Tag: volunteer Page 2 of 15

Review and Refresh your Volunteer Management

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On 24th January 2024

In News & Views, Volunteer Management

As we embark on a new year, you may be feeling that it’s time to refresh your volunteer management style. Whether you do or do not currently use TeamKinetic, there is always room to improve your process and maximise volunteer management opportunities.

Digital Deep Dive

Are you making TeamKinetic work hard for you? With a wealth of features and regular updates, it is easy to overlook certain areas! Setting aside time to review your use of TeamKinetic will save time in the long run. Booking a session with our implementation manager will help you directly address the redundant areas of your system. Or, attend free masterclasses to address specific areas. For example, if you want to improve your use of transactional and bulk emailing, our ‘communicating with users’ masterclass is coming up! Simply go to Help and Support > Extra training in your system.

If you are not a TeamKinetic user, that does not necessarily mean you don’t do anything digitally! Reviewing your current volunteer management will reveal the areas for improvement. For example, a disorganised scheduling or rota system. Knowing your current sticking points is a great start if you decide to streamline your volunteer management. This can help frame your volunteer management software search.

Networking

Touching base with other organisations in your local area or network can also be insightful. Peer-to-peer learning is a way to test whether your volunteering patterns are also being seen by others. Together you can tackle these issues and even become part of a region-wide volunteering network. For example, TeamKinetic users in the Liverpool City Region have joined forces. As a result, volunteers can access opportunities from across the region. If you are currently a TeamKinetic user, through referral you can build your network and experience the benefits of a wider volunteer community. 

Are you Listening to your Volunteers?

Encouraging your volunteers and admins to leave feedback on volunteering opportunities is a great way to stay on track. As with your other volunteer data, feedback can be monitored and tracked within your TeamKinetic volunteer management system. Responding to the feedback is the most crucial step. Think of your volunteers as a part of your team, providing clarity and direction. Do you periodically send out volunteer surveys? Surveys can also be distributed from within TeamKinetic. Surveys will help to paint a broader, more long-term picture of the impact of any amendments you have made in response to feedback.

This may have made you wonder where there is any record of what your volunteers think! A lot of volunteering opportunities rely solely on verbal communication. Of course, in-person recognition and feedback are very valuable. However, when it comes to reviewing your volunteer programme, this can cause difficulties in providing substantive evidence of the volunteer experience. Consider implementing digital methods of recording volunteer feedback.

Communicate with Colleagues

Don’t assume that others in your department use TeamKinetic in the same way as you. Check in with your other admins to discover how they make the system work best for them. Booking on to one of our free open training sessions as a group is a great refresher and can help your team to regroup and align your efforts. 

Equally, if you do not have a volunteer management system in place, you must work together. Initiating talks over the positives and difficulties of your current volunteer management is part of the review and refresh process. You may be unaware that another of your colleagues is struggling to collect volunteer references, for example.

Refer to Standards and Frameworks

Our upcoming Digital Toolkit in partnership with the AVM is set to be a go-to for organisations looking to improve their digital volunteer management. We are working to help Volunteer Managers and Leaders to consider and adopt the digital tools, systems and approaches that are right for them. If you have any questions or requests please contact Gethyn Williams, here. This a toolkit shaped by those who will benefit most! 

Adhering to some Third Sector processes and accreditations can help boost the standard of your volunteering programmes. For example, ‘Investing in Volunteers’ or Volunteer Scotland’s ‘Volunteering Charter’.

Key Takeaways

Volunteer feedback, attendance, page visits and much more are logged within TeamKinetic. Don’t just collect volunteer data, review it! The third sector is a big community, make the most of this through networking and accessing the resources available to you. Similarly, communicate effectively within your organisation to ensure you are making the most of your current tools. If you would like a more formal refresh or extra training, TeamKinetic are always on hand to help! If you are not a TeamKinetic user and would like to see the system in action and discuss tailoring TeamKinetic to your needs, get in touch through the live chat pop-up here.

Ensure you follow us on our social media pages to receive regular updates about the voluntary sector and learn more about the TeamKinetic system.

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

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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.

TeamKinetic Best Practice: What Makes a Successful Site Launch

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On 10th January 2024

In News & Views, TeamKinetic Best Practice, TeamKinetic Features

We’re delighted to welcome any organisation to TeamKinetic. Besides creating software that works best for you and your volunteers, we want to help you make all aspects of your site launch successful! From pre-go-live communications to additional training, make the most of your site launch with the help of the following pointers.  

