A few months ago I wrote a post about the potential impact we can all make and how we as individuals and business owners should try to maximise that impact. It occurred to me that I really needed to live by my own message and I started to look for new personal and business projects to increase my impact.
Through a friend, I was introduced to The School Under The Tree, a Manchester based charity that supports a school project in Ethiopia. The charity name echos its beginnings, a young Ethiopian man teaching local street children under a tree in the town of Awasa in Southern Ethiopia. Supported by people from Manchester, that school of humble beginnings has 13 years later transformed into a provider of primary age education for over 200 students every day.
The challenge
How can we make this small school in Ethiopia, sustainable and maybe even give it the potential to grow, without it being dependant upon donations and funding?
This is a challenge many fundraisers and 3rd sector organisations around the world battle with every day. My goal is to develop a business model that will allow the school to prosper long term, whilst staying true to its goal to provide education for some of the poorest young people in this region.
Over the next few days I’ll blog about my experiences in the school and share ideas on how we might help achieve long-term viability for the School Under The Tree. If you have ideas please comment below or follow us on twitter @schoolundert.
TeamKinetic is now a mature and fully featured volunteer management solution. As it has matured we have been able to more rigorously enforce a design principle for better impact across all user interfaces that we call Focus.
Focus is a collection of typography, grids, spacing, colour, layout and sizing rules that aim to achieve consistency of design, fluid layout for smaller screens and help to retain user focus on important tasks.
Volunteers, providers and administrators are presented with large amounts of information and we have been working hard to make this volume of information easy to digest in our Volunteer management application so the individual user focus is on the most pertinent information.
The biggest layout difference you will see is the support for a two-pane design with navigation elements in the left pane and the action area in the right pane. This layout also encourages the collection of tasks into one area, either functionally similar tasks or tasks commonly undertaken at the same time.
A two pane layout with a navigation bar on the left and the action panes on the right
Colours are restricted to a limited palette so that actionable areas like buttons, menus and links, are obvious and easy to find.
Font sizes are consistent and changes in font size are restricted to key text and headings.
Animation are used to indicated areas of focus when information is updated or the user enters a new area.
Panels are elevated when active using an animated shadow effect
Message and information areas are distinguished by a thick left border, the colour is contextual and can refer to the category, message type or other information.
Thick left borders indicated messages or important content areas
Where possible we want to avoid page refresh as this slows the users experience and can break their focus on the task at hand. Volunteers, Providers and Admin users all want to be able to undertake tasks with the need for a screen refresh. Extended use of AJAX , a method of performing user interactions immediately without reloading a new page, enables us to keep the user focused on their task without the interruption of a page refresh and the subsequent visual scan of the page to locate the last point of focus.
AJAX methods are employed extensively across the admin area, especially when editing opportunities or volunteer profiles.
Grids and spacing automatically adjust to screen size and allow navigation areas to collapse to icon only links and wide content to collapse into vertical stacks keeping readability high.
Collapsible elements retain readability and usability for small screens
We just wanted to let you know what’s behind some of the design decisions in the brand new TeamKinetic v1 release and our design intent going forward.
Please add any comments you have below, thanks, The Team.
It is no secret that the National Health Service is planning some big things to celebrate its 70th Birthday. Two leading projects are in the works: The Cultural History of the NHS and The NHS at 70. Collectively, these celebrations coincide with the bigger movement to increase volunteering within the NHS and David Cameron’s Big Society.
The excitement for such celebration and the increasing role of volunteers within hospital trusts made it fitting to share the experience of NHS Pennine Acute Trust developing its voluntary workforce through TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software.
How TeamKinetic Helped the Pennine Acute Trust
A few years ago, NHS Pennine Acute Trust acknowledged its current method of volunteer management, which used a basic version of Microsoft Access, was becoming outdated and limited in its capacity to manage and engage volunteers effectively.
