We all know that a simple “thank you” goes a long way, but in the busy world we live in, it’s easy for volunteer reward and recognition to slip to the bottom of the to-do list. However, acknowledging the time, skills, and emotional energy your volunteers give is actually the backbone of a healthy and sustainable programme.
By acknowledging the time, skills, and emotional energy volunteers give, you’re doing more than just being polite; you’re making a strategic investment in your organisation’s future.
Why recognition matters more than you might think
Most people volunteer for altruistic reasons. They want to help or feel a personal connection to a cause. However, as Ruth Leonard and Jurgen Grotz note, while people aren’t usually hunting for thanks, they certainly notice if it’s never given!
‘Most of us like to be appreciated and recognised for what we’ve done. This doesn’t mean that people are consciously looking for thanks, rather that it becomes noticed if it’s never given. Probably, the most important thing that can be done in order to continue a relationship with volunteers is to make sure they know that they and what they do are valued.’
Focusing on appreciation isn’t just a “nice” thing to do; it makes great business sense, too. It leads to:
Lower Turnover: Volunteers stay longer, which means you spend less time and money on constant recruitment and onboarding. NCVO’s Time Well Spent research found that 81% of satisfied volunteers plan to continue over the next year, compared to just 26% of dissatisfied ones.
A Supportive Community: When you recognise volunteers, they start to recognise each other, creating a friendly, reciprocal environment.
Better Results: High engagement usually leads to better outcomes for the people or communities you serve.
Attract Younger Talent: Recognition is especially important to younger volunteers. While 40% of all volunteers value it, that number jumps to 49% for those aged 18–24.
Simple Ways to Say Thanks
You don’t need a massive budget to make someone feel valued. In fact, research shows that the most popular form of recognition is just a verbal or written thank you.
Personalised Notes: A quick email or a handwritten letter can mean the world.
Validation from the Top: Having a thank-you note come from a senior leader or the head of your organisation can make a volunteer feel their work is being noticed by the whole charity, not just their immediate supervisor.
Tangible Proof: Certificates remain a classic and effective way to celebrate a job well done.
Keeping it Legal: The Tax Bit
Before you start handing out gifts, it’s important to keep HMRC in mind. To avoid accidentally creating an employment relationship, rewards should be occasional, low-value, and unexpected.
Making it Easier with TeamKinetic
If you use the TeamKinetic system, there are some built-in tools that can help you automate these “thank yous” so they don’t get forgotten. If you use other tools, you can still use these ideas as a blueprint for your own recognition strategy.
The “Ice Cream Sundae” of Feedback
We love this metaphor for giving great feedback. Rather than a “cookie-cutter” message, try layering your appreciation like a sundae:
The First Scoop: The base—a simple “thank you” for their time.
The Sprinkles: A personal detail about something they did well (e.g., “You were so helpful with the registration desk today!”).
The Cherry on Top: A warm invitation to come back again soon.
Milestone Badges (Gamification)
You can create Custom Award Badges for anything you like—from “Volunteer of the Month” to “Length of Service” milestones. Some organisations get creative, using nature-themed badges where a new volunteer starts as a “Seed” and grows into a “Veteran Tree” over time. These digital badges appear on the volunteer’s profile as a permanent record of what they’ve achieved.
HourTrades: Exchanging Time for Perks
HourTrades allow volunteers to “swap” the hours they’ve logged for small rewards.
What to offer: This could be some branded kit, like t-shirts or mugs, or even better, training opportunities like a first aid course or a coaching qualification.
How it works: You set the “price” (e.g. 10 hours for a t-shirt), and the system handles the request for you.
High-Value Perks at No Cost
Through our integrations, you can offer some pretty cool perks without spending a penny of your own budget:
Tickets for Good Gives volunteers who have logged a set amount of hours access to free/discounted tickets for live music, comedy, and sports events.
Tempo Time Credits A national scheme where volunteers earn credits in exchange for volunteering hours. They can then spend credits on various experiences.
Are you a visual learner?
In this recent TeamKinetic masterclass, Rolf went through some of the most effective way to thank you volunteers. He shows you how to use TeamKinetic to effectively reward and recognise your volunteers.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, you don’t need any fancy methods of reward and recognition. You just need to be consistent and sincere. Whether you’re sending quick feedback after they’ve completed an opportunity or setting up a badge system for long-term achievements, the goal is to make sure your volunteers know that what they do truly matters.
If you’re a TeamKinetic user, why not jump into your super admin menu today and try creating your own Achievement Badges or add some HourTrade vouchers? If you aren’t using the system yet, why not contact us to see how we can help you.
What’s next?
Next up in our Masterclass series, we’re joined by Tobi Johnson. Tobi is an expert in all things volunteer management and has been sharing her wisdom via VolunteerPro since 2015. She’s joining us to discuss how to re-engage lost volunteers. Or, in her words, “How to Plan a Wildly Successful Volunteer “Win-Back” Campaign”!
TeamKinetic users can book now via their system (Help & Support → Masterclasses & Training), everyone else can use this Eventbrite page to reserve their place. We think this will be a popular one so get tickets while you can!
Our recent masterclass walked through the new features in the TeamKinetic 2.6.1 update. While this might be a smaller release in name, it’s packed with improvements that lots of you have been asking for.
We’ve pulled together a full summary of everything covered, including questions raised during the session. And you can watch the recording below:
They allow you to configure administrator access far more precisely than before. Instead of choosing between super admin and standard admin, you can now specify exactly what each admin can see and do.
