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How Willowbrook Hospice Transformed Their Volunteer Management…

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On 27th January 2022

In Case Study, Hospice

The majority of work we refer to in Willowbrook Hospice’s case study is based on figures and interviews from the year 2020. This data has then influenced the extra research conducted in the hospice sector.

It is also worth noting that these figures are taken from the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic and with fewer people volunteering, the activity on the system we’ve recorded has been limited.

Before TeamKinetic

We’ve previously spoke to Willowbrook Hospice’s volunteer manager, Bev, about how they managed volunteers before TeamKinetic and what it was that made Willowbrook decide to look into a volunteer management system.
Before TeamKinetic, they were managing volunteers through an access database described by Bev as an “archaic system”- with no way of contacting volunteers. With the access database, they’re was no opportunity for interaction and Bev realised that they needed something that would better manage their volunteers.

They realised they needed something web-based that can be accessed from anywhere. The system previously in use was linked to the NHS SHK system, it couldn’t be accessed at any time or place. Willowbrook decided they needed something shop managers could also use; this when they decided to start looking for a volunteer management system and came across TeamKinetic.

Moving to TeamKinetic and Implementation

Willowbrook Hospice chose TeamKinetic after seeing how local we are, watching a number of videos on our YouTube channel and speaking with our Director of Sales, Chris.

At TeamKinetic, we are constantly changing and adapting to suit our customers needs. This was another factor that “sold” us to Willowbrook – they knew if they ever suggest anything, we will take it on board and look into adapting the system to include this. 

Regarding implementation, Bev openly mentioned that they needed “lots of planning”, but Steve, our Implementation Consultant, helped with all their planning needs. Willowbrook has numerous shops and with the way they manage their volunteers, it helped them to have a staged way of implementing the system.

They started with one shop first, and shop by shop they managed to get all their volunteers on board. Bev even mention that COVID-19 helped them in some ways; having shops closed gave them the time to fully roll out the system to the volunteers. Joining TeamKinetic also allowed them to have a “data cleanse” – speaking to volunteers who didn’t want to volunteer anymore. With a new system, Willowbrook now know that the volunteers they have registered are the ones who are active and want to volunteer.

COVID-19

COVID-19 affected everyone, including Willowbrook Hospice. While we’ve has multiple lockdowns, the Hospice’s nine shops have been closed during those times . The pandemic also meant that the fundraising team at Willowbrook had to come up with ways to ensure they came up with COVID-19 safe fundraising events. So, having TeamKinetic really helped them with managing their volunteers during COVID-19 safe events. This is what Bev had to say about using TeamKinetic for one of these events:

We had an event that came up where we could sell things in a local Garden Centre. It’s something we had to implement quite quickly because it was over Christmas and the garden centre had told us that if we wanted a stall to sell our Christmas cards and other things then we could. So within half an hour, I had created it on TeamKinetic and had it emailed out to all the volunteers. I would say within the hour, we filled up all the slots for two weeks worth of people volunteering for it. I think that raised over £2,000; without TeamKinetic that would never have happened.

Bev Neilson, volunteer manager at willowbrook hospice

As well as events, from a communication point they were able to stay in contact with volunteers throughout every stage of the pandemic; something that was very important to them. Before TeamKinetic, staying in touch with volunteers was “virtually impossible” and would have involved bulk emails which never worked because the NHS system was too slow for them. Now, they can email and text volunteers from one system with a click of a button.

In addition to this, having the TeamKinetic system available to them during the pandemic allowed them to set up a ‘befriending system’ between the volunteers. From this, they have been able to keep volunteers in touch with each other, solely from the private notes function on the TeamKinetic system.

Willowbrook’s Volunteering by Index of Mulitple Deprivation Rank (IMDR) For All Volunteers Registered Since 2020

This graph shows the number of Willowbrook Hospice volunteers by decile. That is the number of volunteers with a home postcode that is ranked using IMDR.

1 = bottom-ranked postcode area in bottom 10% ranked area of England

10 = top-ranked postcode area in the top 10% ranked area of England

These figures are interesting to see as volunteering is typically viewed as a traditionally middle-class activity. A report by NCVO supports this, as their statistics show 48 per cent of those who volunteered in the last 12 months have a degree compared to 20 per cent who have no qualifications. Some 42 per cent of unemployed people have never volunteered, compared to 21 per cent of those who work part-time.

This is of course also impacted by the fact that Greater Manchester has more postcode areas that fall into the bottom 50% according to the IMDR rank. Despite this factor, I believe it is captivating that despite these statistics, Manchester shows that poverty is not a defining factor in their willingness to volunteer.

When looking at this graph, it shows that Willowbrook has been able to recruit and retain volunteers from all different postcode ranks in England. Showing their inclusivity in welcoming all volunteers into their volunteering programme. 

Age

As evidence shows, volunteering is often found to be a pursuit of older individuals. This typically comes from them having more spare time to volunteer than others. Although Willowbrook’s figures around age profiles accurately represents this statement, their figures also show the rising ability to recruit younger volunteers. This comes from the use of TeamKinetic as their volunteer management system. We are able reduce barriers into volunteering, especially for younger volunteers who are digitally engaged through TeamKinetic. We also allow for a quicker and easier recruitment process, something that is favoured in young people volunteering.

