FreshThinkingfullrep

Modernising Volunteering
Modernising Volunteering is part of Improving Support, a Capacitybuilders funded

programme to give support providers the resources, evidence and good practice they
need to develop front line services. It is led by Volunteering England, in partnership with v,
Red Foundation, CSV and the Nationwide Foundation.
This report has been prepared by Red Foundation as a result of the first year of its work to
explore new forms of volunteer engagement and supporting those that work with
volunteers. It is one of a series published by the Modernising Volunteering as part of its
three year work programme. The other reports that have been produced to date are:
 Volunteering and faith communities in England
 Forging sustainable partnerships between businesses and communities
For more information about the programme, together with downloads of the other reports
visit www.improvingsupport.org.uk/volunteering
The authors
This report has been prepared and written by the team at Red Foundation.
Red Foundation is a social enterprise supporting and promoting volunteering and
community action through the provision of development and capacity building services
to the third and public sectors, and though pioneering new projects, partnerships and
ways of working. Red Foundation‟s trading activities support their charitable objectives of
building a better place for us all to live and work in.
For more information about Red Foundation visit www.redfoundation.org
Acknowledgements
Red Foundation would like to thank everyone who completed our survey, participated in
a focus group, provided a case study, sent us information or was interviewed as we
prepared this document. There are too many of you to individually name, but thank you
all for your contributions which were much appreciated.
Published April 2009 by Red Foundation

© Red Foundation CIC
Index
Foreword 1
Introduction 2
Executive summary 4
The role of social network services in supporting volunteering 8

What is in this section? 9
What are social network services? 10
Social network services – an overview 11
Use of social network services for community/social benefit 12
Use of social network services to support volunteering 17
Volunteering support services online 21
Specialist and bespoke social network services 26
Conclusions 30
What volunteering support services and volunteer involving organisations 31
should consider when using social network services
What Modernising Volunteering plans to do next 33
Improving the support for volunteer led volunteering 34
What is volunteer led volunteering? 36
Volunteer led volunteering – an overview 36
Current support for volunteer led volunteering 42
Volunteer leaders‟ support needs 44
Lessons from Volunteering and faith communities in England 47
The youth action approach 49
Volunteer leaders and the use of social network services 51
Conclusions 52
What volunteering support services should consider when supporting 53

volunteer led volunteering
Developing the role of Volunteering Champions 56
What are champions? 57
Existing champion schemes 57
Volunteering Champions – background 59
Peer led recruitment and support for organisations 59
Championing volunteering at senior and governance levels within 61
organisations
Championing volunteering at a strategic level 63
Support for Volunteering Champions 68
Conclusions 69
What to think about when setting up a Volunteering Champion scheme 69
Appendices 71
1 Data report 72
2 Young people and social network services; managing risk – lessons from 100
Devon County Council
3 Case study: The Scout Association, integrating use of social network 102
services in communication messages
4 Facebook 104
5 My Space 108
6 10 Twitter tips for non profit organisations 111
7 YouTube 113
8 Flickr 115
9 Online guides to using social network services 117
Fresh thinking
Foreword
By Baroness Hanham of Kensington CBE
The vibrancy and impact of the volunteering movement

continually amaze me. I know that this is only achieved because of
the commitment of millions of people to making a difference to
the lives of others, in communities and for causes, by giving up their
free time to do so. Behind them are an often unrecognised army of
Volunteer Managers (both paid and unpaid) and staff of
volunteering support services. Without their combined efforts
volunteers would find it difficult to achieve what they want to do, and the contribution
they make to society, would be so much less.
As Chair of the England Volunteering Development Council I am very aware of the
tensions that the volunteering movement faces in juggling limited resources, increasing
demand and a desire to do the very best it can. The stories I hear are inspiring and
moving; though I am conscious of the frustrations they often hide. As a local Councillor, I
know the difference that volunteers make to others through the time that they give freely
and willingly.
The Commission on the Future of Volunteering, chaired by Baroness Neuberger
recommended, as one of its main proposals, that there should be local Volunteering
Champions. Members of the Commission all had considerable experience of volunteering,
and demonstrated how through volunteer leadership it is possible to come to a strategic
view by involving a wide group of those involved in these activities. Baroness Neuberger
has demonstrated her commitment to the development and acceptance by
Government and other authorities of volunteering as a practical and essential part of an
individual‟s role in society. Through her role as the Prime Minister‟s Champion for
Volunteering she has played an essential part in ensuring that the recommendations of
the Commission are widely disseminated, understood and implemented. I am delighted
that her work is recognised in this report, and trust that a new army of local Volunteering
Champions will emerge, as a result of the Commission‟s recognition of their value, and
have a similar impact in local areas.
This report suggests new ways that we can do old things, not least in the way that we
communicate with volunteers. In taking a step back from the pressures of service delivery
the authors have been able to look at how we can put volunteers centre stage. What is
clear to me is that communication and relationships are at the heart of successful
volunteer management and support services. It is always good to be reminded of why we
are here and why we are all involved in supporting the volunteering movement: to enable
the successful activity of volunteers.
I hope that you find this report helpful and challenging; I think it is both.
Joan Hanham
Chair
England Volunteering Development Council
-1-
Fresh thinking
Introduction
By Red Foundation
We are conscious that volunteering is not a static concept. While

definitions remain fairly constant, there is continual change in
activity as we all try to keep adapting to the changing
environment in which we work. We know that this constant
change can be wearing, especially when we are all too well aware that support for
volunteering (both within volunteer involving organisations and volunteering support
services) is substantially under-resourced with consequential pressures on all of our time.
As we look back over recent years we remember the suspicion that surrounded the
introduction of information technology; the reluctance some Volunteer Centres felt about
beginning to use computers; the horror of instant communication via email adding more
pressures to our time; having to learn to use websites, and then discovering the vast
increase in the volume of materials available as downloads that we were expected to
read (and we are aware of the irony of adding to that with this report); the scepticism
about the introduction of do-it.org.uk and V-Base. But we have mastered all of these,
many of them becoming tools in daily use. Technology continues to move on, and no
sooner have we begun to feel that we are mastering it when it all changes again.
Interactive services are now with us and are beginning to link our lives online, on the
phone and even when watching television. As many members of the population avidly
start to use the new resources that are now at our disposal, it is important that the world of
volunteering does not lose out by not embracing them and maximising their potential.
Whilst some people will not like using technology to communicate, others will and we
need to make sure that we don‟t choose to only communicate with those who do not. So
we have looked into the use of social network services, in themselves a social revolution in
the way that people communicate and interact with each other, and tried to explain in
easy language how to use them to support volunteering - although we have found that
they are easier to use than to explain!
We believe that volunteers should be at the heart of the voluntary and community sector.
For many small organisations this is certainly the case, as they often have no or very limited
amounts of paid staff time available to them. In recent years there has rightly been a
concentration of the raising of standards in volunteering involving organisations and the
development of the role of the Volunteer Manager. Whilst progress can be frustratingly
slow, we are seeing improvements in the way we involve volunteers. This work must
continue. Yet at the same time, structured volunteering programmes are not appropriate
for all organisations. For smaller volunteer led groups, passion, mutuality, trust and
relationships are key to volunteer involvement. Whilst the principles might be the same, the
way they are outworked is likely to be very different. We think that it is time to begin
addressing the needs of volunteers who both lead and deliver their groups activities. To
find ways of supporting the multitude of people who do not see themselves as volunteers,
yet through their actions make amazing differences in our local communities through their
mutual association and combined action. So how can volunteering support services do
this? What needs to change to enable volunteer led activity to have a greater impact?
We have begun to explore these issues, and will continue to do so and will share our
learning with you as we go on our journey.
-2-
Fresh thinking
We know, from our personal experience of volunteering and working in volunteering