Exploring the options available became the responsibility of Jo McCallister, Volunteer Service Manager at the Trust. Jo recognised that social health volunteering is different to other voluntary sectors. With a much more rigorous recruitment process, including the processing of DBS and additional documentation required due to the nature of work, a system that was capable of supporting this process was essential. Jo also understood to create a strong, reliable and motivated workforce the software needed to provide effective channels of communication.
“Creating strong lines of communication is essential to any engaged team, more so in the voluntary sector as you have to understand what the volunteer is seeking and if you are able to fulfil their desire through an opportunity.”
When searching the different volunteer management software systems available, TeamKinetic was “a standout product, with a fresh and easy to use interface” prompting Jo to explore it further. With key features that surpassed the capabilities of the previous management method, such as logging hours, personalised and group emails, links to social media and the ability to upload additional documentation, the TeamKinetic software was an ideal match for the Trust.
To date, the TeamKinetic volunteer management software has successfully assisted in the recruitment of 550 volunteers, of which 90% are actively volunteering. Jo relates the success of the volunteering programme to everyday improvement the software has made: “Day in, day out, we know what we are doing, what our volunteers are doing and what needs to be done”. Being able to have a structured system in place has made her job and those in her department much easier. It also provides a sense of security and continuity with new or alternative administrators able to pick up the system quickly and easily if required.
The multi-tier system, between volunteers, admins and opportunity providers, benefits all of those involved. By devolving the workload of information input, documentation upload, opportunity posting, the collection of feedback and generating reporting, it reduces the workload on volunteer managers. This saved time can then be used more effectively in building those interpersonal relationships with volunteers. Furthermore, volunteers are able to access and view opportunities online, which appeals to the growing amount of younger volunteers, with a quarter being under the age of 25, and for those older volunteers the system requires little to no training. Commenting on the experience of using TeamKinetic:
“We definitely advocate the benefits of TeamKinetic. As volunteering evolves, so must the system used to manage it. You need a system that is live and up-to-date, which TeamKinetic definitely does.
The team is very receptive to feedback. They listen to your thoughts and suggestions, putting them on your wish list. They then see if it is feasible and would benefit other volunteer managers, and then add it to the software’s RoadMap for future inclusion.
We highly recommend you get one of the team to speak to you about how TeamKinetic can improve your volunteer management, or get in touch with us at NHS Pennine to see how we are benefiting from the software each day.”
To learn more about TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software and how it could help your trust celebrate the NHS 70th Birthday or any other voluntary workforce needs please contact one of our team.
Volunteer Managers have reason to celebrate this week with International Volunteer Managers Day on the 5th November and TeamKinetic released their latest updates on VolunteerKinetic 7.3!
We decided to take this opportunity to introduce or remind our beloved Volunteer Managers of who TeamKinetic are. Throughout the week we will be releasing a series of Blogs on each of our team members, with their story in volunteering and TeamKinetic.
To kick things off, I thought I would write my blog first. My topic of choice:
What has Volunteering ever done for me?
As I start to write this blog, I’m reminded of the scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian where John Cleese as the Head of the Judean Peoples Front asks what have the “Romans ever done for us?”, if you have never seen this before, please take two minutes to enjoy this clip.
It is often hard to see the impact of volunteering has whilst actively participating in it. At the time when I undertook my voluntary roles, it was to fulfil a specific need that was being neglected or because someone close to me would ask if I could help.
Only upon reflection can a true appreciation of volunteering and its impact be noticed. In both my personal and professional life, volunteering has built longstanding relationships, that I still value today.
As a younger man, I remember wondering how I would continue some form of swimming once I had completed my lessons. I wanted to keep the competitive aspect that I enjoyed but did not want to continue into highly regimented adult swimming club that was on offer. My options presented themselves as either hanging up my goggles for good or travelling excessively to join another more sociable club. Neither one did I find particularly attractive.
Instead, I wanted something at my local pool, where I could continue developing my ability, maintaining enjoyment and friendly competition.
It was then, I saw a need for a local water polo club!
My friend and I decided that we could run this together. So we planned a pitch for the pool manager and after successfully convincing him of the potential our idea, he agreed to give us a slot.
