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How to Utilise The Big Help Out as a Sporting Organisation

On 29th May 2024

We all know the value of The Big Help Out at this point. It was a huge event last year, with an estimated 7.2 million people taking part. Organisations offering all types of opportunities will be involved this year, but we want to focus on sport in this blog. With Volunteers’ Week and The Big Help Out around the corner, it’s natural to want to get involved. Sport volunteering at The Big Help Out might seem like a good fit, but there are a few factors that might make it tricky.

Want to advertise sport volunteering at The Big Help Out?

Picture this. You’re a grassroots club with a dedicated cohort of volunteers. You want to get involved with The Big Help Out, but where do you start? The campaign is all about getting new people involved in volunteering in easy, short-term ways. But your club needs stability and you can’t just throw someone new into the volunteer roles you have.

So where do you start?

One method could be to host some kind of event that is separate to the core activity of your club. For example, a community day can give volunteers a great entry point into your club. Putting on fun activities for people in your local community to get to know what you’re all about can also open the door for short-term easy volunteering opportunities.

sport volunteering at The Big Help Out with a community sports day

Once they have that entry point, they’ll be more likely to want to jump through the hoops you need them to jump through in order to become a long-term volunteer. Whether this is completing training, undergoing a DBS check, or getting references from past roles, these barriers often stand in the way of short-term volunteering.

Ultimately, it’s about creating opportunities that are adjacent to something you want a volunteer to do in the long term. And it’s important to establish these before The Big Help Out. You don’t want to attract a load of new volunteers who are hungry to help, only to have nothing to offer them afterwards.

So for example, if you’re hosting a community sports day, you could ask volunteers to set up the activities and explain the rules. While this is a small task, it could be a gateway to a coaching position.
Alternatively, you could invite someone to come and take pictures of your community sports day, this could be a great entry point to becoming the club photographer when the season starts back up again.

sport volunteering at The Big Help Out through photography

How do we turn sport volunteering at The Big Help Out into something sustainable?

Sport volunteering at The Big Help Out is all about creating short-term tasters that can become sustainable long-term opportunities. It’s important to have a plan in place that outlines what opportunities you plan to make available at The Big Help Out and how these develop into longer-term opportunities for new volunteers to get involved with.

Find out more about The Big Help Out

The Big Help Out is taking place across the weekend of 7th – 9th of June. This coincides with Volunteers Week and The Great Get Together. Find out everything you need to know about The Big Help Out over on their website.

TeamKinetic will also be providing our users with DoIt integration. This means any TeamKinetic users can share their TK opportunities directly to the DoIt platform. Check out the full process below or read our blog 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.

New TeamKinetic Integration for the Big Help Out 2024

By Rolf Herbert

On 17th May 2024

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

We are very excited (and exhausted) to bring you the new TeamKinetic integration for The Big Help Out with DoIt, the platform supporting the 2024 campaign.

We have a video which will take you through the steps and explain the process and you can read a little more about how to register with DoIt and finding your API key with this little piece from DoIt.

The Process

It starts from your super admin menu; find the SETUP page and then the API & Integrations section. You’ll find a section titled DoIt (The Big Help Out).

Here you will find the registration link. This link will allow you to register with DoIt and also join the Big Help Out application. If you already have a DoIt account you should still follow this link as it will check to make sure you already have the Big Help Out app and if not ask you for permission to add it.

Once you have completed the registration process you’ll end up at your DoIt dashboard. On the left hand side hit the Org Settings menu and then look for the Integrations section. In that section you’ll find the API key bit you need.

Hit the generate new key and a new key will be created and displayed on the screen. There is a COPY KEY button you can use to copy the key to your clipboard. Once you have it copied return to your TeamKinetic app and paste the API key into the box ‘Your API Key’ and hit SAVE.

TeamKinetic will scurry off and check that we can connect to your DoIt account and confirm this by displaying your current list of DoIt apps as above. If you see an error message check your key and try again.

That’s it for the setup, from now on when you create an opportunity, on the Promoting and Sharing tab, you ‘ll be asked if you want to share to DoIt and to select the app you want to share to (The Big Help Out in this case).

When managing the opportunity you’ll see in the sharing tab that the oop is shared along with a link to view the opportunity on DoIt and also a button to remove the opportunity from DoIt.

