Tag: volunteer management software Page 19 of 36

International Friendship Day

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On 30th July 2020

In Events and Conferences

Happy International Friendship Day! A day to reflect and appreciate the friends you have. But this is also a day to create new friendships, and a great way to achieve this is through volunteering. But as a volunteer manager, how can you help your volunteers create friendships?

Research shows that one of the most common motivations for volunteers is the desire to meet new people and to make new friends. Volunteering can strengthen ties to communities and expose people to others with common interests; making creating new friends easier than ever.

Similarly, 70% of employees say friends at work is the most crucial element to a happy working life. Whether your work is paid, or unpaid, it is proven that you are likely to perform better when working with friends. Research also shows that 50% of employees with a friend at work feel a stronger connection with their company. This makes your organisation better and stronger.

Therefore, for volunteer managers, it is suggested that your volunteers are working in a friendly environment where they have the opportunity to make friends. If your volunteers become friends, that helps volunteer retention and therefore creates a stronger volunteer workforce for your organisation.

My Volunteering Experiences…

Here I am, in my two most favorite volunteering experiences (i’m the one with short blonde hair). This was where I volunteered for Once Upon a Smile at a bucket collection, and created a fundraising event for the RNLI.

My volunteering journey only started last year, during my second year studying Events Management at Manchester Metropolitan University. We would always receive emails about new volunteering opportunities that could help us engage further with the course.

I was extremely nervous to start volunteering as I can be quite a shy person. Despite this, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and start volunteering. I only started to volunteer so I could start making industry contacts and gain experience. Over time it then became so much easier to make friends when volunteering! This was from developing upon my social skills from meeting people with similar interests. Never did I think it would lead to some of the amazing friendships I have since made.

Volunteering allowed me to meet many students from my course who I had previously never spoken to (we had a VERY big class). This made the experience even better as I was able to engage with other people from my course who I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. These people later ended up becoming some of my best friends at university.

From my personal experiences, I can definitely say my volunteering experiences were improved by making friendships. It made volunteering even more enjoyable and made so many volunteers happier to know they are working with their friends. Having friendships made me feel connected with the company I was volunteering for, making me feel more confident within my roles.

So What Could Volunteer Managers Do – and How Can We Help?

We all know it is standard practice for volunteer managers to introduce volunteers to one another before their duties begin. This allows volunteers to get a sense of who they are working with before moving on to starting their duties. Similarly, you may also want to consider using a platform where your volunteers can communicate. This then gives volunteers the opportunity to communicate with people they have met during an opportunity, allowing friendships to flourish.

You might now be thinking, what could we possibly do to help? With TeamKinetic, volunteers can use the chat room function to talk (or ask questions) to their friends from the same opportunities. This encourages communication between volunteers and increases the likelihood of volunteers signing up to the same opportunities together. As a result, this feature of communication therefore allows the creation of those vital, long-lasting friendships through one easy to use system. Volunteers can also share opportunities to other volunteers through TeamKinetic. This feature is then further increasing the likelihood of friendships between volunteers being made within your organisation.

Also, did I mention it is FREE?! If you now want to find a system that allows you to manage your volunteers effectively whilst also helping volunteers create those vital friendship, you can simply start a FREE trial today! For more information and to start your FREE trial today, visit our website or call 01619145747.

How Can You Really Engage The Youth of Today?

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On 8th July 2020

In News & Views, Volunteer Management

Can you afford to miss out on the enthusiasm and energy of the youth today? Although, this isn’t a one-way street, many teenagers and younger adults need volunteering experience to help them with future employment to broaden their social networks and develop key life skills. Volunteering in youth boosts academic achievements, health and well-being and teens who participate in an organization that strives to make a difference are more likely to say they will attend higher education. 

Despite the many benefits volunteering can clearly have on our young people, organisations still struggle to engage this audience. But hopefully, after reading this you might be able to capture some of that enthusiasm and energy for your organisation!