The catch, however, was that the only available slot was 18:00 -19:30… on a Friday!
At the age of 18, this would break into essential socialising time and we wondered if we could get the attendance we desired. Disregarding this constraint, we decided to go for it and accepted the time slot!
By no means was it an easy ride from there, as the club required a big commitment for two teenage lads, demanding time spent planning, coaching and running the club as a whole.
Of course, we enjoyed doing it, but I would be lying if I said it was always easy going, as sometimes it really could be a pain in the backside!
At times it took some real perseverance to push the club through but the next two years saw us build our club to the level we desired! Eventually, my time to leave for University came, but we had built a club that had gone strength to strength, continuing in existence today (twenty years later!).
With the benefit of hindsight, I can look at that experience differently now. I developed planning skills, interpersonal skills, worked out how to get things done within a public-sector environment, I developed relationships that I still use professionally and friendships I still value today.
Many of the benefits of volunteering cannot be effectively measured, certainly when I started my volunteering journey neither had I considered too.
But now, I think differently. These experiences helped me identify elements of social capital that before I had never considered, and now would never underestimate or value.
I went on to become a qualified Physical Education teacher and set up a business around sports coaching, this journey started at that water polo club, not through any specific long-term plan but to some extent, due to the direction of travel that was started with this experience.
For the last eight years, I have worked in the sector and have grown to appreciate how complex peoples’ motivations to volunteer can be. Often it is beyond the simple reason of being ‘fun’ that we give our time but in the knowledge that we are helping to make a difference.
Since founding TeamKinetic, these beliefs and experiences have driven me daily. We have made it easier to find and be involved in Volunteer opportunities, whilst making it easier to recognise hard work and commitment in a way that is engaging and simpler for organisations that depend on their amazing volunteers.
I hope you will join us on our mission to build stronger more engaged communities, and if you find yourself asking the question, what has volunteering ever done for me, you too, can tell your story about how it has changed your life for the better.
If you fancy having a talk please feel free to email or call me!
TeamKinetic has been working to improve the experience and opportunities available to people in sport for almost a decade. We are excited to announce we are now part of a partnership that will help to deliver Sport England’s new Volunteering in an Active Nation vision.
In September, the Sport and Recreation Alliance was handed the baton from the Join In Trust to work with partners to continue to focus on sport volunteering. TeamKinetic is delighted to be a part of this partnership working with Do-it.org, GLL, Jump, Volunteering Matters and Greater Sport.
Because of the importance of volunteering in sport and recreation, the partnership has come together under a shared vision to make volunteering in sport more accessible and more appealing to a diverse range of people. We want to see more people sharing their professional skills, experience and enthusiasm for sport and recreation, and we want them to feel that their efforts to help others are valued and that they benefit from being involved.
We welcome the opportunity to work with the Sport and Recreation Alliance and partners to develop an effective matching service that will make it as easy as possible for people and clubs, organisations and events which need volunteers to find each other.
The ability for universities to prepare students with the skills and experience required by businesses is critical in today’s competitive economy.
Students at The University of East London (UEL) are offered the chance to build a strong portfolio of voluntary work placements within local, national, public and third sector organisations, giving them the experience and contacts to assist them after they graduate.
Why Did They Change?
Their previous volunteer management system offered few customisation tools, meaning that they couldn’t capture some key pieces of information. The limited reporting library also meant they had very limited insight into how much volunteering was actually happening, and if that experience was good or bad.
Frequently students and organisations would avoid updating their details simply due to the awkwardness of the user interface, this eventually resulted in a system entirely out of date.
Students were often shown opportunities which no longer existed, or contact details that had since changed. This was very frustrating for both the students and the providers of the opportunities.
“These system limitations caused us to hold back on promoting the system, which reduced our visibility on and off campus”
Joe Crook – Volunteering Manager
The Move to TeamKinetic
UEL implemented TeamKinetic with a focus on boosting their student employability levels whilst also having the ability to recruit, manage and communicate with their volunteers directly through the system.