When potential volunteers find your opportunities on The Big Help Out, there is an external apply link that they follow which leads them back to your TeamKinetic website where they can register and join your opportunity. Even if they have a DoIt account they will still get returned to your website.

Providers can also link their own DoIt account in the same way, and share their opportunities to their own DoIt account. This is preferable if you can encourage your providers to do this as it keeps everything nice and tidy and aligned without the potential for duplicating opportunities between one of your partners and yourself. Providers can enter their API key from the Account > Details & Setup page on the integrations tab.

It doesn’t matter whether the opportunity has been uploaded to your DoIt account, or directly to a provider’s DoIt account, the resulting opportunity on DoIt will be the same and the potential volunteer will end up back at your website.

Once you’ve managed to create your account and paste in your DoIt API key it’s super simple from that point on and you’ll soon be sharing your opps to The Big Help Out 2024!

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.

Empowering Heritage Preservation through Volunteer Management

By Alex Evans

On 1st May 2024

In Heritage & Culture, News & Views, Volunteer Management

Heritage and culture organisations do vital work, preserving the legacies of our past for future generations. They rely on dedicated individuals and effective organisation. This is where volunteer management can be a great tool!

The Role of Volunteers in Heritage Preservation

Volunteers generously offer their time and expertise to nurture and protect our cultural heritage. Whether they’re cataloguing artefacts or leading tours through historic sites, volunteers foster a deeper connection between communities and their heritage.

Challenges in Volunteer Management for Heritage Preservation

While their contributions are incredibly valuable, managing heritage volunteers still comes with its own set of challenges. These include recruitment struggles, providing adequate training, coordinating schedules, and retaining engagement. It’s no doubt that heritage organisations face a fair few hurdles when optimising their volunteer programs.

Volunteer diversity can be a big issue for organisations in the sector. A 2019 report from the Heritage Volunteering Group raised questions about the lack of diversity and the roles volunteers play. Is this still the case in 2024?

Over the years, some great resources have been developed to address this issue. For example, take a look at this Make Your Mark webinar on how you can remove class barriers to heritage volunteering. This is just one of the factors which might be limiting your volunteer diversity.

Make Your Mark have also developed an Inclusive Volunteering Toolkit which is well worth a look at.

Digital resources and tools can help you mobilise a wider range of volunteers as you can recruit outside of your usual ‘bubble’ in a quick and easy way.

The Importance of Effective Volunteer Management

Effective volunteer management is the cornerstone in overcoming these obstacles and maximising impact. By implementing streamlined recruitment processes, offering comprehensive training modules, and fostering open communication channels, heritage organisations can fulfil the true potential of their volunteer base.

Best Practice Volunteer Management for Heritage

To ensure the success of a volunteer programme, organisations must prioritise best practices. This may include establishing clear roles and expectations, providing ongoing support and recognition, and embracing technology to streamline administrative tasks. For example, a volunteer management system. A VMS can save you countless admin hours and help you cultivate a great community of volunteers.

Within TeamKinetic, volunteers are allowed to self-serve – meaning they have an active role in filling out their profile, choosing which opportunities to join, and following opportunity types that interest them.

Overall, volunteer management stands as a powerful tool in heritage preservation. By recognising the invaluable contributions of volunteers and implementing effective management strategies, we can safeguard our cultural legacy for generations to come.

How are we involved with the heritage & culture sector?

We recently announced our partnership with the Heritage Volunteering Group. This collaboration marks a commitment to the preservation of heritage sites and their volunteers.

Our shared aim is to foster community engagement and amplify the impact of volunteer efforts within heritage and culture organisations. In line with this, we are supporting all HVG events as well as their 2024 conference.

HVG’s annual conference is taking place on the 26th and 27th of November. Make sure you get the date in the diary by clicking on this link.

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 – SSO support for enterprise customers

By Rolf Herbert

On 30th April 2024

In Application Features and Tutorials, News & Views, TeamKinetic Features

For those customers that required higher security for their administrators, providers or volunteers, or that required the control of their user generation to be maintained centrally, TeamKinetic supports login and account generation via SSO (single sign on).

We support any SSO provider that is compatible with OpenAuth 2; this includes Azure, Okta, AWS and many others.

