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
Being in the voluntary sector, we are all too aware of the importance of youth volunteers. Inspiring the millennials will create your next generation of reliable, hardworking volunteers. But how exactly do you go about doing that?
28% of millennials volunteered in the USA last year. They did 1.5 million hours of service in total, which is worth an estimated $36.7 billion. This just shows how valuable the voluntary sector can actually be to a country’s economy.
How Important Is The Next Line Of Volunteers?
HotelManagement.net recognise as much as we do the importance of the next line of volunteers. They spoke to the current ’30 under 30′ members and asked how they help out through volunteering or how they would like to if they had more time on their hands.
Barry D. Allen who is a General Manager at Double Tree Hilton says that if he were to have more time, he would dedicate it to going out into the community and promoting jobs within the hospitality industry. He says that he often meets people and thinks ‘why are they not in the hospitality industry?’. This would also help societal issues such as unemployment.
Volunteering is always top of mind for Bianca Destout, account executive at Marcus Hotels & Resorts “I can always find the time to be involved in my community because it is something that is very important to me,” she said. “I am a Big Sister through Big Brothers Big Sisters and have been for four years. This involves frequent outings with my 13-year-old men-tee in my free time. I am also on the Young Professionals Board for Make-a-Wish Wisconsin and I volunteer at several local events organized by our hotel human resources team and United Way.”
How To Attract Youth Volunteers
Gaining a good collective of young volunteers can be the key to having a successful long-running volunteer programme. Using incentives can initially be good to attract the younger volunteer audience. This does not have to be a paid incentive, many young people are looking for experience to build their CV’s. Meaning a good reference/developing skills can be worth more than monetary/material perks.
Having said this, it would not be unfair to suggest that giving them incentives would make them want to do more/ get involved. The perks in question have to be appropriate for the organisation putting out the opportunities. They cannot put a financial strain on themselves otherwise it will make the whole purpose of volunteering redundant. Getting young volunteers is obviously a fantastic thing however you don’t want to jeopardize the finances/future of the organisation.
Where To Find Youth Volunteers
Often the problem with getting a new line of volunteers is the initial contact with them. A great place to start if you’re looking for young hungry volunteers will be universities, colleges and schools. Educational establishments are usually very keen to speak to anyone that would be able to benefit their students’ futures. The key thing to getting in to talk to students about your opportunities is to get the schools on board with what you want to achieve and how that can also benefit them. Ways you can do this is through doing presentations and building awareness of your volunteer programmes online.
How TeamKinetic Can Help
For the last 10 years, TeamKinetic have been making market-leading volunteer management software for 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 helplines are open 9am – 5pm Monday – Friday (0161 914 5757) where any questions you have about the system can get answered. Alternatively, you can send any email inquiries to info@teamkinetic.co.uk.
TeamKinetic recently got to the chance to chat with Daniel Eckersall on his preparation for the upcoming world indoor lacrosse championships held in Canada.
Get to know a little background to how he got started and the impact volunteers have had on Lacrosse as a sport and the players involved.
Daniel Eckersall with his Team mates
A little bit about Daniel
Daniel started to learn and play the game of field Lacrosse at Cheadle Lacrosse club, he later made the move to play for Stockport. He has been playing Lacrosse for the last 7 years and only getting better!
During this time he has won the junior Flags and league multiple times whilst also competing in Ghent where Stockport were crowned European champions twice. Daniel has also had the honour of leading the North West side to a plate victory in 2018. More recently he has captained his side to win the cup at the Nick Kehoe Invitational.
Dan was introduced to Box Lacrosse when he played for Heaton Hornets in the 2015 Tasko cup and later joined the London Knights. His success led to being selected to represent England at the Ebox before being selected for the upcoming World Indoor Lacrosse Championships.
Daniel going for goal
Creating an impact
What impact have volunteers had on lacrosse and its success
Lacrosse in the UK would cease to exist if it wasn’t for the help and dedication of volunteers, whether that be at the grassroots level or the elite international lacrosse level; coaching, refereeing, transporting and everything else which goes on behind the scenes to keep any sports club running.
Our success as a nation has been built on volunteers dedicating their time and lives to help the sport grow nationwide. This has resulted in England lacrosse winning gold at previous European championships at field and ranking as the 5th highest nation in Indoor.
What you hope to achieve at the world champs?
My aim for the world championships this September is to maintain that top 5 position in the world and hopefully push that up to an even higher ranking. As an offensive player, there is the added pressure to make this happen but I’m looking forward to the challenge!
How do you hope to use your success as a way of motivating younger players to do the same?
My success as a player has come from having great coaches who volunteer their time to develop this great sport even further.