support services that the constant demands of brokerage and working with the
immediate needs of volunteer involving organisations often crowds out the strategic
development of volunteering. Paradoxically, it is only as the value of volunteering for the
wellbeing of our society; in the delivery of public sector targets; and in building strong and
cohesive communities is strategically recognised in action as well as words that we will see
the resources that are needed to properly support its development released. In the mean
time the lack of resources hampers our ability to effectively position volunteering in the
social policy landscape locally, regionally and nationally. We have so often heard
Volunteer Centre managers telling us how difficult it is to find the resources, knowledge
and skills to adequately undertake their sixth core function. Luckily for us, the Commission
on the Future of Volunteering proposed a solution in the form of Volunteering Champions.
So we now have a concept, which we have explored in this report. Will it work in reality?
We hope so, but we don‟t know yet. The only way we will is to try it out – so watch this
space, we‟ll let you know how it goes...
Communication, relationships, giving of time to meet needs, making sure that
volunteering is acknowledged. None of this is new, but the environment is changing – we
hope that in this report we have brought you fresh thinking that will help us all as we work
together to ensure that volunteering becomes part of the DNA of our society.
We hope that you find this report helpful. We would really like to hear your thoughts and
experiences; do feel free to contact us on mv@redfoundation.org
Fabia Bates, Colette Harrison, Gudrun Limbrick, Chris Penberthy, Emma Sparrow, Will
Sparrow, Jamie Thomas and Georgina Watts
The Modernising Volunteering Team
Red Foundation
-3-
Fresh thinking
Executive summary
Introduction
It is through adapting to our changing environment that we will not only survive, but work
together to ensure that volunteering becomes part of the DNA of our society.
Communication, relationships, giving time to meet needs, ensuring that volunteering is
acknowledged - Fresh thinking looks at how we communicate with others in the
volunteering movement, whether volunteers, Volunteer Managers or volunteering support
services; it returns to the heart of volunteering – volunteers who lead their activity; and
looks at how to support raising the status and value placed on volunteering at a local
level.
The role of social network services in supporting volunteering
The introduction and subsequent growth of online social networking has represented one
of the biggest social developments of the past five years, affecting the way the way that
people in the UK and across the globe communicate and interact with each other. In
April 2008, OfCom reported that of the 61% of the UK population that regularly use the
internet, 71% have a social network profile which they access at least every other day.
With a million new households gaining internet access each year, this figure looks set to
continue to rise.
Social network services have been described as „friends of friends‟ networks and have, for
several years, been the toast of new media with their principal strength seen as being the
ability to involve tens of millions of users. In this section we explore the role of social
network services as online peer to peer networks in which people with similar interests or
connections are able to interact with each other via the internet.
With Wikipedia providing a list of 148 major active social networks it describes as notable
and well-known and acknowledging that this list is not exhaustive we have not explored
each one. Rather this section of the report focuses on the two most frequently identified in
our research and which appear to be the most well known within the volunteering
movement - FaceBook and MySpace – each of which has over 200 million active users
worldwide, together with Twitter, which is currently seeing a rapid increase in general
usage and is beginning to be more widely used by voluntary and community sector
organisations.
It would appear that the general slow adoption of new technology within the voluntary
and community sector is mirrored in the use of social network services, with the vast
majority of organisations not using them. The report explores some of the reasons for the
slow adoption of social network services and provides case studies of voluntary and
community sector organisations which are successfully using them.
From our survey sample we discovered that while less than 25% of volunteer involving
organisations are using social network services, the vast majority of these have found them
to be successful. Our research demonstrates an untapped potential for the use of social
network services to support volunteering. Fresh thinking explores the benefits and barriers
to using social network services to support volunteering and, through case studies, shows
how they can be used as an additional communication and support tool.
-4-
Fresh thinking
The report includes tips on the use of social network services, together with appendices
giving more detailed information about the use of specific social networks and providing
links to further information and advice.
Improving the support for volunteer led volunteering
The report explores what volunteer led volunteering is. It identifies that, with the majority of
organisations within the voluntary and community sector having no paid staff or very
limited staff time and being dependent on volunteers for all of their activity, volunteer led
volunteering is the most common form of organisational structure within the voluntary and
community sector.
In acknowledging the volume of volunteer led activity, the report explores current thinking
and the ways in which this form of volunteering is supported. Fresh thinking identifies that,
in communities across England, there are small volunteer led organisations doing a wide
variety of things. These will have a range of structures and understanding. They will
frequently be unaware of voluntary and community sector support services available to
them, and will fly beneath the radar of the very services that are there to support them. It
can be argued that volunteering in these organisations is the least supported within the
voluntary and community sector. As one leader of volunteering activity said, “I had not
appreciated that there were places to find volunteers and support.”
The report touches on the matter of co-production and the potential for volunteers to
have a greater role in shaping their activity and the organisations in which they volunteer.
Using the results of survey, focus groups, research and anecdotal evidence the report
examines the support available to volunteer led groups. Whilst these groups are finding
some support, there are concerns that it is not always appropriate because of the
different basis on which volunteer led activity happens. As we were told “the people I
work with do not see themselves as volunteers and do not recognise that they are being
managed. As a small community group we are not a very formal organisation in structure
or operations.” The report also explores the information, advice and support needs that
these groups have, where and how successfully they are met.
The subject of volunteering and faith communities is explored in depth in a separate
report; Fresh thinking highlights some important points relating to volunteer led activity
from this. It also seeks to identify some key points of transferable learning from the
experience of Youth Action Network and its approach to supporting youth led
volunteering.
Fresh thinking offers guidance to volunteering support services wishing to improve the
support they offer to volunteer involving organisations.
Developing the role of Volunteering Champions
The report explores the Champion concept with examples of some schemes currently in
operation. It identifies that there are a number of different ways in which the term
Volunteering Champion is used: peer led recruitment and support for organisations;
championing volunteering at senior and governance levels within organisations; and
championing volunteering at a strategic level. Examples of each of these in action are
given; however, there is little evidence of widespread adoption of any of these; rather the
confusion about what a Volunteering Champion is causes confusion. The report explores
-5-
Fresh thinking
the perceptions that volunteers, Volunteer Managers and Volunteering Champions have
of the role; and identify reasons why it has not developed further.
Fresh thinking concentrates on the role of Volunteering Champions at a strategic level –
the concept proposed by the Commission on the Future of Volunteering. It looks at what
the volunteering movement would want from Volunteering Champion schemes and raises
areas that need further consideration as the development of these is piloted over coming
years.
Whilst there is little experience of Volunteering Champions to draw on, key areas for
consideration have been prepared for those considering developing a scheme. Further
work is to be done in this area, and additional guidance issued as this is undertaken.
Summary of conclusions
The role of social network services in supporting volunteering:
 The voluntary and community sector and volunteering movement are not currently
capitalising on the potential of the interactive communication opportunities that are
available through social network services
 There is a lack of knowledge about the use of social network services within the
volunteering movement
 There is an identified desire amongst the volunteering movement for online services
in three areas: access to information; the ability to interact with information, be
involved in its development and identify sources of support; and the ability to
interact with others
 The utilisation of social network services to support volunteering is happening
sporadically; each organisation taking their initial steps in social networking faces a
steep learning curve - encouraging the sharing of learning about this could prevent
each organisation reinventing the wheel and also help each organisation to utilise
existing social networking sites, not specifically designed for this purpose, effectively
and without compromising issues such as privacy
 We have found some appetite for a bespoke online social network service for our
country‟s volunteering movement
Improving the support for volunteer led volunteering
 Volunteer led volunteering is not well understood by many volunteering support
services and is consequently not as well supported as it could be
 Volunteering support services should pay special attention to the specific needs of
small informal groups and how to support them; including through the use of a
community development approach and by making services more accessible to
volunteer leaders, including outside of office hours
 Lessons should be learnt from well supported forms of volunteer led activity
 There is an identified need to support governance in small organisations and within
groups that undertake volunteer led activity
 National volunteering support services should work with national organisations
supporting volunteer led activity in order for both to support the development of
successful relationships between their local partners/groups
 Volunteering support services should work with volunteer involving organisations in
order to develop support for the emerging concept of co-production
-6-
Fresh thinking
Developing the role of Volunteering Champions

 There needs to be a consensus on what a Volunteering Champion is and what a
Volunteering Champion aims to do
 Although a significant number of concerns about Volunteering Champion schemes
have been raised; many of these can be resolved with greater clarity about what a
Volunteer Champion scheme is and who is involved
 The potential for an online network of Volunteer Champions has been identified
-7-
Fresh thinking
The role of social

network services
in supporting
volunteering
-8-
Fresh thinking
What is in this section?

people in the UK and across the globe communicate and interact with each other. In
April 2008, OfCom reported that of the 61% of the UK population that regularly use the
With a million new households gaining internet access each year, this figure looks set to
continue to rise.
Social network services have been described as „friends of friends‟ networks and have, for
several years, been the toast of new media with their principal strength seen as being the
ability to involve tens of millions of users. In this section we explore the role of social
network services as online peer to peer networks in which people with similar interests or
connections are able to interact with each other via the internet.
With Wikipedia providing a list of 148 major active social networks it describes as notable
and well-known and acknowledging that this list is not exhaustive we have not explored
each one. Rather this section of the report focuses on the two most frequently identified in
our research and which appear to be the most well known within the volunteering
worldwide, together with Twitter, which is currently seeing a rapid increase in general
usage and is beginning to be more widely used by voluntary and community sector
organisations.
It would appear that the general slow adoption of new technology within the voluntary
and community sector is mirrored in the use of social network services, with the vast
majority of organisations not using them. We explore some of the reasons for the slow
adoption of social network services and provide case studies of voluntary and community
sector organisations which are successfully using them.
From our survey sample we discovered that less than 25% of volunteer involving
organisations are using social network services, the vast majority of these have found them
to be successful. Our research demonstrates an untapped potential for the use of social
network services to support volunteering. We explore the benefits and barriers to using
social network services to support volunteering and, through case studies, show how they
can be used as an additional communication and support tool.
Tips on the use of social network services are provided, together with appendices giving
more detailed information about the use of specific social networks and providing links to
further information and advice.
Summary of conclusions
 The voluntary and community sector and volunteering movement are not currently
available through social network services
 There is a lack of knowledge about the use of social network services within the
volunteering movement
 There is an identified desire amongst the volunteering movement for online services
in three areas: access to information; the ability to interact with information, be
-9-
Fresh thinking
involved in its development and identify sources of support; and the ability to
interact with others
 The utilisation of social network services to support volunteering is happening
sporadically; each organisation taking their initial steps in social networking faces a
steep learning curve - encouraging the sharing of learning about this could prevent
each organisation reinventing the wheel and also help each organisation to utilise
existing social networking sites, not specifically designed for this purpose, effectively
and without compromising issues such as privacy
 We have found some appetite for a bespoke online social network service for our
country‟s volunteering movement
What are social network services?

Wikipedia describes social networks as social structures made up of individuals and/or
organisations that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as
values, visions ideas, financial exchange, friendship, kinship, dislike, conflict or trade.
Research in a number of academic fields has shown that social networks operate on
many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining
the way problems are solved, organisations are run, and the degree to which individuals
succeed in achieving their goals.
Social network services are essentially online peer to peer networks in which people with
similar interests or connections are able to interact with each other via the internet. A
social networking service is described by Wikipedia as focusing on building online
communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in
exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social networking services provide a
variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services. The
main types of social networking services are those containing category divisions (such as
former school-year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-
description pages) and a recommendation system linked to trust. Social networks have for
several years been the toast of new media with their principal strength seen as being the
ability to involve tens of millions of users.
Social network services have encouraged new ways to communicate and share
information. The networks provide a more dynamic way for people to interact than
traditional email or discussion boards in that they enable them to showcase their hobbies,
interests or achievements in a multi media environment. Unlike traditional websites,
content for social network services is mainly generated and published by their
communities, from sharing wedding videos and pictures of nights out with friends, to
broadcasting corporate achievements or publishing a daily blog. Social network services
are being used regularly by millions of people, and it now seems that online social
networking will be an enduring part of everyday life.
In April 2008, OfCom reported that of the 61% of the UK population that regularly use the
With a million new households gaining internet access each year (National Office of
Statistics 2007), this figure looks set to continue to rise. A February 2009 compete.com blog
entry ranks Facebook as being the most widely used social network service in the world,
followed by MySpace then Twitter
- 10 -
Fresh thinking
people in the UK and across the globe communicate and interact with each other. From
MySpace to Facebook and Twitter the chances are that either you or someone you know
has a profile on one of these networks. More recently we have begun to see the
introduction of bespoke networks as businesses begin to exploit the potential of social
networking models to engage with their customers.
But what does this have to do with volunteering? Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are
increasingly being used by charities and other not for profits to recruit, engage and
regularly communicate with donors and other supporters. In addition there are many
groups and campaigns that are being driven by individuals with a common interest to
address a community issue, often without any organisational infrastructure. The sheer mass
of people regularly using social networks to express their interests and passions represents
an enormous potential to get them involved in a range of volunteering activities.
Social network services – an overview

Social network services have been described as „friends of friends‟ networks. They operate
on the basis of being able to see what your friends are doing and who they are
interacting with. If you see something they do that interests you, you join in as well and the
information/action spreads like ripples in a pond. In this way they mirror normal interaction
between people, but their reach is potentially far wider than a conversation with a friend
about something you are doing. It is this viral effect that makes social networking so
powerful.
Wikipedia provides a list of 148 major active social networks it describes as notable and
well-known and acknowledges that this list is not exhaustive. In considering social
networking services in this report we have focussed on the two most frequently identified
in our research and which appear to be the most well known within the volunteering
worldwide, together with Twitter, which is currently seeing a rapid increase in usage.
Although Bebo is popular in the UK, we have not specifically explored its use as the age
profile of its users shows it targets a much younger audience than the others, and so it will
be less relevant for the majority of the volunteering movement. Facebook, MySpace and
Twitter are all free to use; and are described below.
 Facebook – www.facebook.com
Facebook is one of the largest social network services in the world, and the one most
used in the UK by a wide range of age groups. Users can join networks organised by
city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people.
People can also add friends and send them messages; add photographs and
videos; link to blogs and external content; update their personal profiles; notify
friends about themselves and what they are doing via a „status update‟; as well as
set up pages, groups and events. Users can access their Facebook profiles on the
web and increasingly via mobile phones.
 MySpace - www.myspace.com
MySpace is a social network service with an interactive, user-submitted network of
friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos for teenagers and
adults internationally. It was the most popular social networking site in America until
- 11 -
Fresh thinking
2008, when it was overtaken by Facebook; its focus on audio and visual content
means that it attracts a younger user group profile than Facebook. Like Facebook
users are increasingly able to access their profile via a mobile phone as well as the
internet.
 Twitter – www.twitter.com
Twitter is a social network that provides a micro-blogging service, enabling its users to
communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent
updates, known as „tweets‟, by answering the question „what are you doing?‟
Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on
the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them as
„followers‟. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default,
allow anybody to access them. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter
website, text message or external applications such as those found on some mobile
phones. The service is free to use over the Internet, but using texts may incur phone
service provider fees.
Use of social network services for community/society benefit

