Pride season is in full swing and many events across the UK have already run smoothly thanks to the work of thousands of volunteers. However, it’s not over yet as we look ahead to one of the biggest Pride events in England: Manchester Pride. The festival is taking place over the August bank holiday weekend – as it does every year. There are plenty of activities to get involved with. This year, these activities are spread across Deansgate, Gay Village, and Mayfield.
Like most voluntary work, you will be given a new opportunity to enhance your social skills, meet new people, and give back to the community. You don’t have to be part of the LGBT+ community to be a pride volunteer – it’s open to anybody and everybody!
If that wasn’t enough to convince you, volunteers will receive a range of benefits, such as free entry to the festival. This includes the live Saturday and Sunday acts such as Ariana Grande and Years & Years (if you’re over 18)! This may be especially effective as an incentive after Manchester Pride ticket prices increased heavily for 2019.
(Note: you must be over 16 to volunteer at Manchester Pride.)
We are currently looking through volunteer applications so if you’d like to apply we’d recommend doing it as soon as you can.
Manchester Pride (23/07/2019)
Find out more from Manchester Pride themselves:
Want to be at the heart of Manchester Pride Festival? This year’s volunteer applications are now open! 🎉 There are so many roles to choose from, and of course some amazing benefits to joining our team throughout the event. For more info, head to our website ❤️ pic.twitter.com/YoPkbtqLr6
— Manchester Pride (@ManchesterPride) May 25, 2019
Lack of Pride in Volunteering
Sometimes we forget the importance of volunteers. Tens of thousands of people attend Manchester Pride every year, making the work of volunteers all the more important. Without them, the event probably wouldn’t be able to go ahead. In fact, Isle of Wight’s 2019 Pride was cancelled due to a lack of volunteers. Later, thanks to community help, it was announced that the festival would return. This situation may highlight the lack of awareness around volunteering and it’s necessity for public events like these. Pride events are incredibly special to a range of people worldwide and depend on the generosity of volunteers to run efficiently.
Can’t Volunteer at Manchester Pride?
Even though pride season is coming to an end, there are still a large number of volunteering opportunities you can get involved with this summer across the country. If you’re under 16 or can’t get to Manchester but still interested in volunteering for LGBT organisations or events, check out more places to find opportunities here and here. Alternatively, you can search for volunteering near you through the Do-it site for a wide variety of opportunities.
For more information about TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software, visit our website or call us on 0161 914 5757
Volunteering contributed 17.1bn to the economy in 2016/ 2017 representing 0.85% GDP. The voluntary sector had 870,000 workers in 2018 with an estimated value of voluntary activity being 23.9bn. Opportunities created by providers and organisations are allowing these figures grow even more everyday!
A Small Thanks From TeamKinetic
TeamKinetic is proud of the organisations we works with. So we thought it was only right to give a little shout out to some of these organisations and the opportunities they have on offer.
Many of
these organisations vary in size, but the one thing they have in common is that
they are all dedicated to helping people find volunteering opportunities that
interest and challenge the volunteer.
What these organisations provide that many lack is the freedom for the volunteer to register and find opportunities in seconds. Whether its skill based, long term, one off, or more micro volunteering oriented opportunities for those people wanting to help but unable to commit to anything long term due to work and other life commitments.
So let’s find out more about these organisations and what they do around the community!
Humanity Road
Humanity Road was founded in 2010 by Chris Thompson and Cat Graham. Both twin sisters who created the organisation to connect people, animals and emergency officials with help resources when disaster strikes.
Every year, Humanity Road volunteers help thousands of people around the world impacted by disaster. In 2016, the disaster desk was active for 3,878 hours. Volunteers responded to 105 events in 45 countries, and total volunteer hours of service topped 11,000 hours.
What makes humanity road different is that almost all their opportunities are flexible and can be done from the comfort of your home. Opportunities like this are great for people wanting to help but are time poor.
Liverpool FC
Foundation
The LFC Foundation is the official charity of Liverpool Football Club. Their mission is to bring together the LFC family to create life changing opportunities for children and young people. The charity was formed in 2010 as a financially independent organisation to harness the power and passion their fans and supporters have to improve the lives of others.