Be a Known Presence

Visibility for any organisation is always going to be a contributing factor for success, no matter how big or small your organisation is. So, getting on the radar of teens and young adults can help increase your reputation and volunteer numbers. Here are a few ways you can do this…

  • Attending or hosting events in further and higher education facilities will certainly heighten your visibility and will help get you talking to this youth demographic. Many universities have events and partnerships with 3rd sector and community businesses. For example, some universities will have connections with their city councils to help find students volunteering roles. 
  • Connect with social media managers at colleges and universities, as most universities have a large social following of past and present students, any posts on their socials are sure to get a loud response.
  • Getting current young volunteers to post their experiences with the organisation to help increase awareness. Using personalised hashtags (#) with your organisation’s name will help increase your popularity amongst the youth. 
  • Be prepared, post your opportunities well in advance. Post on to local volunteering sites, and with colleges and universities. Try to find where your audience’s presence is.
  • Be sure to state teenagers and young adults are welcome, they tend to like that!

Speak The Language of The Enigma

Don’t worry, we’re not going to be teaching you youth slang, ‘WYD’ and ‘LOL’ are firmly not on today’s agenda. However, social media is a major form of entertainment for young and old with ‘almost 4.57 billion active users globally in April 2020′. That’s ‘9 out of 10 teenagers aged 13-17 [who] use social media platforms’.

Social media is a huge way to keep in contact with this generation, here’s how…

  • Most young people, including myself, would much prefer to do everything via our phones, book a table, book tickets and sign up for volunteering roles. Giving teens this opportunity will increase your amount of volunteers. 
  • Reaching out on social media is one of the best ways to interact with teens. With Facebook being the highest used platform with 77.3% of 15 – 25-year-olds using it, to Twitter being the least-used platform with 48.6% using it. Create your social media pages on the most popular sites so you can reach out to the youth of today. 
  • Know your audience. Create events and opportunities specifically designed for teens and young adults. Having a role which is attractive to the younger crowd will give you that boost in numbers you need.

Stay Engaging

Getting the youth market to fixate on something is tricky. Most young people tend to lose interest when something becomes well… boring. So engaging is essential and can help retain younger volunteers and recruit new ones. Take a look below at ways you can do this.

  • Give young people a voice. Allow younger volunteers to be a part of the team when planning. This will help give your organisation a better insight into the mindset of your younger volunteers.
  • Teens and young adults tend to prefer working more creatively, so motivate them, let them develop new ideas and be supportive of the things they want to try. Always encourage, be open and create an environment where their ideas are respected.
  • Make events and opportunities fun! It’s simple. You could include music, time to socialise, creative activities and the chance to work with friends. Use your existing youth volunteers and imagination to help make your event or opportunity more fun.
  • Sell your opportunity or event as interesting and exciting. Gloss it up a little, identify key roles and outline the responsibilities that the volunteers will have and how it may help that volunteer develop that all-important experience they desire. 

Pulling Down The Barriers

Finding time to get to know your volunteers can be tricky especially when you have a million and one other things to do. getting to know your younger volunteers might seem a bit tricky, working out how you can relate, but here are some simple ideas you could try.

Youth volunteers
  • Get to know your volunteers. You can do this by saving 10 minutes to talk to one or two volunteers. Get to know what they like and don’t like, what interests them, and why they are there. 
  • Communication is key. Be available and be welcoming.
  • Update and make yourself a known social presence. Create a mailing list of youth volunteers who might want to be emailed, and send out a weekly email or blog sharing stories of success and great efforts. 

How TeamKinetic Can Help You!

So, I can only assume you are wondering how on earth you will be able to do all of this and still manage ALL other volunteers. Well, TeamKinetic is here to help. With TeamKinetic you will be able to manage all of your volunteers in one convenient space, giving you more time to focus on promoting to new volunteers. 

You can also:

  • Create and manage opportunities
  • Send bulk emails to certain groups
  • Gain unlimited volunteer registration (no cap)
  • Internal email communications
  • Volunteer opportunity feedback
  • DBS checks
  • Reward and recognise your volunteers

The software gives your volunteers the chance to sign up online to volunteer roles, log their own hours and leave feedback. They can also then post via socials the volunteering they have done which will attract more volunteers. 

