Palliative care and hospice volunteers support those with life-limiting diseases and their families. Their purpose, to improve quality of life and build deeper relationships with patients, gives valuable insight to hospices and their overall care.
Being able to understand the role that volunteers play within hospices helps improve their effectiveness and will better aid those who are thinking of volunteering. Recent evidence suggests that in order to make an impact on the development of volunteering, stronger resources and commitment from those in high positions is required.
More care and support is needed now more than ever – volunteering can play a key role in adapting to the changing needs.
Do Hospice Volunteers Need Training?
Before anyone becomes a hospice volunteer, it’s likely that training will need to be completed. Volunteer training helps prepare them for any services they may perform and understand how they will be assisting patients and their families.
It’s likely that a hospice training program will include:
Understanding the hospice’s philosophy of care.
Understanding the services delivered by the organisation.
How to properly communicate with patients, caregivers and families.
Understanding patient privacy regarding their health information.
Through this training, hospices have recorded common traits that make effective volunteers:
A sense of understanding and compassion towards those on their end-of-life journey.
A respect for all customers’ cultures and religious views.
The ability to listen when needed and be comfortable in silence.
Awareness of personal limitations.
The Types of Volunteering for Hospice Volunteers…
Hospice volunteers provide an immense amount of hours through two main categories: Direct and Indirect Care volunteering…
Direct Care Volunteering is defined by those volunteers who work directly with patients, caregivers and families. They provide comfort and support in a number of ways:
Indirect Care Volunteering, on the other hand, is for volunteers who would like to work behind the scenes. They help the hospice with any administrative tasks. For instance, preparing mailing and/or newsletters to the community. They’ll also be looking to input any general data and other clerical duties needed to be completed. Indirect Care involves making sure the hospice is known within the community and day-to-day tasks are completed for everything to run smoothly.
The Challenges for Hospices
There are concerns about the accessibility of those who can benefit from hospices services which have become a challenge. Volunteers have been a significant part of responding to this and, as a result, can be a significant advantage for hospices.
Volunteers extend the scale of availability to hospices in order to deliver a wide range of services. Importantly, they offer a prolonged connection of care to those with life-shortening illnesses in ways beyond clinical. Volunteers can help extend the reach a hospice can make in the community through stronger social activities.
A diverse range of volunteers can broaden the range of skills and benefits available to you. Hospices can reach out to the same broad community mirrored within the hospice. It’s extremely important to acknowledge the work and benefits volunteers bring, while starting to think about how volunteers can work effectively to push back against rising challenges.
How Can We Help?
With a broad range of volunteers, you might be wondering how you’re going to connect and reward them for their work… Here’s where we come in. A volunteer management system, like TeamKinetic, can help you:
Recruit more volunteers than ever before.
Fully customise your site and volunteer registration.
Communicate with your volunteers easily, all in one place.
Motive and reward your volunteers with our achievement badges or create your own!
With t-minus 3 days until Christmas Day, we wanted to look back at our 2021 with a round up! It’s been another tough year for everyone, but we’ve managed to find some light in moments this year. From award shows to blossoming partnerships, 2021 has been a year of developments for TeamKinetic.
Let’s have a look at our year in numbers.
January – March
The year started very much as this one is finishing, much to everyone’s frustration.
Volunteering was still very much on the agenda as we saw vaccination programs in full swing across the country. We were really proud to support a whole range of organisations mobilising an amazing army of volunteers.
People talk about the Anti-Vax brigade but we can tell you first-hand the Pro-Vax crowd are amazing and were out in force at the start of the year, and we take our hats off to each and every one of them!
March brought some wonderful news when we were honoured to be awarded ‘The Partner Excellence’ and the ‘COVID-19 Response Recognition’ awards for our work with Halton and St Helens Voluntary Community Action at the iNetwork awards. It was a huge achievement for TeamKinetic and our partners and a milestone we won’t be forgetting – especially for the recognition of our efforts throughout COVID.
The key achievements from our work with Halton and St Helens saw 1,744 volunteers registered and together they offered 8,688 volunteering hours. Our volunteer support economic value offered £80,796 during the first six months of the programme. For those feeling lonely or isolated, we were able to support 16,161 telephone calls to make those feel a little less lonely during repeated lockdowns and restrictions. Overall, we were able to support 32,993 in such a short amount of time and we can’t be more proud of the project.
We can’t thank Halton and St Helens VCA and St Helens Council enough; along with every single amazing volunteer for your commitment and drive, you make it all worthwhile. If you haven’t seen their short video on how important volunteers were during COVID, spend a couple of minutes and check it out.
May and June
Moving onto May, we held our first online conference, focusing on COVID-19, and what happens next. We’d like to say thank you to all our speakers and to those 140 people who attended. With talks from the likes of Gethyn Williams, Dr Jurgen Grotz, Kathryn Palmer-Skillings and our own Chris Martin, the conference was a success!
We do have a quick wrap-up video that you can check out here.
In June we said some hellos! We welcomed Alex back into the fold. Having already completed her placement year at TeamKinetic, we welcomed back a familiar face. You can read her (re)introduction to TeamKinetic life, here.
Coming back to TeamKinetic has been great! I’m grateful to the team for offering me this position straight out of university and I’m looking forward to what we can achieve next.
Alex
We also welcomed a fresh face to the team: Katie. Along with Alex, Katie also wrote an introductory blog post which you can read here.