Although a generalisation, voluntary and community sector organisations are traditionally
slow adopters of new technology. This report does not explore this broader agenda as
there is plenty of information available to organisations; as a starting point we recommend
http://www.icthub.org.uk where you will find research, resources, guidance, case studies
and links to a wide range of organisations offering advice and support.
It would appear that the slow adoption of new technology is mirrored in use of social
network services with the vast majority of voluntary and community sector organisations
not using them.
Certainly, when considering the use of social network services to support volunteering this
is the case. When we asked people involved in volunteering, both in our survey and focus
groups, they told us that they did not use social network services for a range of reasons,
including:
 Scepticism
o „Could be a fad‟
o „Is it too early for this?‟
o „Get off your computer and get out into community‟
o „Not enough evidence exists to support the case‟
o „Some Volunteer Managers don‟t like it‟
 Resource issues
o „Not had the time to think it through and identify the benefits‟
o „Hassle getting started – knowledge and time‟
o „Time to set up/manage‟
o „Unknown return for investment‟
o „Uncertainty about benefits‟
o „Lack of knowledge/expertise‟
o „Another thing to do‟
o „Access to the internet‟
o „Too many sites where you have to go‟
- 12 -
Fresh thinking
Case study:
RSPB on Facebook, MySpace, Gumtree, Flickr and Junction49
The RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) is the largest wildlife conservation
charity in the UK. Established in 1889, RSPB works throughout the UK and around the
world, saving species from extinction, protecting special places for wildlife, and
motivating people to add their voice to theirs.
RSPB engages 13,500 regular volunteers and over half a million people who take part in
a number of citizen science projects such - as the Big Garden Birdwatch.
The organisation started using social network services in 2007, in an attempt to reach out
to a new audience that might not have traditionally got involved with them. They were
also keen to see if social networks could be used to recruit new volunteers as well as
keep in touch with existing supporters, many of whom were already actively using these
networks.
Before setting up their site profiles they researched the different networks to see which
ones would work best for them. Starting with MySpace and Facebook, they soon
expanded their presence onto others, including Flickr – a network that enables users to
showcase photographs and other images - which they use to communicate with and
support a group of volunteer photographers.
So far results have been positive. Their presence across all social network services has
enabled them to promote their core messages and have provided an easy way to
keep in direct contact with their growing team of volunteers. However recruitment of
new volunteers has not been so successful with the exception of Gumtree, which
promotes user generated listings for a wide variety of products and services.
But it is early days. Having a presence across so many social network service sites means
that someone has to keep the content current and this requires substantial staff time.
RSPB is constantly reviewing the effectiveness of their social network service profiles
against the amount of time it takes to maintain them and a key challenge is to target
the networks that are most likely to yield the best results as well as utilising the interest
and capacity of their volunteers.
As Alan Murray, Head of Volunteering Development at RSPB says, “Volunteer managers
must look at the opportunities that social networks present for both engaging new
audiences and keeping existing volunteers and supporters informed of your work. The
question for all of us will be how much time and resource can we dedicate to this and
what role is there for our volunteers themselves managing our presence on these
networks for us.”
www.rspb.org.uk
- 13 -
Fresh thinking
 Practicalities
o „Social network services „blocked by IT department‟
o „Too much spam generated‟
o „Privacy concerns‟ – „personal vs. professional use, concerns that personal
information would be available to clients and co-workers‟
o „Can be discriminatory for older people‟ – „older people see it as scary and
only for younger people‟
o „Being unsure which is best site for the organisation and audience‟
o „Management – they are hard to control‟
o „Knowledge of how to use them, from creating a profile to setting up a group‟
o „Risk factors (although uncertain what these would be)‟
Although the majority of voluntary and community sector organisations are not engaging
with social network services, some are actively engaged with varying degrees of success.
Many of these would say that they are still in the early stages and it is difficult to give
empirical evidence about the benefits they receive from their activity.
Most people and organisations value the opportunity to network with likeminded
individuals and agencies. In a work/volunteering context, we are all familiar with the
constant demand for more opportunities to network with others. In recent years people
have begun to use the internet not only as a source of information and entertainment, but
also as a place to interact with others. Social network services have moved networking
into the virtual realm. Although the mass use of social network services is relatively new,
they are seen as having the potential to help the voluntary and community sector
through:
 Raising awareness about your organisation and your work
 Disseminating information like news, photos and video
 Fostering a sense of community around your organisation and the causes you work
for
 Recruiting volunteers by empowering and mobilising supporters
 Raising money
The Media Trust1 supports the use of social network services by voluntary and community
sector organisations as „they can greatly empower charities through the range of
powerful communication and organisational tools they offer... (they) represent a ready-
made and extremely easy way for charities to engage with much bigger audiences.
Many smaller charities lack the financial and technical support necessary to develop their
own websites to their full potential... social network sites offer sets of web communication
tools that they could not develop themselves.‟ Effectively using social network services
gives voluntary and community sector organisations opportunities to „communicate,
educate, debate, find others working in similar fields and increase their potential to
mobilise users through engagement‟.
1 Utilising online social networks

http://creative.myspace.com/uk/impact/mdt/mt_online_social_networks.pdf
- 14 -
Fresh thinking
Case Study:
Make a Difference (MaD) on MySpace, Facebook, YouTube
Established in 2005 in Milton Keynes, Make a Difference (MaD) is a social enterprise that
encourages, supports and recognises 13-25 year olds who want to take action and
volunteer their time for the benefit of the community.
Volunteers are involved in a wide variety of projects and roles including sports, urban art,
music, mentoring, media, health, environment and more.
MaD are active users of social networks which they‟ve been using to engage with their
volunteers since 2007, initially starting with MySpace (www.myspace.com/musik4umk) a
network for predominately young people, where they successfully linked volunteering
roles with young people‟s passion for music. Since then they have developed a
presence on Facebook and also use YouTube to showcase their work through videos
posted by volunteers (www.youtube.com/madmiltonkeynes).
MaD started using social network services when they realised that increasingly their
volunteers were using these networks to communicate with each other; in addition their
staff also had personal profiles and so were used to using these networks for
communicating outside of work, and so MaD decided to establish an organisation
profile to enable them to easily keep in touch with their growing team of volunteers.
MaD see their social network service profiles as an essential tool for regularly keeping in
touch with their young volunteers, organisations, partners and funders with news about
their work. They also use them to recruit more volunteers, as the platforms enable them
to easily put out calls for help and to promote opportunities more effectively than
emailing as they know that the majority of members check their profiles on a daily basis
and are likely to pass on information of interest to their social network service friends who
can then easily join the MaD group.
As with all organisations, MaD recognise the need to keep their profiles current,
updating information and producing new content to keep people interested. This
requires an investment of time and MaD have managed to utilise the skills and
motivation of their young volunteers who play a lead role in keeping their profiles
updated on a daily basis.
MaD had no particular expectations when they started to engage with social network
services other than seeing a potential to enhance their ability to regularly communicate
with their volunteers and keep them engaged with their work and to promote their
volunteering opportunities, in an easy and cost effective way. As MaD‟s Danny Quinn
says, „Social networks are perfect for this kind of engagement with the community.‟
www.mad-uk.org
- 15 -
Fresh thinking
For example, MySpace provides a portal, „Impact UK‟, into charitable and community
causes on its site. This is supported by the Media Trust and it is possible to search the
national volunteering database, www.do-it.org.uk, from the front page. The Media Trust
identifies that amongst its core features MySpace offers charities the ability to:
 Create a personalised profile
 Create a blog
 Publish video quickly and easily
 Organise a gallery of photos
 Publish details of events and contact other users to inform them of this activity
 Create groups
 Create member forums
 Stream sound files
 Offer further contact mechanisms through email and instant messaging.
 Encourage subscription to details of your charity‟s activity.
In Utilising online social networks, the Media Trust identifies several UK charities using
MySpace successfully:
 Cancer Research UK - www.myspace.com/cancerresearchuk
Cancer Research UK uses MySpace as an extension of their communications strategy
and have modified their page so it resembles their print and online materials. They
use the space well, clearly outlining their mission statement and linking to multimedia
content like podcasts via their own external website. They have also made their
ribbon logo available to others to feature on their own online profiles and have
successfully attracted a large number of friends and comments.
 Samaritans - www.myspace.com/samaritanscharity
Samaritans are a UK charity offering 24 hour emotional support to people
experiencing distress and despair. They have chosen to use MySpace as a basic
extension of their online activity, clearly outlining their mission statement and ways to
contact them as well as linking back to their main website. They have used the
photo gallery feature to add pictures of their events and have attracted positive
comments from their friends as a result.
 Oxfam - www.myspace.com/oxjam
Oxfam use MySpace extremely well, targeting its readymade community of music
lovers with Oxjam, a campaign that encourages musicians and promoters to stage
fundraising concerts. Their aims are clearly outlined on their profile and they use
embedded videos and photos as eye-catching records of their events. Oxfam also
utilise the blog feature to offer up to date details of their activity, offer links to music
downloads via external sites and provide clear links to the regional branches of the
campaign. This ties in well with user posts to their profile where they are encouraged
to advertise their own activity to the large user group.
 Breast Cancer Care UK - www.myspace.com/breastcancercare
Another strong example of strategic use of social networking is UK charity Breast
Cancer Care. This charity use MySpace to offer video and blogs and communicate
their message highly effectively. They link back to their own website when
appropriate and also display the range of groups that they subscribe to within this
community. As a result they have successfully attracted a number of high-profile
celebrity supporters as friends as well as positive comments from users.
- 16 -
Fresh thinking
Use of social network services to support volunteering