What new admin roles can I create?
Examples Steve showed during the session included:
Super Admin: unchanged, full access including configuration.
View-Only Admin: can view volunteers, opportunities and reports, but cannot edit anything.
Task-Specific Admin: e.g. someone who can only process expense claims.
Can providers get extended permissions too?
This was a common question. The direction of our current roadmap is to give you the ability to downgrade administrators rather than upgrade providers. The long-term aim is to let organisations convert some provider users into limited admins, where appropriate.
Can admins be limited to only certain opportunities?
Yes. Granular permissions already allow you to restrict which opportunities an admin can access.
Is this the first version of granular permissions?
Yes. More options will be added over time based on your feedback – so make sure you give us plenty via Support Tickets!
A new feature that lets you assign additional people to receive communications about a specific opportunity, beyond the main provider email.
You can now assign:
A specific administrator
A specific additional provider user
Any email address (optional custom field)
Why is this useful?
It supports real-world workflows such as:
Job-sharing providers (e.g. one manages Mon–Wed, another Thu–Fri).
Admin-led recruitment followed by provider-led delivery.
Providers who need multiple colleagues to receive join/leave notifications.
Organisations with central oversight teams or mailing lists.
Can I assign more than one additional provider user?
Right now, one additional provider user can be selected. Multiple users may be considered in future if there is demand.
Can the “assigned email” be anything at all?
Yes, it can be any address, such as:
A mailing list
A shared inbox
A finance team member who must see expense-related emails
Do opportunities have to be linked to a provider for this to work?
Yes. Provider users only appear in the dropdown if the opportunity belongs to their provider.
What if all opportunities are created centrally (not under the provider)?
You can still use the custom email box to send notifications to additional people. If you’d like to restructure your set-up, the support team can help.
Can provider users from other providers be assigned?
No, only users attached to the same provider as the opportunity.
The “maximum hours” column has been removed after feedback that it caused confusion.
You can now filter by provider, allowing you to focus on organisations that need support logging hours.
A new checkbox lets you preserve part-logged hours on sessional opps, preventing them being overwritten by accident.
Why is this useful?
Admins can now easily mass-log hours for specific providers, especially helpful where providers don’t keep up with logging.
Questions Answered During the Session
Can providers be given the ability to update ID or criminal record checks?
Not directly. The plan is to move providers into “limited admin” roles over time so they can carry out tasks like ID and DBS updates with appropriate permissions.
Will the update affect how we currently receive notifications?
No. Your existing setup remains. You now have additional options, but nothing changes automatically.
How many admins can we have?
As many as you need. Admin accounts are one of the few paid-for elements in TeamKinetic, but there is no system limit.
How many provider users can an organisation have?
Unlimited. Provider users remain free.
Final Thoughts
We hope this TeamKinetic 2.6.1 update brings meaningful improvements. With this update, we aim to make day-to-day volunteer management more flexible, more transparent, and easier to share across teams.
From granular control of admin privileges to smarter communication and enhanced external integrations, we hope this release adds value for your organisation.
If you have any questions, feedback, or configuration challenges, our support team is always here to help. And please don’t hesitate to send us new feature requests via support ticket!
What an incredible event. On behalf of the entire winning team, ‘Table 1,’ I want to start by extending our sincere thanks to the Open Data Institute organisers for arranging the Volunteering Hackathon 2025! The atmosphere was lively and fun, and it was genuinely inspiring to see so many dedicated people tackling the challenges of open data infrastructure and improving volunteer systems.
This victory, and all the outcomes from the day, are a testament to the fact that when passion meets technology, real community impact is indeed inevitable.
I am immensely proud of our team: Chris Martin, Dr. Amy Burnett, Andrew Mene-Otubu, Matt Parker, Murphy Campbell, Aaron Amato, and Nyaha Duri. To my teammates – thank you. Your collective brilliance, from deep domain expertise to sharp technical skills, made our prototype, a reality in such a short time.
The Challenge: Making Volunteering Human-Centric
We focused on user-centric discovery and experience, and specifically tackled the question: “Can finding a volunteer role be as easy as asking a friend?”
We aimed to create a conversational, generative search agent that leverages standardised open data to move beyond simple keyword filtering, making it effortlessly accessible.
The truth is, traditional search forces people to translate their human needs into rigid database queries. We saw an opportunity to build a system that understands the nuance of intent. Our solution, Project Alpha, is a natural language interface for volunteer opportunities that delivers a “Humanistic Search for Humans”.
Building the Brain: A Training Context for the LLM
Our core innovation was not just using a Large Language Model (LLM) – we worked on linking the open dataset via LLM to the Model Context Protocol (MCP) – but also how we trained it. We knew that to achieve truly empathetic and accurate matching, our model couldn’t be a generic bot; it needed a soul.
This is where the groundbreaking research of our own Dr. Amy Burnett (and Catherine Wilder) was instrumental. We adapted their framework, developed under a British Academy Policy Innovation Fellowship, to create a deep training context for our AI agent. This framework moves beyond simple transactional data like “skills” and “location” to probe the user’s purpose and story.
The LLM’s training wasn’t just about indexing 10,000+ opportunities; it was about internalising human motivation. The key questions we built into the agent’s context included:
Who are you?
Where have you come from?
What is the user’s purpose and story?