It’s been a whirlwind of a time since I joined in June and I can’t wait to see what comes next in the next six months.
Katie
With new welcomes, we said some goodbyes at the start of July. We said goodbye to Chloe and Sammy, who were our 2020/21 placement students. They took charge of the TeamKinetic conference and supplied you with dog pictures on our Twitter. Alex and Katie are more cat people, and so our pet content has changed significantly over the past couple of months (much to Chloe and Sammy’s dismay).
Both Chloe and Sammy are well underway with their final year at university. We’re wishing them the best of luck seeing out the rest of their degree.
July and August
July saw us return to the office full-time as we thought the world was getting back to normal. It also saw the return of the legendary TeamKinetic staff night out, I must apologise to Chloe, Sammy, Katie and Alex as the night was so messy this appears to be the only surviving picture of these 3 ugly mugs!
August saw the launch of TeamKinetic 2.0 the latest all-singing and dancing version of TeamKinetic. Unlike previous updates, this one was a monster with more new features and controls than anything we had done before. Not only that we had updated and replaced all the old legacy code with a new and improved code base. Steve and Rolf worked day and night to get it ready and after it launched to find and fix those pesky bugs.
This new code base has set us up to be able to continue to improve the service quicker and hopefully will ensure you guys have the very best technology available for the next few years.
September
In September, we were so proud to announce our partnership with the Association of Volunteer Managers. Founder, Chris Martin, detailed our hopes for the next 12 months, some of which we’ve started on already…
Over the next 12 months, we will be working with the team at AVM to develop some accessible resources and materials that you might find useful if you are thinking about how you might use digital. We will be exploring what type of member offers and benefits you might like from us to make it easy and affordable for you to look at digital volunteer management and most importantly we hope to get to know you all a little bit better.
Chris
You can watch Chris and Ruth at AVM discuss the new partnership below. We’re excited to see what can become of this partnership with AVM heading into 2022.
We also worked with the guys in Scotland to help them launch their first ever cross-sector heritage volunteer campaign called Make your Mark. The ambition of the campaign was fantastic, how can they recruit a new generation of heritage volunteers and how can they broaden inclusion and accessibility to a whole group of new people. We were really happy to be part of the program and that TeamKinetic was to be used to drive the recruitment campaign. You can watch their launch video here, it’s pretty cool.
— Make Your Mark in Volunteering (@MakeYourMarkVol) December 1, 2021
October
October brought Halloween and our sponsorship of AVM’s annual conference. The two-day conference opened up insightful conversations with speakers that really got us thinking! It was our first time sponsoring the event and it was really nice to support something we have attended for so long.
It was also really lovely to catch up with people and see a number of faces we hadn’t seen in a while, even if it was just over Zoom, who knows what next year might look like but fingers crossed for catching up over the buffet or a glass of wine.
October also brought the first of our talks regarding digital volunteer management with the Charity Retail Association. We really wanted 2021 to be the year we looked at how we could better support the wider sector and working with both Charity Retail and AVM were key decisions that would enable us to share our knowledge and support the wider sector.
If you were there, I hope our 30/40 minute talk was insightful for those attending, and we hope we will be doing more of these in the new year.
November Talks:
We had a quick start to November with the Local Government Chronicle Awards. Once again, we were nominated in two categories, for our work over the past year with Halton and St Helens. The categories were Campaign of the Year and Technology. While we didn’t win, it was an honour to be nominated. We have to thank everyone at Halton and St Helens and the volunteers for creating such a successful project. (Chris also enjoyed a night away in London maybe a little too much if his hangover was anything to go by!)
We also were honoured to be asked to talk at COP26. The invitation came from the team running Make Your Mark in Scotland. We also heard from the likes of Chester Zoo, the National History Museum and Rob Jackson. It was another insightful day, which Katie personally enjoyed live tweeting her way through.
Volunteering, like every sphere of human life, needs to look at its role in climate change and it was really inspiring to hear what is happening and what you can do to make a change.
If you missed it why not check it out here:
The middle of November meant it was time to head down south for the day. Jumping on the train to London, we met up with the Charity Retail Association for their People Management Group – a successful hybrid event we spoke at. This was the first hybrid event we’ve attended, and we wanted to highlight the work put in by the team to make sure everything ran smoothly. While half of the attendees weren’t in the room, it never felt like they were anywhere else (apart from the leftover lunches!) We want to thank the CRA for including us in multiple of their events over 2021, and we hope to be continuing this into 2022.
Being back in person at an event was great and it felt like it was all going to be plain sailing moving into 2022, little did we know what was about to change everything!
December Celebrations:
In December, the Health Innovation Network (HIN) on behalf of NHSX released an evaluation into the value of micro-volunteering applications during the global pandemic. We were really excited to be a key contributor to the findings. The findings were also positive towards TeamKinetic and our approach to localised Micro-volunteering community response.
Through the use of these applications, over 100,000 individuals carried out 1.5 million tasks for the vulnerable during the global pandemic. Evidence suggests that micro-volunteering engages a willing volunteer force and addresses unmet community needs. It was also clear that the pandemic drove interest into the value of these platforms.
We also managed to squeeze in our Christmas party and our annual Christmas jumper day which was fun.
December has not quite turned out as we would have liked. There are refreshed calls for Volunteers to support the booster campaign. It’s all starting to feel a little like Groundhog Day as we find ourselves back in a COVID-induced crisis.