Exploring social network services reveals that volunteering has a presence; however their
embedded search engines are not sophisticated as users tend to be searching for people
or organisations they know rather than looking for information on concepts.
 On Facebook you can search the whole site, people, pages, groups, events and
applications
o Search results are organised by first showing those where one of your friends is
also linked/are in the same networks as you, then by either showing those
where there has been recent activity
o Facebook limits search results to 500 responses, so it is impossible to say how
many times volunteer related results occur on the site, however the 500 result
limit is reached when searching under everything, people, groups and events
o It would appear that much of the content is from overseas
 On MySpace you can search the whole site, people, music, videos and images as
well as being able to use Google
o There are 421,000 search results for the word „volunteer‟ (down by 167,000 in 9
months) and 150,000 for the word „volunteering‟ (up 13,000 over the same
period of time)
o These searches reveal that much of the content relates to international
volunteering or is American based
 Twitter‟s search engine is slightly more sophisticated, and reveals the latest tweets
which mention volunteering within the parameters you choose – we consistently
found people tweeting about volunteering
As shown in the table below, the evidence gathered during our survey shows that,
although the majority of Volunteer Managers had not used Facebook or other social
networking websites to communicate with volunteers those who had deemed it
successful, and others are planning to try; only a very small minority felt that they had not
been successful.
Recruitment Talk with Promote Promote

existing good volunteering
volunteers practice events
Used it 14.6% 22% 7.3% 21.5%

successfully
Tried without 3.5% 2% 0% 2%
success
Not tried it 68.9% 67.2% 83.4% 66.7%
Planning for the 13.8% 9.2% 9.7% 10.6%
future
- 17 -
Fresh thinking
Case study:
The National Trust on Facebook
The National Trust was founded in 1895 to respond to growing concerns about the
impact of uncontrolled development and industrialisation; it serves as a guardian for the
nation in the acquisition and protection of threatened coastline, countryside and
buildings. The Trust relies on the support of over 50,000 volunteers who are engaged
throughout their work.
In 2008 the head office volunteering team established a presence on Facebook. As a
huge organisation they had previously struggled to establish an effective two way
dialogue with their volunteers, particularly from the head office. The charity wanted to
explore the potential of social networks to open up a dialogue with existing volunteers
and to encourage volunteers from around the country to communicate with one
another. This was supported by a survey in which volunteers expressed an interest in
more web based communications and more information on strategic issues affecting
the Trust. They chose Facebook as some volunteers already had a presence on the
network.
The Trust currently has one „official‟ Facebook group along with others set up by
members and volunteers to meet local needs and to support special interests, e.g. „I‟m
a proud member of the National Trust and I don‟t yet draw a pension‟. The main aim of
the group is to provide a new channel for two way communications between staff and
volunteers as well as enabling volunteers to talk to one another. The latter is considered
particularly important as volunteers don‟t get many opportunities to talk to others
outside of „their‟ allotted property thereby missing out on the opportunity to learn from
and support each other. An additional although secondary aim is to promote the Trust‟s
work to potential new volunteers.
Content development and promotion of the Trust‟s Facebook group is managed by the
central volunteering team, supported with frequent posts and comments from
volunteers. Although not a major time resource for staff, the Trust realises that more
needs to be done to promote their Facebook activity in order to get more of their 50,000
plus volunteers involved – as the majority are known to have internet access but are not
yet engaged via the network. The intention is to encourage volunteers to lead on this
activity as much as possible to encourage more active engagement and participation
in the Trust‟s work – for example some discussions on Facebook have led to main
features in the Trust‟s magazine.
The Trust intends to develop the presence it has on Facebook, although at this stage
there are no plans to expand to other networks, with a particular emphasis on
encouraging volunteers to take an active role in developing content and
communications with other existing and potential volunteers. This approach is linked to a
wider „e-engagement‟ strategy that is in development, looking to utilise the Trust‟s
organisational website which may include a bespoke social networking tool.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
- 18 -
Fresh thinking
These results demonstrate an untapped opportunity for use of social network services to
support volunteering. We asked our Volunteer Manager‟s focus groups what would make
it easier for them to use social network sites; they told us:
 „The opportunities need to be explained and the benefits need to be sold to
organisations and volunteers in order to generate interest in using them;
organisations need to be supportive and some currently block sites‟
 „Good if it was easier to understand – it all changes so quickly – it takes a long time to
work out‟
 „If they were more user friendly‟
 „Training or explanation of how it works‟
 „Case studies – personal practical experience‟
 „A way to sign up professionally, not as „me‟‟
 „More awareness of what is there already – stops reinventing the wheel‟
 „There was time to do it – it would be an add on‟
 „Cost – at the moment it‟s minimal but...‟
 „Addressing security issues, especially for young people‟
There is a huge opportunity locked up in social networking, no question. It can be

invaluable to establish project, campaign etc. and then build a base of people who
support that thing. It can be used to raise awareness to issues and potentially trigger
new projects, both online and offline in the real world. Conversations around a
particular topic and create comments like "mmm, interesting, this is what we've done"
and "do you fancy rolling that project out further / let's do a joint project." Social
networks are a fantastic place to share ideas and practice. A worker group could
crowd source ideas and opinions on policy, for example.
I think where social networking falls a little is that social networking is assumed to mean
FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter and Bebo. I don't think FaceBook, for example is a good
place for volunteering. There's a reason why it's called MySpace. Young people, workers
and everyone else use these sites to publish information about themselves and their
lives. They share this information with friends that form their network. There's a work/life
balance issue here. If a worker, for example, creates a group of young volunteers to
create something, and then that worker has pictures or video that are fine to share with
friends but not necessarily a group of young people, what does that tell the group?
Youth workers are often role models for young people and perhaps a video of them
dancing around a club with three bottles balanced on their head, might cause a
problem with keeping order! As a youth worker, we are all aware of boundaries when
working with young people, should there not be boundaries therefore for online youth
work? It's the same with young people, they use MySpace etc for expressing their lives,
their hobbies, their friends etc. Do they want to expose this to their worker? I don't think
there is anything wrong with creating a FaceBook group but it needs to be kept to
purpose and probably made private.
I liken it to outreach youth work. You go to where young people hang out - street
corner, or Bebo. You interact, you build trust and you then divert their pyrotechnic
interests to the benefit to the community. You only engage with them on the street
corner to build a rapport, the actual youth work is probably done in a youth bus or
centre building. The result of that project can then be placed on the street corner for all
to see, but only on the young people's terms. Online, you may meet volunteers on
- 19 -
Fresh thinking
Bebo, but Bebo is not the place for carrying out that youth work. Do it somewhere else -
create a Ning network. Then allow young people to publish the results of their project
wherever they want. As we all know, some young people don't want to publicise their
volunteering with their peers.
There's no doubt of the benefits of all this, it just needs to be thought out and delivered
sensitively.
Participant in an online focus group
We spoke to two managers of Student Community Action Groups based in universities

within the same region. Both used Facebook as part of their work, and both had found it
useful; however, each had had a different experience. One uses Facebook more for
promotion, the other as a communication tool.
 One had faced a situation where they did not instigate the pages and took them
over from a volunteer involved in their project. This demonstrates the importance of
interacting with social network services as you have no control over the use of your
organisation‟s name and image. Your volunteers might well set something up if they
do not find you doing it.
 The other had planned for their use of Facebook. They thought about what they
wanted to achieve and ensured they set up systems to do it. This approach seems to
have had a greater impact.
Interview: The use of Facebook to support Student Community Action

Lorna Taylor (Manager - Student Community Action, Durham University) and
Lauren Prince (Manager - Student Community Action, Northumbria University)
How does social networking enhance your volunteer support?
Lorna: We use it to publicise opportunities and Student Community Action Durham
Lauren: It‟s been a very useful tool in offering a number of communication methods
to student volunteers
How well is it accessed by volunteers?
Lorna: Not amazingly - could be better if we had an actual strategy. Student
Community Action Durham's Facebook pages were started by volunteers,
not exec or staff, and exec gradually took over so that the information was
up-to-date - it's all been a bit haphazard!
Lauren: Volunteers find it easy to use, and access it regularly (often more than email).
I have over 600 people in my Northumbria Student Community Action group
and over 900 friends on the profile which I set up for work purposes. A number
of students use the chat facility also to ask me questions, which has helped to
improve communication. It‟s a great way to get in touch quickly with the
volunteers also now it‟s available on wap/iphones etc
Do volunteers interact with each other as a result of social networking?
Lorna: As far as a I know only if they already know each other in person from
volunteering, not as a result of social networking
Lauren: Yes, it‟s been a great arena to enable students to get to know each other
informally prior to volunteering projects. It also means that the students can
put a „face‟ to a name immediately and thereby recognise their fellow
- 20 -
Fresh thinking
volunteers when meeting up in person for the first time

Have new projects developed as a direct result of social networking?
Lorna: No
Lauren: Yes - the student project leaders have set up their own groups and events
which are great to invite people to as then it pops up in their calendar and
acts as a reminder
When did you start to use social networking sites as part of your project?
Lorna: At least 3 years ago
Lauren: September 2007
How did you risk-assess introducing social networking to your service delivery/volunteer
support?
Lorna: We didn't, due to the nature of how it happened - exec have taken it over,
as it's better to have people in the know creating the pages.
Lauren: I made a separate Facebook profile, to ensure work remained separate from
home and to maintain a professional distance from the student volunteers;
I‟ve made my work profile public. I‟ve also just written a project leader
handbook for the students which goes into a bit more detail on how to set up
their own group/event
Do you have an example of the projects coordinated by your Student Community
Action on Facebook?
Lorna: International Student Link Up:
http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=student+community+action+durham&in
it=q&sid=d1ee76c0a93ad50e498b6f0aafd35e11#/group.php?sid=d1ee76c0a
93ad50e498b6f0aafd35e11&gid=2213696895
Lauren: http://en-gb.facebook.com/group.php?gid=3987318770
Volunteering support services online