The Liverpool foundation run a number of amazing events and days that volunteers can really get stuck into. Some of these opportunities include Respect4All Programme. Which is the LFC Foundation’s disability and inclusion project. Moreover the LFC Foundation make all the volunteers feel part of their community, something I experienced first hand!
University of East
London
UEL connects students to professional, career-led volunteering opportunities with charities, public sector organisations and other non-for-profit organisations across London. They Focus on volunteering that align with students career aspirations, interests and availability. They define volunteering as “time willingly given for the common good and without financial gain. It is enriching and contributes to personal development and/ or career aspirations
The university offers opportunities all across the city which vary in skill, commitment and type. The opportunities provided by the university have allowed students to feel part of the community and gain experience they might have not had the opportunity to do so in the past. Volunteering at university allows students to develop new skills that benefit them once they leave.
Glasgow Life Events
Glasgow Life is part of the city wide partnership which aims to develop volunteering opportunities and to grow volunteering skills. Additionally each year Glasgow Life provides numerous rewarding, safe, and supported opportunities for volunteers. Some being one-off major events, to more regular activities in libraries, museums, and community facilities throughout the city with around 1500 people currently involved as volunteers in Glasgow Life activities.
Glasgow Life have hosted a number of world class events including the Athletics Indoor European Championships. Events like this bring the city together and offer a number of opportunities for people to get stuck in. The great thing about Glasgow Life is that, there is no shortage of fun and rewarding opportunities.
Volunteering Wales
Volunteering Wales provides an integrated programme of volunteering support that aims to help more people get involved in volunteering. Benefiting their community and for their own personal development, and to help volunteering organisations to recruit and support their volunteers.
Volunteering Wales offer thousands of opportunities across Wales, working with various providers. Enabling potential volunteers to be able to select from a wide variety of activities, that they may wish to be apart of. In addition previous events have included fund raising events in support of the Samaritans and other charities.
Volunteering Wales enables younger people to get involved with volunteering. Providing a platform which connects younger people to opportunities they may have never thought about doing before, leading to the development of their social skills and creating new friends in volunteering along the way.
YHA
YHA believe that everyone should have the opportunity to discover, explore and experience something new – and what better way than through volunteering. Youth hostels offer a place to stay, a warm and safe welcome, accessible and flexible accommodation, activities and education packages and best of all they are open to everyone, whatever age or where they are from.
YHA have an extensive list of opportunities available from caretaking opportunities to hostel placement opportunities. Together with placement opportunities available in the city, country or in coastal areas across Britain. Hostel and student placements are perfect if you would like to gain hospitality experience, complete a work placement as part of your course of study, or to simply get away from home and lend a hand.
YHA opportunities provide unbelievable experience’s for those who may have came from harder upbringings and poorer family backgrounds. YHA is a unique organisation because they allow the opportunity to stay somewhere quite amazing. I stayed at the Snowdon Bryn Gwnant hostel, which is amazing and in a truly beautiful location!
Manchester VIP
Manchester VIP identifies, trains, and deploys volunteers to support sport and physical activity across Manchester. Recruiting people from all backgrounds and developing their skills signposting them to opportunities within sports events, sports clubs, local communities and schools.
MCRVIP unites people together in a common cause; museum workers, park maintenance, city cleaning, library workers, or even athletics coaching. Their platform is bringing everyone together, showcasing masses of opportunities for people to get involved with across Manchester. Manchester volunteers feel part of something larger and their retention rate is phenomenal.
TeamKinetic is massively thankful to be able to supply these wonderful organisations with our volunteering management software. We recognise and understand the value of volunteers, and so we support the opportunities, providers and volunteers that are contributing to the voluntary sector.
Across the UK 20.1 million people volunteered via a group, club, or organisation between 2017 and 2018, and over one in five people volunteer at least once a month. A small amount of compassion will improve someones day or even their week, but this is not just a one way experience. Volunteering can help improve your own health and develop your skills – no one said it had to be boring! You don’t just need to stack shelves in a library.