Gender

Stereotypically, data from the voluntary sector normally suggests a divide of 60% female volunteers and 40% male volunteers. Linking to this, evidence and research online also suggests a gender split in hospice volunteering with far more female volunteers over male volunteers is common.


Therefore, these figures from Willowbrook are not surprising with over 3/4 of volunteers being female. Despite this, Willowbrook Hospice does demonstrate inclusivity in volunteers with a range of female, male, transgender, and non-binary volunteers getting involved in hospice volunteering. This shows the TeamKinetic system is successful in ensuring anybody can register to be a volunteer as however they identify, allowing further inclusivity in the voluntary sector.

Opportunity Data

Volunteers recorded 16,007 hours of volunteering in the system from 2020. These hours took place over 49 opportunities.

The top 8 most popular opportunities regarding the number of hours undertaken by volunteers are:

1 Retail
2 Admin
3 Fundraising Events
4 Teaching Roles
5 Reception
6 Gardening
7 Catering 
8 Driver

As you can see above, the top 8 most popular opportunities is a very diverse range. This shows that since Willowbrook has been using TeamKinetic they have been able to recuit volunteers onto a wide variety of volunteering opportunities. Since Willowbrook Hospice rasies a lot of their funds from their charity shops, it is not a shock to see retail at the most popoular choice. Alongside this, one off fundrasing events are always popular amongst the volunteering community.

Support

To conclude, when on our Enterprise Plan you get telephone support from 9:00 am-5:30 pm, online chat support, support tickets you can raise in the system, YouTube ‘How To’ videos, and Facebook groups and livestreams. From this, we asked Bev from Willowbrook Hospice, who is on the Enterprise Plan, how she found the support she has received from TeamKinetic. Here’s what she had to say:

So from the beginning, and I will say, the support has been absolutely fantastic. If I ever send an email or put a support ticket because I need something, the efficiency is fantastic and I think that it’s that personal touch we get from TeamKinetic. I think if we’d have gone to one of the bigger companies, we wouldn’t have got that.

With TeamKinetic, you never feel like any questions stupid,
because I have asked some really silly questions in the past, but actually they’ve come back and easily explained everything to me.

I also think the help videos have been really good. We’ve sent those through to shop managers for them to watch. And I think that’s helped them train them, so I would definitely say support has been absolutely fantastic and I can’t fault that at all.

BEV NEILSON, VOLUNTEER MANAGER AT WILLOWBROOK HOSPICE

Find Out More…

TeamKinetic helps to build better volunteer communities by providing great tools for volunteer managers that save time, increase impact and improve insight. Our goal is to make volunteering easy for everyone no matter what. But don’t take our word for it, why not check out our customer reviews.

For more information on how we can assist with your volunteer management and getting the best out of all your volunteers visit our website or contact us on – 0161 914 5757

Should you still be working with online volunteers post-covid?

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On 13th October 2021

In COVID-19, Volunteer Management

Now we’re heading back to ‘normal’, should you still be working with online volunteers? YES! By recruiting online volunteers from quite literally anywhere you’re expanding your reach. When it comes to volunteering: the bigger your reach, the better! Virtual volunteering slots here perfectly. 

In today’s blog post, we’re outlining the ways you can make sure your virtual opportunities stand out from the rest. 

Making Your Opportunity Stand Out

Your Opportunity Title. When creating your opportunity, make sure your title is compelling and attractive. A volunteer is more likely to join an opportunity that instantly excites them, so having a strong title is key. It’s also worth mentioning somewhere in the title that the opportunity is remote. 

Opportunity Description. Simply, don’t post the full list of details. Searching volunteers are likely to be leading with emotion – and a long description of there duties isn’t going to entice them. We suggest giving snippets of their duties but focus on explaining the impact they’ll be making.

Jargon. For a number of volunteers, this is their first time volunteering. Any specific language or acronyms should be left out. It’s most likely going to confuse potential volunteers, so keeping it as simple as possible will get more interest from new volunteers.

Calls To Action. Give potential volunteers the ‘next steps’ for joining an opportunity. Your opportunity should always have contact details too, for any other questions or support they might require. 

Image Use.  The use of imagery taps into volunteers’ emotions. Using the right image can trigger mirror neurons in the brain, so the volunteer feels the emotions portrayed in an image. Your images can also show that your organisation is inclusive to all. It’s important that your imagery is right, and sends the right signals to those browsing. 

Checking Your Posting. Once your post is complete, make sure to double check it. Go through and check that all the information is correct as well as looking out for any spelling/grammatical errors. It’s also worth, once posted, looking at the opportunity through a potential volunteer’s eyes – do they have everything they need to join? 

Are You Screening Your Volunteers?

Now that you’ve perfected your opportunity listing, and you have a set of virtual volunteers, the screening process can begin! What should you be considering when it comes to your volunteering screening process? 

At the outset, you need to find out where your volunteer will be working. Are they going to be in a pace that’s quiet and private, or will they be in a busy environment? The key thing is that they are able to volunteer effectively in the place they’ve set up. 

