How a combination of effective digital media and local champions led to a 15% increase in volunteering
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The Manchester City Council's previous sports volunteering program saw a small number of dedicated volunteers and opportunities. By adopting a new digital approach and empowering local champions, they were able to increase registered volunteers by 15% to over 5,000 volunteers providing 55,000 hours across 35 monthly opportunities. The new program utilized digital tools to make search and signups effective and easy, gain insights from data, connect through social networks, and recognize and engage volunteers. Local champions played a key role through their mentorship and positive influence in expanding the program.
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How a combination of effective digital media and local champions led to a 15% increase in volunteering
- 1. How a Combination of Effective Digital Media and Local Champions Led to a 15% Increase in Volunteering Sports Summit 2016 Nick Lowden – Greater Sport @GreaterSport Steve Hall – TeamKinetic @Volkinetic
- 2. The Olde Days Manchester City Council’s manual sports volunteering programme • Small group of dedicated volunteers and one manager • Closed network • Inefficient communications • Time consuming, repeating process for every opportunity • No digital presence or use of digital tools • No time to effectively develop leaders and expand programme
- 4. The Numbers Core Volunteers35 In the Olde Days Unknown number of logged hours?? Opportunities a month3
- 5. The Numbers Core Volunteers5k In 2015 Provider confirmed and logged hours55k Opportunities a month35
- 6. Expansion Across Greater Manchester Greater Sport CSP • Adoption across all ten boroughs in Greater Manchester • Active relationships with Manchester University and MMU • Links with Parks and Leisure • Includes a School System for young volunteers
- 7. Targets Increase registered and active volunteers 6,818 5,750
- 8. CSP (Enablers) 1 Staff Member 10 x Local Authority Volunteer Leads (Facilitators) 10 Staff Members Local Sports Clubs Sports Events Volunteers GM Framework Volunteer ChampionsNGBs
- 9. Local Volunteer Champions Who are they • Volunteer across a diverse range of opportunities • Volunteer around a large area • Log high numbers of hours • Receive excellent feedback • Will mentor other volunteers • Reliable and enthusiastic
- 10. Clare Ratchford A true champion
- 11. The Role of Local Champions The ripple effect and the power of positivity
- 12. Effective Use of Digital Media • Electronic or digital version of traditional media, such as newspapers • Interactive media, ratings, conversations • Social networks • Communication networks and tools Just what is ‘Digital Media’
- 13. Make Search Effective and Easy
- 14. Use Data to Gain Insight
- 15. Hook Into Social Networks
- 17. Use Feedback Positively • Identify best practise amongst your providers • Discover those Local Champion candidates • Quickly prevent mis-communications from harming your offer
- 18. Identify Gaps In Your Offer
- 19. Widen Your Catchment Area
Editor's Notes
- Nick – Biog Steve – I am developer for VolunteerKinetic – Which is a volunteer management system used by GreaterSport and other CSPs and NGBs across the UK. Over the next 25 minutes we are going to take you through the history of Manchesters volunteer programme and how GreaterSport have successfully expanded the programme leading to a substantial increase in sports volunteering. We are also going to talk about how they used local champions and digital media to great effect, and the digital media we have developed along the way.
- Steve Manchester City Councils volunteer programme originally included just a core group of very active and dedicated volunteers and a single volunteer manager called Craig Abel. Its growth was restricted by the inefficiencies of using a manual system. Phoning around and organising individual volunteers every time a new opportunity was made known to the volunteer manager... do they know where it is and who to meet? did they turn up? did they enjoy it? You get the idea.... In Craigs words “it was a grind”. Craig spent 4 days per week dealing with the day to day logistics which meant there was no time to promote the volunteer service or develop local champions. And this lack of reporting and data also made it very hard to obtain any additional funding It basically looked a little like this.....
- Steve You laugh but there was actual post-its being handed around with volunteers names on. Without leveraging effective digital media, spreading best practise and evangelising volunteering through volunteer leaders, the expansion and engagement of the volunteer programme was stilted.
- Steve Previously there were about 35 active volunteers who were contacted first and fulfilled most opportunity volunteer requirements The amount of hours that were being logged by volunteers was unknown On average there was only 3 volunteer opportunities per month available, as there wasn’t the time to actively recruit or engage with local clubs and other opportunity providers, and only knew about those organisations that directly contacted MCC asking for volunteers.