– L.B. American Author
“Don’t spend your precious time asking “Why isn’t the world a better place?” It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is “How can I make it better?” To that there is an answer.”
Leo buscaglia
Why volunteer locally?
Volunteering locally can help expand communities by uniting people in a common cause. But most people have no idea of how and where to begin. Don’t worry! Here is some inspiration and practical help on how you can start to make a small difference go along way.
Be apart of your local Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers
74th Silverdale Scout group
Scouting first began in the early 20th century founded by Robert Baden Powell. Attracting boys and girls from all age ranges to participate in a variety of educational, and fun activities focused on the outdoors. Scouting groups heavily rely on volunteers to run weekly club meetings and trips. Could you help in your community?
I was a part of The Silverdale 74th scout group located in the ex-mining village in Stoke on Trent. Personally I have witnessed the true good scouting can have on the local community. Scouting encouraged me to give back to the local community, and help out with local community events and fund raisers. Silverdale scout group also provided me with a second home after I had finished a school day, keeping me occupied and off the streets. I would add that scouting equipped me with many skills and qualities, that are essential for a developing young person.
Today The Silverdale scout group continues to grow within the local community. Equipping the younger generation with life skills and valuable behavioral qualities. Over the years Silverdale’s scouting group has matured, but the scouting code remains firmly in place. To help other people at all times.
Volunteer at your local sport club
Swimming Club
Sports clubs provide a real benefit to the surrounding communities. My son is a part of the local swimming club in Manchester. Swimming is a hobby he is highly enthusiastic and passionate about – which I am very pleased about as a parent. The club does not only provide him with lessons so he can learn how to swim. Better yet, it is also a place where he can chat and giggle with many of his friends from school, and make new ones along the way.
However many community clubs suffer from being over crowded and under resourced. Long waiting lists are a result of this overcrowding, in consequence clubs are in desperate need of an extra pair of hands to help out.
The sports club survey of 2013 by the Sport and Recreation Alliance, reckoned there were 151,000 sports clubs in existence across the UK. An average club has over 100 members and 24 volunteers. Which is somewhere in the region of 3.6 million volunteers helping out local sports clubs!
With participation growing at a greater rate than volunteer recruitment, now is a perfect time to find a local sports club you want to help out.
However there are opportunities that can help tackle this rising social issue. There are a number of group support networks which aim to help the homeless across many of the big cities within the UK (London, Birmingham, Liverpool). The Street Support network, or NightStop in Manchester are two examples of many that provide a gateway where prospective volunteers can help the homeless locally.
Across the local community of Manchester volunteers from networks such as NightStop can be found to be, allowing homeless people into their own homes for a night. Providing them access to: a hot shower, comfy bed, hot meal, and a friendly ear to console with. These are just some of the basic essentials volunteers are providing that we all take for granted. But can mean the world of difference to someone sleeping rough.
Act Now Not Later
Find resources below on how you can volunteer today.
Local accredited volunteer centers are everywhere but you may not have even realised it yet. There an excellent way for first time volunteers to get involved, by understanding your interests they can match you with suitable volunteering positions.
TryVolunteering.com ran by TeamKinetic, encourages all people from all walks of life to get involved by volunteering. TryVolunteering.com also allows people to set up accounts as providers, providers can then advertise volunteering opportunities – but don’t worry its all FREE! The simple selfless act of kindness is only one click away, benefiting individuals and communities.
Don’t just do it for yourself, do it for someone else. That’s the true motivation behind volunteering. Do-it.org connects potential volunteers to volunteering opportunities from all around the country. From 1 mile to 50 miles away from you, try Doit.org and find the opportunity that best suits you.
Charity Job is the UK’s largest site for charity jobs and volunteering. Thousands of positions can be found up and down the UK, no matter your location there will be something near you.
How TeamKinetic is supporting volunteers
TeamKinetic encourages communities to expand and be brought together through volunteering. Supporting any organisation which aims to allow volunteers to help make a difference. Helping organisations connect with volunteers in the simplest way possible is a problem our volunteering management software solves.
Recent data from Time Well Spent shows that there are more women in volunteering than men. Taking a closer look at the data might tell us why.