“With TeamKinetic, we now have access to the information we need in real-time, including who has signed up and who has completed their induction, and how many hours they have logged which is vital to our volunteer programme.”
Joe Crook – Volunteering Manager
Within 4 months UEL had enrolled over 350 students and 80 providers regularly adding opportunities. By allowing students and businesses to control their own information administration of the system is minimal.
“We spend around 6 hours per week administering the system, which is great as we now have more time to promote our service to local businesses and students.”
Joe Crook – Volunteering Manager
The reduced administration has allowed UEL to focus on marketing opportunities instead of getting caught up in the logistics. This has enabled them to utilise TeamKinetics feedback functions giving them valuable insight into the students’ experience, allowing them to develop and pass on best practice.
“The system has diversified the way that we communicate as we have started to use the functions that are available to us. We also actively use the online news feeds and case studies and this allows us to communicate to our volunteers much quicker and easier than before.”
Our community partners enjoy using the system due to its clean interface, the fact that the opportunities have an expiry date, and that they can add relevant information per position means the opportunities are always accurate and up to date. “
Joe Crook – Volunteering Manager
The Future
The success of the system has allowed UEL to focus on achieving higher conversation rates, from enrolment on the system to placement within a local business.
“We now know which students have signed up and are currently and actively volunteering on a variety of opportunities.”
The TeamKinetic platform is powerful and offers us unprecedented insight into our volunteering programme. The ability to personalise our online presence is fantastic, allowing us to customise the look of the site in line with our branding guidelines, giving us a much more professional feel to the site which is important when dealing with external businesses.
I have already recommended TeamKinetic to a number of Universities around the UK, if you want a professional looking volunteer programme, I advise you to take a look as it is superior to anything else I have come across.”
TeamKinetic are proud to announce that we are now a consortium partner working with the Sport and Recreation Alliance and Join In, alongside other recognised partners, who share the vision of growing the volunteer network, which is vital for the development of sport and activities, for both organisations and individuals within the future.
Throughout this partnership, Team Kinetic have a view to:
Ensure that more opportunities become available for a greater number of organisations. Therefore, promoting a positive message regarding volunteering to a wider audience.
Grow the future of volunteer research and assist with the management of volunteers, for a range of organisations.
To, Recruit, Reward and be Relevant within the market place.
Through working towards these goals, TeamKinetic are adding to the future of volunteer management and assisting with the recruitment for organisations who currently have/ or are looking to have volunteers that: take part within activities, improve an organisation with more active participants and can promote a healthier lifestyle. Demonstrating the importance of recruiting individuals who have been inspired and are interested to become active by volunteering, and are able to find the correct organisation in order to start taking part.
Overall, we share the vision with our fellow consortium partners that volunteering is integral to sport throughout every level and we will work together to make sure the future of sport and volunteering continues to grow and develop.
Welcome to the Special edition of the Park Champions newsletter
Our Park Champions celebrated!
Last Thursday, 6th October, we were delighted to host our annual celebration event at The Podium Bar & Kitchen. It was a fantastic evening that enabled us to say thank you to you – the volunteers who have participated in a range of activities within our Park Champion programme over the past year. Over 110 Park Champions attended and we hope all enjoyed themselves.
2016 has been a fantastic year with volunteers racking up a huge 12,800 volunteer hours. There has been an array of volunteering opportunities from providing information, welcoming guests and delivering the park mobility service at the Information Point to supporting the vast number of events including West Ham United and London Lions matches, National Paralympic Day and Sport Relief. Not forgetting those who really got their hands dirty during the conservation and gardening programme.
We are now looking forward to another exciting year in 2017, with a number of major events coming up on the Park. From the IAAF World Championships and World ParaAthletics Championships to community and sports events to help connect local people to the Park, there is sure to be something for everybody to get involved with. Once again we will be running our hugely successful Park mobility service and there will be many new roles to come with new Park partners so keep your eyes peeled for opportunities.
Congratulations to our Park Champions!
Once again we awarded gold, silver and bronze pin badges as a way of saying thank you for your enthusiasm, energy and dedication to the Park and our Park Champion programme.