What value do they hope to create?
What prior knowledge and experience can we call upon?
What does transformation look like and feel like to you?
By forcing the model to engage with these profound human questions, we could elicit the necessary data, like passion & cause, logistics, and skills & mood, in a conversational, non-intrusive way. For example, when a user persona like Sarah says, “I have free time on Sunday afternoons, and I love being outdoors. I want to help somewhere that feels calm”, the system instantly understands her schedule, interest, and desired vibe.
We also ensured the model was fine-tuned on the specific taxonomies, emotional sensitivities, and operational realities of 23 distinct impact sectors, so it can understand that “working with hands” has a very different meaning in ‘Art & Culture’ versus ‘Disaster Relief’.
Universal Access: Multi-Channel Distribution with Cisco Webex Connect
A fantastic conversational agent is useless if no one can access it. Our architecture, which includes a User Chat that extracts data into an ‘Ephemeral Profile’ and posts it to our MCP Server, was designed for scalability and integration.
To ensure Universal Access, we designed the system to use Webex Connect. By connecting our MCP server to Webex Connect, we successfully bridged the gap between our intelligent agent and the platforms users use every day.
This seamless omnichannel integration means our natural language engine can power interactions across vital communication channels, making the search for volunteer opportunities truly accessible to everyone, regardless of their preferred platform:
WhatsApp for global reach
Facebook Messenger for social connectivity
SMS for universal accessibility
Apple Messages (iChat) for iOS integration
This architecture ensures that finding a role is not confined to a single app or website, but is available wherever the user is, supporting a seamless, cross-platform volunteer journey.
The Next Chapter
This Hackathon was a massive success for open data in volunteering. Our team has demonstrated that we can move beyond filtering by postcodes and categories and connect individuals to purpose through conversation.
We’re incredibly excited about the downstream opportunities Project Alpha opens up, from generating user data to optimising the AI’s performance to connecting outcome metrics to personal profiles.
This is the start of these amazing technologies becoming part of TeamKinetic.
A final, heartfelt thank you again to the amazing people on Table 1. It was an honour to build this with you.
The TeamKinetic 2.6.1 Minor Release is coming soon, and we want to tell you all about what to expect when the update drops.
This is the largest update to our user features so far in our release history!
Granular Permissions
Super admins can now select granular permissions for all your administrators. Permissions are split over the four areas of volunteers, opportunities, providers and system. Each administrator can have their own bespoke permissions set. There is also a handy set of presets for low, medium, and high-level permissions.
All your current administrators will have all permissions enabled EXCEPT the system permissions, and should experience very little difference to their current mode of operation.
POD administrators will still behave as before, but their limited access to opportunities and volunteers within their pod can be overwritten by the edit all opportunities and volunteer permissions. Any existing POD admins will have those permissions disabled so that the existing POD rules are still enforced.
Of particular note are the new system permissions that allow selected administrators to edit role and reference definitions as well as process role applications and submitted references. This is the first time that Super Admins can assign some roles that were previously Super Admin-only to general administrators.
The opportunity assignment options, as detailed in the next section, can be used to define which opportunities can be accessed by administrators without the edit all opportunities permission. In these cases, any opportunity that is created by an administrator or has been assigned to an administrator is viewable and editable by the administrator.
You can refine and update all your administrators from the Super Admin Menu > Admin Accounts.
Super administrators can now assign individual administrators to particular opportunities. This has two effects.
Firstly, it enables the administrator edit access to the opportunity when they don’t have the edit all opps permission enabled.
Secondly, all enabled administrator email communications will be directed to both the assigned user and the regular central app email.
Administrators and providers can also assign a provider user to the opportunity, which affords no extra access but direct email notifications to the selected user in addition to the central provider email address.
Finally, you will notice that there is a nominal contact email box available to providers and administrators. Here, you can add any email address which will also be added to the email communications for this opportunity.
This has the advantage of not being connected to an existing user, so you could use mailing lists or group emails. Please take care not to use unauthorised emails that could enable some leaking of details to non-authorised contacts.
This nominal email feature can be optionally disabled to prevent the risk of data leakage.
This is great news as the GOVO platform is gearing up and people are starting to talk about it.
Available from your super admin menu > setup > integrations page you simply have to add your API key to start sharing your opportunities directly to your account at GOVO.
You can either choose to share when adding an opportunity or when editing an existing opportunity. GOVO supports remote/at home opportunities, flexible and sessional and any interested volunteers that find you on GOVO will be redirected back to apply on your TeamKinetic platform. Exciting times.
Tickets For Good – Another great way to reward your volunteers
We’ve teamed up with tickets for good to enable your volunteers that have logged hours to get their hands on free or heavily discounted tickets to a huge selection of top events. There is always a small booking/ticketing fee to pay and all tickets are on a first come first served basis.
We have to pre-authorise your organisation to make sure it meets the criteria Tickets for Good set out. If you are interested pop along to the super admin menu > setup > integrations to start the ball rolling.
New status options
As part of the revocation options, you can now elect to remove a volunteer’s future sessions when revoking access. This means that their names will no longer show up on opportunities for future sessions, so they should not be expected or allowed to participate.
New Font – What do you think
We have updated the admin system header and body fonts, we think the titles are more readable now. Hope you like it.
Did you know you can use the CSS editor in your super admin setup area to set your own custom fonts for your volunteer pages..? Open a ticket if you want to know how.