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

 

Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

A Year Well Spent

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On 3rd July 2020

In News & Views

I’m writing this blog with three days left working at TeamKinetic. It’s been a year full of learning, personal growth, and questionable tea bag choices (Yorkshire is best, obviously). When I got the call back in March last year telling me that I’d gotten the job I was nervous but excited. I had no idea what to expect, but stepping into the office for the first time in July, my nerves were calmed by the friendly faces of the team! 

New Challenges = New Memories

Going from university, which is heavily theory based, into a full-time job was a challenge but I loved it! Now I sit here, exactly a year after my first day, it’s clear to me that anyone at university should strongly consider taking a placement year. The experience I’ve gained over the past 52 weeks is incredible. From volunteering at the LFC Foundation to visiting Nightstop Greater Manchester, I’ve also been introduced to a first-hand view of the tireless hard work that goes on in the third sector. 

I think my best experience while working at TeamKinetic was attending AVM’s National Conference in London. I got to talk to current and potential customers about what TeamKinetic has to offer – something that was a totally new experience for me. As someone who’s only been to London to watch Sheffield United lose at Wembley, it was nice to have a more positive memory to associate with the city!

Honourable mentions:

  • Those days when Steve would bring his VR headset into the office for us all to have a play with at lunch.

Here’s Milo having a fight with an invisible man… I think he’s winning. 

The ‘Team’ Behind TeamKinetic

A personal highlight has been working alongside Chris, Steve, and Rolf. Thanks for making work so enjoyable and supporting me and my professional growth this past year. Contributing towards the growth of TeamKinetic for the past year has been an absolute pleasure.

Also spending my placement year alongside someone else from the university made settling in that much easier, so I want to say a big thank you to Milo too. 

I’d like to wish the best of luck to Sammy and Chloe who will be taking over from myself and Milo, you can find out more about them by reading their introduction blogs below! 

Introducing TeamKinetic: Sammy Reid – Dropping the Poms

Introducing TeamKinetic: Chloe – All about creativity

If you’re ever in need of volunteer management software, I can’t recommend better people to get it from! 

Milo James: Going Out In Flames

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On 2nd July 2020

In News & Views

Pictured above is a visible representation of how I picture myself leaving TeamKinetic on my last day.

Unfortunately for me, this is not quite accurate. And I don’t plan on any casual arson…

But this is officially my last and final blog for TeamKinetic, which has come around a lot faster than I ever could have imagined. TeamKinetic has mirrored a second home for me over the last year. You might even say, a home from home, with most weeks having spent more time with colleges than I had done with my actual family.

At The Beginning Of Time

Like starting any new job, initiation is always needed. You know the usual.

Chris (director): Here are the toilets, this is what to do in case of a fire, oh and do you like roller coasters?

Me: Erm… yeah sure, obviously lying not willing to let the other team members down, and completely ruin the works outing.

All I’m going to say is, never EVER again.

When starting any new job there are always initial uncertainties (some more terrifying than others). Will I be able to fulfil the job role? What if I hate my boss? What if he hates me? What if I don’t know the answer to something? All these little things almost fester in the mind. For me personally, I’m not a huge worrier and have a laid back approach to life. What will be, will be. However, I’m only human and these little things did bother me in the initial few weeks.

But I soon found my footing and so the journey began.

The Journey

Once I had found my inner confidence I was soon able to achieve more than I thought I initially could with TeamKinetic. Working alongside my trusty more literate colleague Alex, I or we were able to take on all the challenges which lay ahead. But I’m not here to bore you with the specific’s of all our adventures. So instead here’s a visual montage of a few things we have been involved with.

Between us

  • Over 100 blogs published
  • Consistent development of TeamKinetics SEO
  • Many many hours spent editing videos
  • Campaign planning our brains out…
  • Email, after email, after email
  • And many office laughs and giggles to accompany

In The End

Like any good story, the end is always near. But it’s been a great story to live.

Huge thanks to Chris, Steve and Rolf for having me.

And do give TeamKinetic volunteer management software a good look around, what they’ve developed over the years is actually pretty good!

They don’t talk about this though.