In our survey we asked volunteering support services whether they offered online support
for volunteer involving organisations, the major ways in which this is done are:
 64% provide free web-based information
 53% have an e-newsletter
 15% host free discussion forums about volunteering
 9% use social network services
Other methods of online support mentioned by volunteering support services responding
to the survey included:
 „Responding to email requests‟
 „Support by email‟
 „Email alerts‟
 „Provision of charged for web-based information and discussion forums‟
 „e-learning‟
 „Use of www.do-it.org.uk‟
3 of the 173 respondents to this question mentioned that they were developing their online
support or were planning to offer it; however, 17% offer no on-line support.
- 21 -
Fresh thinking
From this we can see that the majority of volunteering support services is already involved
in some form of online support; this indicates that a further move to use of social network
services should be possible.
We are aware that volunteering support services are stretched, when we asked what the
internal barriers to offering on-line support are, we discovered:
 82% lack funding for it
 47% lack in-house skills
 35% lack appropriate equipment and technology
 16% lack time or staff resources
Other internal barriers to offering online support mentioned included:
 „Insufficient evidence at this time to devote specific action to establish online
support‟
 „Lack of knowledge‟
 „Access to social networking sites banned by managers‟
 „Cultural and social – a lack of trust‟
 „Not something that has been highlighted by our members‟
 „Not necessary‟
Only 2 of the 158 respondents felt that there were no internal barriers to offering online
support.
When considering the external barriers to offering online support, volunteering support
services told us:
 69% of service users lack appropriate equipment/technology
 61% of service users lack appropriate skills
 14% felt that there was no demand
Other external barriers to offering online support for volunteering mentioned by
volunteering support services responding to the survey included:
 „Service users do not make time and understand the value of online support‟
 „Service users lack motivation‟
 „Knowledge that it is available – marketing‟
 „Low use of information and communications technology‟
 „Some organisations reject offers of help‟
 „Groups and organisations want personal support by phone or in person/ the value
service users put on receiving support on-line rather than face-to-face or by phone‟
 „Identifying what resources should be put online‟
 „Balancing the needs to those who can access online support and those who can‟t –
most frequently – finding an alternative method of getting the same information and
support out to all‟
 „Attitudes‟
 „Lack of funding/resources/time‟
 „Lack of knowledge about where to find online resources‟
 „Organisations like to have both online and face-to-face support‟
 „Not enough demand to justify the costs‟
 „Knowing that help is there‟
- 22 -
Fresh thinking
Case Study:
Duke of Edinburgh Society, University of Durham
A personal account by Andrew Steer
I have utilised the social networking site Facebook to organise an expedition to Iceland
and assist with the running of a university Duke of Edinburgh Society, in my capacity as
Expedition Leader and Vice President respectively.
The former of these roles involved me coordinating and delegating tasks to a large
group of people, as such Facebook proved an invaluable tool to keep people up to
date with developments, contact people individually and broadcast common
messages to the group via the „Message‟ function. Furthermore, social events and
meetings pertaining to the expedition could easily be organised at the touch of a
button, saving both time and money in comparison with telephone calls and text
messages. The diary function of Facebook ensures people are kept up to date and
reminded of important expedition meetings and events. In terms of efficiency, it
transpired quite early on in the expedition that people tend to check Facebook at more
regular intervals than e-mails, thus replies are often more prompt.
In my role as Vice President of the Duke of Edinburgh society, I used Facebook for many
of the same functions. Crucially, Facebook proved a useful marketing tool for increasing
awareness of and participation in the society throughout the university. Several
specialised events were organised to raise funds for the society, one of which was a
Tyne Bridge Abseil. Again, the „Event‟ function proved useful as I, together with several
other executive members, used this function to invite several hundred people to the
event, via our Facebook accounts. As a result, interest in the Abseil soared, several
people signed up to take part and the event proved resoundingly successful.
Thus, the fact that several tools are incorporated into one website within Facebook, e.g.
e-mail, message board, calendar and event manager, greatly adds to its wide appeal
and usefulness amongst group leaders or those involved in university societies.
- 23 -
Fresh thinking
Only 1 of the 147 respondents to this question felt that there were no external barriers to
offering online support. We also received a number of comments about a lack of ability to
answer the question, as service users had not been asked about whether they wanted
online support.
If respondents told us that there was no demand for online support for volunteering, we
asked how they knew this. We received 45 responses, including:
 „Groups feel that too much information is downloaded, they prefer person to person
support‟
 „Discussions at Volunteer Co-ordinators Forums; feedback at training sessions;
feedback based on e-group newsletter/info snippets; general feedback in one-to-
one support sessions with workers in volunteer involving organisations; member
surveys‟
 „Very few groups take up suggestions of on-line support when suggested through
organisations like Volunteering England or our local learning and skills resource,
Ladder4Learning‟
 „Voluntary and community sector survey carried out re. ChangeUp‟
 „We do not get asked for this type of support - we have pages on the website
relating to volunteering but have no evidence as to its use and have not had
additional questions posted‟
 „Of the groups on our database we know that only just over half have email
addresses and a proportion of those that do have email do not have broadband –
it‟s not about demand it‟s about capacity‟
 „Not been asked‟
 „We have tried various options and promoted to local networks, we are now just
providing a few facilities long-term and will see if they are taken up‟
 „Majority of volunteers don't have a PC‟
 „Little use of existing systems on offer via website‟
 „Community likes to receive a magazine - with occasional community emails - web-
site is of little value‟
 „The age demographic of the population means that a significant number of active
community volunteers are either not on-line or are not regular IT users, evidenced by
personal experience‟
 „Of 250+ members, over 80 are still not on email‟
 „No one mentions it during our events, no need for it from organisations‟
 „People have responded well to the personal touch, i.e. face to face and
telephone; some smaller local groups do not have email, some have not given their
details, some admit to not reading stuff on email‟
 „We put lots of guidance on the website point to it from e-newsletters and they still
can't find the simplest of forms and ask us to send them one in the post‟
This question revealed that some respondents did not know how they knew that there was
no demand:
 „We've never had time or funds to offer this support so we haven't investigated the
need for it; none of our members has ever asked for it either‟
 „We haven't asked the question so don't know the answer/demand‟
 „We don't know‟
Given that this question was only asked of those respondents who felt that there was no
demand for online support, it was interesting to receive responses such as:
- 24 -
Fresh thinking
 „We have been asked about this by individual volunteers and groups‟
 „We are asked to provide such support, however, without a lot of prompting and
'push' strategies, there is little engagement or interaction from users who could
benefit‟
 „There is plenty of demand - we have an answer my question section which is well
used‟
 „There is some demand for online support, however some organisations do not have
the skills or equipment to access online support and prefer to meet a worker‟
 „There is a demand, we signpost people to Volunteer England‟s good practice bank
and some other links through our website but would like to do more‟
 „I believe there is loads of demand‟
 „I don't - online support is much appreciated!‟
 „Regular requests for information technology guidance/support re equipment,
software, electronic systems‟
 „We know there is a demand; we are presently putting both our training packs on a
CD so that trainers can make best use of our flexible training modules - we would like
to be able to update this online‟
 „There is demand for online support - but only from certain larger voluntary
organisations that have the staff/capacity/skills to receive information in this way -
much of our work is with local, community groups, run solely by volunteers who are
not at the end of their email everyday and often sending information out to one
inbox contact for a group, it does not get disseminated effectively amongst all other
members - so loses its impact‟
 „From requests, we do send info by email, but need to update our website‟
 „I think there is a demand as young people and adults have more access to
computers today, so could get in touch in this way‟
 „More clients now requesting advice through e-mail communication as opposed to
visiting the bureau in person‟
 „I wouldn't say there was no demand, but there is not a high level of demand. For
example, we wrote to all our volunteer involving organisations (around 130) asking if
they would like to join a volunteer management forum, which could either function
online or meet in person. We only had one positive response! National online support
is very good, e.g. Volunteering England Good Practice Bank, and UKVPMs, and so
when organisations do have a need they can usually be satisfied with these sources,
plus a very good county wide support website we have developed. I would be
reluctant to see these efforts duplicated at a local level when a regional or national
approach seems more effective and efficient. I feel that volunteer involving
organisations find one to one, face to face support from Volunteer Centre staff the
most helpful form of support‟
We asked Volunteer Managers, both paid staff and volunteers, about their use of
interactive online volunteering support services based in England and received 271
responses:
 16% used the wiki and forum on the Association of Volunteer Managers website
 17% used UKVPMs
This demonstrates the potential for more Volunteer Managers to avail themselves of free
support and information available when they have the time or need to use it.
- 25 -
Fresh thinking
Specialist and bespoke social network services

Wikipedia has identified 148 notable, well-known social network services, though notes the
list is limited and not exhaustive. The topics/themes covered by these are diverse, ranging
from country, language or community specific to sport, online activities, news, arts, and
green living. There are social network services for the very wealthy, mothers, genealogists,
gossips, faith groups, artists, and students. Social network services support business activity,
hobbies and sub cultures. In many ways social network services reflect the world.
For specialist social network services to be effective they need to build a critical mass of
likeminded people who are active in using the capabilities provided. Although there are a
few specialist social network services targeting the social economy, these tend to be
American and lack the volume of UK users that would make them useful in our culture.
We used the opportunity of our focus groups to explore the potential for a specialist social
network service for the UK‟s volunteering movement. A minority of participants were
cautious, mostly expressing practical concerns:
 „How would it be different to other networks?‟
 „Security - unrestricted forums – poor advice could be harmful – safeguards re. libel,
etc‟
 „Would potential volunteers use it?‟
 „Extra work – concerns about capacity‟
 „They are „too big‟ to engage with for local organisations‟
 „Can see the potential – but access to the net is key and people would need to be
taught how to use it‟
However, the majority of our focus group participants could see benefits to this approach.
An older volunteer commented that they would be more attracted to a specialist social
network service as „you know what you‟re getting into‟ rather than on a generic service
such as Facebook; another older volunteer with a Facebook profile was uncomfortable
sharing personal information about family and friends with their fellow volunteers. These
themes were echoed across the focus groups we asked about this.
On this basis we asked people what they would like a specialist social network service for
the UK volunteering movement to provide; there was no shortage of ideas:
 Communication
o „Live chat/talk to colleagues‟
o „Peer to peer links to other volunteering professional - co-ordinator to co-
ordinator/ manager to manager/strategic to strategic‟
o „A place to ask questions and about problems‟
o „Ability to link with others working in the geographical area, type of organisation
or same field, e.g. animal care, young people‟
o „Discussion forums/about key issues‟
o „Engaging with your volunteers‟
- 26 -
Fresh thinking
Case study:
UnLtdWorld
UnLtdWorld is one the of the UK‟s first social networking sites established for the not for
profit sector. It is run by UnLtd, the foundation for social entrepreneurs. A registered
charity, they provide start up funding and business development support to individuals
that want to establish initiatives to help improve the communities in which they live and
work – these include social enterprises and businesses, charities and other not for profit
projects . Established in the 2000, UnLtd has helped thousands of individuals - Award
Winners - to express their passion for their community.
In 2006, a survey of 600 Award Winners identified an overwhelming need and desire to
have increased opportunities to network with each other, along with a need to get
information about funding and other capacity building opportunities.
Inspired by the successful use of Web 2.0 tools by the likes of Facebook, Twitter and
Yahoo! Answers, UnLtd decided to respond to their Award Winner‟s needs by setting up
UnLtdWorld. Its primary purpose is to connect and empower individuals and
organisations that operate in the social entrepreneurship market.
In just two years UnLtdWorld has built its community to 10,000 members, almost all of
whom are existing or aspiring social entrepreneurs, who use the site to connect with
each other for networking and peer support, trade, and promote their projects and
services and events, as well as get information on latest developments and funding
opportunities.
UnLtdWorld‟s members are active users of the network, with 1 in 5 logging in every day
and 3 in 4 every month. Many of them have profiles on other social networking sites and
the UnLtdWorld enables them to integrate their profiles if they choose to. There is
significant evidence of networking and peer support taking place, with regular „Shouts‟
to the community for help and advice, special interest groups, direct messaging and
wall posts. This aspect of the service is so key, that UnLtdWorld plans to introduce
„collaborative workspaces‟ to extend this functionality.
UnLtdWorld is a UK pioneer of utilising social media techniques to promote and support
community causes. Just two years on and the network already has big plans for its
future, including building its community to 500,000 members and becoming a viable
sustainable business that is not reliant on grant income.
Project manager Alberto Nardelli says, „Our goal is to be the indispensable online
starting point for all individuals and organisations involved in the social entrepreneurship
sector, providing the most essential and most relevant resources, insight and business
tools they need to achieve their social and business goals – so watch this space!‟
www.unltdworld.com
- 27 -
Fresh thinking
 Knowledge and learning