New search filters
It’s always difficult to filter out who is active, inactive, available etc, not least because what those words mean is not standardised and they can mean different things in different contexts.
In terms of reporting and hours the TeamKinetic definition of active is always on a session OR logged hours between the filter dates. However when referring to volunteer auto deletion active also includes a login event; a volunteer that has joined no opportunities but has logged in, will not be auto deleted as they are considered active.
To help, we have added some new filters to handle these different situations.
The filters have some extra text so you know exactly what the filter includes and we’ve added a new filter that will pull up all volunteers that were on any opportunity in the period selected where they were not marked as finished.
Changes to log all hours page
The log all hours page has had some changes after talking with out Wildlife Trust customers who had some good ideas to make it more useful.
We have added a provider filter so you can look for specific provider’s outstanding hours, adding some more details on what the rules are when bulk logging hours.
A little checkbox to filter in/out those sessions where some, but not all, the available hours have been logged by a provider/administrator. Usually if less than the maximum hours have been logged, it’s for a reason and you don’t want that to be overwritten by the maximum.
A total can now be found at the bottom of the results and we have excluded the flexible max hours number as it was confusing and doesn’t add anything as when bulk logging flexible hours it copies the volunteer log history if it has more hours than the provider/administrator log history.
New SMS sending rules
This is actually a sort of backwards development! The rules around unsolicited text messages have been tightened up and they now prevent us from using any sender ID we wish when we send text messages. We now have to provide details on the sender ID, what it will be used for and other details, plus a regular monthly cost.
So for these reasons, we have suspended the sender ID options in the account profile area and all SMS messages are sent with a TeamKinetic sender ID. Apologies for those that have got used to having the old Sender ID flexibility.
Auto-suggest timing for typing to speed up results
You may have noticed when using the universal auto suggest search (still the best place to look for individual volunteers, providers or opportunities!) that it doesn’t attempt to search until you pause your typing. So if you type the characters S I M O N in quick succession without pausing, it will search once for ‘simon’ it wont search for ‘s’ then ‘si’ then ‘sim…..’.
This same technique has now been applied to the volunteer auto suggest searches when adding volunteers to sessions, adding meetings and everywhere else you see that volunteer search dialogue.
It reduces the time it spent searching and helps prevent timing issues with the appearance and fading of the list of auto suggested names.
This month marks one year since the launch of the Digital in Volunteering initiative – a sector-wide effort to understand how digital tools are transforming volunteering. It also serves to help volunteer managers build the confidence, capability, and connections they need to thrive.
From recruitment platforms and online training tools to CRM systems and new ways of keeping volunteers engaged, one thing is clear: digital isn’t just an add-on anymore. It’s central to how volunteering works today.
Over the past year, the initiative has grown rapidly across the UK voluntary sector. While digital in volunteering continues to evolve, we’re already seeing real innovation, shared learning, and a growing appetite to build on this progress.
What’s been achieved so far
The vision behind Digital in Volunteering is simple. To empower volunteer managers with the tools, knowledge, and peer support they need to use digital confidently and purposefully.
The Digital in Volunteering Toolkit
A practical resource designed to help volunteer managers adopt digital approaches with confidence. Whether you’re starting small or scaling up. From assessing your organisation’s digital maturity to embedding inclusive practice, the Toolkit has already supported hundreds of people across the sector.
Now more than 300 volunteer managers strong, the Community is a space for sharing ideas, learning together, and supporting one another on the digital journey. Built by volunteer managers, for volunteer managers, it’s a collaborative network that’s only just getting started.
Through webinars, discussions, and case studies, one clear message has emerged: the future of digital in volunteering will be shaped by practice, not platforms.
As the initiative looks ahead to 2026, the team wants to understand what volunteer managers need most. What’s working? What’s missing? And where is more support needed?
You can help by completing the 2025 Digital in Volunteering Survey. It takes just a few minutes, and your insights will directly shape the support, learning, and resources offered next year.
Thank you to everyone who’s contributed so far and to those joining the journey now. Together, we can continue to unlock digital’s potential for volunteering, one practical step at a time.
Volunteers bring so much to organisations. They strengthen communities, boost well-being, and often change lives. Including their own!
However, capturing that impact can feel daunting. Especially when funders want neat numbers, but volunteers deserve recognition that goes deeper than statistics.
The good news? There isn’t just one way to measure impact. At our 2025 Conference, we heard from Joanne Irvine and Will Watt. They’re two leading voices in this area who are approaching volunteer impact from slightly different angles.
Joanne’s work shows how involving volunteers in the process of collecting qualitative data can uncover stories that statistics alone can’t capture. Whereas Will is well-experienced in turning the social and economic value of volunteering into hard data.
By combining storytelling methods with economic evaluation, volunteer managers can build reports that tick boxes for stakeholders while showing the human side too. Here’s how…
Go Beyond Hours Logged
Traditional measures, like the number of hours given or the cost of replacing volunteers with paid staff, are a useful starting point. But they only capture one part of the picture.
Economic value: Tools like social value calculators can estimate the financial worth of volunteering in terms of improved well-being, health, and community services supported.
Will Watt’s company, State of Life, has developed a simple guide to social impact to help you start thinking about calculating your programme’s social value.
Social impact: Data shows that weekly volunteering boosts life satisfaction, reduces loneliness, and builds trust in communities.