Pre-go-live Comms 

Communicating features and integrations is a valuable part of your overall communications strategy before your site goes live. Create a pre-go-live checklist to ensure that you spread maximum awareness of your launch. In your Implementation Guide, there is a checklist for optimising your TeamKinetic site, but you may want to go the extra mile. Include both volunteers and admin in your campaign. Span your communications across email, social media, your website and location. This will create a smooth transition for your admins and build anticipation amongst your volunteers. A new-found potential for volunteer impact is an inspiring message! Draw attention to the issues that you sought TeamKinetic to solve, in particular the issues that will resonate with your current volunteers. For example, difficulty notifying volunteers about shift changes.

Outlining Features and Integrations

If you have our enterprise package, you can fully customise your site with a unique set of features and integrations. Other versions are also customisable, just to a smaller extent. TeamKinetic works with your specific organisation and volunteers in mind. There is no doubt that your volunteers will want to know about the improvements to their volunteer experience! 

Our Tempo Time Credits and First Advantage integrations are other talking points. With Tempo, as your volunteers log hours on your TeamKinetic site, they will be granted real-life rewards. Rewards include activities, products or services. With volunteering taking somewhat of a downward turn due to the cost of living crisis and people’s lack of ‘free’ time, tangible rewards are a fantastic motivation.

Additional Training

Another way to make the transition to TeamKinetic smooth for your volunteers is to provide training sessions. We suggest having up to five admins. These admins can all join a TeamKinetic online training session at no extra cost. New admins are free to join our quarterly open training sessions. Or, address any additional training requirements with a one-to-one training session.

Running a similar form of training for your volunteers will help ease the transition to TeamKinetic. This is especially true for those who are not as accustomed to the online world. An optional training session in the run-up to your site launch will benefit you and your volunteers in the long run. You could even pre-record a show around of your TeamKinetic site or create a ‘cheat sheet’ for volunteers to access at their convenience. Let volunteers know about training or any additional materials during your pre-go-live communications. 

Using your Online Voice

As part of your pre-go-live communications, create a social media campaign that showcases integrations, use-cases, and promotes your online training sessions, for example. Your audience will become familiar with the idea of your new volunteer management system and be in support of the benefits. If you utilise social media, you may also gain the attention of those who have yet to volunteer with your organisation. 

If your TeamKinetic site is in partnership with multiple organisations within your area, the same goes for providers. As we explore in our ‘4 Ways to Attract More Volunteers’ blog, if all partners post about opportunities hosted on your TeamKinetic site, reach is maximised. You may choose to execute a cross-channel campaign that is contributed to by all organisations within your partnership. Showing provider profile pages will make it clear who volunteers will be engaging with. This strengthens the credibility and distribution of your content, and, in turn, your TeamKinetic site.

The same goes for linking to your main organisation’s website. Pre-launch, many volunteers will be used to going to your website for volunteering-related information. Ensure that they are appropriately redirected and informed about the purpose of your new TeamKinetic site. We explore this further here.

Helping the More Traditional Volunteer

Alongside running training sessions for those who might be less digitally savvy, it is helpful to have some computers or tablets at your organisation’s location. Volunteers may want to sign up and navigate your TeamKinetic site for the first time with help to hand. Of course, if you have the means, it would benefit certain volunteers if computers or tablets were constantly available. Our new app further simplifies the volunteer experience on TeamKinetic. 

You can invite your existing volunteers to your TeamKinetic site and volunteer opportunities with the ‘invite’ feature. This is another way to create a smooth transition to using TeamKinetic. For those who may not have been exposed to your online pre-go-live campaign, including signage at your location could be the catalyst for less digitally savvy volunteers to sign up to your TeamKinetic site.

Next Steps

Share why you’re excited about TeamKinetic with your volunteers! The period leading up to your site launch is transitional. Knowing what to say, where to say it, and to who to say it to is the foundation of a successful site launch.

Ensure you follow us on our social media pages to receive regular updates about the voluntary sector and learn more about the TeamKinetic system. You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

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TeamKinetic 2023 Roundup

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On 20th December 2023

In News & Views

We’re quickly closing in on the end of the year and approaching 2024, so what better time than now to take you all on a walk down memory lane with our TeamKinetic 2023 Roundup?