To ensure your volunteer is working effectively, are their any supplies or training required? Ensure that your volunteer has completed their training steps, and can access everything they need to start volunteering; this check makes sure there can be a smooth process into the opportunity, because there’s no stop/starting as a volunteer doesn’t have access to something important. 

Volunteers will be interacting with a number of different people – let them know the basic information on how they should interact. This can help build up a volunteer’s confidence, so they interact with the organisation and those it helps more. 

Make sure that you’re frequently staying in touch with those who virtually volunteer, over email, chat or video call. You can touch base weekly or monthly, building up a relationship that keeps them returning to volunteer. Establishing this relationship is important, volunteers want to feel seen and heard, like they aren’t just on the outskirts of the organisation. 

Volunteer Motivations

You can also match volunteers with other opportunities you think they might be interested in. One way you can do this is through understanding your volunteers motives. VolunteerPro teaches a lot about a set of motivations a volunteer is likely to have, and how they can be applied by volunteer managers. Their motivations are: 

  • Values: Where in which volunteers take something meaningful from the hours they spend volunteering. 
  • Careers: Opportunities open doors for volunteers to advance in their careers or network with likeminded people from their industry. 
  • Social: Volunteers can find themselves in emotional and supportive environments which they can also benefit from. 
  • Enhancement: Volunteering gives leadership development to volunteers and changes their perception of power to some extent. 

Volunteers that are open and motivated are most likely to have more than one goal in mind, rather than running on one single purpose. For some, they might not yet realise what those goals or motivations are, but they want to help in any capacity. 

Think it’s time to invest in volunteer management software?

You can start a free trial of TeamKinetic on our website. This will let you check out all our features for 30 days. If you like what you see, contact us to book a demo and see how we can help your organisation manage your volunteers!

How to get young people volunteering at heritage sites…

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On 6th October 2021

In Community, Volunteer Management

The HistoricScot Youth Forum was established to understand how to get young people volunteering and involved in the heritage sector. Historic Environment Scotland (HES) have been involved with Young Scot, in a 24 month partnership to help expand the engagement, participation and involvement of younger generations from different backgrounds to influence their activity and decision-making processes.

In previous conversations, there has been a multi-generational issue, especially regarding younger generations. Over the past 18 months, Young Scot have been tackling this problem of the lack of young generation involvement. Their results are presented in this report and contribute towards the Historic Environment Scotland 2019-22 corporate plan.

The report is spilt into three key themes: Community and Schools, Volunteering and Work, and HES sites all with a focus on future engagement of young people within the heritage sector. These recommendations are based off results from surveys.

Community and Schools Responses

For many, school is the first time people will engage with the historic environment. It’s highly likely that those who engage with historic environments as an adult have had experiences as a child, so ensuring sites are engaged with schools is crucial. 

The majority of young people nowadays find their information through online social media platforms, so if they aren’t connected to HES platforms, they aren’t going to be engaged with it. For 32% of respondents, they didn’t have a connection to historical places around Scotland, despite 47% expressing interest. 

Through their research, Young Scot have created these recommendations for the future: 

  • Start discussions with marginalised communities about how their heritage can be represented. 
  • Create history resources that are widely accessible for young people to learn and connect with. 
  • Develop relationships with schools and spread awareness of HES in classroom settings. 
  • Facilitate and engage with schools who have decided to visit sites and keep them engaged afterwards. 

Volunteering and Work Responses

Volunteering can be an important factor for individuals entering employment into the sector. Survey results show that 3/4 of respondents hadn’t considered a career in the historic environment but 60% of people wanted to know the ways work opportunities can engage them. Currently, the heritage sector attracts volunteers that are male around the age of 35 (according to Young Scot research). 

Lack of awareness towards employment, partnered with minimal advertisements are just two of the barriers which stopped people volunteering. If no one can see the opportunities, your pool of volunteers are significantly reduced.

In regards to young people, offering roles in areas they’re passionate about provides them with purpose and will help younger generations gain interpersonal skills they need. It’s especially vital now that these generations have lost time for social encounters due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

For Volunteering and Work, Young Scot had the following recommendations:

  • Create an online space for young people to showcase who they are and their skills for quicker sign up or applying opportunities. 
  • It’s imperative that those with or without the internet have equal access to opportunities. 
  • Start promoting your volunteering opportunities on the platforms where young people are, such as Instagram and Twitter.
  • For new volunteering roles, tailor the opportunity’s advertisement to a diverse group of young people through language, tone and imagery.

HES Site Responses

Currently, heritage sites host a number of opportunities for specific demographics and it’s mainly families. Due to this, there is still work to be done in engaging young people. For many heritage sites, this age range is forgotten, when they should be included.

In Young Scots’ survey, they found that if sites became more technology based, or held more events, then visits would be more enjoyable for younger generations. In a separate matter, over a quarter of respondents cannot access all parts of heritage sites due to the lack of accessibility provided.

Based on the information from the survey, Young Scot highlighted gamification as a way to engage young people within heritage sites. Gamification is applying elements of games to other activities, normally completed as an online technique to keep people engaged. Heritage sites can use this as a technique to interest young people into engaging with their content.