Joanne’s work supports highlighting the human impact behind the numbers. It brings meaning, emotion, and context to outcomes. And by doing so, it supports fairer policies, stronger funding cases, and a shift toward valuing social, environmental, and community well-being alongside economic measures.
Think of hours logged as the foundation, layering in well-being and social impact creates a full story around the data.
Capture Stories and Lived Experiences
Numbers impress funders, but stories move people. Volunteers often describe benefits like:
Increased confidence
New friendships
A stronger sense of purpose
Better physical and mental health
Simple methods like open-ended questions in feedback forms, sticker voting at events, or even casual conversations can reveal these outcomes. Sharing them alongside statistics creates a fuller, more relatable picture.
Recognition: simple thanks and public appreciation
Social connection: friendships, networks, and reduced loneliness
Designing your evaluation around these motivators ensures you’re measuring (and delivering) what matters most.
Build Reports That Speak to Everyone
Different stakeholders care about different things. A strong impact report should combine:
Statistics for funders and policymakers: such as the economic value of well-being improvements or the cost saved to public services.
Stories for communities and volunteers: quotes, case studies, and personal accounts that show the human side of volunteering.
Practical context: explaining what those numbers and stories mean in real-world terms (e.g. “One volunteer enables nine others to play sport”).
Make your reporting credible, relatable, and actionable with this blended approach.
Final Thoughts
Measuring the impact of volunteers doesn’t have to be a choice between numbers and stories. By blending economic evaluation with qualitative, participatory methods, you can create reports that satisfy funders, inspire communities, and, most importantly, show volunteers how much they matter.
Because the true value of volunteering isn’t just in what people give, it’s also in what they gain.
At this year’s TK Conference, Gethyn Williams shared his insights into five big trends shaping the future of volunteering and what they mean for volunteer managers on the ground.
From AI to inclusivity, his message was clear: volunteering doesn’t exist in a bubble. The way people volunteer is changing, just as fast as the world around them. The good news? With the right approach, these changes bring more opportunities than challenges.
Let’s dig into the five trends and how you can make them work for your organisation.
1. Reaching the Next Generation
First, Gethyn explored reaching the next generation through micro volunteering. Micro-volunteering, remote roles, and flexible shifts can open your organisation to new volunteers.
I’m sure you’re all aware what micro volunteering is by now. If you’re not, it basically refers to small, manageable tasks that volunteers can do. These are often online and sometimes available as one-off opportunities or tasks.
So what sort of opportunities can you offer to entice the next generation into volunteering?
Younger volunteers often want to make a meaningful impact and see a clear link between their time and the difference it makes. They’re drawn to opportunities that align with their values. Whether that’s social, environmental, or community-focused.
However, they also have less time and prefer short-form content – the TikTok generation! That’s where micro volunteering comes in. One-off tasks, or flexible roles that can be done remotely, fit this need perfectly.
Micro-volunteering doesn’t replace longer-term commitment, and you don’t have to solely rely on these short tasks. But it opens doors for people who might not otherwise volunteer. And, when done well, can lead to longer-term commitment.
2. AI and Volunteering
AI is the ‘big one’ right now. It’s dominating conversations everywhere. Like other digital trends, it started outside the volunteering world, but it feels time for volunteer managers to find useful, ethical ways to apply it to their work.
Gethyn shared how he’s been using AI to analyse survey responses, especially long, open-ended ones that can take days to review. AI tools can sort feedback, detect patterns, and even analyse sentiment. All faster and more objectively than we might manage manually.
The real discussion, Gethyn said, is whether AI should be our co-pilot or our replacement. He asked us to imagine a system that could do it all…
Imagine an AI tool that could automatically screen volunteer applications, predict a candidate’s likelihood of long-term retention with 85% accuracy, and schedule their first shift – all without human input.
Gethyn Williams
Sounds efficient, right? But it also raises big ethical questions: What happens to personal connection? How do we handle bias or fairness?
The session poll captured this tension perfectly. Attendees saw both opportunities (less admin, faster onboarding, freeing up time for engagement) and dilemmas (loss of human warmth, accuracy issues, and even the environmental impact of AI’s energy use).
So what now?
We say start small and stay human. Try AI where it genuinely helps, like cutting down on repetitive admin, but keep people at the heart of every decision. AI should be your co-pilot, not your replacement.
3. National Recruitment Platforms
National online recruitment platforms are another hot topic in volunteering right now. With tools like The Big Help Out, GoVo (the new RVS platform), and Reach Volunteering’s relaunch, there’s no shortage of innovation in how people find opportunities.
Gethyn suggested that strong recruitment strategies will use a mix of local and national platforms. Local ones for community connections, and national ones for reaching those who’ve never volunteered before.
But there’s a tension: are these platforms delivering the right volunteers, or simply ready volunteers who want to get started now? Both have value, but they serve different needs.
“Do national platforms work for our convenience, or for the volunteer’s? Maybe the trick is finding the balance.”
Advice for you…
Experiment, share what works, and don’t expect one platform to do it all. Volunteers, like everyone else, have their preferred brands and channels. Meeting them where they are is part of the challenge… and the opportunity!
4. Open Data
Open data might sound dry, but it can be exciting when you look at what it can do.
Gethyn compared it to the open banking revolution, where shared data standards transformed how financial systems talk to each other. Imagine the same for volunteering platforms. Data flowing freely between systems to make recruitment, reporting, and collaboration smoother for everyone.
