digital transformation and how to use digital tools to manage your volunteers.

We also believe that every organisation, no matter how big or small can access and afford these digital tools without any fear of cost or growth. We appreciate not everyone will want to use TeamKinetic but I think what we have to say will have the potential to positively impact your work.

Over the next 12 months, we will be working with the team at AVM to develop some accessible resources and materials that you might find useful if you are thinking about how you might use digital. We will be exploring what type of member offers and benefits you might like from us to make it easy and affordable for you to look at digital volunteer management and most importantly we hope to get to know you all a little bit better.

We are sure this is just the start of a long and mutually beneficial partnership with the fantastic team at AVM and if you have any questions or suggestions of the type of content we can create for you then please do get in touch with me and let me know. 

I really look forward to seeing you all at the conference this year, please do say hello if you spot me.  

Chris Martin. 
Sales Director. 
Chris@teamkinetic.co.uk

TeamKinetic is officially the first partner of the Association of Volunteer Managers.

TeamKinetic are excited to announce that they will be the first official corporate partner of the Association of Volunteer Managers (AVM.) Since discovering their work 5 years ago, they have been a passionate advocate for the importance of the AVM. TeamKinetic welcomes this formal partnership. 

Both organisations share the same passion and desire to progress the professionalism of those who involve volunteers. AVM’s goal as an independent membership body is one that supports, represents and champions people in volunteer management in the UK regardless of field, discipline or sector. As an organisation primarily run by volunteers TeamKinetic is proud to be able to directly support their work as a partner as they offer training, campaign on key issues and provide peer to peer support to volunteer managers. 

The partnership is hoping to offer the membership added value and over the next few months will be looking to announce a number of special offers only available to AVM members and supporters. TeamKinetic have spent the last 13 years on the edge of customer-led innovation surrounding digital volunteering and will be continuing to support the campaigns undertaken by AVM. They are looking forward to sharing their experience and knowledge with the AVM members. 

Sales Director, Chris Martin has expressed his gratitude towards Jo Gibney and Ruth Leonard “for all their hard work in helping to make this a reality and I sincerely hope we can continue to support the wonderful work and development of AVM for a long time to come.” 

Chair of AVM, Ruth Leonard says “this is a really exciting next step for the organisation and will enable us to think about how we can offer more to volunteer managers. AVM is proud of our heritage of being run by and for our members and want to be able to remain relevant into the future. TeamKinetic’s enthusiasm and support for AVM has been clear throughout our shared working and I’m looking forward to develop this further.”  

For any organisations or individuals who work with Volunteers, that are not already aware of the AVM and their work, you can visit their site to learn more on becoming a member. 

Get in Touch…

If you’d like to know more about AVM, you can access their website here. 

You can contact the team here at TeamKinetic through our website, or call on 0161 914 5757. 

TeamKinetic 2.01 Interim Release

Over the weekend we have been finalising the interim release for TeamKinetic 2, we have fixed many minor bugs and issues and also added some functionality that was missing or didn’t quite make the cut for the initial release. You don’t need to do anything, and all installations will be upgrade by Sunday evening.

Edit opportunity images after creation

You can now choose a different existing opp image, or upload a new one when editing an existing opportunity.

Custom Opp Badges in Alternative Language

If you uuse an alternative language in your installation you can now create and edit custom opp badges in your alternate language. The alternate language is also displayed to volunteers of course if they have selected it.

Providers Can Edit Their Users

Providers can now edit their created users and reset their passwords instead of having to delete and re-create.

All Provider Users Can Reset Their Own Passwords

The FORGOTTEN YOUR PASSWORD link and reset process now also works for the extra provider users as well as for the main central account.

New Role Application Notification

Administrators now get a notification when a volunteer applies for a role the first time.

New Providers Can Access Help Menu

New providers that have not yet been cleared can now access the help menu and help resources, including the contact pages. This will help new providers orientate themselves before they are cleared.

New Opportunity Features Are Copied

The new opportunity features that we have introduced are now also copied across to the new opp when copying an existing one.

Volunteers Can Withdraw an Opportunity Application

Once a volunteer has applied for an opportunity a button will appear allowing them to withdraw that application. This button is visible until the application has been accepted or refused.