Having the privilege of representing England this September has given me a passion for helping develop this sport even further. Using the success from this I aim to carry on supporting and helping out at events and junior training sessions.
I want to help improve the next generation of Box Lacrosse players so that they can come away with the same experiences I’ve had the pleasure of being part of. It would be great to see them wear the England jersey and play alongside the best in the world themselves!
Daniel walking to the pitch in his London Knights kit
Support
With a 23 man squad travelling out to Vancouver in September to represent England in the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships, funding is required to cover the cost of their trip.
Unfortunately, due to the nature and popularity of the sport in the UK each player is expected to fund all aspects of this privilege from; Entry fee, travel, accommodation, playing kit, off pitch England, branded clothing etc. which has been estimated at around £2,500 each player.
The team has had a lot of success in the past and they hope to capitalise on that during the world championships. Any support would be greatly appreciated and would go a long way!
For more information on how TeamKinetic can assist with your volunteer management and getting the best out of all your volunteers visit our website or contact them on – 0161 914 5757
You may not know much about Brexit considering it’s not spoken about every single day! There are many rules and regulations that will affect the economy and organisations as a direct result of Brexit. This also applies to civil society organisations or Not-for-profits. So, how exactly can these types of organisations prepare for Brexit?
Do You Have EU Employees Or EU Volunteers?
If you are an EU citizen the government will be fully committed to safeguarding the rights of those who are legally living within the UK. Essentially what this means is that even when we leave the European Union you will not just be left or forgotten about!
You will still to be able to do all your volunteering opportunities the same as you did before, so there is no need to worry about that!!
Will My Organisation Still Receive EU Funding?
The UK will continue to work with organisations that have EU funded programmes that have been running from 2014 up until 2020. In the event of a no-deal Brexit, the government will be making people aware of the projects that have been agreed to be continued before we leave the EU. If you are funded by a country not in the EU, this will not be affected as it will have no relation to Brexit regardless if there is a deal or no deal.
What To Do If You Receive Personal Data From The EU
In the event of no-deal, if your organisation receives personal data from within the European Union this will greatly affect the way your organisation operates. One of the major implications that may possibly affect your organisation is that you must be fully GDPR compliant, this won’t be an issue for many as GDPR has been a requirement for some time now. For full information on data protection guidelines please click here.
What If We Import/Export Goods From With The EU?
There are many resources full of information about what is going to happen if we leave the European Union with no deal in regards to trading. For more information on specific scenarios that will be relevant to your organisation please click here. This will affect you if you import resources for your volunteering opportunities from other countries.
NVCO Research On Further Brexit Implications On Charities
The NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations) has many documents available on their website detailing specific details about volunteering and Brexit. For further information please visit their website here.
Volunteer Management- How TeamKinetic Can Help
If you are at all interested in making your volunteer programme the best it can possibly be with your own volunteer management software system, please do not hesitate to get into contact with TeamKinetic. We are available weekdays from 9am – 5pm for any phone support or inquiries you may have or alternatively you can email us on sales@teamkinetic.co.uk.
Volunteering at the HSBC UK national cycling centre
For me, volunteering is not just about giving up a few hours a week. It’s all about the changes you can be responsible for an organisation or a local community, the benefits you receive and the opportunities volunteering leads to.
Before coming to university, I worked in the third sector, and I knew I always had a passion for the music and events industry. I just did not have the experience or a way into the local industry. Through volunteering for charity events and volunteering at registration desks for music networking events, I was able to build a great set of connections.
This not only led to helping out at events for smaller companies such as Indy Man Beer Festival and Off the Record music conference but also to help land me some amazing jobs with my volunteer experiences.
So for anyone who hasn’t volunteered before, here are my top 5 reasons to start!
You get to meet new people!
Volunteering is a fantastic way to meet people who you may not have crossed path with otherwise and can act as really great networking tools.
You may end up meeting other volunteers working in the job or industry you want to be in, or just cracking people you can stay in touch with and become friends with.
You’ll be giving back to the community
Many volunteering opportunities are linked to community causes: such as Manchester Cares; volunteering for local hospitals or even volunteering for Scouts!
Some of these local causes often have little or no funding, so giving a few hours a week to help the running of these services can be crucial. It can be a great opportunity to give back to the people who need it most!
It is an easy way to develop your skills
Volunteering is a sure fire way to develop new skills and enhance the ones you already possess. There are several volunteering roles available, so it’s best to look at ones which really suit your personality and skill set.
The more volunteering you do, the more benefits you’ll experience; but don’t think that this needs to be constant dedication or a long-term commitment. Volunteering should always fit around your life and schedule, and remember it’s ok to have a day off every once in a while!