It’s been an uncertain year at times. While we’re still waiting for the days we can ‘go back to normal’, we think we’ve managed to have another successful year and that we have helped to make volunteering that little bit easier and more accessible.
If we have learned anything from 2021, it’s that you can’t plan too far in advance. You should enjoy the simple things in life and take the small victories where you can find them. You just can’t be sure what’s around the corner.
All that’s left to say is Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to those that celebrate. And, finally, have a Happy New Year – we’ll see you in 2022!
We’ve recently released TeamKinetic version 2.09 and you may have noticed a few new features. We’ve added new emailing and expenses features in our latest update.
New Email Features
The video above lays out all the new features.
When creating bulk emails you can now select any number of opportunities to be included in the email. You have the option of including the events that week and if you want to show the volunteer’s statistics across the top. These are all displayed in exactly the same way as within the newsletter so its now possible to send a newsletter type email to any of your volunteers, for any of your opportunities, whenever you like!
We have also rearranged and refactored the preview and draft buttons so you can now send a preview email to your email instantly and save a draft copy without leaving the page. We also now update the saved draft each time you hit the save draft button, rather than creating a new draft.
New Expenses Feature
The video above lays out information needed when adding/processing an Expense.
This is an Enterprise only feature. Administrators will have to switch this module on and off via the Super Admin Menu → Options → Opportunities → ‘Use the in app managed expenses module’.
Opportunities can now either be marked as ‘Managed Expenses’ and/or ‘Expenses Paid’.
Expenses Paid simply means that volunteers will be reimbursed. In this case, you should add details about what expenses are paid and if there’s a cap on the amount. This is useful for providers to specify that their opportunity pays expenses. Managed Expenses means that volunteers will be able upload expense claims which can then be managed by administrators. Managed expenses are always also marked as expenses paid.
If enabled, volunteers can select applicable opportunities from their dashboard, upload a receipt, an explanation of what the expense is for, and the amount they are claiming. Admins will get an alert when a new claim is submitted by a volunteer and can manage them all from a simple interface. The admin can view the receipt, adjust the claim amount, and update the claim status. A full history of changes and notes is maintained and viewable underneath the main claim.
Any issues?
New updates can create small problems elsewhere in the site (despite rigorous testing!) If you run into any issues on your site, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. You can either use the live chat feature, or raise a support ticket.
Another great value interim release for you all, and only a few weeks since the last one! This one is all software based, no hardware or infrastructure updates, which is much better for my health and sanity =)
Update Feedback from Volunteer Dashboard
Providers and admins can now update a volunteers feedback from the feedback section on the volunteer dashboard page. Just hit the update link and you can save it right there – no refresh required.
New Translation Engine
For those customers (Enterprise only) that use an alternative language to English (get in touch if you are interested) we have now brought all translations in-house to our own replacement engine.
This has a number of advantages; we can update and add new replacements fast, translator marked Super Admins can provide translations right there in the Super Admin area, and they can request new replacements to be added.
Using our own replacement and translation engine has increased the page load time for translated pages by four fold, an excellent result.
Send Custom Newsletters Whenever You Want
The bulk email system has been updated to use the same HTML wrapper as the weekly newsletter, so all your bulk emails will now look better and have more branding elements for your organisation.
When creating bulk emails you can now select any number of opportunities to be included in the email. You have the option of including the events that week and if you want to show the volunteer’s statistics across the top. These are all displayed in exactly the same way as within the newsletter so its now possible to send a newsletter type email to any of your volunteers, for any of your opportunities, whenever you like!
We have also rearrange and refactored the preview and draft buttons so you can now send a preview email to your email instantly and save a draft copy without leaving the page. We also now update the saved draft each time you hit the save draft button, rather than creating a new draft.
Expenses Module – First Phase
This is another great Enterprise only option to help you manage your expenses. You’ve been able to mark an opportunity as expenses provided for quite a few versions now. This new module closes the loop for expenses.
Volunteers can select applicable opportunities from their dashboard, upload a receipt, an explanation of what the expense is for, and the amount they are claiming.
Admins get an alert when a new claim is submitted by a volunteer and can manage them all from a simple interface.
The admin can view the receipt, adjust the claim amount, and update the claim status. A full history of changes and notes is maintained and viewable underneath the main claim.
We have also added some additional profile data points for UK bank account and sort codes which are only requested and stored if a volunteer makes an expenses claim. One day we hope to create some in app payment methods but we’ve yet to find one that has been acceptable to the majority of our customers yet…but we are still looking!
The managed expenses module is an enterprise only feature. Administrators can switch this module on and off and allow trusted providers to be able to mark an opportunity with the managed expenses flag. The managed expenses runs alongside the regular expenses flag, so anyone can still mark an opportunity as paying expenses, and this will show in the search filters and opp description, but only enterprise admins and trsuted providers will be able to add this managed aspect to those expenses.
Front page customisations
Our new front end (if you are not using it we suggest switching it on as volunteers seem to prefer it!) has some extra customisations, and now they are all also available in your chosen alternative language (enterprise only).
If you can’t find a suitable image, then it will fill the background with some of your chosen colours with a subtle animation effect so it will still look great even without an image.
Accreditation Improvements
We’ve standardised all the accreditation badge prints now so there will be zero variability between badges no matter how you print them.
We’ve also added the help and support menu to the accreditation menus so you can open support tickets straight from there without having to return the main volunteer menu.
The event access screen now accommodates the full 12 possible areas for each event and correctly displays access for each selectable zone.