The report created a number of recommendations for heritage sites: 

  • Make sure that all facilities are accessible to everyone, without this, there is a barrier against those with disabilities from accessing the heritage environment. 
  • Design new events, exhibitions and educate young people of the cultural changes within society.
  • Host events to celebrate minority groups and their heritage in Scotland’s history. 
  • Make improvements to the website and the types of content it provides: specifically where people can go to learn more. One way to do this is to create hubs for different age groups. This, along with the introduction of gamification, creates an online community where young people can meet other, like-minded people.

Conclusions…

From Young Scot’s experience with engaging in the sector, there is a disproportionate underrepresentation of those from a variety of backgrounds. Heritage sites don’t reflect the diversity of the sector, the organisation, or Scotland as a whole. This barrier in particular needs to be overcome to make HES as accessible as possible for all young people.

The introduction of the latest technology can engage audiences at a younger age; paired with a strong relationship with schools, the historic environment can recharge younger generations of their love for Scotland’s culture, past and present.

Young Scot is hoping the recommendations made throughout the report can start conversations within HES on the future of younger generations in the sector. They encourage HES to continue involving young people in future plans to make a real impact. 

Want to start engaging with your volunteers more? 

Calling all heritage sites! We’ve worked with Volunteer Organisers Network and Historic Environment Scotland to create the Make Your Mark Portal, which can promote your heritage opportunities to new audiences and helps you with your volunteer management. You can find out more about Make Your Mark here. 

If you’d like to know more about us here at TeamKinetic, and how we can help you manage your volunteers, you can access our website here.

Volunteer Passports: Is this the future?

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On 8th September 2021

In COVID-19, News & Views

The following round-up blog post comes from a research report commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), on Volunteer Passports that TeamKinetic helped to support. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were reminded of just how important volunteering is to communities. It’s suggested that around 12.4 million adults volunteered during the pandemic, 4.6 million of those for the first time! The pandemic has made waves within volunteering and with more and more organisations coming together to find a collaborative approach to recruitment and onboarding; there have been movements to introduce volunteer passports into organisations. 

What is a Volunteer Passport?

If you aren’t familiar, a volunteer passport can hold all the verified credentials a volunteer might need in order to volunteer, which can serve as credentials to a pool of organisations. This can be called volunteer portability; this concept refers to the easing of movement across different organisations and roles. Volunteer passports can be a quicker way to apply as a volunteer as any references or training needed has already been completed and verified! 

Passporting Aims…

The initiative aims to address key issues regarding volunteer recruitment, management and development…

In certain contexts, such as emergency response volunteering, volunteer passports can be a mechanism to recruit and onboard large numbers of volunteers to opportunities locally and at speed. With passporting, the aim is also to improve the effectiveness of matching volunteers to opportunities tailored to what they’re interested in, or want to take part in. It also means that volunteers can be ‘re-deployed’ onto different tasks where they may be needed. This also ensures that micro, ad hoc and event-based volunteering opportunities are supported, also known as volunteer portability. 

Reducing volunteer vetting can save time and money for all parties, through the standardisation of volunteer training and management. In the past, there have been previous initiatives that have explored this locally or within a particular sector, improving the consistency of trained volunteers. 

What about alternative practices?

Here’s a quick run-through of the practices that could be integrated into volunteer passports: 

A number of volunteering organisations already match volunteers with volunteering opportunities they find may be a good fit, based on previous opportunities or through a skill-based match. Many volunteers started volunteering through word of mouth therefore, online volunteer passports may be deemed unnecessary. Any passporting system would have to consider how the offline side could be integrated successfully. 

Volunteer profiles have also been in previous initiatives, numerous management platforms have offered volunteers a facility where they can develop and build their ‘profile.’ This can be used as an alternative to CVs or LinkedIn, which volunteers involved in the report have emphasised. Volunteer passporting could mean it addresses an aim that has already been met.  

Other related schemes have been surrounding rewarding volunteers. Just like within the TeamKinetic system, schemes can provide rewards through ‘time banks’ or ‘time credits’, where a volunteer’s time is recorded, which they can then use to redeem a reward of some sort. The reward would depend on the organisation they are working with. We know how important recognising and rewarding volunteers are, so volunteer passporting has to include this, or something similar. 

Key Areas of Demand

In order for volunteering-involved organisations to support volunteer passports there are some key areas of demand. The report consistently highlights that portable IDs, and DBS checks are deemed to be a core element of potential volunteer passports. This is because they benefit volunteers, organisations and stakeholders from different voluntary sectors. The introduction of portable IDs and DBS checks is welcomed by organisations as a way to reduce the admin burden that comes with mass onboarding. For volunteers, it reduces the barriers they may find when wanting to volunteer in a different sector. 

Allowing organisations to have a shared pool of volunteers would help particular types of volunteering such as emergency, event-based, and micro-volunteering. This element is a way of always having volunteers on hand to offer opportunities to.