- Steve When the Volunteer system was rolled out in Manchester they saw a steep climb from 35 to 500 volunteers within the first 12 months, and by 2015 these numbers had reached just over 5000 with 55000 confirmed volunteer hours, and 35 opportunities being added each month. But amazingly the time Craig spent managing the volunteers dropped from 4 days per week to 1.5 days per week, giving him more time to promote the service.
- NICK The success of Manchesters volunteer system was recognised throughout the region and their website become the entry point for all volunteering across Manchester, from large global events to small community organisations. As a CSP we wanted to replicate this model throughout all of Greater Manchester so invested our own reserves and purchased volunteer systems for each of the other local 9 authorities. This was when the Volunteer Inspire Programme (VIP) was launched. Luckily two universities in GM also had bought their own systems that were able to be linked with the VIP. This has developed a ‘one stop shop’ for all sports volunteering within the region. When the systems were originally launched they 12 separate systems. So a volunteer signing up in Wigan could only volunteer in Wigan – with the development of the systems they are now all linked meaning no matter which system a volunteer signs up to they can see all the volunteer opportunities within GM
- Nick In the first year GS set a target of recruiting 750 new volunteers onto the system through out GM. We had exceeded this within 6 months of launching the VIP. Currently we have 6818 volunteers signed up – this number will probably be surpassed this as volunteers are signing up every day. By April 2017 we hope to have 7,500 volunteers signed up. Naturally this has caused an increase in the number of logged volunteer hours which now stands at well over 60,000.
- Nick – The complexity of Volunteering & The current Framework of the GreaterSport Systems “So I am going to give you a quick overview of how the systems are setup....” Highlight the fact the some NGBs act as providers, and the larger ones have their own systems which you will soon be linking to. Use this slide to show how we make sense of the various types of volunteering, and to show how we apply a framework to it (providers, opportunities, activities etc.)
- Nick With a larger volunteer cohort, volunteer managers now have more time to develop their local champions. A local champion is someone who is an experienced volunteer and has volunteered on a wide range of opportunities. They will know what is expected from a volunteer as well being in the position of knowing what a volunteer expects. People with a good record with excellent feedback.
- Nick Clare has been volunteering on the system for 3 years now and has volunteered on many events such as Manchester Marathon / Swimathons / LCC weekly community sessions. Last June she volunteered at the AEGON Tennis Championships and has recently been asked to manage the volunteers at this years event. She is clearly a dedicated volunteer that has made an enormous contribution not just in the hours that were logged but also revealed in the feedback she received about her manner, enthusiasm and willingness to help others in her community.
- Nick Your local champions will help spread the message and recruit and inform new volunteers. Many new volunteers see volunteer champions as mentors. Using VolunteerKinetic we found it easy to identify potential local leaders and using the reporting tools an picking out those volunteers that consistently over perform. Once we identify a local champion we can upskill, re-invigorate they can act as mentors/guides for both providers of opportunities, by sharing their experiences of what makes a good opportunity. And obviously assisting volunteers on what to expect, what its like etc. They are Great for events, conferences and local activities where they act as a positive force for volunteering generally and your programme specifically. Their reach may be local but their integrity and honesty of purpose is much more effective than faceless emails or promotional material.
- Steve So now you have heard about the importance that local champions have played, I am going to talk about how Digital Media has also played a critical roll. First of all What is digital Media ? Its not just digital version of traditional media, like a newspaper on a website, its also the possibilities that digital platforms create for interactions and the forming of groups. So what does that mean? Well Facebook is a great example, its not just about displaying your photo on a website, it analyses your behaviour to create groups and shows you photos depending on the popularity and your previous interactions you have had with the person who is sharing the photo. So it is using your behaviour in the digital world to decide what to show you. I am now going to cover some lessons we have learnt whilst working in collaboration with GreaterSport, and how those lesssons have been incorporated in the development of VolunteerKinetic.