January – March

At the start of the year, we created some new user guides to support everyone on TeamKinetic. This included a new volunteer guide and a new provider guide.

We also published a new episode of TeamTalk with Richard Evans and Danielle Hogan from England Netball. Chris, Imo, Richard and Danielle had a great discussion about how organisations can improve their accessibility and inclusion for everyone, including volunteers. Listen below.

April – June

AI was dominating the conversation early on in the year, so we started to discuss how tools like ChatGPT can help volunteer managers.

We had our first minor release of the year with version 2.3.0. This brought new search filtering options, the volunteer action log, printable opportunity PDFs, and more.

We closed out season 2 of our TeamTalk podcast with a thought-provoking episode with Piers Martin. Piers is Head of Leadership and Academy Workforce Development at the Premier League and the Chair at UK Deaf Sport. Chris, Imo, and Piers discussed a variety of aspects of the current state of volunteering and beyond, including accessibility and the importance of having representation at the board level. Listen below.


In May, we were treated to a home Eurovision. Taking place in Liverpool, we were honoured to be a part of the event as we provided our tools for the Eurovision team to manage their volunteers.

In June, we celebrated Volunteers’ Week. Every year we acknowledge the contribution volunteers make to society. But of course, we should remember to thank volunteers every day, not just one week a year!

We also released another TK update. In our 2.3.1 Minor Release, we made reporting on volunteers easier, more search filters, and more.

July – September

We kicked off Season Three of our TeamTalk podcast with a visit from Rob Jackson. They spoke about Rob’s career in the sector and how volunteer management and engagement are changing due to the influence of external factors such as the cost of living crisis and new advancements in technology.


In late July through to the end of August, Alex (that’s me!) jetted off to Australia to watch the Women’s World Cup. It was an incredible event led by thousands of volunteers – over 5000 to be precise. They even got a shoutout before kickoff at every game!

England made it to the final, but it wasn’t to be as Spain emerged as the champions of the world. Even so, it was an amazing experience.

In September, we hosted the 2023 TeamKinetic Conference. This year, we brought together voices from across the sector to discuss the changing world and its potential impact on volunteering. Once again, thank you to everyone who attended, spoke, and contributed to discussions. It was a fantastic event and we hope to see you all again next year.

October – December

In October we attended the Why Sports conference in London. The conference highlighted some great work being done to improve health and increase activity amongst the general public.
Chris also hosted a panel debate titled: We Can’t Keep Doing the Same Things and Expect a Different Result! How volunteers hold the key to a sustainable revolution in how we deliver for our communities.
This panel brought together Bryony Hudson, Lee Malkin, and Leila Bendrimia to discuss what volunteering means to their organisations. Read more on this here.

Next, we put our longstanding plans of developing a Digital Toolkit for volunteer managers into practice with an online roundtable discussion with volunteer managers from across the sector. The discussion was hosted by Gethyn Williams, facilitated by AVM, and brought up some great points to think about as we start to put together the toolkit. We hope to have more information for you on this in early 2024.

So what’s next?

We have a few exciting developments in the works, you’ll all be pleased to hear that we expect the new and improved TeamKinetic app to be ready for early January. We’ll be in touch with more information when we properly come back to the office in 2024. We also have some exciting new integrations with Tempo and First Advantage that we will bring you as soon as possible.

In the meantime, we hope you have an amazing break over the holidays and a very happy new year!

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

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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.

4 Ways to Attract More Volunteers

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On 13th December 2023

In News & Views

It can be difficult to build a volunteer base. Even if you have an established group of regular volunteers, more are usually needed! With the help of some inspiration, you can begin to attract more new volunteers to your organisation and volunteer programs. 

Create a Buzz

If you can add an element of fun, through a competition or a family event day, for example, this will generate excitement for volunteers. Although handing out leaflets is an effective way to portray information, there will not be much intrigue. A build-up to an event or prize draw encourages involvement and discussion. Fostering a sense of community is crucial for many volunteer-involved organisations. 

Competitions are a great way to discover new volunteers. Competitions can be lighthearted or more meaningful. A competition that relates to your organisation’s purpose can be a form of volunteer induction, helping them to understand what, why and how you do what you do. For example, if you are a museum, you could run a photography competition for your museum and its collections. Potential volunteers will be inspired to visit and take an interest in what your organisation has to offer. Congratulate your entrants on their competition efforts and they will be more likely to offer their time as a volunteer. 