Sticky Table Headers

For volunteer, opportunity, and provider searches, where the resulting data list can be pretty long; we have added sticky table headers. As you scroll down the page the column headings will get fixed to the top of the page so you can always easily see which column you are looking at.

Volunteer Feedback

When feedback from volunteers is not enforced (Super admin – Options – Opportunities – Enforce opportunity feedback), any feedback given to a volunteer from a provider is still shown. Previously this option worked as a switch to turn feedback on or off globally.

Provider Notification Improvements

A number of the provider notification emails have received some improvements, like the volunteer’s session list being included when a provider is notified about a new session signup by a volunteer.

 

Thanks for all your suggestions and for letting us know about any issues or bugs you have found, its always useful.

Volunteer Passports: Is this the future?

The following round-up blog post comes from a research report commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), on Volunteer Passports that TeamKinetic helped to support. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were reminded of just how important volunteering is to communities. It’s suggested that around 12.4 million adults volunteered during the pandemic, 4.6 million of those for the first time! The pandemic has made waves within volunteering and with more and more organisations coming together to find a collaborative approach to recruitment and onboarding; there have been movements to introduce volunteer passports into organisations. 

What is a Volunteer Passport?

If you aren’t familiar, a volunteer passport can hold all the verified credentials a volunteer might need in order to volunteer, which can serve as credentials to a pool of organisations. This can be called volunteer portability; this concept refers to the easing of movement across different organisations and roles. Volunteer passports can be a quicker way to apply as a volunteer as any references or training needed has already been completed and verified! 

Passporting Aims…

The initiative aims to address key issues regarding volunteer recruitment, management and development…

In certain contexts, such as emergency response volunteering, volunteer passports can be a mechanism to recruit and onboard large numbers of volunteers to opportunities locally and at speed. With passporting, the aim is also to improve the effectiveness of matching volunteers to opportunities tailored to what they’re interested in, or want to take part in. It also means that volunteers can be ‘re-deployed’ onto different tasks where they may be needed. This also ensures that micro, ad hoc and event-based volunteering opportunities are supported, also known as volunteer portability. 

Reducing volunteer vetting can save time and money for all parties, through the standardisation of volunteer training and management. In the past, there have been previous initiatives that have explored this locally or within a particular sector, improving the consistency of trained volunteers. 

What about alternative practices?

Here’s a quick run-through of the practices that could be integrated into volunteer passports: 

A number of volunteering organisations already match volunteers with volunteering opportunities they find may be a good fit, based on previous opportunities or through a skill-based match. Many volunteers started volunteering through word of mouth therefore, online volunteer passports may be deemed unnecessary. Any passporting system would have to consider how the offline side could be integrated successfully. 

Volunteer profiles have also been in previous initiatives, numerous management platforms have offered volunteers a facility where they can develop and build their ‘profile.’ This can be used as an alternative to CVs or LinkedIn, which volunteers involved in the report have emphasised. Volunteer passporting could mean it addresses an aim that has already been met.  

Other related schemes have been surrounding rewarding volunteers. Just like within the TeamKinetic system, schemes can provide rewards through ‘time banks’ or ‘time credits’, where a volunteer’s time is recorded, which they can then use to redeem a reward of some sort. The reward would depend on the organisation they are working with. We know how important recognising and rewarding volunteers are, so volunteer passporting has to include this, or something similar. 

Key Areas of Demand

In order for volunteering-involved organisations to support volunteer passports there are some key areas of demand. The report consistently highlights that portable IDs, and DBS checks are deemed to be a core element of potential volunteer passports. This is because they benefit volunteers, organisations and stakeholders from different voluntary sectors. The introduction of portable IDs and DBS checks is welcomed by organisations as a way to reduce the admin burden that comes with mass onboarding. For volunteers, it reduces the barriers they may find when wanting to volunteer in a different sector. 

Allowing organisations to have a shared pool of volunteers would help particular types of volunteering such as emergency, event-based, and micro-volunteering. This element is a way of always having volunteers on hand to offer opportunities to.