- Steve ? Better profiles means better kept volunteers Your digital footprint starts with your website, and one of the key lessons we have learnt is a clear route from your front page to your volunteer opportunities is paramount. But you dont want to just show them a long list of opportunities, you want to show them the opportunities that interest them as soon as possible. So if you have a large event and you know there is a group of volunteers (in this case school kids) who will be interested, rather than putting a poster up directing them to your website and expecting them to search for the event opportunities, our data shows that your volunteer numbers increase substantially if you create your own personalised EVENTS page, which shows all the information and volunteer opportunities in relation to that event, this might include maps or Health and safety forms, and any other information you may want to give them. We found that most users who viewed an events page signed up to at least one opportunity, but those who didnt still searched for other opportunities outside the event. Which taught us the importance of getting volunteers engaged. This was the same for your local clubs, when we allowed them to setup their own personalised profile pages, which is essentially their own mini site showing their logo and information about volunteering with their club, listing opportunities that only they offer. This doesnt mean that volunteers cant see other opportunities, it just means that if someone comes to one of your local clubs and is interested in volunteering they can just direct them to their own mini volunteering page. But the volunteer is still part of your cohort and they can still view your other opportunities if they wanted to.
- Steve NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS ? Opportunity titles are important! TALK ABOUT CRAIG... so in our latest version release we not only allow you to see how much traffic is coming to your site, we also allow you to analyse that traffic on an opportunity by opportunity basis. So if your opportunity is not getting many hits then maybe try changing the opportunity title, or if it is getting lots of hits then you know that volunteers are interested at the point of reading the title, but when they read the description they are not choosing to join the opportunity, so maybe that needs improving. Its all about analysing their behaviour to give you the information to improve your offer. Social Media Integration There are over 300 million facebook users in Europe, that is half of the population. And the prime demographic is 25-34 year olds. So if you want to engage these people and you dont have a social media presence then you are missing a trick. Now many organisations have a Facebook page, or a Twitter account, but if you want to really get your opportunities out there you need allow people to share your information, and this is where your volunteers come in. Volunteers are proud and very happy to share their volunteering activities on social media, and just like going for a run or giving blood they want to share that positive information, you just need to make it as easy for them. By allowing volunteers to link their volunteer profile to their social media we could dramatically increase the number of visitors to the sites. It works by automatically sending facebook posts and tweets on behalf of the volunteers when they join an opportunity or log hours. These communications include links back to the opportunity allowing there friends to join in the fun.
- Steve NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS ? Opportunity titles are important! TALK ABOUT CRAIG... so in our latest version release we not only allow you to see how much traffic is coming to your site, we also allow you to analyse that traffic on an opportunity by opportunity basis. So if your opportunity is not getting many hits then maybe try changing the opportunity title, or if it is getting lots of hits then you know that volunteers are interested at the point of reading the title, but when they read the description they are not choosing to join the opportunity, so maybe that needs improving. Its all about analysing their behaviour to give you the information to improve your offer. Social Media Integration There are over 300 million facebook users in Europe, that is half of the population. And the prime demographic is 25-34 year olds. So if you want to engage these people and you dont have a social media presence then you are missing a trick. Now many organisations have a Facebook page, or a Twitter account, but if you want to really get your opportunities out there you need allow people to share your information, and this is where your volunteers come in. Volunteers are proud and very happy to share their volunteering activities on social media, and just like going for a run or giving blood they want to share that positive information, you just need to make it as easy for them. By allowing volunteers to link their volunteer profile to their social media we could dramatically increase the number of visitors to the sites. It works by automatically sending facebook posts and tweets on behalf of the volunteers when they join an opportunity or log hours. These communications include links back to the opportunity allowing there friends to join in the fun.
- Steve Logging Hours and Rewards In my experience the biggest reward a volunteer can get is a Thank you, and by making this part of the logging hours process it acts as a reminder for opportunity providers, it also allows you to gather valuable feedback on volunteers experiences. So it works a bit like trip advisor, but the negative feedback (or thumbs down feedback) just gets sent to the administrators as they can deal with it more diplomatically. This way you avoid repeatedly sending good volunteers to bad opportunities, and it give you a way of identifying good practice and passing that information on. HourTrade Vouchers Virtual incentives
- Steve Logging Hours and Rewards In my experience the biggest reward a volunteer can get is a Thank you, and by making this part of the logging hours process it acts as a reminder for opportunity providers, it also allows you to gather valuable feedback on volunteers experiences. So it works a bit like trip advisor, but the negative feedback (or thumbs down feedback) just gets sent to the administrators as they can deal with it more diplomatically. This way you avoid repeatedly sending good volunteers to bad opportunities, and it give you a way of identifying good practice and passing that information on. HourTrade Vouchers Virtual incentives
- Steve About identifying where there is many volunteers and few opportunities on maps, analysis of search words etc.
- Steve This is going to include information about sharing with your WIDER COHORT and sharing with TRY VOLUNTEERING
- Steve Does anyone have any questions?