Those that completed over 50 hours of volunteering were awarded with a bronze pin. For 100 hours of volunteering a silver pin was awarded and for an amazing 150 volunteer hours we awarded a gold pin.
If you are yet to achieve 50 hours do not worry as you still have until 31st December to claim your pin by racking up the hours – all those that have hit the required number of hours by this date will be awarded the pin. All hours will go back to zero on 1st January 2017.
A full list of the volunteers being awarded with pins to date is below, if you were unable to join us at the event last week please come to the Information Point when you are next on shift so that we can award you your pin.
Frank Scavera
736
Mark Orton
622.75
Sahidul Islam
401.5
Peter Barry
363.5
Keith Gabriel
359.25
Henry Mapperley
245
Graham Soames
227.25
Ricky Brown
203
Sarah Chapman
200.25
Edward Wingate
196.75
Olive Wenborn
187.75
Hilary Victor
183.5
Richard Darby
182.75
Lynn Barker
172
Catherine Ellis
149
Trudi Barnes
147.25
Pauline Djian
142
Viveca Dutt
140
Rohit Jobanputra
133.75
Janet Lowe
131.75
Anne Jennings
129.75
Brenda White
121.5
Christine Daniels
115.25
Jenny Marshall
112.5
Feras Al-hamadani
107
Jenni Hurme
99.5
Jacqui Gagan
98.75
Gillian Bourke
97.75
Clive Myers
94.5
Paul Harper
94.25
Alison Richmond
93.25
Jane Huntley
91.75
Oluwafunmike Akande
90.25
Ann Senior
88.5
Andy Macgarr
86.5
Lizzie Newbold
84.75
Alberto Carcaba
81
Karim El-houssami
79.75
Colin Plummer
79
Sally Elton
78.5
Laura Lincoln
77.25
Helen Roycroft
76
Di Russ
74.75
Steven Skamarski
74
Stephen Rowe
72
Pat Strange
66.25
Fatima Lee
65.5
Katie Blake
65.25
Liam Cornwall
64.5
Maggie Mathison
64.25
Lynne Ellis
62.5
Daniel Kovacs
61.5
Hasmita Shah
60.5
Ray Ellis
59.5
Shinobu Wakamatsu
58.75
Ben Waite
58.5
Pauline Martindale
57.75
Geoffrey Longster
57.5
Susan Marchant
57.25
Janet Lambert
57
Kathleen Mcenteggart
57
Janet Davies
56
Stephen Shooman
55.75
Jean Death
54.75
Jane Astin
54
Paul Lazarus
54
Gillian Morgan
52.75
Tim Benson
52.5
Kathryn Taylor Saunders
51.25
Tom Cavanagh
50
Park Champions ride the slide at the ArcelorMittal Orbit
Park Champions also had the opportunity to take on the world’s longest and tallest tunnel slide. It is fair to say that everybody that experienced the thrilling descent loved it! Following their hair-raising descent the volunteers and stakeholders went on a tour of the Park with our two community guides, Di and Stephen.
More photos of the trip are available on the Park Champions Facebook group.
Park Champions – Volunteer experience feedback
To ensure that we are developing a programme that is exciting, engaging, interesting and fun for you, your feedback is hugely important. This is your chance to give us your opinions on how the programme runs currently and how you would like to see it develop.
The world’s best athletes are coming back to London and this is your chance to see them compete for the title of World Champion at The Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
The London 2017 Organising Committee has launched its search for ‘Runners’ – the volunteer programme for the World ParaAthletics Championships and IAAF World Championships.
They are looking for up to 4,000 volunteers to be at the heart of the Championships, helping to deliver the event in The Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and across London.
The IAAF World Championships and World ParaAthletics Championships will be the biggest celebration of athletics in the capital since the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Being a Park Champion, your expertise and knowledge of the Park would be an incredible asset to the ‘Runners’ team. If you want to be part of the event please follow the link below: Who can be a Runner?
Everyone! Whatever your background or ability, there are no barriers to being one of our volunteers.