A Strong Opportunity Can Increase Your Volunteer Retention Rates

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On 23rd June 2020

In Application Features and Tutorials, Volunteer Management

Advertising an engaging volunteering opportunity is not always the simplest task. And often the clearest messages can become disfigured, resulting in your opportunity becoming less attractive to prospective volunteers. Below we’ve identified some examples of how to design and present a strong volunteering opportunity on your TeamKinetic platform. Each element has been streamlined to guide you through an on-brand TeamKinetic experience that is engaging and most importantly, eye appealing to your volunteers.

Where should your opportunity live

The most obvious place of all is your own website, for your prospective and current volunteers your website provides a safe and secure portal in which you can display your volunteering opportunities clearly for all to see. In turn, it will also allow you to easily collate data on the number of people viewing your opportunities page, by monitoring web analytics with Google Analytics.

Name your opportunity

Be clear and concise, over the years we’ve seen many volunteer managers fall victim to the mistake of over advertising their volunteering opportunity. The best practice would be describing the opportunity in its simplest form by using as few words as possible, for example ‘volunteer caretaker’. By over complicating simple roles with complex names will only off put your volunteers. You may also wish to add a location, contact email and phone number as these are the key details which your volunteer is likely to need straightaway.

Outline your opportunity

Now here’s your opportunity to say more, no pun intended… When writing your descriptions keep them short and sweet, whilst listing the main tasks the volunteers will be expected to do during the opportunity.

Why not offer an incentive? We’ve found from customer feedback that these make the opportunities more appealing to volunteers. For example, an incentive may be unlimited tea and biscuits or a free T-shirt. If we know anything about volunteers we know they love tea and biscuits.

Finally, summarise the benefits. In this part you will want to describe how this volunteering opportunity will bring your volunteer’s fulfilment. How will their volunteering efforts make a direct impact?

Be clear in your presentations of your opportunity, make key information stand out.

When and where?

These are the fundamental outlines which are absolutely necessary when creating your volunteering opportunity. Day, time and location will outline the commitment time frame in which your volunteers will have to make. Also if possible make clear what type of volunteering opportunity this is, event, ongoing or just a one-off.

Show off the good REVIEWS

Make your feedback visible, think of your feedback like your own personal catalogue of reviews. In a modern world filled with decisions, reviews offer simple and relevant guidance. Similarly to this, the feedback from previous volunteers will provide guidance to your potential volunteers, encouraging them to enjoy the same positive experience.

Call for action

Always leave some visible call to actions, these will encourage the volunteer to perform some form of action. Call to actions may be subtle but they are all nudging your volunteer to do one thing. And that’s registering on your opportunity.

Call actions can include

  • Social media sharing links
  • Document printing
  • Internal links (other opportunities, company website)
  • Register / Logging in options

 

Here at TeamKinetic we can help with all your volunteer management needs. Go to our website to create a demo site – it’s completely free! You can also call us on 0161 914 5757 with any questions.

Don’t hesitate to reach out on social media, you can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also go to our YouTube channel to see some examples of the features we have to offer and some of the people we already work with.

Introducing TeamKinetic: Chloe – All about creativity

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On 22nd June 2020

In News & Views

Let’s go back two years…

I was 17 and working at The Blackpool Tower, studying history and art at college. At this point, I was certain that I wanted to study Ancient History at university and leave my creative side behind! This changed (one week before my UCAS deadline, might I add) when I chose a different route instead…talk about last minute! This time, I chose to pursue a creative route within the world of business. Working within the creative world of events at The Blackpool Tower , made me realise I wanted to study Events Management at university.

University

  • Marketing media for Luna Vision Events
  • Marketing media for Luna Vision Events

I’m now studying Events Management at Manchester Metropolitan University. Now, contrary to the name, the course isn’t actually just events. The course also covers areas such as law, finance, and marketing. Overall, it is an extremely creative and engaging course, and I began to notice my interests lied within the area of marketing.

Marketing offered the most creative outlet of all areas of my studies. Not only did I get to learn about creative marketing strategies, but I also learnt about designing marketing materials. The most exciting part for me was the design concept, which I got to experience within my events management group. Within the group, I got to design social media posts and promotional posters for our events. This was a new and exciting way for me to be creative, and I couldn’t have enjoyed it more! I knew I wanted to go into a marketing placement where I could expand my knowledge on marketing and enhance my creativity.