You must be an enterprise customer to enable SSO and there is a one-off fee for setup and implementation. To enable SSO we will require a few pieces of information;

The client id
The client secret id
The tenant id

With these we can create the necessary links for the login pages that look a little like this for Azure;

https://login.microsoftonline.com/tenantID/oauth2/v2.0/authorize?scope=openid%20email&response_type=code%20&response_mode=query&client_id=xxxx-xxxxx-xxxx-clientid

The user (admin in this case) will be presented with an SSO only button to login, like this;

They will get redirected to the SSO provider to login using their existing username and password and then if successful will be redirected back to your application. If the email matches an email in your administrator list they will be logged in, or if it does not exist a new minimum administrator account will be created and then they will be logged. Alternatively, if you wish, any emails for successful logins must match pre-existing accounts or the login will fail.

If you are interested in enabling SSO please get in touch or open a support ticket.

TeamKinetic 2.5 – Search is now turbo charged

By Rolf Herbert

On 25th April 2024

In News & Views, TeamKinetic Features, Technical Updates

The latest major release is now complete! Say hello to TeamKinetic 2.5.

Here are the great new features you can look forward to.

Watch our masterclass on all the key new features now:

Save your favourite searches and set a default

Create your personalised smart search and save to your profile to retrieve anytime. You can set any search as your default for the volunteer, opportunity and provider search pages. So as soon as you open one of those pages you’ll get the results you need immediately.

You can set your defaults across all the search pages in one go from your profile area. (The person icon at the right of the top menu.)

New Search Filters

We’ve added some new filters to the volunteer and opportunity search pages;

Date volunteer last logged hours
Volunteers waiting for parental consent (in the type sub-filter)
Opportunity ID check required
Is opportunity accessible
Opportunity applicant statuses
Providers with open applications

It’s always worth checking the search filters as they get added and improved constantly.

Watch it in action:

Full WYSIWYG rich text editing everywhere

Anywhere you can email a volunteer or a group of volunteers, you’ll now have access to the full rich text editing features and can include images, links and files.

This includes the volunteer search page, opportunity pages, volunteer profile pages. Basically anywhere you can email, expect to see the rich text editor.

Watch it in action:

Volunteer self-reported extra volunteering

We are very excited to reveal that volunteers will now be able to create their own complete record of volunteering and capture all their opportunities and hours.

Volunteers can add a description, the organisation and any hours donated. These will be included in their own record of achievements and hour totals.

Admins are notified when a volunteer adds their own extracurricular volunteering. If they wish, they can certify it and include it as approved hours. Those certified extra volunteering activities will be converted into the regular owed hours (now all termed ‘Extra Volunteering’) type opportunities. These will be included in reports and act as regular logged hours throughout the application.

Watch it in action:

Email send reports

We all know how frustrating it is to send emails to lots of volunteers. Some of them just don’t make it for various reasons.

Now, when you view the email log for any volunteer you will notice a little link next to the subject ‘check delivery’. This small little link will reveal what happened to the email, if it was sent, if it was received, and if opened.

Perfect if you need to know if a volunteer is receiving the emails you are sending.

Watch it in action:

Mark a volunteer as finished on any opportunity type

For long-running opportunities, you can end up with lots of inactive volunteers (those with no future sessions left) clogging up the volunteer list and email lists. Previously you have only been able to remove the volunteers completely from the opportunity which has the undesired side effect of also removing their contribution to the opportunity… not ideal.

We have re-engineered the ‘finished on this opp’ feature. It was previously available on flexible opportunities only, but it has been expanded to all opportunity types.

When selecting volunteers on an opportunity you’ll have an extra function ‘Mark as Finished’ which gives you a few extra options as well as just marking as finished. You can hide the volunteer from the provider completely on the opportunity page and you can also prevent the volunteer from joining any new sessions if you wish.

Watch it in action:

Merging volunteer accounts

It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally a volunteer has unexpectedly registered twice with different email addresses.

This works similarly to the merge provider feature and will copy all the sessions and hours from the volunteer you are viewing to the selected volunteer.

Watch it in action:

Sharing private notes

The private note area has been super useful for lots of our users, and the provider equivalent lets the provider also store private notes for their use against a volunteer.

Admins can now choose to share their private note(s) with providers if they feel it would be useful. And vice-versa: providers can share their private notes with system admins.

Additionally when a provider shares a private note to the admins a notification is sent, in case its important.