Every Runner will receive an official volunteer uniform to wear during shifts, which you can keep after the Championships as a souvenir, and meal vouchers for The Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
How do I get involved?
Applications are now open to become a runner and will close at midnight on Sunday 16th October 2016. If you would like any further information before applying, click here to visit the FAQs.
You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
‘TeamKinetic has ensured that the Homeless World Cup could take place through recruiting and gaining volunteers’
Mariana, Marketing Executive, Homeless World Cup
Sporting events across the country would struggle to run efficiently without volunteers. Think about the huge success of the London 2012 Games Makers and their counterparts in Rio. These volunteers were all essential to making the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games successful and in Rio this year, the volunteers at the Olympic Games have once again demonstrated how invaluable they are.
So you won’t be surprised when I tell you that volunteers play a key role in making sure the Homeless World Cup takes place. However, it’s all very well and good getting volunteers to help manage an event but you also need to be able to accurately manage their time and activities. During the Homeless World Cup, we were able to use AccessKinetic, an accreditation system, and VolunteerKinetic, a volunteer management system to recruit and manage our volunteers who participated. These systems are a part of TeamKinetic which is a suite of applications fostering and growing communities that revolve around volunteering.
The Homeless World Cup took place in Glasgow, during July 2016, at George Square. The venue included, three purpose built pitches with seating, which was the main venue for 64 teams, from 51 different countries. The participants included homeless people from all over the globe, who came together to play a sport that they are passionate about, in order to represent their country.
Throughout the event we identified five reasons why TeamKinetic’s service is vital for organisations to manage their volunteers and help others to become active in sport.
1.Involvement
Volunteer involvement was vital for the running, delivery and management of the Homeless World Cup. The various roles taken on by the volunteers meant they had to undertake different responsibilities. These responsibilities helped the players and spectators, promoted the event and encouraged people to play and get involved in sport.
2. Importance
It was vital that the volunteers enjoyed their roles and that the overall event was a success. Throughout the Homeless World Cup, we had an average of 350 volunteers a day. They all had varying roles with different responsibilities – but it was important that they all helped make the atmosphere for both players and spectators phenomenal. Being able to provide the volunteers with the support they needed to carry out their roles meant the event was able to demonstrate the importance of playing sport and using it to bring people together.
3. Spectators
The Homeless World Cup in Glasgow attracted 80,000 spectators. Their attendance was vital to the success of the event but they also played an important role in making sure both players and volunteers felt valued. By experiencing such a positive, and potentially life changing event for the players, volunteers and spectators were able to see first hand the benefits of an active lifestyle. This is excellent news as research shows that attending sporting events is sometimes enough to encourage people to get involved in sport themselves.
‘Five key core motivations for sports event attendees includes: socialisation, performance, excitement, extreme and diversion. Alongside, focusing on the whole experience to grow and promote participation’ (Greenwell et al, 2014)
4. Participation
Volunteers were able to get involved, participate and reflect on the Homeless World Cup via social media. This is because of an integrated function within the TeamKinetic system. It also helped to engage with players attending the event, as they were selected through a variety of trials and training sessions within their home countries. The VolunteerKinetic system and the accredited AccessKinetic badges, meant that all volunteers gained a sense of achievement and responsibility throughout the event.
5. Post Event
There were many vital aspects for the Homeless World Cup to consider after the event. Including monitoring the number of homeless people who participated in the event and continue to play sport to improve their health and lifestyle. At the same time, it also helped engagement with volunteers through the TeamKinetic system so that we were able to keep them involved in future events.
The Homeless World Cup, and other positive sporting events really help to encourage players, spectators and volunteers to #TryYourKitOn and get active.
While there are many types of volunteer opportunities, they all share something in common: the people donating their time want to be acknowledged for their hard work. Showing your appreciation to every volunteer can be difficult, especially across a large organisation. How do you acknowledge the varying contributions they make? How do you even know?
To start, your organisation needs to create a plan for thanking volunteers — no matter how many hours they contribute to your cause.