Volunteering at University

Volunteering at Village Screen

Studying events management at university also brought me endless volunteering opportunities in the events industry. Since being at university I have volunteered across for multiple companies, but my favourite was The Village Screen. Their pop up cinemas operate all year round and are incredibly creative and immersive. From volunteering at this one event I gained so much. I was able to witness amazing creativity which then inspired my own creativity on my course. I also gained a valuable contact who I continued to work with closely; this gave me valuable work experience. The impact that volunteering has on the volunteer and the company is something I reiterate to everyone I know who is considering volunteering, it can’t be under estimated.

Spare Time

Aside from all things marketing and university, in my spare time I’ve found myself taking up new art projects. I’m always trying to learn new techniques and trying out new styles….although my house is now covered in random canvases.

I have also recently taken up learning BSL sign language. It’s an online course and I hope to retain this skill for years to come.  It has been highly engaging and it something I am going to continue to work on so I can help others.

On A Final Note

I am incredibly excited to began my marketing journey within TeamKinetic. I am looking forward to learning more skills that I can continue to use within my progressing career. Also I look forward to meeting some of our clients and understanding more about what they do.

 

Chloe Isherwood

chloe@teamkinetic.co.uk

For more information on volunteer management software visit our website or call 01619145747

 

 

Introducing TeamKinetic: Sammy Reid – Dropping the Poms

By

On 19th June 2020

In News & Views

Sammy Cheerleading (Middle)

Starting off in life my ultimate dream was to become a dancer. Training 6 days a week, performing once a week and competing twice a month was all I ever knew. The styles of dance I enjoyed ranged from ballet to tap to the latest cheerleading. Each has taught me different life skills and lessons along the way. Dancing has also helped me to grow as an individual, giving me experiences I would never take back, however, I soon came to realise my aching knees weren’t going to take it much longer and decided to drastically change my career path, cue the degree in events.

The Buzz Of Marketing

When starting my Events Management degree marketing was not something I considered as a career. Not until I studied a unit titled marketing an event did I realise this was my passion. From creating a website for a new, trendy (fake) festival to even turning a yellow Corsa into a giant bee to market a real-life event. Each of these projects pushed me creatively in ways I didn’t know possible!

Marketing is the art of revealing peoples emotions through just something as simple as a poster or video. It has amazed me as to how something so simple can impact 1000’s of people. This has inspired me to follow the marketing path as a career and to continue my learning within this industry.

Bee themed car for a marketing campaign.

Volunteer Times

Volunteering was not something I was very aware of, it wasn’t until University when my first volunteering role showed me just how important volunteers can be.

Some of my first roles were for small charities who rely on volunteers to survive. Having that experience changed my perception of volunteering and how much these organisations value their volunteers. Not only this but from working on sporting events and major festivals I have had unbelievable experiences. Being able to see bands and artists for free or watching the Rugby League Grand Final. These opportunities have allowed me to meet like-minded people and have some of the most amazing moments in my life, just from volunteering!

Seeing TeamKinetic create an easy to use volunteer management software for organisations instantly made me want to work for them. Knowing organisations rely heavily on volunteers and also having lived the exciting experiences as a volunteer, I knew this company were creating something incredible and I was keen to be involved.

Lockdown Hobby

During the lockdown, like most people, I decided to take up a new hobby to keep myself busy. I have always been into shoes and clothes, so I decided to start painting them. Each design has opened up my creative mind and has helped me relax, however, this hobby has quickly turned into quite the obsession and I find myself painting till 3 am!

Painted butterfly shoes.

Final Words

I am excited to start this new chapter in my life and am thankful for this opportunity to work with TeamKinetic who will help me to develop my skills in marketing and get some hands-on experience at the same time. I am looking forward to working with a motivated team who share the same values and drive as I do and meeting TeamKinetic’s customers, getting to know more about their organisations and what I can offer for them! I can’t wait to get stuck in!

Sammy Reid

sammy@teamkinetic.co.uk

For more information on volunteer management software visit our website or call 01619145747

Champions of Europe, Champions of Volunteer Management…

By

On 17th June 2020

In News & Views, Sport

…Champions of England?