NCVO’s demographic analysis shows that 40% of women have volunteered in 2017/18 compared to 35% of men. Furthermore, 23% of women had volunteered in the month before data collection, but only 21% of men had.
Similarly, the Office for National Statistics found that although participation rates for men and women were similar (41% and 42% respectively), the time each gender spent volunteering was very different. Women, on average, spent 15.7 minutes per day volunteering while men only spent 11.3 minutes per day in voluntary work.
TeamKinetic’s data supports this analysis with 60% of registered volunteers identifying as female and 40% as male from a total of 100,000 volunteers.
These discrepancies suggest that either something is preventing men from spending more time volunteering, or something is pushing women to volunteer more.
A Way To Make New Friends?
The NCVO report mentioned that women viewed the social aspect of volunteering as a motivation to sign up. 23% of women joined to make new friends/meet new people in comparison to the 18% of men who signed up for the same reason. As a consequence of volunteering, women reported that they felt more confident (76%) than men (71%). Interestingly, female efforts to make new friends appeared to have been more successful than their male counterparts’. Women reported fewer instances of conflict or tension compared to men (25% vs 32%).
I volunteered at a local charity shop a few years ago to gain work experience and because my friend worked there. I had a great time and it definitely helped me get a job afterwards.
MMU Student, Lois.
If using volunteer work to
gain relevant work experience is a trend amongst young people, perhaps the
gender differences in volunteering rates will become level soon. However, we
must also acknowledge the various other factors that affect volunteer rates such
as age, socio-economic status, and race.
Not All Sunshine and Rainbows
Despite the majority of volunteers being female, there are still some aspects of volunteering that may be letting these hard-working women down. Many women (62%) don’t believe they can have much impact on the organisations they volunteer for. Men are more confident in this area, with 70% of them believing they can make a significant influence on organisations. A reason for this could be the higher ratio of men to women in representative roles. Research suggests that women are more likely to help at an event rather than go to meetings on behalf of the organisation like male volunteers.
This behaviour could be seen as stereotypical and may be due to outdated societal norms. These norms are being broken down. Men and women are becoming more equal. As a result, the expected stereotypes are fading away, but it is happening too slowly.
Flexibility First?
Stereotypes do not appear to affect the number of women in volunteering roles. So why do they volunteer?
Data suggests that flexible roles attract female volunteers. This can refer to the organisation being flexible themselves, or the volunteering opportunities they are offering. For example, perhaps the sessions are one-offs or aren’t set to certain times/days of each week. The want for flexibility may be driven by a range of factors such as family, work, or social commitments. Organisations and volunteer managers should recognise the needs of their volunteers to get the most out of them.
Let’s Flip The Question
We’ve asked why there are more women in volunteering than men, but why are there fewer men in volunteering? What’s stopping them?
Societal norms could be blamed; the conditioning of men to be the main provider may make them think they have no time for volunteering, or even that it’s a waste of time! In the past, a lack of male-focused roles may have been to blame. Nowadays there are a large variety of roles available on a range of websites, such as universities, councils, and sports clubs.
TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software can help you analyse the demographics of your volunteers, e.g. the ratio of male to female volunteers. This can give you great insight into who your volunteering opportunities are attracting.
Find out how TeamKinetic can work with you to recruit, manage, and retain your student volunteers by visiting our website or calling us on 0161 914 5757.
You can also find us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, andYouTube. We share and create content suitable for anyone interested in volunteering!
For
the last 7 years I’ve been surrounded by volunteers, but I have only now
realised their true value in my life.
Boxing
is a massive part of my life which over the last 7 years has transformed me to
the man I am today. If it wasn’t for the
volunteers behind the clubs I’ve been a part of and represented, I would not be
writing this blog. I’ve learnt
volunteers can be a part of many different walks of life and each unique to its
own. My personal experiences have shown
me that volunteers can provide a family, a friendship, and create a sense
belonging.
Education has equipped me with many skills, however I have developed further attributes from volunteers in boxing which have aided my own professional development at university these include: physical, social, team working and mental skills. Also, I have developed key traits to my behaviour. I am focused, hardworking and determined in learning new concepts and ideas to the best of my ability.