There have also been quite a few small improvements and enhancements to the UI/UX as we harmonise it with the main application.
You can try out these features as normal on the beta site before the interim gets pushed out on 5th December. We’ll be notifying everyone and getting together some training videos and materials to make sure you can hit the ground running.
Closing Opportunities Added to Dashboard
Opportunities that are closing within 7 days are now shown to providers in their dashboard under the tasks panel.
These have been available on the administrators dashboard for a little while now but have now been brought across to the provider dashboard as well.
Happy Birthday Message for Volunteers
Just a little message on their dashboard when it is their birthday, wishing them the best and thanking them for volunteering.
We’ll be adding more life events to these notifications over time, like anniversaries of them registering, joining their first opportunity, logging their first hours etc.
Restore Recently Deleted Volunteers
We receive quite a few support tickets where administrators have accidentally deleted a volunteer, or deleted the wrong volunteer.
So we have implemented a restore feature that will work for 48 hours after the deletion. You can use the new DELETED filter in the volunteer search page to find all the volunteers that have been deleted in the last 48 hours. To restore a volunteer just hit the checkbox next to their name and then use the CHANGE STATUS bulk action in the bottom blue bar to restore them.
Once the 48 hour period has expired you will not be able to restore that volunteer. We can restore volunteers after this period for upto 30 days from cold storage backups but there is a charge.
Administators cannot restore a volunteer that has removed themselves, for obvious reasons; however all their hours are anonymised and retained.
Anonymised Hours from Deleted Vounteers Included
You can now see your anonymised hours from deleted volunteers in the quick stats area of the reporting pages. It combines the totals and highlights the total from deleted volunteers in brackets.
The date of removal is used as the hour logged date.
On Thursday, we were lucky enough to be one of the speakers during the Charity Retail Associations People Management Group. We popped on a train, and arrived in London ready and eager to finally see other people in the flesh! We’d like to thank the Charity Retail Association for inviting us to speak about how digital can help volunteer management. As a volunteer management system company, we felt we could really help attendees who may be thinking of heading to the digital side.
We’ve collected four key takeaways from the day’s events…
One: Recruitment is one of the biggest challenges at present.
Recruitment became the focus for many throughout the day, every organisation has had trouble with recruiting both volunteers and paid staff. Many organisations are struggling to find van drivers for collections and drop offs. With the Christmas period around the corner, this demand is only going to increase. The question becomes, what changes can we make to attract more staff, more volunteers, more drivers?
During the group discussion, we thought about the ‘fixes’ within staff recruitment that may be needed. These fixes included allowing staff to start straight away. With a focus on van drivers, getting them up and running as quickly as possible will help ease the pressure of collections and pick ups – can we speed this process up?
We also spoke about raising the profile of organisations – get yourself out there! In the next few years, there’s a very high chance that at least 60% of the high street will be charity shops. So why are they second choice employers? There is an understanding that a charity role is charity, when in reality it isn’t. We should be looking at job roles, as jobs, it’s something commercial and should be treated as such!
The first of two talks over the course of the day was Retail Trust’s Joe Ryan. Joe spoke about the ‘Retail Industry Against Domestic Abuse’ (RIADA) campaign running in partnership with Dunelm and the Domestic Abuse Alliance. The charity is supporting employees of retail both in the workplace and at home: and in recent weeks have had a focus on domestic abuse.
Retail Trust’s aim is to work together with the charity retail sector to become a unified voice to offer support to victims. They have a management guide, and policy template, free to access on their website- here.The expectation is for all organisations to create and decide on a policy and start to implement this within the workplace.
Three: Is Digital The Way Forward?
Our talk focused around what impact digital technologies have on volunteer management. We’re aware we may have thrown quite a lot of information at attendees in such a small time, so here’s the most important information for you now…
At TeamKinetic, we strive to make volunteering easier for everyone. We believe digital is the way forward. For those who may not have a volunteer management platform, we suggest using a Moscow format:
Mo: Must Have.
S: Should have.
Co: Could have.
W: Won’t have.
Through Moscow, you should be able to define the features and benefits you want out of a volunteer system, and those that you don’t! You’ll then be able to access your options, and find the best for you.
Once you have your system, using digital can help you recruit more volunteers than before through quick and easy sign ups. Retain your current volunteers by increasing the communication between organisation and volunteer. And realise the potential of your volunteers through live reports and feedback. If you’d like to dive deeper into a system that can help you do all of this, start a FREE trial with TeamKinetic, here!
Our Conclusions:
Digital technologies/systems will change how you’ve worked. You should be able to support more volunteers, become more creative and have deeper insight into your programme.
Whatever product you use must be suitable for both digital and non-digital participation.
Finally, good volunteer management tools need good volunteer managers.
We hope this whistle stop tour of our session can help anyone looking into volunteer management systems. If you’d like to know more about anything we’ve covered- head over to our blog page, where there’s in-depth posts about utilising your digital space.
Four: Post-COVID Stamina.
Our final key takeaway is something we haven’t really heard before: ‘post-COVID stamina.’ Post-COVID stamina, we believe, can affect everyone.
Obviously, those who have contracted COVID have to take time to recover, and stamina has to be built back up. We also believe those who haven’t had covid can also experience this. The pandemic and repeated lockdowns has meant that many people were able to regenerate themselves and their motivations; but two years later, that motivation could have diminished. We’ve even felt it sometimes around the office!