All football fans are aware of the current quality of Liverpool FC – a team that won the Champions League earlier this year and looks well suited to win the Premier League now that football is returning.

But away from the pitch, they’re true champions of volunteering. The LFC Foundation has used TeamKinetic’s volunteer management system since May 2018, and we’ve seen first-hand how great the work they do is!

LFC Foundation, volunteers, volunteer management software, volunteer management system, volunteer management, TeamKinetic,

A bit of background info:

The LFC Foundation is the official charity of Liverpool Football Club. Building on the Club’s work in the community over the past 20 years, the charity was formed in 2010. The Foundation delivers 24 community programmes across their three impact areas; Wellbeing, Skills and Communities, every week.

We’ve loved helping the LFC Foundation recruit, retain, and manage their volunteers. We’ve even volunteered with them ourselves! You can find all our LFC Foundation blogs by going to this link.

LFC Foundation, volunteers, volunteer management software, volunteer management system, volunteer management, TeamKinetic,

Liverpool FC dedicating so much time and energy to their foundation volunteers is admirable. Now, of course, other clubs have foundations and recruit volunteers, but do they see it as a focus? It appears that most do not. The work done by the Liverpool FC Foundation gives people from all walks of life a chance to do what they love – play football. When we volunteered there in August, it was great to see how happy everyone was. That happiness was mostly made possible by the LFC Foundation staff and volunteers. We salute you!

A quick look into Premier League teams tells you that not many other clubs place such a focus in their volunteer programmes. In fact, LFC might be the only ones investing in a volunteer management system for their foundation. Is this because other clubs don’t see volunteering as a focus? We hope not! We prefer to believe they just aren’t aware of the benefits of having a volunteer management system yet.

Let me tell you about the benefits of a volunteer management system

Oh, here we go. Another company trying to sell something. While, yes I am trying to sell you something, I’m also trying to save you countless hours and effort you already waste on your current volunteer management processes.

First of all, volunteer management systems help you recruit volunteers more easily. When they sign up to your system, they’ll see all active volunteering opportunities instantly. Beats sending your contact details into an abyss, doesn’t it?

Secondly, a volunteer management system can aid volunteer retention rates. The system will display all ongoing volunteering opportunities, even allowing you to invite volunteers you think will be interested. Meaning that they won’t have to wait for you to contact them about the opportunities your club is hosting. This is likely to encourage your volunteers to keep on volunteering with you for a long time.

Finally, any good volunteer management system should make managing your volunteers a piece of cake. With the ability to communicate with all volunteers through a chat room, create groups, and analyse your volunteers through our reporting features, our volunteer management system should give you all the tools you need to become a champion volunteer manager – and make your life easier!

Want to become a champion too?

Here at TeamKinetic we can help with all your volunteer management needs. Go to our website to create a demo site – it’s completely free! You can also call us on 0161 914 5757 with any questions.

Don’t hesitate to reach out on social media, you can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also go to our YouTube channel to see some examples of the features we have to offer and some of the people we already work with.

How Volunteers Are Tackling COVID-19

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On 5th June 2020

In COVID-19, News & Views

Think back to New Year’s Eve, 2019. Did you make resolutions?
When you pictured 2020 what did it look like? I’m not sure anyone could have predicted what we’re living through right now.

Despite living in such unpredictable circumstances filled with loss, there are still good things happening out in the world. In particular, I want to talk about COVID volunteers – especially during Volunteers’ Week 2020.

Helping Their Communities Through Crisis

The most common form of volunteering recently has been deliveries. Delivering food parcels to those who are most at-risk is a great way volunteers have been helping their local communities. 

A further example of volunteers providing basic necessities comes from Compassion London. They’re a group of professional chefs and volunteers who worked out of Wembley Stadium to provide meals for thousands of local people. 

A little closer to home for us, The Bread and Butter Thing operates across Greater Manchester. The service redistributes surplus food from supermarkets and manufacturers to people on low incomes – the number of people using this service has risen greatly as a consequence of COVID-19.

Volunteers have also been called upon to ‘befriend’ members of their communities. The scheme pairs volunteers with someone who is alone in isolation. This tackles loneliness which is especially prevalent right now due to lockdown rules.