Inventive Opportunity Titles

Keep it simple with a funny or interesting opportunity title. For volunteers who are already navigating your TeamKinetic site, this will break up their browsing by attracting attention. Pique their interest and provide a sense of the opportunity, then give clarity through the opportunity description.

See the difference for yourself under the opportunity summary! Measure the click rate of opportunities with more versus less inventive opportunity titles.

Build your Brand Image

Sustaining a reputable name for your organisation takes maintenance! Ensure that your organisation has a personality and voice both online and offline. With an effectively communicated brand image, your organisation will stand out and become recognisable to prospective volunteers. 

Let people get to know your existing volunteers. Case studies, volunteer ‘profiles’ or interviews are a great way to show appreciation for your existing volunteers whilst connecting with potential volunteers. This humanises your organisation and gives credibility to your volunteering opportunities. Honesty and transparency are key!

Create conversation on social media. Pose questions or give advice for your audience to engage with. Social media can be far-reaching, as your community responds, their connections will be exposed to your content, and so on. Your social pages are also a great place to feature volunteering opportunities. After creating an opportunity on your TeamKinetic site, there is an option to ‘Share’ to multiple channels including your organisation’s social media accounts under the ‘Promote’ tab on the left-hand toolbar. If your opportunities are reflective of your organisation, your social media accounts will also accurately portray your brand image. As a result, you will attract the right kind of volunteers. For more advice on signposting your TeamKinetic site via social media, click here.

Develop Partnerships

Working with external partners helps to attract more volunteers. For example, the Liverpool City Region Volunteering Hub uses its TeamKinetic site to link volunteers from across the Liverpool City Region. Partners include One Knowsley and Halton and St Helens VCA. All the above tips can be used, just on a wider scale! Every organisation within your partnership can engage with new and existing volunteers. 

If you are not currently in partnership with other organisations, you can link out of your TeamKinetic provider page. Link with local community groups and organisations and attract more volunteers to your TeamKinetic site. Volunteers who currently engage with your partnered organisations will be exposed to your opportunities too.

Before you can recruit volunteers you need to find them! These simple tips can boost your community and volunteer base.

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

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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.

Setting Volunteering Objectives

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On 29th November 2023

In News & Views

As discussed in our previous blog, setting volunteering objectives helps to motivate your volunteers. Clarifying the volunteering purpose and approach can aid your opportunity creation process and eliminate any uncertainties that cause barriers to volunteering. If you want a quick-fire method for pinning down your volunteering objectives, read on!

For your volunteers

Volunteering objectives depend on the volunteering opportunity. Some objectives are more easy to define than others. However, the danger of a seemingly simple volunteering objective is that it is not communicated to the volunteer. Do not assume that simple objectives are obvious to someone who is not directly involved with your organisation. 

Outline your volunteering objectives within your opportunity description. Volunteers can then evaluate how well the opportunity aligns with their lifestyle, interests and intentions. Objectives also help give the prospective volunteer a sense of who you are as an organisation. 

For your organisation

Setting volunteering objectives is also a useful exercise for clarifying the purpose of an opportunity for you and your organisation. If you implement objective setting in your opportunity creation process, your objectives are more likely to be successful. It is more effective to have fewer attractive, well-organised volunteering opportunities than many undefined, therefore unattractive, opportunities. 

The Method

You may be familiar with using the SMART method in professional or academic settings. For the reasons outlined above, it is also beneficial to create specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound volunteering objectives.

Combine the following 5 elements and you will have a SMART objective. For example, ‘To distribute 5000kg of food donations to households in Manchester by 1st January 2025, helping improve the wellbeing of the community’.

Specific – The objective is focused and clearly defined.

Upon applying or joining an opportunity, volunteers will be certain about what the volunteering opportunity entails. 

Measurable – Volunteering efforts can be quantified. 

This does not have to be numerical but it is useful for there to be a method for determining the success of your volunteering opportunity.

Attainable – The objective may be aspirational, but it is realistic. 

An achievable goal is essential for motivating volunteers and clarifying what success means for your organisation.

Relevant – This objective is consistent with the purpose of your organisation.