This post-COVID stamina means that, in our case, volunteers are more susceptible to becoming unwell and it can be tough to balance your own health and helping volunteer/help run a business. It may take time, but stamina will pick up, we will get stronger, and back on track in the ways we want.
Conclusions and Thank Yous…
We hope these takeaways and snippets into the Charity Retail Association’s People Management Group, starts off conversations within your organisation (and between organisations too) on how we can start to positively move forward and, as always, if you find yourself wanting to explore a volunteer management system, why not start a FREE trial with TeamKinetic today…
On one last note, we’d again like to thank the CRA for allowing us to talk about what we’re passionate about. An insightful day, with welcoming attendees across the retail sector- we hope that others enjoyed the day as much as we did.
Willowbrook Hospice provides care for patients with life limiting diseases living in St Helens, Knowsley and the surrounding areas. They rely on their fundraising methods and their dedicated volunteers. After realising they needed a volunteer management system, they came across us, TeamKinetic.
Why TeamKinetic?
For Willowbrook hospice, their previous system was archaic- there was no way to engage with their volunteers. We know the importance of interacting with volunteers we have already, so this was a concern for Willowbrook. They needed a system that allowed for this interaction. Willowbrook also wanted a web-based programme which would allow everyone to access the site from anywhere.
Benefits of using TeamKinetic:
One of the biggest benefits for Willowbrook, as mentioned above, is the ability to access the system anywhere. It’s critical for volunteer managers in each of Willowbrook’s nine shops to have access to the system. This way each shop manager can see who’s coming in to volunteer, and has all the information they need in one place.
In Willowbrook’s case, their current contact details for volunteers was through paper, which we all know isn’t the most effective. With TeamKinetic’s data protection and GDPR compliance, Willowbrook Hospice are able to see necessary contact information on volunteers profiles. If there is an emergency, managers know exactly where to go to find an email address or a phone number.
Having this information at hand means that they’re able to be more present in volunteers’ lives, through emails and messages. Since using our system, Willowbrook’s volunteers have noticed the change- they feel as if they’re more involved with the Hospice due to the update emails they receive. Willowbrook has learnt the importance of communication and engagement between themselves and volunteers along with the importance of volunteers talking with each other too.
Willowbrook Hospice’s communication:
For Willowbrook, they’ve created a befriending team between their volunteers. They’ve brought their volunteers together to support each other- especially through-out the pandemic. TeamKinetic hosts a private notes function, so Willowbrook can update when they’ve spoken to a volunteer.
All this communication has meant that volunteers feel more involved than ever with the happenings around Willowbrook Hospice and their nine shops. By involving volunteer managers and volunteers, it becomes much more likely that they will spread Willowbrook out into the world further. You’ll be attracting new volunteers whilst building and retaining the volunteers you already have. In Bev Neilson’s (a volunteer manager at Willowbrook) words, “if you want efficient communication, then you’re going to get it with TeamKinetic, definitely”.
Willowbrook also outlined the quick response rates you can get with the TeamKinetic system;
“We’ve had small events that have come up now and again. We had an event that came up where we could sell things in a local Garden Centre. It’s something we had to implement quite quickly because it was over Christmas. So, I created it on TeamKinetic and had it emailed out to all the volunteers. I would say within the hour, we filled up all the slots for two weeks worth of people volunteering for it. I think that raised over £2,000; without TeamKinetic that would never have happened.”
The ease of creating an opportunity online, and advertising it out to volunteers meant that they’re unexpected fundraising occasion was a success! Our advertising options aren’t limited to just emails, you can automatically send out a post on social media when you’ve created an opportunity, or bulk text your volunteers to let them know!
Willowbrook Hospice advice:
You’ve heard a lot from us, so here’s Willowbrook’s advice for those looking to manage their volunteers more efficiently;
“I think having this system in place helps because everything is in one place. Before it all felt a bit jumbled, we were going from system to system to try and run everything, and engage volunteers while still trying to keep in touch with them. Whereas now, we’ve got one system that we can use and as it’s web-based, like I said before, we can access it anywhere.”
What’s Next For Willowbrook Hospice?
What is happening for Willowbrook at the moment? They’ve recently celebrated World Hospice and Palliative Care Day on the 9th October. Willowbrook have decided to incorporate a Reaching Out Focus into their 2019-2022 Strategy and Organisational Work in line with this year’s theme: ‘Leave no-one behind- equity in access to palliative care.’ There objectives are as follows:
All the members of the community we serve are aware of our services, have equal access and feel comfortable to do so.
To see more people from across the communities we serve.
Thank you to Bev Neilson and Willowbrook Hospice for letting us in behind the curtain!
Find out more:
TeamKinetic helps to build better volunteer communities by providing great tools for volunteer managers that save time, increase impact and improve insight. Our goal is to make volunteering easy for everyone no matter what. But, don’t take our word for it, why not check out our customer reviews.
For more information on how we can assist with your volunteer management and getting the best out of all your volunteers, visit our website or contact us on 0161 914 5757.
Over the past 20 months we have seen organisations transform and adapt in order to continue helping those they serve. One way they have adapted is through micro-volunteering. We’ll be covering just what micro-volunteering is and how you can really get the best out of it!
What is micro-volunteering?
Micro-volunteering consists of people taking small amounts of time out of their day to volunteer; we’re looking at up to 30 minutes on a particular task, maximum. These tasks can be broken down into small parts, in which one volunteer can complete just one component. It’s convenient and low commitment actions appeal a lot to potential volunteers who may only have limited free time. Micro-volunteering takes numerous small contributions and accumulates them together to make a difference.