From the suggestion for portable IDs, the standardisation of volunteer training is also of interest. Standardising training will be beneficial through local volunteer portability and regarding specialist skills with individual sectors. Not only can volunteers help across different organisations in their local area, those volunteers with specialist skills, are enabled to complete certain tasks for a number of organisations within the sector. 

Another element was found that there needs to be some sort of validation of volunteers’ experiences and skills. For some volunteer groups, this would be incredibly beneficial, where volunteering could become a potential route to employment, the validation of skills can be added to a CV etc. This aspect was also thought to offer benefits in terms of supporting social integration and the well-being of different marginalised groups. 

What Does Each Sector Think?

The research for the report presented some experiences and views from each sector regarding the introduction of volunteer passports and how they might be used. 

The health sector has seen a rise in volunteer passporting over the past couple of months, and the expectation is for the demand to grow. The sector has found that passporting ensures agile and efficient emergency responses along with the integration of statutory and non-statutory services. The demand has also increased in the community action sector; portability at local level of training and skills has already been introduced, so there is potential to build on existing initiatives to deliver a comprehensive passporting system in local areas.  

Regarding the culture sector, museums and heritage sites perceived passporting as beneficial. Specifically highlighting the portability.

Portability allows for volunteer learning and skill exchange, reducing administrative burden. There has been interest in developing a shared volunteer training standard within the sector.

In some areas, the sector has found they have been oversubscribed with volunteers. Therefore, standardising training and easy portability means volunteers can be moved into new routes while staying in the sector they’re interested in. 

While there is strong demand in certain sectors, the sporting sector has seen very little demand for a passporting system, with the exception of portable DBS checks. The report shows that demand is low as volunteer recruitment is mostly organic, so there’s little interest in the digital brokerage of volunteer passports. Along with this, for individual sports, qualifications are already there in terms of training, and therefore the standardisation of training has been met and recognised. 

So How Will it Work?

How might volunteer passports work moving forward?

  • Commonality: Volunteer portability is more likely to work when there is a common denominator between organisations whether this be locally or sector-based. This commonality between organisations may be essential to building a ‘federation of trust’ aligning volunteer standards and processes. 
  • Sustainable? Stakeholders have concerns that passport initiatives may not be sustainable. This is due to the temporary nature of funding, and a lack of resources. To overcome these issues, volunteer-involved organisations have stressed the need for passporting initiatives to be developed in a realistic way, building this into a long-term strategy for volunteering. 
  • Credibility: The Credibility of passport schemes is incredibly important for volunteer engagement and organisations. Some examples of the ways individual volunteer passporting schemes have been credible have included: endorsements from national councils of volunteer organisations and local authority and government institutions. 
  • Data Standards: This is a strong requirement from digital platform providers and organisations who explain that any volunteer passport system would only work if it was developed with open data standards. 
  • Control? Various organisations have emphasised how important it is for volunteers to be the ones controlling their data. For example, in previous initiatives, there have been options for volunteers to pause notifications at times when they were busy or wanted to stop volunteering for the moment.
  • Access: There is an element of exclusion and barriers for small organisations due to a lack of digital infrastructure and skills to join in on volunteer passporting for those who work for their organisation. Where are smaller organisations going to find and retain their volunteers? 

Expectations of Government Support…

There are areas where central and local governments can support volunteering in the context of volunteer passporting, including: 

  • Raising awareness of current possibilities to make DBS checks portable and improving their portability. 
  • Providing legal clarity over certain issues curtailing volunteer portability or any other elements of passporting. 
  • Working with the voluntary sector to support greater standardisation where appropriate through funding for resources and infrastructure. 
  • Encouraging volunteering by making sure other government policies do not pose barriers to volunteering. 

Where Does TeamKinetic Fit In? 

As mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, TeamKinetic helped support this report we’d like to thank the DMCS for inviting us to help! We’re intrigued to see how volunteer passports and passporting develop in the next couple of years. We’re currently looking at ways we could introduce volunteer passporting, or elements of passporting, into our system. 

If you’d like to know more about us here at TeamKinetic, you can start a free trial of TeamKinetic on our website. This will let you check out all our features for 30 days. If you like what you see, contact us to book a demo and see how we can help your organisation manage your volunteers!

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.

How to get your volunteers to log hours

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On 19th July 2021

In News & Views, TeamKinetic Features, Volunteer Management

Volunteering at its core is an entirely selfless activity completed by people with no expectation of acknowledgement. Despite this, we believe volunteers deserve to be rewarded for their hard work. But how do you do this without them logging hours? 

Why is logging hours so important?

In short, data. This data is key to your organisation to:

  • Measure success. Logged hours can represent the amount of work your volunteers are doing for their community or particular cause. 
  • Track your audience. Knowing which volunteers are continually volunteering and which ones aren’t could be incredibly insightful. Is there a particular demographic volunteering more than others? Is there a demographic that is hard to retain? This data could uncover aspects that need to change, leading onto our next point…
  • Make improvements. No volunteering programmes are perfect, but the best ones regularly review and make changes to improve. If there’s a particular demographic that isn’t returning, why?

So how do I persuade volunteers to log their hours?