The key to finding a cure?

Scientists across the world have proposed that human trials could be introduced to test a vaccine quickly. These trials would involve volunteers, and while there are many dangers involved, it could help provide a cure much sooner.

Volunteers would have to be fairly young (mid-twenties) and in good health to apply for the trials. Knowing the potential risks associated with the Coronavirus, volunteers for the trials would be doing an incredibly selfless act.

Want to help?

For anyone considering face-to-face volunteering, you must ensure you are fit and healthy to do so. You can access the latest government advice relating to COVID-19 here. To find local volunteering opportunities, contact your council or simply do a quick ‘volunteering opportunities near me‘ internet search.

You can also search for existing opportunities near you with TryVolunteering.

What have TeamKinetic done to help?

We started offering our volunteer management system free of charge for the duration of the pandemic to help organisations recruit larger numbers of covid volunteers. Furthermore, we created a whole new community tasks dashboard to make it easier for covid-specific tasks to be created and completed. It is our hope that more people are involved with volunteering than ever before!

Find out more about our work through these blog posts:

Responding to a Global Pandemic: The TeamKinetic Way

By

On 27th May 2020

In COVID-19, News & Views

The COVID-19 pandemic has been at the centre of our lives for the past few months. As the chaos begins to settle (slightly), we thought we’d take the time to reflect on our response to the virus. 

Let’s go back to the 17th of March. Following new advice from the government to cut all non-essential contact with others, TeamKinetic closed our office and made the switch to working from home. 

Business as usual?

Being a provider of volunteer management, we had to wonder whether volunteering could even continue if people were being told to stay at home. However, there were at-risk people out there who were in need of medical supplies and food.

The biggest question we had was how exactly we could help these people in a safe way for both those who were at-risk and the volunteers. We not only had to consider the physical safety of everyone involved, but also the safety of their personal data.

We quickly set to work developing a new system that would connect volunteers wanting to help in their community with people who were in need of help.

New Features Developed

  • A new simpler, customised home page for organisations to let their volunteers know what their options and opportunities are during the COVID pandemic
  • Brand new community task feature set that allows for the creation, assignment and management of community requested tasks for vulnerable and at need individuals
  • API for the community task management
  • Progressive Web App for volunteers to search/find/join and complete community tasks
  • Volunteer ID card and QR code for the community task app users
  • Chat between the assigned volunteer and organisation admins
  • Push notifications

New Hardware and Infrastructure

Furthermore, we were anticipating spikes in traffic as various announcements were made so made some internal changes to help manage these spikes.

  • Transferred community task load to AWS elastic servers
  • New Google map management and capacity (for directions and geo location)
  • New logging and monitoring installed to check capacity and demand in near real time

Overall, with the new system changes it is now easier and faster to create volunteering opportunities (now called tasks). We believe this significantly helped combat the chaos felt by volunteer managers in the early stages of the pandemic.

Next, we had to find a way to make all our current users aware of this system while also targeting organisations that we thought could benefit from using it.

Creating awareness

The enterprise version of the system is entirely free of charge for the duration of the pandemic. By offering this extended trial period, we hoped as many organisations could get their own systems up and running to spread the positive influence of volunteering as much as possible!

We also hosted a string of webinars showing how to use the system. This allowed viewers to interact with our developers, ask questions, and raise any concerns they had. This seemed to be very beneficial for both us and our customers. It was great to hear from people directly, especially if the comments were full of praise!

You can read all our blogs related to the COVID pandemic by clicking here.

What’s next?

The system is being continually developed to meet the needs of our customers and make the volunteer management process as easy as possible. It’s also important to consider how the system can be used in a post-COVID world. Which is hard to imagine right now! The activities done by these volunteers don’t have to be confined to this pandemic, they can be done at any time. We believe that the kindness shown by these volunteers to help the more vulnerable members of their communities should be the norm across society.

Why can’t we continue to help each other on a daily basis?

Want to try it for yourself?

If you’d like to see how the TeamKinetic system can help you recruit and manage volunteers during COVID and beyond, check out our website to get started with a free trial.

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