While the majority of micro-volunteering takes place online, through signing petitions and sharing/retweeting to spread awareness- it doesn’t have to be. You could be taking part in a run, sorting through recycling or baking for an event.
Micro-volunteering is good for organisations and it doesn’t take away from traditional volunteering. Volunteering long-term, micro-volunteers aren’t who you should be looking at. They cannot be deemed as reliable. So, if your organisation is looking at micro-volunteering, make sure that your opportunities fit the micro-volunteering mould; don’t change a traditional opportunity for the sake of it- you’ll find more often than not, it simply won’t work.
Plan Correctly…
If your organisation is thinking of using micro-volunteering, they have the chance to save themselves time and money, if planned correctly.
Start Planning. What’s the opportunity? Who’s going to manage this within the organisation?
Get Advertising. Use various websites and social media to promote your micro-volunteering opportunity.
Quick Management. Find your volunteers, get them started and confirm they know what it is they’ll be doing (there still needs to be some management even if the opportunity is small).
Recognise and Reward. Send volunteers some feedback on their completed opportunity and tell them about their impact.
The Pandemic Effect on Micro-volunteering…
As organisations rethought their volunteer programmes throughout the pandemic, micro-volunteering and the digital opportunities it provided was the gateway organisations needed to carry on. Organisation’s now face whether they keep micro-volunteering up now we return back to ‘normality’.
At AVM’s annual conference, it was mentioned that micro-volunteering should have as little bureaucracy as possible. These aren’t the volunteers you so much rely on, but they can massively make an impact within your organisation. Relationships with micro-volunteers are different from your traditional ones (mainly because you can have hundreds of micro-volunteers, so personal relationships will be hard to maintain!)
Benefits and Considerations
As we’ve hinted at, micro-volunteering does have some benefits for organisations. Currently the biggest barrier to volunteering is time. The world we live in now is fast paced, and people find that they don’t have enough time to get everything done; micro-volunteering is perfect. The flexibility of smaller tasks is appealing to many, but remember, new volunteers may be worried that they have to pledge a long-term commitment of some sort. With micro-volunteering they don’t have to.
Micro-volunteering opens you up to have a wider range of skills at your disposal (so to speak.) As volunteers are only engaged for a small amount of time, you might find that you have a group of volunteers with the same skill. Opportunities can now be split and completed quickly and efficiently: it’s a win-win. Your organisation will be getting the help it’s looking for, while volunteers haven’t lost too much of their free time.
A challenge with volunteers from an organisation’s perspective is making sure that you reach the micro-volunteering demand, especially because you’re dealing with quick opportunities. Along with this you’ll also need some sort of support for these volunteers. While they aren’t directly linked to your organisation, they’ll still need some support and direction from you. To do this, having a support tool kit you can send to your micro-volunteers with all the information they might need will set them on their way and means you can focus on other aspects of your organisation.
While your relationship with micro-volunteers is different from your traditional volunteers, you should still collect feedback (from them and from you!) As we know, micro-volunteering can be set at an arm’s length, especially for those opportunities completed online so volunteers may never know the impact they’ve made within an organisation – so make sure to let them know!
How do you know whether your organisation can use micro-volunteering?
Despite what the title says, not every organisation will work well with micro-volunteers (sadly). If you’re struggling to figure out whether your organisation would benefit, we might be able to help. Micro-volunteering is good for organisations that:
Have the potential to attract a large pool of diverse volunteers; especially those who may not have a lot of time on their hands.
Have a strong path for potential micro-volunteers to transfer into a traditional volunteer role (this may be letting micro-volunteers know where they can register their interest etc.)
Have ideas around building motivation for micro-volunteers to keep them interested in the progression of your organisation, whether it be to volunteer or just to keep in touch.
Offer new micro-volunteering opportunities to existing volunteers. This is really important now that we’re coming out of the pandemic, because volunteers’ perceptions and safety concerns have changed.
Hopefully those bullet points can give you some insight into whether, or how your organisation can start to introduce micro-volunteering into its daily process. It’s clear to see how this kind of volunteering has become popular in recent times, especially as the past 18 months have transitioned onto online platforms. If you’re thinking that micro-volunteering is something you should be adapting into your company, you might need a good volunteer management system…
Need a good volunteer management system? Look no further.
TeamKinetic helps to build better volunteer communities by providing great tools for volunteer managers that save time, increase impact and improve insight. Our goal is to make volunteering easy for everyone no matter what. But, don’t take our word for it, why not check out our customer reviews.
For more information on how we can assist with your volunteer management and getting the best out of all your volunteers, visit our website or contact us on 0161 914 5757.
Having a strong pool of volunteers is absolutely crucial for charities; and technology can be the solution to effectively recruit new volunteers. We’ve seen recently just how much technology has connected us, bringing people together – exactly what charities are looking for.
The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) have recommended that charity organisations move to digital outputs in order to become as accommodating for potential volunteers as possible. We want to cut through current barriers stopping people from volunteering.
Managing volunteers on a digital platform builds a community, and improves communication, not just between organisations and volunteers, but between volunteers themselves too! You’ll find that everyone will be more focused on your organisation’s cause.
Richard Cooper, Director of Programmes at the Technology expresses that one of the biggest issues in charities is the lack of understanding on how technology can help. Well, we can help with that!