Think about it: when an organisation hosts a crowdfunding campaign, they create a strategy for how they’re going to acknowledge donors. From sending out thank-you letters via email to showing their appreciation on social media, there are multiple ways organisations thank donors. And the same techniques can be used to show volunteers you care.
Through the support of volunteer management tools, you’ll have a record of supportes who have volunteered. Use that knowledge to send out thank-you letters soon after a volunteer has donated their time.
Moreover, if you recently held a fundraising event with help of your volunteer workforce, you should show your gratitude publically by posting a thank you on social media.
Additionally, your organisation must look at how you are recognising volunteers within your senior management team and resource volunteering within your operational teams. Do you have a person or persons with a responsibility for volunteering within your organisation at each level of management?
It starts from the top. Is there an acknowledgement at board level as to the importance of valuing volunteers? Bearing in mind you’re a voluntary organisation! That would be a great place to start. We know that when volunteering is valued within an organisation’s culture, you are much more likely to see amazing results.
Once you have some sort of volunteer management in place, you need to consider how you identify and recognise those people who are the “diamonds” for your organisation. These are the future volunteer leaders, those volunteers that operate over a wide range and number of volunteers and that inspire and mentor other volunteers.
To spot these volunteer leader candidates, develop a role in your organisation that examines your volunteer workforce. This role identifies the data and information you need to capture, and understands what motivates your volunteers and then uses that knowledge to facilitate and enable volunteer experiences that are fulfilling and rewarding. Read about our experiences in data insight and what we consider to be the most valuable data or take a look at the work of Join In.
Once you’ve identified volunteers that could potentially become leaders, it’s important to keep them engaged in your nonprofit. That way, your organisation can cultivate them into leaders who can manage and motivate others.
Keep in mind: it is easy for organisations to fall into the trap of offering great rewards and incentives, but the key is to invest in the right people rather than spreading it too thinly across too many individuals. Incentivisation is part of a successful volunteer team, but you need to know what your return on investment is going to be. Who are you spending on? What do you expect in return? Are you investing wisely? Having data on volunteer retention, cost per conversion, being able to map an individual’s pathway from starting out as a helper through to running a county executive or becoming a head coach. This data ensures that you remain focused on finding those “diamonds”.
Finally and we think most importantly you need to look at how you grow from a centrally administered and controlled volunteer programme, to one that is owned by the volunteers, clubs, and participants themselves. Any expanding and successful volunteer programme is partly the result of a groundswell of people from the bottom, not diktats from the top, you need to build volunteer leader infrastructure (by that I mean find great, motivated people and provide them with support, training and resources) that facilitates and enables your existing volunteers to help to offer more amazing, exciting opportunities to the next wave of volunteers. This is the virtuous circle of volunteer investment.
So to recap we think the most important things you can do to help your volunteer programme grow all year round is to;
Achieve an appreciation and acceptance at the very top of your organisation that values the investment volunteers make in your organisation. Value your volunteers.
Develop specific roles within your organisation whose job is to collate your volunteer data and gain insight which can be used to improve your programme. Do not just collect key performance indicators.
Incentivise and reward volunteers all year round. Be smart, target rewards for best returns.
Identify, support and develop potential volunteer leaders. Leverage their experience and enthusiasm to spread your volunteer values.
Sport is known to be poor at retaining its volunteers, it’s time to move on from yearly gestures to look at understanding your rank and file stakeholders (not just members but mums and dads, siblings, and long-standing supporters), what they want and how you can deliver to keep them engaged. We work with organisations to make valuing volunteers an important part of their culture and offer solutions that help with those issues outlined and encourage retention and development of volunteers. Our cloud applications, including VolunteerKinetic, provide an easy- to-implement infrastructure that makes embedding good volunteer practice across your organisation simple.
I hope next International Volunteer Week I can write a blog where I talk about how we have moved into a world where your volunteer is understood and is looked after as well as your CEO.
The ability for universities to prepare students with the skills and experience required by businesses is critical in today’s competitive economy.
“These system limitations caused us to hold back on promoting the system, which reduced our visibility on and off campus”