  • Show them how easy it is. Showing volunteers how quickly they can log hours might help them 
  • Incentivise! Offering rewards can be a great way to get volunteers logging their hours. However, the best way to do this is to offer low-value rewards as often as possible. 
  • Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. Imagine this: you offer one big prize (e.g. a hoodie), after a volunteer has logged 100 hours. They log hours as a way of reaching that prize, but once they reach those 100 hours they lose motivation to log future hours – or worse, return at all. (Extrinsic motivation)
    However, if you offer small rewards such as thank you messages they will be consistently motivated by the positive way the act makes them feel. (Intrinsic motivation)

Intrinsic motivation is all about making your volunteers continually feel good about the work they’re doing and the difference they’re making, rather than working towards one particular reward. 

So how do you keep up this motivation? Giving them nice feedback is a great place to start! This will show how much you value them and will mean more to them than you may think. 

Utilising TeamKinetic to Incentivise Volunteers

Leaving Feedback

TeamKinetic allows you to leave feedback when logging a volunteer’s hours. If you forget or don’t have time to personally thank your volunteer at the end of their session, this section gives you the chance to do so. It also lets the volunteer log their own hours and leave feedback about the opportunity they joined.

Ask anyone who has volunteered – receiving feedback is a great feeling and can push volunteers to return and continue volunteering for you.

Achievement Badges

This incentive is a great way to push your volunteers to log more hours. Once a volunteer logs their hours, they will add together to create their total volunteer hours. A small way to help increase volunteers’ hours is to have achievement badges when they reach certain hour milestones.

TeamKinetic has achievement badges automatically built into the system. The achievement badge pictures and names can be customised. These badges are a great way to incentivise volunteers and get them to keep on volunteering so they can reach the next milestone.

Custom Badges

Have you ever thought about starting a ‘volunteer of the month’ award? To give your volunteers an extra incentive to volunteer more or make them feel appreciated? Yes? Keep reading, you may like what you see…

TeamKinetic allows you to create custom award badges for your volunteers. These could be ‘volunteer of the month’ or ‘volunteer of the year’. They can be absolutely anything you want and look however you want, with the fully customisable option! Once you have assigned the award to a volunteer, they will receive an email with the award in it to congratulate them. Again, this recognises the efforts your volunteers put in, helping you to retain more volunteers and hopefully gain more.

Logging hours with TeamKinetic

Logging hours with TeamKinetic is easy – as it should be on any volunteer management system. See below for the full process laid out in less than 25 seconds!

And if that’s not clear enough you can check out our full tutorial videos on logging hours as an opportunity provider and logging hours as a volunteer! 

Think it’s time to invest in volunteer management software?

You can start a free trial of TeamKinetic on our website. This will let you check out all our features for 30 days. If you like what you see, contact us to book a demo and see how we can help your organisation manage your volunteers!

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.

Introducing TeamKinetic: Katie – The Start of Something

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On 22nd June 2021

In News & Views

Ginger Roots:

My marketing journey started in a life-sized cardboard smart car. 11 year old me presented a hover board advert at school, and between the transport creations and the chariots of fire theme tune, I think I sold the hoverboard 6000 rather well. I fell in love with marketing before I even knew what it was. 

Fast forward 6 years and I’m completing a creative media degree at my local college when the history of adverts is assigned to me. A 12,000 word document later, I decided that my passion lay in some form of marketing – photography and film now were hobbies. As a pledged university student studying Public Relations and Marketing, I’ve never felt more determined to set myself going on a career path, and succeed. 

A Helping Hand:

When I think back to when I was younger, I realise just how much volunteering my family took part in. During school summer fairs, my mum manned the sweets stall and my dad fired up the BBQ, all because they wanted to help. It’s members of my family who taught me the importance of volunteering and started me on my journey. 

For the past couple of years I have been part of ‘Save The Streets’, a university charity focused on helping end homelessness in Manchester. Through volunteering, fundraising and spreading awareness we try and do our bit where we can: last Christmas we raised £1,235 for A Bed Every Night. I’m honoured to have been their Social Media Secretary over the past 12 months and I’m looking forward to working with them closely in the future. 

In The Mean Time: 

As mentioned above, what I studied in college, I now like to do in my free time. I’m passionate in capturing moments from angles others might not see – from holidays to birthdays I’ve taken over the mantle as resident cameraman from my Grandad. When I’m not capturing my Nan’s famous birthday cakes, I am an avid true crime fan – having watched nearly every documentary and docuseries on Netflix. I’m not quite sure what intrigues me about it, but somehow every time a new one pops onto the platform I’m ready and waiting to click play. 

One Final Note: 

Looking at the next 12 months, I’m excited to put what theory I’ve learnt over the past 2 years into practice and see how my skills develop. My Dad always told me that if you find a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. I try to live by my Dad’s nuggets of wisdom, so I’m grateful that TeamKinetic have given me a chance to put my knowledge and skills together in a motivated, practical environment for the next year. 

Katie Brindle 

katie@teamkinetic.co.uk

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

We Got Nominated Two iNetwork Awards!