Entrance to boxing club
Currently
I am boxing from a gym in Manchester called Team Northside Boxing Club, I’ve
been at this club for 2 years now. When
I reflect on my time at this club, I am overwhelmed by how much I have
developed physically and mentally as a person; because of the volunteers which
are behind Team Northside. They
consistently push me to reach new heights in my boxing career, and are opening
a vast amount of potential for my future pathways, be that behind the pads or behind the gloves.
Education
Setting aside the boxing gloves, my educational pathway has always gravitated towards business. I chose Public Relations and Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University as the course opened up opportunities to engage my creative side. Many modules I’ve completed are real-life working situations professionally developing me for a working career ahead; these have included creating PR and marketing campaigns. I believe this will help me during my placement with TeamKinetic, as I have an idea of what will be expected from me. Furthermore, I have developed a true self confidence from working in teams at university when completing real life scenarios.
In
addition to the boost in my confidence was gaining a placement opportunity at
TeamKinetic.
“Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard.”
A
saying not only applicable to the boxing gym but real life, opportunities do
not always necessarily come easy but with consistency and a lot of heart
anything can be made possible. It all depends
on the determination behind the person, I will ensure I apply this philosophy
during my time with TeamKinetic.
Pass times
In my pass times I am always on a constant mission to further challenge myself by finding new interests and hobbies. Recently I’ve embarked on a new challenge to learn to play the guitar. I’ve always had a passion for music and various music genres, it was only when I found an artist called The White Buffalo, that sparked an incentive in me to learn guitar. Ten days in and so far so good, not sure I’ll ever be Jimmy Hendrix… but a man can dream.
On a final note
I have always had high aspirations of where I see myself in life. I understand that my time at TeamKinetic is a crucial element to my own professional development of not only the existing skills, but the ones I am going to uncover along the way from the support of an exceedingly motivated and professional team behind me.
Milo James Marketing Coordinator info@teamkinetic.co.uk
Marketing was never something I thought about properly until year 10 in school when I chose business studies as one of my GCSE options. Marketing was a big part of the subject and I loved it. Studying it in depth throughout GCSE and A Levels made me realise that I had secretly always had a love for marketing, even when I didn’t know exactly what it was. The ability of adverts, a simple 2-minute video, to make people feel emotions they couldn’t even experience in some 2-hour films was amazing to me. Basically, I’m talking about every John Lewis Christmas advert ever!
The bear and the hare from the 2013 John Lewis Christmas advert.
Getting Into Volunteering
I grew up with quite a big family. Having three separate households of aunts/uncles/cousins on one road, you could say that we were quite close! This strong family presence shaped me as a person and introduced me to my first volunteering experiences. My grandad and uncle were both pastors at our local church and once I was old enough, I started to help around a lot more.
My first proper role came on the annual church holiday where members of churches across the UK would come together for a week. I volunteered to help run a class for kids aged 4 – 7. This involved helping to plan and carry out activities for them, ensuring they all had fun and that everything ran smoothly. Although it was a lot of fun, it was also challenging as I had no experience looking after a group of children of this size prior to the event. I certainly had no experience trying to sort out the drama that somehow arises between such young children! On the whole, it was a valuable experience for me as I had proper responsibility over a group of children and could help to positively shape their holiday experience.
Social Media Surprises
Let’s go back to summer in 2016 for a minute. Most people were out enjoying the sunny weather after breaking up from school for the holidays while I was stuck in bed, feeling ill, binge-watching The Great British Bake Off. Sounds like a boring way to spend part of your summer but it actually changed my life a little bit. After watching endless episodes of the show, I decided, in my boredom, to create a Twitter account based on the things contestants say but taken out of context. No Context Bake Off was born – an account that now has around 116k followers and has highlighted to me how quickly things can spread on social media.
Screenshot of the No Context Bake Off Twitter account.