Volunteers will be able to make the connection between volunteering and making a contribution to the broader goals of your organisation.

Timely – There is a time frame given to achieve the objective.

This can be a rolling or set deadline. It is important for volunteers to be aware of the level and length of commitment that is expected.

Be SMART!

For the benefit of you and your volunteers, set SMART objectives. Help to streamline your volunteering opportunity creation and recruitment process. The opportunity description is the perfect place to inform your volunteers and make sure they understand the opportunity objective or objectives!

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

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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.

Motivating Busy Volunteers

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On 22nd November 2023

In News & Views

When someone has very little spare time, motivating them to volunteer can be especially difficult. This is not always due to a lack of desire to help, but because of an inability to commit and a long list of other priorities. If you would like to widen your volunteer base and help with motivating busy volunteers, try and incorporate one or more of the following strategies. After all, if you want something done, ask a busy person!

Clear Goals

Establish the purpose of your volunteering opportunity. Whether this is simple or more complicated, volunteers must be aware of the desired outcome. This way, volunteers can decide whether they can volunteer whilst maintaining their other commitments. Be positive yet realistic. 

The opportunity description is the first port of call for opportunity information. Ensure this is filled out with detailed yet clear information as to the purpose of the volunteering opportunity; not just what the opportunity involves.

Recognition

Remind volunteers of their impact! If a volunteer is unaware of the difference they are making, they may be quick to lose interest. Follow the achievement of a pre-defined outcome with recognition. Without recognition, volunteers may lose sight of the volunteering opportunity’s purpose and their achievements.

With TeamKinetic, a volunteer’s ‘achievements’ are visible to the volunteer within the system. As an admin, you can see impact reports of whole volunteer groups. It’s worth using this data to help recruit additional volunteers.

Examples

Don’t just tell volunteers what success looks like, show them! If a busy person sees a real-life example of a volunteer that they can relate to, they are more likely to volunteer. Showcasing real volunteers also adds credibility to your organisation because volunteers can trust that their needs will be accounted for. The same goes for attracting volunteers from minority groups.

Utilise images during your opportunity creation process. A visual representation can be compelling. The chat feature can also be used to communicate with other volunteers. Volunteers can identify their similarities and discuss how volunteering fits into their lifestyle.

Know your Volunteers

With TeamKinetic, you can invite volunteers to opportunities. This is a great tool for saving both you and your volunteers time. However, if sent inappropriately, busy volunteers can be discouraged from continuing volunteering with your organisation.

Create a ‘group’ for volunteers who have expressed that they only want to volunteer a certain amount of hours per month, for example. This way, you can avoid spamming busy volunteers with invites to opportunities they are most likely unable to attend.

With our recent poll showing that 18% of volunteer managers want to engage more working professionals, it’s time to start motivating busy volunteers. Steer away from the stereotype of volunteers as elderly people with an abundance of free time. Your organisation can welcome all types of volunteers!

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

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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.

Third Sector Climate Impact

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On 1st November 2023

In News & Views

In light of recent news concerning the UK’s climate-related government policy, it is fitting to draw attention to the third sector’s climate impact. This blog will also explore the ways that your organisation can reduce their climate impact and the climate benefits of volunteering. Armed with this knowledge, the third sector can push for more sustainable volunteer practices and progress towards Net Zero. 

The Third Sector / Climate Connection

The climate crisis is an all-encompassing issue. The climate situation’s impact on global factors including health and inequality means that the climate crisis is extremely relevant to the third sector. Irrespective of governmental decision-making, the third sector can make systemic changes that will impact a number of climate-related issues.

There have been several reports by influential sector voices including Charity Digital. Similarly, Reach Volunteering has taken responsibility for raising awareness of the connection between climate impact and volunteering. Reach Volunteering’s #VolunteerForClimate campaign works to spotlight many environmental and climate organisations that are facilitating volunteering opportunities. 