o „Links to good practice - finding out about and accessing resources –
downloads - library of information to cut down internet trawling - better
signposting to web resources - links to Wiki (stop asking of same questions time
and again)‟
o „Sophisticated search for specific information‟
o „Updates on what‟s going on - being able to put things up and share info -
reviews on articles etc to give us key points‟
o „Funding info‟
o „Signpost to experts‟
o „Knowing which Volunteer Managers are working on what projects in order to
contact them‟
o „Web based action learning‟
o „Talents list – what skills all have - using/sharing each others‟ skills and
knowledge - matching service to find a mentor‟
o „Being able to see the links/connections‟
o „Encouraging new approaches across sectors‟
o „Promotion of small local peer groups‟
o „Potential for volunteers to support each other‟
 Marketing
o „Gather interest for events‟
o „Promoting what you and other people do‟
Participants also raised a number of issues that would need to be considered:
 „Members only/open/not open/secure parts?‟
 „Encouraging Volunteer Managers to use! – they have a lot to do already‟
 „Take account of different IT abilities/resources and time availability of
organisations/users‟
 „Push services2 work‟
2 That is services that don‟t require users to go to them. These are normally delivered through
email updates of changes to websites; new information added to profiles/groups on social
network services; or new postings to email groups
- 28 -
Fresh thinking
Case study:
Junction49
Junction49 is an initiative of volunteering charity TimeBank. It was launched in 2007 with

the aim of providing practical help and advice for young people aged 16-25 to make it
as easy as possible to turn ideas to make a difference into a reality.
Initially launched as a „virtual world‟, the site used a similar approach to Habbo Hotel
(www.habbo.co.uk), in which individuals create virtual characters (avatars) and get
involved in a range of activities. Using this approach, the first incarnation enabled
volunteer avatars to explore the Junction49 world to get inspiration and practical tools
and advice – from other volunteers and experts – to identify and establish their own
volunteering projects. Like all good websites, this initial incarnation was seen as a pilot
and following extensive feedback from users, Junction49 was re-launched in 2008 with a
new look and feel. The revised Junction49 retains the same aim but uses a similar
approach to Facebook with young people able to create volunteer profiles that detail
their interests, experience and their ideas for community projects.
There are three ways to get involved in the network, by submitting an idea for a
community project, getting involved with someone else‟s idea, or providing advice
and/or mentoring support for ideas and projects.
There are currently 4,000 members of Junction49, with an active core group of around
200. The community is ideas led, with young people encouraged to identify issues that
they care about or that concern them, and to think about how they can change them
for the better, for example setting up a campaign or fundraising for a charity. They then
identify and post on their profiles the help and resources they need to make their idea a
reality. Members can either browse or search for other profiles and ideas by keywords
and tags and make contact via the network to offer skills or other help. Organisations
can also create a profile to showcase their work and to browse ideas and make
approaches (via the site moderators) to volunteers that they want to contact.
The community is supported by a help desk, staffed by TimeBank, who provide tailored
support and follow up for members to help them get their ideas off the ground, for
example signposting to potential funding sources, and providing ad hoc training events.
In addition there are a team of young mentors, provided through the Diana Award for
Young People, who provide online support and help to guide volunteers through their
project. Junction49 has a group on Facebook to promote the network, and plans are
underway to develop strategic links with other key social network services to expand the
reach.
A pioneering example of using social networking models to support volunteering;
Junction49 provides a valuable service to young people looking to make their
community projects a reality.
www.junction49.co.uk
- 29 -
Fresh thinking
Conclusions
Whilst social network services are being used by a large and growing number of people,
the voluntary and community sector and volunteering movement are not currently
available through these.
There is clearly a lack of knowledge about the use of social network services within the
volunteering movement. Both in the survey and focus groups people asked for basic
information and case studies to address this.
The utilisation of social networking sites to further volunteer work is happening sporadically
at the moment but many organisations seem to be planning forays into this area. As each
organisation takes their initial steps, they are facing a steep learning curve. Encouraging
the sharing of learning about this could prevent each organisation reinventing the wheel
and also help each organisation to utilise existing social networking sites, not specifically
designed for this purpose, effectively and without compromising issues such as privacy.
The responses we received indicated a desire amongst the volunteering movement for
online services in three areas:
 Access to information
There is currently a reliance on internal sources of support, advice and information
which in some circumstances might create pressure on an organisation which could
be alleviated by greater use of other sources of support which are signposted
effectively and can be accessed quickly.
There is are already online sources of information about volunteering, the most
notable of which in England is www.volunteering.org.uk, which has links to a wide
variety of other volunteering focussed organisational and resource websites.
It would appear that these resources could be better marketed amongst the wider
volunteering movement in order that the information they contain is accessed by a
greater number of potential users.
 Ability to be interact with information, be involved in its development and identify
sources of support
Our research has revealed the UKVPMs Yahoo Group and the Association of
Volunteer Managers‟ website as the two key online methods of interacting with
information and finding sources of support.
It would appear that these resources could be better marketed amongst the wider
volunteering movement in order that the information sharing and opportunities for
interaction they offer are accessed by a greater number of potential users.
During 2008/09 Modernising Volunteering has funded the Association of Volunteer
Managers to further develop its website and wiki to enable the offering in this area to
be enhanced. The new pilot website went live in March 2009, and can be found at
www.volunteermanagers.org.uk
 Ability to interact with others
There is some interest in developing online opportunities for managers of volunteers
to contact each other, share good practice, ask questions of those „in the know‟
and have relevant information signposted in a way which is useful. Current online
opportunities are underused by this sample of respondents.
- 30 -
Fresh thinking
In both the online survey and the focus group, there was some support for the idea
of an online way of enabling leader-to-leader contact and also leader-to-
volunteer/supporter contact.
We believe that we have found some appetite for an online social network service
for our country‟s volunteering movement. It would be important for any such service
to meet the expressed needs of its potential users:
o Be easy to use
o Link to other resources and platforms to offer a seamless service
o Not be resource intensive
Social network services are ultimately only as successful as the use they get, and the
only way to discover this is to pilot the idea. Red Foundation, a partner in
Modernising Volunteering, has agreed to explore this idea further, outside of the
Modernising Volunteering programme.
It is clear that all developments need to take into account the significant proportion of
people carrying out volunteer management in a voluntary capacity and those who are
conducting volunteer management alongside another role within the organisation.
What volunteering support services and volunteer involving

organisations should consider when using social network services
There are a range of online guides to using social network services; these are listed in
Appendix 8. You will also find more information about using Facebook in Appendix 3,
MySpace in Appendix 4 and Twitter in Appendix 5.
Don‟t forget that anyone can set up pages and groups on social network services. If you
don‟t, one of your volunteers may well do. You need to consider whether you are happy
for there to be messages about your work that you are not aware of or control in the
public domain. Whilst you cannot stop these developing, you can set up your own group
and page and promote it – a well used group or page will feature higher in search results
and will generate additional use, as people like to be part of something popular.
It is important to invest time in planning and maintaining your social network service
presence – this needn‟t take a long time – but will be valuable. Some general tips are3:
 Make time for your profile
The ease with which profiles can be created on social networking sites often means
that they are sometimes created with good intentions and then simply left as the
owner of the profile waits for something to happen. This approach seldom works and
one of the keys to success in this area involves regularly logging in and letting
everyone know about your profile by befriending them and contacting others using
the communication tools. Your profile will soon benefit from this activity and gather
momentum. Remember that to make social networks work for you requires that you
do not neglect your presence on them. If you keep your profile up to date it will
continue to attract the attention you require.
3 The information in this section is drawn from:

www.advocacynet.org/modules/fck/upload/file/buildingyouricthouse/SocialNetworking.pdf
- 31 -
Fresh thinking
 Keep text to a minimum

Large amounts of text seldom work well on any webpage and social network sites
are no exception, particularly as all the information you publish tends to be displayed
on one page. Restrict your text to small paragraphs.
 Use media
It is possible to add video and sound to your pages so why not create some? Video
can easily be added and it is also possible to add an audio message or short
podcast via a „widget‟ like MySpace‟s audio player. Photographs are also an
effective way of communicating your charity‟s activity and can often be organised
into an eye catching gallery. An easy way to include video is to use YouTube, and
guidance on this is given in Appendix 6. If your project makes heavy use of
photographs you might want to consider using Flikr, and guidance on this can be
found in Appendix 7.
 Maintain your blog
Blogs are a quick and easy way to inform all visitors and subscribers to your page of
your activity. Make sure that you add blogs regularly as a method of keeping your
page up to date.
 Make groups and join groups
Many social networking sites feature groups that allow users with similar interests or
activities to share information quickly. Join groups or if you can‟t locate a group
catering to your specific field it is easy to set one up and invite your contacts to join.
Search for categories like „Non-Profit & Philanthropic‟ as well as „charities‟ to find
groups you may want to join.
 Use the forums
Forums are a great place to pick up tips and advice as well as offer it in return.
Charities can often find all kinds of invaluable information from IT advice to
fundraising tips from forums and they remain a valuable communication tool.
 Publicise your events
Social network sites often great publicity potential which is especially useful when
you need to raise awareness of an event. Use the events features on these sites and
invite your contacts to attend. If numbers are an issue it is possible to be sent
attendance confirmation messages too.
 Don‟t forget your own website
With social network sites offering so many tools it can be easy to forget about the
importance of your own website. Don‟t! Main websites are typically a labour of love,
a source of much consultation and are often an expensive undertaking. As this is
your „official‟ statement of your aims and activities, publicise its existence through
your social network page and make sure that it always carries up to date information
too.
Specifically in terms of volunteering, www.volunteeringgenie.org.uk recommends:
 Spread the message about the volunteering opportunities you have to offer
 Ask your current volunteers to engage in online conversations with others about the
volunteer work they do for your organisation
 Give people the tools and information they need to get involved
 Share your volunteering experiences and inspire others to do the same; keep it
personal and don‟t be “official” or overtly plug your organisation
- 32 -
Fresh thinking
These networks can help you engage 'hard to reach' communities. For example, Shelter
has found that homeless people use social networking sites and email as their only
constant means of communication.
What Modernising Volunteering plans to do next

We believe that social networks and social network models offer huge potential to both
volunteers and those that involve and work with them. The sheer numbers of people that
actively engage with these networks on a daily basis offer significant opportunities for
recruitment and their apparent ease of use offers opportunities for volunteer managers
and other staff to easily network with each other and provide peer support.
Over the next year we will:
 Deliver a training seminar in each English region for staff of volunteering support
services and Volunteer Managers on the use of social network services to support
volunteering
 Work with at least one volunteering support service (either alone or in partnership with
others) at a local, sub-regional or regional level to pilot the development of the use of
social network services to support volunteering
 Prepare and publish a detailed case study from the pilot, or from each if more than
one is undertaken
 Seek to identify/develop and promote/publish further case studies from volunteer
involving organisations and volunteering support services on their use of social network
services4
 Disseminate guidance notes on the use of social network services to all Volunteer
Centres and student volunteering action groups in England and on Volunteering
England‟s mailing list
 Update the guidance notes we have produced, if necessary, and publish these online
 Prepare and publish a detailed case study of the developments we funded and that
are being piloted on the Association of Volunteer Managers‟ website, if necessary
providing some additional resource to complete the work started in 2008/09
4 If your organisation is using one or more social network services to support volunteering and
wish to be involved in this activity, please contact jamie@redfoundation.org
- 33 -
Fresh thinking
Improving the
support for
volunteer led
volunteering
- 34 -
Fresh thinking