From the suggestion for portable IDs, the standardisation of volunteer training is also of interest. Standardising training will be beneficial through local volunteer portability and regarding specialist skills with individual sectors. Not only can volunteers help across different organisations in their local area, those volunteers with specialist skills, are enabled to complete certain tasks for a number of organisations within the sector. 

Another element was found that there needs to be some sort of validation of volunteers’ experiences and skills. For some volunteer groups, this would be incredibly beneficial, where volunteering could become a potential route to employment, the validation of skills can be added to a CV etc. This aspect was also thought to offer benefits in terms of supporting social integration and the well-being of different marginalised groups. 

What Does Each Sector Think?

The research for the report presented some experiences and views from each sector regarding the introduction of volunteer passports and how they might be used. 

The health sector has seen a rise in volunteer passporting over the past couple of months, and the expectation is for the demand to grow. The sector has found that passporting ensures agile and efficient emergency responses along with the integration of statutory and non-statutory services. The demand has also increased in the community action sector; portability at local level of training and skills has already been introduced, so there is potential to build on existing initiatives to deliver a comprehensive passporting system in local areas.  

Regarding the culture sector, museums and heritage sites perceived passporting as beneficial. Specifically highlighting the portability.

Portability allows for volunteer learning and skill exchange, reducing administrative burden. There has been interest in developing a shared volunteer training standard within the sector.

In some areas, the sector has found they have been oversubscribed with volunteers. Therefore, standardising training and easy portability means volunteers can be moved into new routes while staying in the sector they’re interested in. 

While there is strong demand in certain sectors, the sporting sector has seen very little demand for a passporting system, with the exception of portable DBS checks. The report shows that demand is low as volunteer recruitment is mostly organic, so there’s little interest in the digital brokerage of volunteer passports. Along with this, for individual sports, qualifications are already there in terms of training, and therefore the standardisation of training has been met and recognised. 

So How Will it Work?

How might volunteer passports work moving forward?

  • Commonality: Volunteer portability is more likely to work when there is a common denominator between organisations whether this be locally or sector-based. This commonality between organisations may be essential to building a ‘federation of trust’ aligning volunteer standards and processes. 
  • Sustainable? Stakeholders have concerns that passport initiatives may not be sustainable. This is due to the temporary nature of funding, and a lack of resources. To overcome these issues, volunteer-involved organisations have stressed the need for passporting initiatives to be developed in a realistic way, building this into a long-term strategy for volunteering. 
  • Credibility: The Credibility of passport schemes is incredibly important for volunteer engagement and organisations. Some examples of the ways individual volunteer passporting schemes have been credible have included: endorsements from national councils of volunteer organisations and local authority and government institutions. 
  • Data Standards: This is a strong requirement from digital platform providers and organisations who explain that any volunteer passport system would only work if it was developed with open data standards. 
  • Control? Various organisations have emphasised how important it is for volunteers to be the ones controlling their data. For example, in previous initiatives, there have been options for volunteers to pause notifications at times when they were busy or wanted to stop volunteering for the moment.
  • Access: There is an element of exclusion and barriers for small organisations due to a lack of digital infrastructure and skills to join in on volunteer passporting for those who work for their organisation. Where are smaller organisations going to find and retain their volunteers? 

Expectations of Government Support…

There are areas where central and local governments can support volunteering in the context of volunteer passporting, including: 

  • Raising awareness of current possibilities to make DBS checks portable and improving their portability. 
  • Providing legal clarity over certain issues curtailing volunteer portability or any other elements of passporting. 
  • Working with the voluntary sector to support greater standardisation where appropriate through funding for resources and infrastructure. 
  • Encouraging volunteering by making sure other government policies do not pose barriers to volunteering. 

Where Does TeamKinetic Fit In? 

As mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, TeamKinetic helped support this report we’d like to thank the DMCS for inviting us to help! We’re intrigued to see how volunteer passports and passporting develop in the next couple of years. We’re currently looking at ways we could introduce volunteer passporting, or elements of passporting, into our system. 

If you’d like to know more about us here at TeamKinetic, you can start a free trial of TeamKinetic on our website. This will let you check out all our features for 30 days. If you like what you see, contact us to book a demo and see how we can help your organisation manage your volunteers!


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.

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