Your Impact Potential

Besides educating yourself and your organisation on the findings of industry and climate reports, or getting involved in third-party initiatives, you are probably wondering what climate-related measures can be directly implemented in your organisation. Charity Digital’s research found that 88% of charities are concerned about climate change, but 52% are unaware of the actions that other organisations are undertaking. Ways to limit your organisation’s climate impact include:

Divesting from Fossil Fuels

Making a commitment that your organisation will not make new investments in fossil fuels in the next 3 to 5 years is powerful. NCVO’s ‘Fuelling Positive Change’ campaign supports education and implementation of fossil fuel divestment. Since 2012, almost 1600 organisations from all sectors have committed to divesting from fossil fuels. Even Amnesty International have pleaded their support to the ‘Fuelling Positive Change’ campaign. Krystal is an example of a tool that helps your organisation to divest entirely from fossil fuels. With Krystal, 100% of your organisation’s web hosting can be powered by renewable energy.

Social Investments

As a volunteer-involved organisation, you are likely already investing in charitable purposes. Consider causes that can positively impact the climate. Community infrastructure that pushes for renewable energy, for example, can help achieve climate goals. 

Working Together!

Become a part of the third sector’s collective climate initiatives. For example, ACEVO has a climate crisis working group and NPC has the Everyone’s Environment programme. If a member of your organisation were to get involved, climate-related sector information can be passed on and utilised. Speaking out on your organisation’s platforms under Reach Volunteering’s hashtag #ChangeTheStory, for example, brings awareness to the climate crisis amongst fellow volunteer-involved organisations.

Climate Impact from the Volunteer’s Perspective

Running your own climate-related volunteering opportunities is beneficial for both the environment and your volunteers. Increasingly, people are reporting that they feel ‘climate anxiety’. This anxiety is often due to an awareness of the climate crisis yet feeling powerless to make a substantial difference. Rosemary from Bradford has experience of working within sustainability and chose to volunteer to share her skills and feel connected to her community. Rosemary feels that volunteering has helped to keep her climate anxiety at bay.

There are so many challenges, perspectives and types of action related to climate. If you’re thinking about volunteering, there will definitely be an organisation which will be the right fit for you.

Rosemary

Take Action Now

Foundational to the third sector’s climate impact is sharing information and resources. Join forces with other organisations either as an educational or practical way to positively impact the climate. Involve volunteers where possible; this will boost your climate impact and community well-being. As articulated by NCVO’s Alex Farrow when speaking on the ‘Fuelling Positive Change’ campaign:

“The impacts of climate change will make everything our sector does harder. Our campaign is a rallying cry to take collective action on one of the biggest challenges we face.”

Alex Farrow,  NCVO

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

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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.

Halloween Volunteering Opportunities

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On 25th October 2023

In News & Views

For alternative ways to fundraise, attract new volunteers, and excite existing volunteers, add a bit of seasonality to your volunteering opportunities! With Halloween just around the corner, it’s not too late to create volunteering opportunities on your TeamKinetic system. Take inspiration from the following Halloween volunteering opportunities and you’ll have a volunteer-involved event organised in no time!

Spooky Movie Screening

Some fundraising opportunities can be hosted entirely by volunteers! Hosting a screening of a Halloween film is minimal effort but can generate a significant reward. Guests will pay a small fee for an evening of frighteningly good entertainment. Whether this is a family-friendly event or a super scary horror night; consider what will be most appealing to your organisation’s audience and volunteers. Simply provide seating and project your film of choice. As an additional fundraising opportunity, include a Halloween bake sale or tuckshop.

Trick-Or-Treat QR Codes

Encourage your volunteers to take home stickers with a ‘scan to donate’ QR code or QR code linked to your TeamKinetic site. Stickers can be placed on buckets taken out treat-or-treating or placed on a bucket containing your own treats for treat-or-trickers to take from. Volunteering has never been so easy! Besides donations, this is also a great way to raise awareness of your organisation. QR.io is a useful free tool for generating QR codes.

Halloween Sweet Treats

A Halloween bake sale can be a stand-alone event or incorporated into a larger volunteering opportunity like a games night or movie screening. Encourage people to bring along Halloween-themed treats and the hard work will be done for you! Be sure to indicate that all proceeds will go to your organisation’s worthy cause. Task volunteers with running the stall or even making or preparing items for sale. Click here for some fun Halloween baking ideas!

Now it’s your jack-o’-lantern!

Don’t give up the ghost; engage with seasonal events! Halloween is perfect for fundraising events that are also great volunteering opportunities. Remember to signpost your Halloween volunteering opportunities at your organisation location and across your website, social media and TeamKinetic site itself. This is essential to boost volunteer registrations in a short time period!

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

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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.