Watch it in action:

There are of course many other fixes and improvements;

Impersonate a volunteer directly from the opportunity management page,
Update expense claims status in bulk,
New customisable emails,
Tooltips won’t get lost over the edge of small screens.

TeamKinetic 2.5 is scheduled to go live on May 6th. But before we go live we need your feedback! Test all this out right now on https://beta.teamkinetic.co.uk/vk/admin using your regular admin login.

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.

Terms and Conditions: TeamKinetic Offer to HVG Members

By Alex Evans

On 19th April 2024

In Heritage & Culture, News & Views

25% off your next Volunteer Management Solution. Get in touch now, via our website at teamkinetic.co.uk or by email at info@teamkinetic.co.uk.

These terms and conditions govern the use of the promotional offer provided by TeamKinetic to members of The Heritage Volunteering Group. By taking advantage of this offer, you agree to comply with these terms and conditions.

1. Offer Details:
1.1. TeamKinetic offers members of the Heritage Volunteering Group (HVG) a discount of 25% off the standard rate for the TeamKinetic volunteer management system. This offer is valid from 23/04/2024 – 30/09/2024.

1.2. The discount applies only to the first year of subscription for any version of the TeamKinetic volunteer management system.

1.3. Organisations can take advantage of this offer by reaching out directly to TeamKinetic, either by starting a free trial, or emailing info@teamkinetic.co.uk with notice of their intent to redeem this offer.

2. Eligibility:
2.1. To be eligible for this offer, users must be members of The Heritage Volunteering Group at the time of purchase.

3. Discount Application:
3.1. The 25% discount will be applied automatically during the checkout process for the TeamKinetic volunteer management system.

3.2. The discount applies to the first year of subscription only. Subsequent renewals will be charged at the standard rate.

3.3. The discount will only be given to organisations that can prove their membership to the HVG. TeamKinetic reserves the right to refuse the discount to any organisation that cannot prove their membership.

4. Payment:
4.1. Users agree to pay the discounted subscription fee for the first year of their TeamKinetic subscription upon purchase.

4.2. Subsequent renewals will be charged at the standard rate unless otherwise stated by TeamKinetic.

5. Modification and Termination:
5.1. TeamKinetic reserves the right to modify, suspend, or terminate this offer at any time without prior notice.

5.2. In the event of termination, users who have already availed of the offer will continue to receive the discount for the duration of their current subscription term.

6. Limitation of Liability:
6.1. TeamKinetic shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising out of or in any way connected with the use of this offer.

7. Acceptance:
7.1. By taking advantage of this offer, users acknowledge that they have read, understood, and agree to these terms and conditions.

8. Contact Information:
8.1. For any inquiries or assistance regarding this offer, users may contact TeamKinetic by email at info@teamkinetic.co.uk or by telephone at 0161 914 5757.

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 and the Heritage Volunteering Group Join Forces

By Alex Evans

On 11th April 2024

In Heritage & Culture, News & Views

We are thrilled to announce a new partnership between TeamKinetic and the Heritage Volunteering Group (HVG). This collaboration marks a great step forward in our mission to make volunteering easier for everyone.

Who are the Heritage Volunteering Group?

The Heritage Volunteering Group is dedicated to helping volunteer managers unlock the power of volunteering through collaboration and sharing best practice. They have a fantastic community of passionate individuals committed to driving positive change in the sector.

HVG is open to any organisation that works within the Heritage and Culture sector. This includes volunteer-led organisations, national museums, trusts and groups. They hold an annual conference as well as two networking forums a year. Find out more about HVG here.

Their mission aligns perfectly with ours, making this partnership a natural fit for both organisations.

We are thrilled to be partnering with an organistion who shares our vision for volunteering in the heritage sector. TeamKinetic’s sponsorship of our events programme and our flagship conference, Heritage Volunteering ’24, provides an incredible opportunity for us to enhance our support to heritage volunteer managers across the UK, enabling them to create volunteer programmes that transform organisations, lives, and communities.
Matthew Hick
Chair of the Heritage Volunteering Group

How do they fit with TeamKinetic?

At TeamKinetic, our passion is developing volunteer management software that simplifies volunteer management. We want to empower organisations with the tools they need to mobilise, manage, and motivate their volunteers, all while measuring the amazing impact they’re making.