Volunteering Numbers On The Rise
Back to the present day now! I sit here reflecting on an incredible holiday in France watching the Women’s World Cup with a true appreciation for the volunteer work that has contributed to the success of the tournament so far. I remember sitting in PSG’s Parc Des Princes stadium for the USA v Chile game as the announcer told us that there were 2,500 volunteers for the World Cup that year. This is an increase on the 2,000 that were at the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada. I hope it’s a figure that increases further at the 2023 Women’s World Cup too.
Volunteers at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019.
Although I am yet to sign up to any opportunities, I did sign up to the MMU Sport volunteering page after I joined the women’s football team in my first year at university. Little did I know I’d be embarking on a placement year at the company who runs the page!
On a Personal Note…
My biggest regret of the past few years is not throwing myself into volunteering opportunities. I was too nervous to do things alone and because of that, I’ve probably missed countless chances to do something of value and really grow as a person. This regret is fuelling my willingness to learn and grow over the course of this placement. Hopefully, I’ll put myself forward for volunteer work in the near future.
I’m excited to start at TeamKinetic and get some proper hands-on experience in marketing. It will also give me a chance to learn more about volunteering and volunteer management. If like me you have a sudden urge to do some voluntary work, you should head over to TryVolunteering to find an opportunity that works for you!
For more information on volunteer management software visit our website or contact one of our team members on – 01619145747
Strategy and planning is one of the most important parts in being successful regardless of you’re doing. The right software can help ensure that you stay on top of all your volunteering opportunities far more efficiently than a spreadsheet. With TeamKinetic you can have your own customised volunteering portal where you can monitor everything that is going on within your organisation and start to plan.
TeamKinetic has a whole host of features aimed at enabling your volunteer programme; reminder notifications for volunteers via text and email, automated weekly newsletters that include the volunteer’s sessions, new events and opportunities, great searching so volunteers can find the best opportunities for them, and comprehensive reports to guide your strategy.
Although many volunteers do great work without expecting anything back, it would be naive to assume that giving them something in return for their efforts would not be a factor in improving retention. These incentives do not have to be large or valuable, just tokens of your appreciation which go a long way in showing that you care for the people who volunteer for you.
Retention is a running theme in a lot of successful volunteers programmes so this should be a high priority. Teamkinetic volunteer management software uses a badge reward system. There are automated badges awarded for reaching volunteer hour goals and fully customisable OpenBadges that can be awarded for any reason. This is a great way to motivate your volunteers as it will give them a sense of achievement when they reach the next badge and level.
Make Your Time More Productive
If you are solely responsible for managing the volunteers in your organisation this will take up a large chunk of your time. With TeamKinetic we aim to make the managing of volunteers as easy and as quick as possible.
TeamKinetic will give you more time for high priority tasks rather than worrying about where people are and if they’re doing the correct thing at the right time, giving you more time to plan and effect your volunteer strategy.
Video Tutorials
Our YouTube channel is packed with videos that show you the different ways we can help you and your volunteer programme.
How Can TeamKinetic Help You?
For the last 10 years TeamKinetic have been making market leading volunteer management software for hundreds of organisations in numerous industries. If you are in need of recruiting, managing and retaining both new and existing volunteers please do not hesitate to get in contact. Our expert help lines are open 9-5 Monday-Friday (0161 9145757) where any questions you have about to system can get answered. Alternatively you can send any email inquiries to info@teamkinetic.co.uk.
Evidently, over the last 10-20 years, technology has made big advancements and has impacted almost everything that we do. The debate still goes on however, there are those that have really embraced it and those that want nothing to do with it at all.
Failure to innovate
Netflix Pacman eating a block busters sign
Innovation is the development of a certain value that meets a new need of your volunteers, staff, supporters. In the early 2000s Blockbusters was one of the biggest DVD rental companies in the world. But they failed to innovate and adapt, which led to their demise. Blockbusters didn’t envision a future for digital, after enormous opportunities to take over Netflix. Now, look at who’s leading the way for streaming services world wide.
With the browsing experience becoming digitised, most of us can find anything we are looking for on our phone from the comfort of our home. Toys R Us could have shifted to offer a fully integrated online experience but instead was left stranded with no online presence and the near-impossible task of catching up.