There’s already work underway to create open data standards for volunteering, supported by the Digital in Volunteering Community of Practice. It’s a great place for volunteer managers to get involved and help shape what that looks like.
He also raised an intriguing idea: a national volunteering data hub. While the UK already has solid research, we still lack certain insights. What’s the average conversion rate from enquiry to placement? How long do volunteers typically stay involved? Which groups aren’t volunteering and why?
Shared data could also help answer these questions and lead to smarter decisions across the sector. As Gethyn put it:
“Maybe it’s time we talked more seriously about open data in volunteering and what it could make possible.”
5. Rise of the Digital Volunteer
This “bonus round” from Gethyn looked at the growing rise of digital and skilled volunteering. Moving beyond quick micro-tasks to harness professional expertise for good.
These volunteers often lead with their skills rather than a specific cause. As Gethyn put it, their “professional skills” fader is turned right up, and that opens up exciting new possibilities. They don’t need to live nearby or even know your charity. These volunteers are motivated by the chance to use what they know to make a difference.
He invited us to imagine charities as “gigs for good”, where small, time-limited digital projects tap into professional talent. Think of tasks like improving SEO, designing templates, revamping a website, or creating social media videos. The kind of digital wish-list items that could be done in under 10 hours by a skilled volunteer.
Platforms like Reach Volunteering are seeing growth here, especially since COVID. Professionals are looking for flexible, meaningful ways to contribute online.
Gethyn encouraged everyone to take a fresh look at their digital to-do list and see what could be turned into a short, contained project. Give volunteers a simple way to build skills, confidence, and capacity across the sector.
Key Takeaways for You
Digital is here to stay: the question isn’t if you go digital, but how.
Experience is everything: volunteers expect the same ease and care they get from any modern service.
Learn from outside the sector: marketing, UX, and data principles aren’t just for businesses; they work brilliantly in volunteer management too.
Start small, learn fast: test, and tweak. You’ll learn more by doing than by waiting for the ‘perfect’ system.
So, now’s the time for you to think about how you can take these emerging trends and apply them to your own work. Perhaps you’d like help with taking on the points raised in Gethyn’s session?
The Digital in Volunteering Community of Practice is a place for anyone involved in volunteering to come together, share ideas, access key resources, and join regular workshops on using digital in volunteering. Not to mention, it’s the only place you can access the Digital in Volunteering Toolkit! Best of all, it’s completely free. You can join now via this link.
If you want to contact Gethyn for further advice, you can find him at gethynwilliams.net
As always, you can find TeamKinetic via our links below:
What does volunteer management have in common with gardening? According to experts Tobi Johnson and Ruth Leonard, when it comes to creating a thriving volunteer culture, quite a lot!
In their session at our latest conference, they invited everyone to rethink how they nurture volunteers, drawing powerful parallels between cultivating healthy soil and building supportive environments where people can thrive.
Together, they explore how thoughtful planning, experimentation, and care can transform a volunteer programme into a living, self-sustaining ecosystem.
Planting the Right Seeds
Every garden begins with planting. For volunteer managers, that means thinking carefully about how you bring new people into your organisation. Just like seeds, each volunteer holds unique potential. With the right support at the right time, they can grow in unexpected and valuable directions.
Key takeaway: Recruitment isn’t only about filling gaps. It’s about creating the right conditions for volunteers to thrive in ways that support both their own motivations and your organisation’s mission.
Nurturing Growth with Care and Consistency
A healthy garden needs consistent watering and care. And so do your volunteers! Tobi and Ruth highlighted the importance of communication, recognition, and trust as the “nutrients” that sustain long-term engagement. Volunteers who feel valued and supported are far more likely to stay and contribute meaningfully.
Key takeaway: Build regular check-ins and feedback into your volunteer programme. Even simple recognition, like saying thank you and sharing achievements, keeps your volunteer culture resilient.
Embracing Experimentation
Not every plant grows where you expect it to. The same applies to volunteering. Given the space to experiment, volunteers often uncover strengths or skills they didn’t even know they had.
Key takeaway: Flexibility is powerful. Allow volunteers to try different roles or projects, and be open to evolving opportunities. This can bring fresh energy and reveal hidden talents.
Diversity Builds Strength
Just as biodiversity makes a garden more resilient, diversity enriches volunteer culture. Different perspectives, experiences, and skills create stronger, more adaptable teams.
Key takeaway: Actively nurture diversity and inclusivity. A broad mix of volunteers doesn’t just reflect your community, it strengthens your organisation’s ability to grow and respond to new challenges.
Protecting and Celebrating the Harvest
Gardeners know the importance of protecting their crops and celebrating the harvest. Volunteer managers should do the same. Protecting your culture means ensuring contributions remain meaningful and aligned with your purpose, while celebration reinforces a sense of shared achievement.
Key takeaway: Don’t only measure outputs, celebrate outcomes. Share stories, recognise milestones, and show volunteers the bigger picture they’re helping to create.
Final Thoughts
Tobi and Ruth’s session was a great reminder that volunteer management isn’t just a process, it’s something you nurture. With a bit of planning, care, creativity, and a focus on diversity, volunteer managers can grow a vibrant culture that keeps thriving year after year. Like a garden!
At TeamKinetic, we know how important your role is, and we’re here to give you the tools and support you need to grow your own flourishing ‘garden’ of volunteers.