Why Technology/Digital?
So, why digital? You can find the right volunteers for you. With constantly changing volunteer pools, digitally advertising your opportunities gives you new options. When you promote your opportunities, you’re able to tailor your language to the volunteers you’re looking for. If you already have a good volunteer pool, you can use them as a reference… How would you promote them? What tone would you use?
By having a digital sign up/application process, you have all the information you need on a volunteer’s profile, in one centralised system. By registering online, volunteers can instantly gain access to your opportunities, and start volunteering as soon as possible!
If your charity has an onboarding or training process that volunteers have to complete, you can transfer this onto volunteer management systems too. Your processes are now streamlined and you can attract more people than ever; a digital initiative by Age UK a has amassed a 50% increase in their sign up conversions.
Perfect your Two-way Communication:
You might think that it’s all well and good having volunteers sign up, but for charities human connection and having that relationship between one another is crucial. So how do we achieve that online?
Communication between a volunteer and organisation should always go two ways: it’ll help you keep attracting and retaining volunteers. With digital systems, that communication is always open. You can build a relationship through email, chat box, or even SMS text all from one place.
This not only shows your support but can also be used to recognise volunteers. For example, within TeamKinetic’s system you can leave feedback (on both a volunteer and organisation side) thanking the volunteer in question for completing the opportunity. The Charity Retail Association (CRA) has expressed how showing appreciation can really motivate a volunteer – and we agree!
Digital systems also offer new ways to recognise and reward your volunteers too! To come back to TeamKinetic, you can create custom achievement badges such as ‘volunteer of the month’ or enable ‘HourTrades.’ HourTrades are vouchers that volunteers can swap their logged hours for. This gives them a reward (the reward is up to you!)
Has the Pandemic moved technology forward?
It doesn’t seem a surprise that the pandemic has thrown volunteering into a more digital design. Using digital platforms throughout the pandemic to work and volunteer have doubled compared to pre-pandemic rates (82%). This has meant that volunteering through the pandemic was able to continue, with new digital systems improving service accessibility by 45%. Technology has been able to improve the ease of access towards volunteering over the past 18 months, and if we look more into the future, digital platforms are here to stay.
One of the concerns surrounding moving to digital, is the lack of skills paid staff had. Yet over the past 18 months to 2 years, there’s been an increase of 73% of required staff increasing their level of digital skills. It seems the pandemic has only increased the rate at which charities are moving online and taking a more technology based approach. This is reminiscent of the work towards Volunteer Passporting, which we wrote a blog all about too!
The processes of time-consuming and complex processes are a thing of the past, streamlining your volunteer management digitally offers a comprehensive service, for your managers and your volunteers.
Want To Know More?
Here at TeamKinetic we can get you set up quickly and efficiently, so you can start to recruit, retain and realise the potential of your volunteers…
Start a free trial with TeamKinetic here. Or alternatively email chris@teamkinetic.co.uk or call on 0160 914 5757.
We have had a busy few weeks and have rolled out another interim release packed full of useful changes and updates suggested by our users.
Additionally we have also updated our infrastructure over the last few weekends with minimal distruption. All our servers and virtual environments are now on the latest server operating system and our database has also been updated to a new version. We’ve also thrown some more hardware at the application and I hope you have noticed some snappier responses.
Custom emails for opportunities
You can now add a custom email to an opportunity that is sent when a volunteer joins INSTEAD of the universal email (the universal email remains accessible and customisable as before). So if you have a special message to give to volunteers that join certain opportunities here is your chance.
It’s super easy to use and access, quick check box to say you want to use a custom email then you will see the normal editor window where you can craft the email.
Administrators can add an attachment to these emails from the normal list of email attachments you are used to seeing in the bulk email and email customisation areas.
Remember, this email is sent INSTEAD of the universal one, so be sure to include full details.
Custom email for role applications
Just as above, now when super admins are creating or editing roles they can add a custom email that is sent when a volunteer applies for that role.
It all works identically as for custom opportunity emails, and once again is sent instead of the universal email.
Close applications for an opportunity
Admins and providers can now hit a button on the APPLICANTS tab for apply first opportunties which will close applications for the opportunity without closing the opportunity. This enables already accepted volunteers to carry on as normal, and access new sessions, without attracting any new applicants.
Opportunity image enforcement option
Super Admins can now elect to switch of the mandatory upload of images for each opportunity. This option is OFF be default.
Information about the opportunity the intial role application was for
When a volunteer first applies for a role we record which opportunity this was on. We used this to enable the auto application to the opportunity if it was required, once the role applicaiton was complete and successful.
We have now started to show this information on the role management page so you know which opportunity the volunteer was originally interested in.
The volunteer also gets this information, along with a link to the original opportunity so they don’t need to hunt around to find it.
New and fixed reports
We have added a pie chart showing the proportion if volunteers on events and opportunities that have reported as having special needs or disabilities, downloadable of course.
The pie chart showing the ethnicity of volunteers on opportunities and events was not using distinct volunteers, but all the joined sessions. This has been fixed and is now accurate and the total volunteers will match the number given in the summary for volunteers.
Improved profile editing for volunteers
The layout when editing the profile for a volunteer has been tidied up and the various layouts for external volunteers, provider editing pages have also been improved.
We have split out the location aspects of their profile from their personal details, so you can update and edit independantly. This will help where location details have not been recorded properly but you still need to update other aspects of their profile.