Why all third-sector organisations need to be using digital technology
Technology is present in everyone’s daily life, from how we get about, shop and communicate. So it’s no surprise that technology is developing the connection between volunteers and non-profit organisations.
As of June 2018, 55.1% of the world’s population had internet access. More than 3 billion people around the world now use social media each month, with 9 in 10 of those users accessing their chosen platforms via mobile devices.
So why do all third-sector organisations need to be using digital technology?
Tell your story to the world
World Wide Web image
People can’t support you if they don’t know who you are. So having a strong website is one of the most important resources organisations can have.
Having your own volunteer website allows visitors to interact with your organisation directly. A good website will communicate your mission to the world and showcase your community impact!
Don’t go extinct, get online
Image of social media icons
If you’re not online, you’re pretty much non-existent. All non-profit organisations should be active on social media and engaging with hundreds of potential supporters and volunteers.
Often the goal for a non-profit is to achieve organisation milestones whilst keeping operating costs down. Switching to a volunteer management software may seem costly, but the reality is, IT’S NOT!
Good cloud-based software will allow you to work from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection. With more people using mobiles than ever, this on-the-go access can transform and increase opportunities amongst your team.
We believe that technology has the capability to change the world for good. TeamKinetic helps to build better volunteer communities by providing great tools for volunteer managers that save time, make a better 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 review
For more information on volunteer management software visit our website or contact one of our team members on – 0161 914 5747
We have some pretty extensive reporting and filtering tools in TeamKinetic so we thought it was time we talked about them a little. We have also published a full list of the reports that we will endeavour to keep updated as new ones are added.
Most of our reporting and insight tools still live in the reporting tab but there are little nuggets of useful information you can use to gain insight sprinkled throughout the application.
First lets go through the major reports available from the Reporting > Reports & Analysis menu.
This area is split into themed sections. Each section is limited by the entered dates, although there are some all time stats at the top of the page.
The all time totals give a very clear overview of your volunteer program and can be used to identify possible issues for volunteers being able to join opportunities. The figures from left to right follow the flow of volunteers through the system, from registering, joining opps, attending and logging hours to repeat volunteers that have joined multiple opportunities. The closer these numbers are to each other the better your programme is performing and the higher your retention and engagement rates.
Quick Stats gives you the number of registrations, active volunteers that have been on at least one opportunity session, number of logged hours, number of opportunities that have an available session, total sessions and the average age of volunteers. All these figures are restricted by the date range selected and give you a smaller window on the all time figures.
The analytics data lets you see how many people are visiting your application, you can drag across the graph to zoom in on any period and roll your mouse over any point to get more information. Watching your traffic ebb and flow can help you gauge the effectiveness of any promotions or engagement activities you have been running.
The volunteer section breaks down your volunteers; you can view them by ethnicity, age, location, group membership and others. In all cases you can roll over the charts to get more information and also download each report individually for offline analysis.
The quarterly report is a handy tool that summarises volunteers, hours, and sessions into the regular yearly quarters, starting each year in April. For many charities and organisations these are the key figures they need to report each quarter or year. These figures are not affected by the selected date range instead they also show the current and previous year totals.
The opportunity reports give you all the information you need about your opportunities, their distribution, performance etc.
The website search chart tells you what your volunteers are searching for which can help focus and drive your provider and opportunity recruitment. The tag count table shows you which opportunity tags are proving the most popular, both in terms of how often they are used and how many hours are logged against opportunities with that tag. The fulfilment table gives you the insight you need to discover which opportunities are under performing and which are flying. This can help drive your advice and procedures for creating opportunities and enable you to identify the possible reasons that some opportunities fail to excite or attract volunteers.
You’ll find lots of charts and graphs with all the
You can find out quickly which sessions are under-subscribed, how many TeamLeaders are signed up for a session, and which volunteers are due where. The view is ordered by session date by default but you can re-order by opportunity or number of empty slots. If you need to know whats going on at any one time, this is the report you need.
The mapping reports are great fun but also impart some important qualitative data. You can map out all your volunteers and opportunities and get a good feel for the reach of your programme and where it is having the most impact. You can quickly identify the hubs of volunteering activity.