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On 11th March 2021

In Awards and Prizes

Yes, that’s right! We got nominated for 2 iNetwork awards,  The Partner Excellence Award and the Covid-19 Response Recognition Award for our work with Halton and St Helens. And as of the 5th February, we have been shortlisted as a finalist. Here is how we got there…

About the initiative with St Helens

St Helens Together is the name of the collaborative community response programme of residents, businesses, public services and voluntary and community groups across the Borough. One of the key foundations was the Volunteer Portal which was implemented through a partnership which included us!

The aims of the development of the Volunteer Portal were to increase engagement with volunteering, to support organisations more efficiently with the recruitment and management of volunteers, to provide greater flexibility, support, reward and recognition to volunteers, and to have a system that would offer business intelligence and greater insight to volunteers across the Borough.

The volunteer portal was able to create identification cards, which helped with the safety and security of residents as the card had a photo of the individual and confirmed if their identity had been verified and if they had been DBS checked. A Community Task Dashboard was implemented, allowing an overview of all tasks and their status. We then implemented the I Can Help App which is a new innovative and effective way that volunteers could pick up tasks in their area.

What were the key achievements of the initiative?

  • 1,744 volunteers have been registered and together they offered 8,688 volunteering hours.
  • The economic value of the volunteer support offered £80,796 during the first six months of the programme.
  • Twenty different voluntary and community sector groups have used the portal.
  • 32,993 people have been supported.
  • The volunteers managed 37,339 food related tasks.
  • 16,161 telephone calls have been made to support those feeling lonely or isolated.
  • 3,675 tasks have been completed in relation to support around employment and the impact of unemployment.

In relation to the I Can Help App, here is just some of the feedback collected from the volunteers:

“I find it easy to pick up tasks that are suitable to me. The app is great.”

“Great way of linking volunteers with the community.”

“Using the I Can Help App is easy and efficient. Really happy to be helping others and making use of my spare time.”

The Awards

The St Helens Together Volunteer portal has provided a focus and foundation to the wider community response to the coronavirus pandemic. It has provided an infrastructure and efficient organisation which has helped us channel help and support to where it is most needed. 

The portal and the App, have shown how volunteers and community tasks can be managed more efficiently through a collaborative, digital approach. This has made it much quicker to recruit volunteers, to raise awareness of tasks that people need supporting with and to gain intelligence. It has also supported volunteers that had not previously used Apps the opportunity to increase their digital skills. The programme has broken down organisational and sector boundaries as it has brought everyone together with a common purpose. Volunteers have come from very different backgrounds and have very different demographics. They have reported that they have greater levels of empathy with others and feel a sense of belonging to their communities. Therefore a greater level of community cohesion, tolerance and kindness has been achieved.

Thank You!

We want to say a big thank you to Halton and St Helens and to everyone who has voted for us so far. It is a huge achievement and milestone for TeamKinetic to have been nominated for 2 iNetwork awards, especially one that recognises our efforts throughout COVID-19. Next step, the awards ceremony!

Happy International Day of Charity

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On 4th September 2020

In Charity

Every year, charities all over the world are using their resources to help support and provide hope to people in need. Now, today is the day we show our appreciation to all charities out there for the amazing work they do on a day-to-day basis. That’s why today’s blog post is all about saying THANK YOU and showing our appreciation of our charity clients!

First up…

British Blind Sport

British Blind Sport prides itself on making a visible difference through sport as we know that taking the first step into participating in a sporting or recreational activity can change lives for the better

– Alaina MacGregor, Chief Executive Officer

British Blind Sport is an amazing charity that helps the blind and partially sighted people get active and play sports. They encourage adults and children to participate in activities of all levels, from grassroots to the Paralympic Games. They believe that sporting opportunities should be available to everybody. It has been proven that sport can enhance the lives of people with visual impairments by improving their health and increasing their social interaction.

And you can help today in so many different ways. Have a look today to see how you can make a real difference through British Blind Sport by clicking here.

Dreams Come True

Dreams Come True are the only dreams granting charity that fulfils the dreams of children and young adults with such a wide range of medical conditions, locations and ages.

Dreams Come True exist to make the dreams of children and young adults come true; everyone has a dream, but the unfortunate reality is that some have less time to realise their dream. This is why Dreams Come True believe that having one moment where children can forget about the troubles they are currently facing, is a moment that they and their families get to treasure forever.

However, they can’t make any of this happen without support of others. Find out how you can help Dreams Come True today by clicking here!

Groundwork London

Groundwork London have the vision of a city where all communities are vibrant, healthy and safe. Where londoners feel empowered to come together and overcome the challenges they face, wherever they live, and whatever the circumstances or background. However, London continues to face many serious challenges. When these challenges are combined with reductions in public funding and services, it’s usually those who are most disadvantaged that are affected the most. That is why Groundwork designs projects to support these individuals and communities.

Every year they make an incredible impact on people and places in London. Last year they worked with communities across London to create and improve close to 1.9 million square metres of public parks, playgrounds, housing estates, community gardens, nature reserves, roof gardens and many more of London’s valuable public open spaces. 

They offer amazing support and advice, which you can find out about now by clicking here.

Into Games

Into-games is a wonderful charity which supports people finding rewarding careers in the games industry. Their projects connect education and industry while providing guidance for learners from primary school upwards. They do this to ensure that a career in the games sector is more accessible to a wider range of young people.