We know we have been talking about this new feature for many months but now we are thrilled to share a sneak peek at one of the most requested updates we’ve built: Granular Admin Permissions.
Managing your volunteers, opportunities, and providers is about to become more powerful and flexible than ever. Our new permissions system gives you total control over who can do what within your TeamKinetic platform – from creating opportunities and editing volunteers, to managing providers, background checks, and system settings.
You’ll be able to: ✅ Assign tailored access levels to match every role in your organisation ✅ Mix and match permissions to suit your workflows for every user ✅ Confidently delegate tasks without compromising data security ✅ Scale your admin team with precision and peace of mind
This update marks a huge step forward in making TeamKinetic even more adaptable for organisations of all shapes and sizes. Whether you’re a national network or a local volunteer hub, you’ll soon have the tools to customise admin access with unprecedented detail.
Take a look at this clip from our conference where we introduce this feature, along with Flows:
We’re putting the finishing touches on this release and we can’t wait for you to try it out.
Stay tuned for the full rollout announcement, feature deep dive, and training resources soon.
This year, the TeamKinetic Conference goes beyond recruitment to explore everything that happens after volunteers join your cause.
Recruitment is just the start.
Every volunteer journey begins with a “yes”, but what happens next determines whether that spark of enthusiasm turns into a long-term commitment, a powerful story, and lasting social impact.
From first-day welcomes to long-term recognition, from gathering feedback to using data for better decision-making, our 2025 programme will dig into the practices, tools, and ideas that keep volunteers engaged, supported, and thriving.
Why “Beyond Recruitment”?
Too often, conversations about volunteering stop at finding the right people. But retaining, motivating, and empowering volunteers is where the real magic (and challenge!) lies. We’ll be bringing together experts and thought leaders to share insights that help you:
Build stronger volunteer communities
Measure and communicate impact
Use data and digital tools to improve volunteer experience
Foster inclusion and belonging
Keep volunteers motivated for the long haul
You’ll leave with fresh ideas, practical strategies, and new connections to help you get the best from your volunteers and give them the best in return. Whether you’re a volunteer manager, charity leader, or anyone working in volunteer engagement, you’ll find inspiration to take your work further.
Key Details
Date: Wednesday, the 24th of September
Time: All day, between 9:30am and 4:30pm. Not free all day? No problem, feel free to drop in and out where you like.
What does gardening have to do with volunteer management?
Quite a lot, as it turns out.
In this keynote, Tobi Johnson will explore how building healthy, sustainable volunteer programs is less about quick fixes and more about cultivating the right conditions for growth.
Tobi Johnson is a leading voice in volunteer engagement, known for blending fresh ideas with practical strategies that help programs truly thrive. With a reputation for sparking new ways of thinking, she brings energy, clarity, and inspiration to the challenge of engaging, supporting, and celebrating volunteers.
She’s also the host of The Volunteer Nation Podcast, where she shares practical tips and inspiring conversations each week on how organisations can grow thriving volunteer teams and harness the power of people to fuel change.
Joanne Irvine
Social Impact | Strategy | Evaluation
Session: Enhancing Volunteer Retention Through Participatory Evaluation
This session looks at how we can move beyond counting hours and pounds to better capture the real social value of volunteering. Using participatory evaluation, it explores how showing volunteers the impact of their efforts can both empower them and improve retention – drawing on research from Glasgow Life’s volunteer programme.
Once a volunteer is in the door – how do you keep them there? As we continue to see volunteering decline and as the voluntary sector grapples with the new and different expectations and ways in which volunteers want to get involved, it may be time for some new approaches.
One key consideration is that volunteers sign up to ‘make a difference’ but what if they don’t see the impact they are making? Yet volunteering impact is commonly measured in activities and numbers – of events held, volunteers mobilised and number of hours volunteered calculated against the minimum wage and rarely captures the impact on the communities they serve. The financial value doesn’t show the full value – and certainly not the outcomes or the impact – of what volunteering achieves. As the people, charities and organisations from the third and public sectors in the UK fighting for equality and social inclusion, we are increasingly feeling the pressure to speak the language of funders and government: return on investment, value for money and percentage contributions to GDP. That’s because we depend on getting the funding we need to be able to do what we do best: help people.
However, if even we are putting the emphasis on economic capital and measuring our success in GBP, who will be left to tell the human stories? What if we could better capture the real social value of what we do whilst also empowering volunteers to be involved in the process, so they also see the impact of their efforts? This session will explore how participatory evaluation can help evaluate and capture a richer and more holistic social value of volunteer-led services and contribute to volunteer empowerment and retention. It will do so using learning from research carried out by Joanne on the social impact of a Glasgow Life volunteer programme.
About Jo
As a social designer with a background in international development cooperation, Joanne advocates for the social inclusion, human rights and the empowerment of marginalised people and communities to achieve equality for all. She is passionate about participatory design and putting people at the centre of strategy, social design, learning, innovation and evaluation. Jo has longstanding experience with the United Nations Development Programme and the UN Migration Agency, providing technical assistance, capacity development, strategic planning and policy advice to help governments embrace diversity, reduce inequalities, and support communities become more inclusive and prosperous.