You can gain a new perspective of life
From my own personal experience, I have met wonderful people from all walks of life. More often than not, these people have completely different journeys to mine; by learning about their lives I have been able to see the world quite differently.
Whether you volunteer locally or abroad for a good cause, there’s always a strong chance you will meet someone who will change your opinion and view of the world.
Working at download festival
So, if you’re thinking of volunteering and unsure where to start, check out a few of the websites below.
For more information on how TeamKinetic can assist with your volunteer management and getting the best out of all your volunteers visit their website or contact them on – 0161 914 5757
With annual volunteers week kicking off, we thought it would be a good time to explain just exactly what volunteers week is and just how important it is. The whole week is about celebrating and thanking volunteers for the work they do all year round. This year we are very proud to be one of the 100 official partners of volunteer week 2019 for the first time thanks to @VolScotland.
Volunteer week began to be celebrated in 1984 originally being celebrated just in England. In 2013 they began A merger with the NCVO which led to volunteering week becoming a nation wide campaign. It does not matter how large or small a volunteering contribution is from an individual, everyone deserves to be thanked for their efforts which is what volunteering is all about.
How Important Is Volunteering To Society?
Many people are of the belief that volunteering is free. In ways that statement can be seen as true, volunteers do give up their time for free. However the idea that the third sector and volunteering is not worth a lot of money is incorrect.
Numbers show that volunteering is highly valuable to both organisations and the economy. Statistics show that volunteering is currently worth 22 billion. This is 1.2% of GDP in the UK. Volunteering and the third sector thriving can only be a positive thing for the economy.
The sheer amount of organisations that need volunteers shows just how necessary volunteering week is. In 2016, there were 165,000 voluntary organisations and a number of those are solely dependent on volunteers.
What Are TeamKinetic Doing For Volunteer Week?
I’m sure most of you will be absolutely bursting to know what TeamKinetic are doing for the 2019 volunteer week! So It’s a great shame that you’re going to have to wait! We have a lot of things planned for every day of the working week from the 3rd-7th.
To tide you over until we begin our full week of content we still have a host of industry blogs and YouTube Videos that you can watch on all of our features that can help you with any improvements you need with your volunteer management.
We have been improving volunteer management software for organisations for over a decade now and we have worked with some fantastic people. We are fast approaching 1 million volunteering hours which is something we are very proud of and hope that we can still be improving volunteering communities for many years to come and hopefully get to 10 million one day!
Paralympic Athlete Anna Jackson
Inspiring Volunteering Stories
Volunteering has had a presence in society for many years now meaning there are hundreds if not thousands of unique and inspiring stories that we could tell you about. Anna Jackson began her journey in sport playing hockey. After several operations on her knee it got to the point where she could no longer run meaning her love of playing and coaching came to an end. Unfortunately mental health issues followed and Anna developed depression. She says that wheelchair basketball changed her life. It allowed her to build her self confidence and identity back which just shows the power of just getting involved.
Anna went on to have a decade long career with the Great British wheelchair basketball team which even included participating in the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. As well as playing, Anna also coaches the sport and this is what she has to say about that: “I always say that, as a coach – whether as a volunteer or on the books – every day is a school day. I am always looking for new things to learn and try with my players and coaching clients. But the key thing about coaching is to help people to believe in themselves and their abilities.” This is one of the reasons volunteers week is so important. Saying Thank you and appreciating people like Anna for all the important work they do is something that should definitely be celebrated.
How Can You Celebrate Volunteer Week?
No matter if you manage volunteering, you are a volunteer or you have never been involved in anything before there are plenty of ways that you will be able to celebrate volunteers week. If you have in fact never been involved before the best way is to get involved! BothTeamKineticandDo-it both have 1000’s of volunteering opportunities up and down the country that you can get do and maybe even to start doing it regularly.
For those who manage volunteers, it would be great for you to think of a way you can thank them throughout the week or perhaps put something special on for them to make them aware just how truly appreciated they are.
How Can You Manage Your Volunteers Better?
If you want to supercharge your volunteer management and get better only managing but recruiting and retaining your volunteers We could be just what you’re looking for. We can help your create and build volunteering communities and make your volunteer programmes way more successful going forward. If you are interested in having a volunteer management software system please do not hesitate in getting into contact with us. You can either set up a free demo via our website or give us a call on 0161 914 5757.
We are confident that we will have a system that can cater to everyone. We work with organisations that range from local to global with small and large volunteer numbers. We’re so confident that we are competitive in price will price match anyone in the market.
