Simply Chat – July 2021
Headlines from our July meeting (held 27 July 2021)
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Lower volunteering levels currently
Possibly caused by ‘Freedom Day’ and the ‘Ping-demic’. There are also a lot of older people who are reluctant to return to volunteering, leaving some charities with reduced volunteer capacity.
See https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/charity-shop-volunteer-numbers-down
Considerations
- Be aware of potential job replacement from organisations looking for volunteers to cover whilst staff shortages
- Advise organisations that they may need longer recruitment periods, particularly if they need volunteers for specific dates/events.
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Ways to reach new volunteers
Suggestions
- Approach your local radio station – this has worked really well for some Centres to put a volunteer call-out, and created an immediate response
- Work with your local University’s Volunteering team to join up work and promote opportunities
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Ways to promote your Simply Connect platform (Directory of Services, Volunteering platform and/or social prescribing platform)
Suggestions
- Include information in your existing newsletters – promote recently added activities/roles with links to find out more
- Social media – Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all work well
- Use your own volunteers as champions, to talk to their friends/families about your services
- Google Ads – Google offers free ads to registered charities that you can use to promote specific campaigns, events or your organisation generally
- Local radio
- Local magazines/community publications
- Share with your local organisations and ask to include information via their networks – newsletters, networks & forums, social media
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Engaging with VIOs post-lockdown
Considerations
- Organisations are all very different in how they are responding to life post-lockdown, and in how they are delivering services.
Mike Plows (Virgin Care Volunteering Service BANES) recently ran a session with local organisations to share ideas for re-engaging with volunteers post-lockdown.
Watch the webinar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag7ABXSldlk
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Potential national volunteering passport?
There have been various conversations around this over the years, with a recent report issued:
Considerations
- There are lots of issues around this i.e. the potential lack of engagement by VCSE organisations, the importance of local relationships, intelligence and understanding of needs that will make this national roll-out difficult
Simply Connect will keep informed of the latest developments with this, and continue to consult with the Volunteer Centre network in case of any future requirements.
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Volunteering Resources
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How to support local groups when migrating to Simply Connect system/s
Suggestions
- Run engagement sessions as part of other meetings i.e. Volunteer Coordinators Forum to introduce the platform and get buy-in
- Reach out to newly registered organisations to check if they have any queries/support needs – time intensive at first, but worth it in the long-run
- Requires ongoing communication and support with groups to maintain their engagement and encourage their use of the system
- Acknowledge that some groups won’t be able/willing to self-service – what capacity do you have to support them?