In this section we explore what volunteer led volunteering is. We have identified that, with
the majority of organisations within the voluntary and community sector having no paid
staff or very limited staff time and being dependent on volunteers for all of their activity,
volunteer led volunteering is the most common form of organisational structure within the
voluntary and community sector.
In acknowledging the volume of volunteer led activity, we explore current thinking and
the ways in which this form of volunteering is supported. We identify that, in communities
across England, there are small volunteer led organisations doing a wide variety of things.
These will have a range of structures and understanding. They will frequently be unaware
of voluntary and community sector support services available to them, and will fly
beneath the radar of the very services that are there to support them. It can be argued
that volunteering in these organisations is the least supported within the voluntary and
community sector. As one leader of volunteering activity said, “I had not appreciated that
there were places to find volunteers and support.”
We touch on the matter of co-production and the potential for volunteers to have a
greater role in shaping their activity and the organisations in which they volunteer.
Using the results of our survey, focus groups, research and anecdotal evidence we
examine the support available to volunteer led groups. Whilst these groups are finding
some support, there are concerns that it is not always appropriate because of the
different basis on which volunteer led activity happens. As we were told “the people I
work with do not see themselves as volunteers and do not recognise that they are being
managed. As a small community group we are not a very formal organisation in structure
or operations.” We also explore the information, advice and support needs that these
groups have, where and how successfully they are met.
The subject of volunteering and faith communities is explored in depth in a separate
report; we highlight some important points relating to volunteer led activity from this. We
also seek to identify some key points of transferable learning from the experience of Youth
Action Network and its approach to supporting youth led volunteering.
Although the role of social network services in supporting volunteering has been explored
in the previous section, we identify that voluntary leaders of volunteering activity are
positive about the potential this has.
Guidance is offered to volunteering support services wishing to improve the support they
offer to volunteer involving organisations.
Summary conclusions
 Volunteer led volunteering is not well understood by many volunteering support
services and is consequently not as well supported as it could be
 Volunteering support services should pay special attention to the specific needs of
small informal groups and how to support them; including through the use of a
community development approach and by making services more accessible to
volunteer leaders, including outside of office hours
 Lessons should be learnt from well supported forms of volunteer led activity
 There is an identified need to support governance in small organisations and within
groups that undertake volunteer led activity
- 35 -
Fresh thinking
 National volunteering support services should work with national organisations

supporting volunteer led activity in order for both to support the development of
successful relationships between their local partners/groups
 Volunteering support services should work with volunteer involving organisations in
order to develop support for the emerging concept of co-production
What is volunteer led volunteering?

Volunteering is often thought about in terms of involvement with organisations that have
paid staff who manage their volunteering programmes. Research5 indicates that there are
865,000 civil society organisations in England, of which 164,195 were registered charities.
NCVO identified that „most of these (civil society organisations) are small community
based organisations that have little income‟. In 2006 over half of charities, which form part
of civil society organisations, had an income of less than £10,0006. These figures indicate
that the majority of volunteer involving organisations within the voluntary and community
sector have no paid staff or very limited staff time and are dependent on volunteers for all
of their activity; in these organisations, volunteering is led by volunteers. There are also
volunteers within staffed organisations that manage other volunteers or who lead on
specific projects.
Volunteer led volunteering – an overview

Volunteer led volunteering is at the heart of civil society. It is about an individual or group
of individuals identifying a passion or unmet need and what can be done to support it;
finding others who agree or who can help and together taking action. Because of this the
focus of their activity is people and issues rather than structures. The action they take can
be short term, for example a campaign on a specific local issue, clearing a piece of open
ground, planting trees. It can also be a longer project such as a sports club for young
people, a residents association or the development and maintenance of community
garden. In the analysis of the role off volunteering in social policy undertaken on behalf of
the Commission on the Future of Volunteering by the Institute for Volunteering Research7
the importance of volunteer led volunteering was demonstrated through this example:
„There are currently nearly 1,000 community gardens throughout the UK maintained
by an estimated 500,000 volunteers, a movement that combines environmental
protection with social inclusion and grassroots community development. The
improvement of liveability at the local level can depend on community action
through volunteering, much of which can be volunteer-led. There are an estimated
4,000 independent volunteer groups working to improve and manage their local
parks and green spaces throughout the UK, having as many as 500,000 members in
total. A very small minority of these groups employ any paid staff.‟
5 Reichardt, Oliver; Kane, David; Pratten, Belinda; Wilding, Carl, The UK Civil Society Almanac
2008, National Council for Voluntary Organisations, London, February 2008
6 Wilding, Karl; Clark, Jenny; Griffith, Megan; Jochum, Veronique; Wainwright, Susan, The UK
Voluntary Sector Almanac 2006: The state of the sector, National Council for Voluntary
Organisations, London, 2006
7 Institute for Volunteering Research Volunteering works: volunteering and social policy The
Commission on the Future of Volunteering, London, September 2007
- 36 -
Fresh thinking
Some volunteer led activity will be in existence for decades without wanting to formalise
identity through registering as a charity, undertaking major fundraising or employing staff;
others will go down this route. In the responses to the consultation held by the Commission
on the Future of Volunteering8 the importance of volunteer led volunteering was
highlighted:
„Organisations that involve volunteers in their processes and decision-making can
benefit considerably. This disability organisation commented that it „began as a
volunteer-led organisation, and this is an ethos which is important to the organisation
over fifty years later. We feel that volunteers should be involved at all levels of the
organisation‟ (employee, national voluntary organisation, disability)‟
„The role of volunteers as agents of change who pioneered new ways of responding
to social problems which the state then adopted was recognised by this contributor:
„Historically, volunteering has precipitated change and it is this edge that perhaps is
its most important feature. Volunteer-led initiatives have paved the way for many of
the state-led arrangements in education, social care, housing and health that we
currently take for granted‟ (employee, national voluntary sector network
organisation, children and young people)‟
In recent years there has been a specific interest in youth led volunteering. A submission to
the Russell Commission highlighted the importance of this:
„Youth-led volunteering is a popular and powerful form of action for young people.
Many are keen to take an active role in leading and managing their own
volunteering experiences to respond to the needs of their peers and communities.
Consultation respondents argued for greater involvement of young people in the
design and delivery of volunteering activities: “More offers are needed that enable
young people to identify and take action on community issues – that identify a
„project‟ they can develop and own rather than rely on a „placement‟ model where
young people are matched to pre-existing opportunities designed by adults.”‟9
The Russell Commission10 report picked up this theme, saying:
„The interests and requirements of young people have been central to our thinking
as we have developed our recommendations. At each stage of the volunteering
journey, we have placed the individual young volunteer at the heart of our
proposals. This reflects our belief that each element of the framework should have a
youth-led focus, and should remain flexible and responsive to young people‟s
perspectives and aspirations.‟
A common trait within volunteer led volunteering activity is that volunteers do not attach
this label to themselves or call what they do volunteering; frequently their leaders do not
either. This can lead to difficulties in encouraging people to access volunteering support
services. As we have looked at support for volunteer led volunteering it has become clear
that the field is large and sources of support diverse; in many cases these are linked to the
nature of the volunteering being undertaken and/or relationships to larger organisations.
8 The Commission on the Future of Volunteering: Results of the public consultation, The
Commission on the Future of Volunteering, London, January 2008
9 Russell Commission consultation: National Youth Agency submission
10 Russell, Ian A national framework for youth action and engagement: Report of the Russell
Commission, March 2005
- 37 -
Fresh thinking
This can be split in many ways, but for ease we have thought about it in the following
broad terms:
 Sports volunteering
Sport is the sector involving the largest proportion of volunteers; in 2005 Sport
England11 estimated that there were nearly 6 million sports volunteers in England
contributing over 1.2 billion hours (the equivalent of 720,000 full time jobs and valued
at over £14 billion) to sport each year. The majority of volunteers in sport are
engaged in grass-roots and community sports clubs and activities; they sustain over
106,400 affiliated clubs and serve over 8 million members. Whilst the majority of
organisations are not staffed, organisational structures tend to be well developed
with policies and procedures in place due to the nature of the activities being
undertaken. There is a well established network of support available to volunteer led
sports organisations including their County Sports Partnership, local authority Sports
Development Team, and relevant National Governing Body.
Historically the sports based voluntary and community sector has operated fairly
much within a silo. Over the past 8 years, through the work of Sport England, the
Central Council of Physical Recreation, Volunteering England and the National
Association for Voluntary and Community Action this has begun to change, and
volunteer led sports organisations are now beginning to access additional local
support from their Volunteer Centre and/or Council for Voluntary Service and/or their
local Student Community Action group and/or vinvolved team.
Given the range of support available together with the structures and systems in
place we are not specifically addressing the needs of grass-roots and community
sports clubs and activities within this report.
 Volunteering in faith communities
Volunteering in a faith context is the fourth largest sector of involvement in England.
Recent research12 has identified that
„Volunteering is important within faith communities; as the Northwest
development agency notes „virtually all activity undertaken by faith
communities is dependent on volunteers‟. The ratio of paid staff to volunteer
identified in another study of social action amongst faith groups in the North
East was 1:10‟
Support for volunteering in faith communities is an area that the Modernising
Volunteering Support Service is specifically exploring, and we do not seek to
replicate the work that is being done. The research report that has been produced is
a helpful starting point for people considering how to better support volunteering in
faith communities. We have, however, highlighted some key lessons and conclusions
from the research later in this section of this document.
 Youth led volunteering
The concept of youth led volunteering has developed over recent decades;
beginning to become more recognised through the creation of, what is now, Youth
Action Network thirteen years ago. Millennium Volunteers promoted the benefits of
youth led volunteering and, as we have already shown, this was taken up by the
11 Sports volunteers are at the heart of our community, Sport England, 2005
12 Volunteering and faith communities in England, De Montfort University, April 2009
- 38 -
Fresh thinking
Russell Commission and subsequently v through the creation of vinvolved teams