Feedback report is now downloadable
Added a download button to the feedback report page so you can grab a full list of all the feedback at anypoint.
New filter for searching volunteers
You can now choose in the TYPE filter, to show volunteers that will and that will not receive bulk emails. A volunteer only receives bulk emails if they have opted in, have a valid email address, and have been granted access.
Faster searching
The opportunity search page speed has been improved by excluding distance calculations where possible and also using a boundary box method of finding matching opportunities rather than calculating the distance from the volunteers location and all other opportunites.
This is not as accurate but much faster and the accuracy is perfectly acceptable for this search. This means that empty or null searches, which are by far the most performed search such as;
can return the maximum 250 opportunities in less than a second.
Providers having multiple accounts is now optional
The ability for providers to create their own sub accounts for collegues to use to login is now an option. You can find it in the super admin menu > options > everything else tab.
Better ordering of completed opportunities for volunteers
When volunteers view their opportunity tab in their dashboard, completed opportunities were ordered by their start date (age). We’ve switched this around now so that the opportunities are ordered by the date of their last session on that opportunity. So the opportunity that was mostly recently completed is at the top.
In app criminal checks
We are just finishing our initial development of in app criminal checks with KnowYourPeople in the UK. This wil mean you can fill out a simple form in the app, send it off and within 24 hours or so you will have the completed criminal check details available on the volunteers profile.
They will also send the certifcate to the volunteers address and your organisation name will appear on the certificate.
We don’t have finalised prices for the each check, but we are confident they will be less than £12 per check for the enhanced version.
If you are interested in trialing this new feature please get in touch.
Now we’re heading back to ‘normal’, should you still be working with online volunteers? YES! By recruiting online volunteers from quite literally anywhere you’re expanding your reach. When it comes to volunteering: the bigger your reach, the better! Virtual volunteering slots here perfectly.
In today’s blog post, we’re outlining the ways you can make sure your virtual opportunities stand out from the rest.
Making Your Opportunity Stand Out
Your Opportunity Title. When creating your opportunity, make sure your title is compelling and attractive. A volunteer is more likely to join an opportunity that instantly excites them, so having a strong title is key. It’s also worth mentioning somewhere in the title that the opportunity is remote.
Opportunity Description. Simply, don’t post the full list of details. Searching volunteers are likely to be leading with emotion – and a long description of there duties isn’t going to entice them. We suggest giving snippets of their duties but focus on explaining the impact they’ll be making.
Jargon. For a number of volunteers, this is their first time volunteering. Any specific language or acronyms should be left out. It’s most likely going to confuse potential volunteers, so keeping it as simple as possible will get more interest from new volunteers.
Calls To Action. Give potential volunteers the ‘next steps’ for joining an opportunity. Your opportunity should always have contact details too, for any other questions or support they might require.
Image Use. The use of imagery taps into volunteers’ emotions. Using the right image can trigger mirror neurons in the brain, so the volunteer feels the emotions portrayed in an image. Your images can also show that your organisation is inclusive to all. It’s important that your imagery is right, and sends the right signals to those browsing.
Checking Your Posting. Once your post is complete, make sure to double check it. Go through and check that all the information is correct as well as looking out for any spelling/grammatical errors. It’s also worth, once posted, looking at the opportunity through a potential volunteer’s eyes – do they have everything they need to join?
Are You Screening Your Volunteers?
Now that you’ve perfected your opportunity listing, and you have a set of virtual volunteers, the screening process can begin! What should you be considering when it comes to your volunteering screening process?
At the outset, you need to find out where your volunteer will be working. Are they going to be in a pace that’s quiet and private, or will they be in a busy environment? The key thing is that they are able to volunteer effectively in the place they’ve set up.
To ensure your volunteer is working effectively, are their any supplies or training required? Ensure that your volunteer has completed their training steps, and can access everything they need to start volunteering; this check makes sure there can be a smooth process into the opportunity, because there’s no stop/starting as a volunteer doesn’t have access to something important.
Volunteers will be interacting with a number of different people – let them know the basic information on how they should interact. This can help build up a volunteer’s confidence, so they interact with the organisation and those it helps more.
Make sure that you’re frequently staying in touch with those who virtually volunteer, over email, chat or video call. You can touch base weekly or monthly, building up a relationship that keeps them returning to volunteer. Establishing this relationship is important, volunteers want to feel seen and heard, like they aren’t just on the outskirts of the organisation.
Volunteer Motivations
You can also match volunteers with other opportunities you think they might be interested in. One way you can do this is through understanding your volunteers motives. VolunteerPro teaches a lot about a set of motivations a volunteer is likely to have, and how they can be applied by volunteer managers. Their motivations are:
Values: Where in which volunteers take something meaningful from the hours they spend volunteering.
Careers: Opportunities open doors for volunteers to advance in their careers or network with likeminded people from their industry.
Social: Volunteers can find themselves in emotional and supportive environments which they can also benefit from.
Enhancement: Volunteering gives leadership development to volunteers and changes their perception of power to some extent.
Volunteers that are open and motivated are most likely to have more than one goal in mind, rather than running on one single purpose. For some, they might not yet realise what those goals or motivations are, but they want to help in any capacity.
Think it’s time to invest in volunteer management software?
You can start a free trial of TeamKinetic on our website. This will let you check out all our features for 30 days. If you like what you see, contact us to book a demo and see how we can help your organisation manage your volunteers!