TeamKinetic Best Practice: Signposting – In-Person

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On 19th October 2023

In TeamKinetic Best Practice

In-person, or place-based, signposting is often the first step in a volunteer’s journey. A visual queue can be very provoking! Just like you might update your current noticeboard with news and events, update it with ongoing and new volunteering opportunities. Signpoisitng volunteering opportunities on-site or across your organisation’s locations is a brilliant way to inspire those who have an existing affinity with your organisation, or, are simply passing by.

TeamKinetic aids the creation of physical volunteering opportunity advertisements with the ‘Print’ tool. Press ‘Print’ on an opportunity to generate a poster. The poster includes the opportunity details you entered and a QR code to the opportunity page. Existing employees can also download a volunteering opportunity list as a CSV or PDF. This is especially useful when looking to fill skill-based opportunities that may be best suited to those with existing knowledge of your organisation.

If you want to get even more creative, Canva and Adobe are useful tools for creating free signage or posters. Design your poster to be visually appealing and informative. Don’t forget to include the opportunity QR code linked to your TeamKinetic site! With the QR code, volunteers can scan, view and join the opportunity via their mobile phone.

Best Practice Inspiration

This is an example of best practice in-person signposting by A.C.E. A.C.E’s inclusion of location and contact details and a thorough ‘Opportunity Description’ make for an informative poster generated using TeamKinetic’s ‘Print’ tool.

More Signposting Best Practice!

For guidance on other best practice signposting methods including website signposting, search engine signposting and social media signposting, click here.

Ensure you follow us on our social media pages to receive regular updates about the voluntary sector and learn more about the TeamKinetic system. You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

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TeamKinetic Best Practice: Signposting – Search Engine Optimisation

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On 19th October 2023

In TeamKinetic Best Practice

The Importance of Signposting for Search Engine Optimisation

You may be surprised by how many people scout out volunteering opportunities online before inquiring or joining an opportunity. Even with all the best in-person signposting, you will not appear in an online search without effectively signposting your volunteering opportunities on your organisation’s website and TeamKinetic site! The aim of search engine optimisation (SEO) is for your organisation’s TeamKinetic site to appear at the top of the search engine, e.g. Google, results page. Therefore, an important element of best practice signposting is search engine optimisation. As outlined below, effective signposting for search engine optimisation includes updated content, location data, detailed opportunity descriptions and links.

How?

When creating an opportunity, be sure to provide a detailed ‘Opportunity Description’, list any ‘Benefits & Perks’, ‘Skills Required’ and ‘Search Tags’. Therefore, when people are searching for volunteering opportunities, either on a search engine or within your TeamKinetic site itself, there is more likelihood that the keywords used will match up. If a volunteering opportunity is long-standing, it is a good idea to update the ‘details’ so that your site’s content is accurate and fresh. Websites that have regularly refreshed content tend to rank higher on the search engine results page.

Besides being a crucial element of a volunteering opportunity, including location data in your volunteering opportunity is a factor in search engine optimisation. When creating an opportunity, select ‘Pick the Location’ and enter the address details. Those browsing online for volunteering opportunities will be doing so via an IP address linked to their location. If your volunteering opportunities contain location data, those who are nearby are more likely to see your TeamKinetic site at the top of their search results page.

Including inbound links to your own website, news feed, or blogs can also boost your chances of ranking highly on the search results page. A good place to include a link to your organisation’s website would be the ‘About Us’ and ‘Home’ pages on your TeamKinetic site. Volunteering opportunities could include a link to your volunteering-related website news feed within the ‘Opportunity Description’. As with signposting on your organisation’s main website and social media, including links to your TeamKinetic site adds continuity across your organisation’s online platforms. High online presence raises SEO.

Best Practice Inspiration

An example of best practice signposting for search engine optimisation is Glasgow Life‘s TeamKinetic ‘Home’ page. Glasgow Life has included various outbound links; linking to their organisation’s main website under the ‘Back to Glasgow Life Volunteering Homepage’ button, to volunteer registration under the ‘Register Now!’ link, a ‘log in’ link, and registration buttons depending on whether a site visitor is ‘Interested in Volunteers?’ or ‘Recruitng Volunteers?’.

More Signposting Best Practice!

For guidance on other best practice signposting methods including in-person signposting, website signposting and social media signposting, click here.

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