Finally for the main reporting area, if you want to interrogate your data offline you can use the download data area to grab all your volunteer, provider and opportunity data as CSVs. If you want to extract particular information our enterprise version also includes API access so you can export data to your chosen CRM or in house systems.
As well as the reports found here the administrator dashboard contains some useful insight and tools for guiding your actions.
The summary tab shows the most important daily tasks you’ll need to keep on top of, such as authorising new volunteers and opportunities, but it also provides a scrollable aggregated list of whats happened since you last logged on. This includes registrations, new opportunities, logged hours and many other events.
The activity tab separates out the events that have happened in the last 30 days to help you keep on top of your programme.
The tasks tab tries to identify potential issues before they become real issues; hours that have not been verified and providers and opportunities that are under performing or not engaged.
Administrators will also find reports that are scoped just to the volunteer or opportunity being managed. So when viewing an opportunity you’ll see how many times it has been viewed by a volunteer, or you can see how many hours a volunteer has logged in different groups or categories when viewing their profile.
We have also added some great filtering and searching tools for volunteers and opportunities which you can save and use again and again to build your own custom report. You can layer different filters on top of one another and use an AND/OR clause to really drill down on your volunteers or opportunities.
If you’ve got this far, well done and thanks for staying with me! If you find you cant get what you need from our reporting, or you have very specific questions that need an answer, we can also build custom reports that you can access anytime from your reporting menu. Please get in touch.
This post provides a summary of TeamKinetic’s information governance policy. Full copies of all documents that make up our security policy are available on request. We utilise the Information Governance Toolkit to continually assess our adherence to governance standards and requirements.
Scope
The Information Governance framework covers all staff that create, store, share and dispose of information. It sets out the procedures for sharing information with stakeholders, partners and suppliers. It concerns the management of all paper and electronic information and its associated systems within the organisation, as well as information held outside the organisation that affects its regulatory and legal obligations.
Steven Hall – Information Governance Manager
Rolf Herbert – Information Asset Manager
Roles and Responsibilities
Directors
Coordination and operational management of Information Governance projects
Review of Information Governance compliance and ensure alignment with related policies and procedures
The monitoring and enforcement of records management, retention and disposal policies
Enforcement of information security policies and management of security breach incidents
Establishing and understanding of risk for each part of the business operations
Chief Technical Officer
Define all information assets
Establish an information asset register
Define the executive information asset manager
Define information asset owners
Define policies and procedures for handling information assets
Define security strategy and policies for information assets
Managers
Implementing and enforcing Information Governance practices and policies
Mitigating information risk
Implementing the security and authorisation of information
Ensuring that all employees understand and are equipped to comply with Information Governance processes and procedures
Employees
Implementing Information Governance practices and policies
Implementing the security and authorisation of information
Determining the Employee’s training requirement
All members of staff must understand the need to properly manage the information they create and access.
All members of staff must be made aware of the information governance framework and must ensure they are familiar with its contents.
Training and information will be provided to all new staff members and all staff during regular re-training.
Information Policies
Information security policy
Records management policy
Retention and disposal schedules
Archiving policy
Data privacy policy
Information and communication technology (ICT) policy
Information sharing policy
Remote working policy
Information Procedures
Legal and regulatory compliance
Creating and receiving information
Acceptable content types
Managing the volume of information
Managing personal information
Storing and archiving information
Collaboration and sharing information
Disposing of information
Working with Third Parties
Policies for sharing information information with third parties
Managing how third parties handle personal and confidential information
How Information Governance fits within supplier relationships and contractual obligations
Measurement and metrics for third parties meeting the organisation’s Information Governance goals
Disaster Recovery, Contingency and Business Continuity
Reporting information losses
Reporting information security breaches
Incident management and escalation
Back up and disaster recovery
Business continuity management
Auditing, Measurement and Review
Monitoring information access and use
Monitoring effectiveness of regulatory compliance
Monitoring the effectiveness of information security policy and procedure
Monitoring of ICT and storage infrastructure performance