With Into-games, you can find a career, build a game, go to an event, get a mentor, and find opportunities with just a click of a button! Find out for yourself here.

Pankhurst Trust

The Pankhurst Trust was formed in 2014 as a merger between The Pankhurst Trust, which ran The Pankhurst Museum, and Manchester Women’s Aid. 

They aim to promote the equality of women, to help women suffering or at risk from domestic abuse, and to secure The Pankhurst Museum for public benefit.

This incredible charity work to ensure the powerful story of the women who won the vote continues to inspire us all to challenge gender inequality, and to ensure that those suffering domestic violence and abuse get the confidential help they need.

You can get involved today with The Pankhurst Trust by volunteering, fundraising, or donating.

Seashell Trust

The Seashell Trust is a charity dedicated to providing a creative, happy and secure environment for children and young people with complex and severe learning disabilities which include little or no language abilities. they have expert specialist teachers, care staff, onsite therapy team, assistive technologists, swimming teachers and sports coaches. All to allow their students to learn to express themselves, engage with the world, become more independent and live safe, creative and fulfilling lives.

You can start to work or volunteer for The Seashell Trust today by clicking here!

Willowbrook Hospice

Willowbrook Hospice is an independent charity established by local people to build and raise a specialist palliative care unit. Since the hospice opened in 1997, they have cared for over 9000 patients. During this time their services have grown so much that they now receive approximately 1000 patient referrals a year.

The volunteers at Willowbrook Hospice are an essential part of their team. They have event been awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. You can join their award winning team today by clicking here. Or read about upcoming fundraising events or how you can fundraise yourself by clicking here.

So, we wanted to say…

From everyone at TeamKinetic, we thank you for the amazing work you all do every day of the year. We love working with you and providing you with volunteer management software to make running your organisation and volunteers that bit easier!

On another note, some of you reading this may not be using TeamKinetic, and might want to know what the big deal is? 

From £19 per month, TeamKinetic can help you to:

  • Expand your volunteer force with no limit on the number of volunteers you can have.
  • Create individual volunteer profiles.
  • Provide instant real-time reports.
  • Create and manage multiple opportunities.
  • Expand your volunteer reach through Facebook and Twitter.
  • Keep your volunteer’s personal data safe

But don’t just take our word for it, start your FREE trial with us today or simple book in for a demo by emailing chris@teamkinetic.co.uk

International Youth Day 2020

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On 12th August 2020

In Events and Conferences, News & Views

International Youth Day (IYD) is a time to celebrate young people and their contributions to the world. In 1999, the UN General Assembly marked August 12th as International Youth Day. It serves as an ‘opportunity to celebrate and mainstream young people’s voices, actions and initiatives.’

Each year, the United Nation of Youth create a theme for IYD. This year is: Youth Engagement for Global Action. This theme seeks to highlight how young people are engaging at local, national and global levels enrich themselves, institutions and processes. 

Youth Engagement to You

So, Youth Engagement for Global Action… what does this mean to you?

As a young person myself, this statement is important. Allowing young voices and opinions to be heard is crucial to making changes at all levels.

Whilst the world is stuck in a limbo-like situation, local, national and global action is needed to find new ways we can overcome this period. Change is needed now more than ever – having young voices at the forefront allows for fresh input into processes being made. Therefore ultimately paving the way for themselves and future generations. 

However, youth engagement to you may mean youth volunteering. This kind of engagement will be important to you and your organisation as it allows for fresh, new input. Giving your youth volunteers the chance to voice their opinions may help improve your future volunteering opportunities. 

Youth Statistics in Volunteering

Let’s take a look at some youth stats…

35% of 16-25 year olds volunteer once a year with young women more likely to volunteer than young men.

Education plays a vital part in getting young people to engage. 69% of 10 – 20 year olds get involved with volunteering through their school, college or university. With this, a survey found almost all of youth volunteers reported these opportunities had benefited them in some way. 

1.6 million people volunteer abroad yearly, with an astonishing 84% of millennials also saying they would travel abroad to participate in volunteering activities.

NfpSynergy recently posted a blog explaining how youths may be replacing the older generation as the key volunteering group. This interesting read explains how during the pandemic, volunteering roles relied on youth volunteering as the older generation fell into the ‘at risk’ category. 

Time to Engage

With the pandemic clearly showing an increase in youth volunteering, I’m sure you are wondering how you can start to engage this generation and use their ideas to help your organisation. 

How Can You Really Engage The Youth Of Today? This blog is a must read to help you and your organisation encourage young people join your volunteering opportunities. 

TeamKinetic is here to help as our research shows our software is extremely effective at recruiting younger volunteers. This could be down to our digital tools that let you share to social media or the fact the younger generation prefer that digital approach. 

You can trial our software for FREE to see how TeamKinetic can help you. Just head over to our website to learn more or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube for more tips and information about volunteers. 

International Youth Day allows us to celebrate all young people and their hard work, whether it be on a local, national or global level. Join us today in saying thank you to all of the young people in our lives! 

THANK YOU!

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.

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