Overall, we just want to help organisations mobilise volunteers and maximise the potential of those volunteers – aligning perfectly with HVG’s mission.

Together, TeamKinetic and the Heritage Volunteering Group will work to produce resources and events for all volunteer managers. Including an upcoming event on April 23rd (read on for more info)…

The Heritage Volunteer Group is one of the most established specialist volunteer manager groups, and we have admired their work for some time. We attended a meeting of the North West HVG group just before Christmas, and it was a pleasure to see the professionalism and support that HVG provided to its members.

When we were offered the opportunity, we were only too happy to support this wonderful network of volunteer management professionals. TeamKinetic is well-established across the heritage sector, so we hope this partnership will provide new and exciting opportunities for collaboration, support and innovation.
Chris martin
Co-founder of TeamKinetic

To kick off the partnership, we hosted an event with HVG where we discussed what TeamKinetic can do for heritage organisations everywhere of any size. We’ll also be sponsoring their upcoming future events, including their 2024 conference in November.

TeamKinetic is also excited to offer all members of the Heritage Volunteering Group 25% off any TeamKinetic subscription! Not only this, but we’ll also offer free data migration for anyone switching from another volunteer management platform.

How do you take advantage of this offer? Start a free trial today over on teamkinetic.co.uk or contact info@teamkinetic.co.uk to get started.

See T&Cs here.

If you’re thinking of refreshing your approach to volunteer management, please do get in touch.

Stay tuned for more updates and announcements in the coming months.

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.

TeamTalk: Season 3, Episode 2 – Ian Braid

By Alex Evans

On 2nd April 2024

In News & Views, TeamTalk Podcast

Welcome back to Season 3 of our TeamTalk Podcast! This season, we are talking to thought leaders, customers and stakeholders from the world of volunteer management as we dive deeper into the world of volunteering.

In this TeamTalk episode, we were joined by Ian Braid. Ian is an exciting guest with plenty of stories to tell from his time in the industry. We could have probably done a whole season with him!

Chris Martin, Imo Greatbatch, and Ian Braid on TeamTalk

He is currently the founder of DOCIAsport – an award-winning business that supports ‘the people who look after the people’. DOCIA stands for ‘Duty Of Care In Action’ and it’s something that may have been overlooked in the past, but Ian and his team are doing incredible work across the sport sector now.

Listen Now

Join Chris, Imo and Ian as they discuss Ian’s volunteer work and his career. He also discusses his mental health journey, an incredibly important and insightful conversation. One that could have gone on for much longer. We appreciate Ian being so open with us and highlighting this issue in the sector.

Listen now on Spotify and all other podcast streaming platforms:

More about Ian

Ian consistently tackles the stigma of mental health in sport through his work at DOCIAsport.

He is a member of Mental Health First Aid England, Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity, Professional Body of Sports Leadership and UK Coaching, a member of the UK Coaching – as Coaching Advisory Panel, and Chair UK Coaching Duty to Care Committee.

His past work includes roles as Major Events Director of the British Triathlon Federation and CEO of the British Athletes Commission (BAC) – the union for Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

Read Ian’s blog on this episode here: Volunteering in sport – the essential but diminishing ingredient

Enjoyed this episode? Why not listen to more TeamTalk? You can find more episodes including chats with Rob Jackson, AVM and Sport England wherever you get your podcasts.

If you have any topic or guest requests let us know!

You can find TeamKinetic on social media:

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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.

Page 3 of 55

Want to advertise sport volunteering at The Big Help Out?

So where do you start?

How do we turn sport volunteering at The Big Help Out into something sustainable?

Find out more about The Big Help Out

The Process

The Role of Volunteers in Heritage Preservation

Challenges in Volunteer Management for Heritage Preservation

The Importance of Effective Volunteer Management

Best Practice Volunteer Management for Heritage

How are we involved with the heritage & culture sector?

Save your favourite searches and set a default

New Search Filters

Watch it in action:

Full WYSIWYG rich text editing everywhere

Watch it in action:

Volunteer self-reported extra volunteering

Watch it in action:

Email send reports

Watch it in action:

Mark a volunteer as finished on any opportunity type

Watch it in action:

Merging volunteer accounts

Watch it in action:

Sharing private notes

Watch it in action:

Who are the Heritage Volunteering Group?

How do they fit with TeamKinetic?

Listen Now

More about Ian

Search

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