She has been fortunate to have lived in Spain, Tunisia, Egypt, Belgium and Switzerland and has travelled and worked extensively with many countries’ local and national authorities, charities and UN partners worldwide. After returning to Scotland in 2023 and pursuing further education with the Glasgow School of Art, she is enjoying combining her experience in the third and public sectors with her passion for participatory design and innovation. She is now Chair of the Board of Trustees of Volunteer Glasgow and a consultant leveraging design-led research and participatory design to enhance strategic planning, fundraising, evaluation and research for charities and the UN.
Joanne holds a BA and MA in Hispanic Studies and French from Glasgow University, an MA in International Development Cooperation and European Policy from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, a Diploma in Forced Migration and Human Rights from the UN University of Peace and an MDes Design Innovation and Citizenship from the Glasgow School of Art. As a lifelong learner, she is also working towards a BA in Visual Communications with the Open University.
Will Watt, founder of State of Life, will be joining us at the conference to share his expertise on measuring social value and impact in volunteering.
Will is a named advisor on the 2021 HM Treasury supplementary guidance on wellbeing. He founded State of Life (formerly Jump Projects) in 2016 after leading research into the economic value of sports volunteering in collaboration with Lord Gus O’Donnell. The study became a case study in the What Works Centre for Wellbeing.
State of Life helps organisations clearly show the difference they make in people’s lives. Launched in March 2020, the company’s approach is recommended in the UK Government’s guidance for using trusted, comparable measures of impact. Since 2016, State of Life has worked for the UN, NCS, Parkrun, Duke of Edinburgh Awards, Girlguiding, the FA, National Trust, BT, the LTA, Sport England, Fields in Trust and more.
Its online tools and services make it easier and more affordable for charities, councils, and businesses to measure the real-world benefits of their work, so they can focus on making lives healthier and happier.
Session Title: Designing an open data infrastructure for volunteering
This session explores how an Open Data approach could reshape volunteer brokerage and open up new possibilities for collaboration across the sector.
Through a mix of ideas, examples, and interactive discussion, participants will be invited to imagine what a shared standard for volunteering data might look like, and consider the benefits it could bring to organisations, platforms, and volunteers themselves.
You’ll leave with fresh perspectives on how greater openness and interoperability could unlock growth, accessibility, and innovation in volunteering.
About Andrew
Andrew Newman is a data specialist with over 20 years’ experience leading and managing data teams and initiatives at the UK’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra). He brings a broad range of expertise in data, alongside a people-focused and collaborative approach. Passionate about building communities and fostering collaboration, Andrew works to deliver services that drive real change and improvement.
About The Open Data Institute (ODI)
Founded in 2012 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt, the ODI is a non-profit organisation dedicated to building trust in data. Independent and non-partisan, it works with partners across business, government, and civil society to drive transparency, accountability, and innovation. Through training, consultancy, and research, the ODI helps organisations use data more responsibly and with greater confidence, positioning itself as a trusted voice at the heart of the data economy.
How can we build more inclusive communities where everyone feels they have something valuable to give? Tempo Time Credits offer a practical way to engage people from all walks of life, rewarding time and contribution instead of money.
In this session, Amy will explore how the model works, share real-life stories of impact, and highlight how organisations are using Time Credits to reach, engage, and empower wider groups of people. Participants will gain insights into how to harness the power of recognition, reciprocity, and shared value to foster stronger, more connected communities.
About Amy
Amy Cole is the Head of Programmes for Wales at Tempo Time Credits, where she leads on the design and delivery of innovative programmes that empower individuals and communities through the power of Time Credits. With a strong background in community development and partnership working, Amy has extensive experience in creating opportunities that enable people from all walks of life to contribute their time, skills, and energy – and be recognised for it.
Passionate about inclusion, wellbeing, and social impact, Amy works with local authorities, charities, health boards, and grassroots groups to ensure Tempo’s model reaches those who benefit most. She is committed to building stronger, more connected communities across Wales by championing collaboration, reciprocity, and shared value.
About Tempo
Tempo Time Credits is a national charity that helps people get involved in their communities through volunteering. By connecting local organisations and partners, Tempo creates networks where people can give their time, be recognised for their contributions, and access new opportunities.
Volunteers earn Tempo Time Credits for the time they give, which can be exchanged for activities and services with local and national Recognition Partners. This reward and recognition scheme not only celebrates the vital role volunteers play but also helps to build stronger, more connected communities.
Session: 5 Current Trends in Volunteering – and How Digital can Help
This session unpacks five key digital trends shaping volunteering today – from AI to recruitment outreach – and shows how leaders can adapt ideas from wider digital practice. It introduces Part 2 of the Digital in Volunteering Toolkit, with practical use cases to help apply digital tools effectively in volunteer management.
One of the big takeaways of our work on the Digital in Volunteering initiative is how very little of what’s happening in digital is unique to volunteering. Leaders of Volunteers increasingly need to know enough about digital developments to be able to consider and apply them in the volunteering space, often borrowing knowledge and translating approaches to digital from wider spheres.
AI is one obvious example – yes it offers possibilities of transformational change, but how can we apply those strengths best in volunteering?
Or perhaps in our recruitment outreach – digital channels and platforms have revolutionised how we communicate with volunteers, but we may also need some marketing skills in order to really make the most of them.
Volunteering doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and neither does digital. That’s where part 2 of our Toolkit is coming from – deep dive use cases into current areas of volunteering practice where digital is playing a role.
In this session, we’ll explore five current trends relevant to volunteering, the role digital is playing in each and how you can use Part 2 of our Toolkit to help your practice adapt to them.