across England.
Most youth led volunteering activity either becomes linked to or is initiated by
organisations. This means that structures, policies and procedures are able to be put
in place; the volunteer led activity can also easily access information, advice and
support either directly or through their host organisations‟ networks.
Consequently there are a variety of support services available for youth led
volunteering at both local and national level, and we are not seeking to further
explore this in this report; however, lessons from youth led volunteering are
applicable to a wider audience and we outline these later in this section.
 Volunteering linked to business/professional/networking
In England there is a plethora of predominantly local volunteer led activity that is
linked to work, professional and business development. Whilst it can be easy to say,
and we have often heard it said, that this is not volunteering; on the basis that it
meets the definition for formal volunteering, that is „giving unpaid help through
groups, clubs or organisations to benefit other people or the environment‟, we would
argue that this is not only volunteering, but is normally volunteer led. Some of the
examples given here will resonate more within the voluntary and community sector
than others.
o At a local level organisations such as Lions, Round Table and Rotary offer
networking opportunities for their members whilst also engaging in local
voluntary activities. These organisations are supported by national offices which
offer information, support and advice and so they tend to be well structured
with good policies and procedures. Some will also use local volunteering
support services, especially for major events where they need one off
volunteers.
o Voluntary and community sector organisations, such as the Institute of
Fundraising and the Royal Society of Arts have local group structures that
provide networking and development opportunities for members, as well as
giving the opportunity to reach non members to encourage their involvement
in the national organisations. These local groups are led by members and
supported by the central office. The mixture of support together with members‟
professional expertise tends to mean that these are also well structured with
good policies and procedures.
o It is often forgotten that at a local level the majority of trade union activity is
undertaken by volunteers working for the good of other members and the
wider workforce. Trade union structures mean that these groups are well
organised and supported by union officials in local, regional and national
offices.
o A range of professional networks, led by volunteers, often structured around the
nature of the business activity being undertaken (e.g. accountancy, solicitors,
small business owners) or the demographic of members (e.g. women, members
of black and minority ethnic communities) also exist. Some of these may link to
structured networks or relate informally to other similar groupings. They are
normally well structured with good policies and procedures.
- 39 -
Fresh thinking
o Within the volunteering movement, the Association of Volunteer Managers is a

national, volunteer led professional network. Although a relatively new
organisation, it is already having an impact and demonstrates the potential
that this form of activity can have. It is now offering a number of local peer led
support and development groups for Volunteer Managers. Unsurprisingly, due
to the expertise of its members, it is well structured with good policies and
procedures in place.
Given the support available to these forms of volunteer led volunteering activities,
we do not specifically address them within this piece of work.
 Volunteering related to other charities
A number of large charities support local volunteer led groups that are related to
their causes. These groups can be involved in supporting association, self help,
advocacy, campaigning, and fundraising. The link these groups have to national
organisations usually means that they have structure and operational policies and
procedures; however, these are not always adopted and there can be tensions
between local group members and national charity management.
For example the National Trust has local volunteer led support groups which allow
members to develop their interest in heritage and the environment, raise money and
support local properties whilst also developing relationship networks. Organisations
such as Scope and the Alzheimer‟s Society have local groups that provide self help
and advocacy as well as getting involved in campaigning and fundraising.
At a local level charities can support a range of volunteer led projects within the
scope of their own governing documents. We have already mentioned the faith and
youth-led sectors, which both exhibit this style of activity. It can also be found in
community development organisations (such as community associations, settlements
and development trusts) and a wide range of specialist sectors including older
people, disability and the environment.
Whilst support for these groups is available from the staff of the charity, the range of
support services will vary according to the availability of resources and the strategic
importance the organisation places on its local volunteer led activity. In addition to
accessing support from their sponsor organisation, some of the volunteer led groups
will also use local voluntary and community sector organisations and specialist
national support services for information, advice and support.
 Cause related volunteering
Volunteer led volunteering normally begins because a small group of local people
are passionate about something – whether an activity or a cause. In a range of
areas these volunteer led groups can be supported by national membership
organisations. Where volunteer led groups access this support they have access to
information, advice and guidance.
For example, in England we have a thriving voluntary and community arts sector.
From theatre companies, art groups to local embroidery guilds this sector provides
grassroots cultural activity and stimulus for a large part of the population. Local
voluntary and community sector arts groups are able to join the Voluntary Arts
Network where they can access support and network with similar organisations.
Similarly, the large number of volunteer led „Friends of...‟ groups attached to most
hospital and similar facilities have Attend offering similar functions, providing
development support and acting as their voice.
- 40 -
Fresh thinking
Whilst many volunteer led activities will fit within this construct, many others will not. In
communities across England there are small volunteer led organisations doing a wide
variety of things. These will have a range of structures and understanding. They will
frequently be unaware of voluntary and community sector support services available to
them, and will fly beneath the radar of the very services that are there to support them. It
can be argued that volunteering in these organisations is the least supported within the
voluntary and community sector.
Building on success13 identified the need for volunteering infrastructure to develop ways of
supporting potential volunteers to associate together to develop activities that build on
their passions to meet local needs. Research14 undertaken in the North West in 2007
identified that
„Many organisations are volunteer-led, and therefore do not have the capacity to
engage with local infrastructure organisations and take up the services that are
available to them; the need for a more flexible approach to delivering infrastructure
services (for example outreach work and provision of training outside office hours as
part of a proactive and more visible approach) to these groups was a common
theme as volunteers need to be able to access services out of hours (and this is
especially true of black and minority ethic and lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender organisations)‟
Building on success in the North West15 identified that
„Support for volunteer-led activity, including responding to local needs, campaigning
and advocacy does not appear to be happening in the majority of the region‟s
volunteering infrastructure...
Volunteering infrastructure needs to broaden its understanding of volunteering to
encompass support for... volunteer-led volunteering and the concept of co-
production‟
Volunteer led activity is not only about small community groups. Recently there has been
an increasing amount said about the role of co-production and giving volunteers more
control over their volunteering and involvement in organisational development.
 The Commission on the Future of Volunteering identified stagnation in the availability
of volunteering opportunities, which is dominated by the marketing of existing
predetermined opportunities. Research16 undertaken for the Commission revealed
that non-volunteers perceive opportunities currently on offer not to be good enough
to meet their expectations and motivations. The Commission suggested that there
should be a dynamic interchange of needs and skills including the ability of potential
volunteers to promote themselves, their abilities and their passions to volunteer
involving organisations.
13 Penberthy, Chris and Forster, Andy Building on success: strategy for volunteering infrastructure
in England 2004-2014, Volunteering England, June 2004
14 Hurley, Loretta Identification of voluntary and community sector sub-sector priorities for
infrastructure capacity building in the North West: Report of exploration, One North West and
Voluntary Sector North West, Manchester, December 2007
15 Penberthy, Chris and Watts, Georgina Building on success in the North West: strategy for
volunteering infrastructure 2008-11, England Volunteering Development Council North West
and Volunteering North West, July 2008
16 Understanding how to engage people in volunteering, The Commission on the Future of
Volunteering, January 2008
- 41 -
Fresh thinking
 Dr Justin Davis Smith, Chief Executive of Volunteering England, has spoken on a

number of occasions (including the National Volunteering Convention and the
Association of Volunteer Managers Annual General Meeting) about the concept of
co-production in volunteering. He believes that a challenge facing the volunteering
movement is the need for development that enables volunteers to own and shape
their volunteering activity.
Whilst these are exciting areas for development, we are not exploring these further here.
Although they are about putting volunteers back at the heart of volunteering, their focus is
more on formalised volunteering programmes. We hope that the information presented in
this report and the work that we will engage in over the remainder of the Modernising
Volunteering National Support Service programme will inform the thinking of volunteer
involving organisations, Volunteer Managers and volunteering support services in order to
encourage more ownership of volunteering by volunteers.
Current support for volunteer led volunteering

From our survey responses we know that 94% of volunteering support services responding
to the survey can offer support to non registered charities and 86.9% to informal
organisations.
Given that non registered charities and informal associations can be argued to be the
forms of volunteer involving organisation that comprise the majority of the voluntary and
community sector, we were in some ways surprised that only 17% of managers of
volunteers responding to our survey were volunteers. Together with the findings from the
North West (cited above) this would suggest that although support services are available
to volunteer led activity, they appear not to be used to their full potential.
Anecdotally we have also heard that volunteering support services, especially at a local
level, can find it difficult to support existing and the development of new volunteer led
activity using current methodologies. We explore some of the reasons for this later in this
section but acknowledge that this is in part due to the substantial under-resourcing that
the majority of volunteer support services experience.
It is interesting to note that the third most prevalent barrier (after funding and lack of time)
to providing support to volunteer involving organisations was „hard to reach some
organisations‟, with 57.7% of volunteering support services responding to our survey
identifying this. The issues identified in this part of the report indicate that volunteering
support services might need to think about different approaches in reaching organisations
in order to address this barrier (although funding and lack of time might well be barriers to
this happening).
We asked the volunteers who responded to our survey whether they were involved in
managing volunteers, of the 141 respondents 62 said that they were. We asked the same
cohort whether they were volunteers who were leading projects, only 14 said yes. In this
section of the report we concentrate on the latter group of respondents.
Three of the 14 respondents said that they were trustees of the organisation/project they
were leading and thus had a legal responsibility for the organisation and its workings. The
number of volunteers in the organisations described ranged from one to 90. Five of the
organisations had no paid staff members.
- 42 -
Fresh thinking
“The people I work with do not see themselves as volunteers and do not recognise that
they are being managed. As a small community group we are not a very formal
organisation in structure or operations.”
Online survey respondent
Respondents were asked what sources of information, advice and support they had
accessed over the previous 12 months; sources were given as (in alphabetical order):
 Business Links
 Charity Commission
 Community Matters
 Corporate/business mentors
 Federation of Tenants & Residents
 Friends and family
 Local authority
 Local Council for Voluntary Service
 Local Volunteer Centre
 National Council for Voluntary Organisations
 Other project leaders
 Third Sector magazine
 Timebank
 v
 Volunteering England
One respondent said that they had not accessed any sources of information. Three
respondents said that they had information and support needs which were not being fully
met. Six said that they did not. The unmet needs were identified as:
 „Leadership training for grassroots level community workers/volunteers‟
 „Funding‟
 „Recruitment of board members with specialist skills‟
 „Networking opportunities‟
Respondents were asked where they had found other people to get involved in their
project; the sources/avenues cited were (in alphabetical order):
 Do-it.org.uk
 Facebook
 Internet search engine
 Jobcentre Plus
 Local Rural Community Council
 Local student volunteering group
 Media advertising
 Other online social network (excluding Facebook or MySpace)
 Parent organisation
 Schools and colleges
- 43 -
Fresh thinking
“I had not appreciated that there were places to find volunteers and support.”
Volunteer leaders’ support needs

Many of the focus group participants felt isolated in their roles, and felt that others in their
organisations did not really understand their work or were in a position to help.
Recruitment
At one of our focus groups with older leaders of volunteering and volunteers the group felt
strongly that volunteering and the opportunities available had a very low profile. They said
that unless you knew someone volunteering it would be very difficult to find out what was
available. They would hope to find information about volunteering in libraries, village halls,
Job Centres, local papers and through residents associations. They felt that their local
Volunteer Centres had a very low profile.
When asked how they became involved in volunteering, focus group participants
identified (in alphabetic order):
 Job Centre
 Local charity/social group
 Local church
 Local paper
 Referral by a health professional
 Volunteer Centre17
 Word of mouth/being asked
Knowledge
We asked focus group participants what help, advice or support they got as they started.
Most agreed that finding advice and support on specialist issues had been difficult. Some
still had very little knowledge of existing information about volunteer involvement and
management.
Participants were asked to reflect on their experiences as volunteer managers of
volunteers and volunteer leaders in order to identify what they would have liked to know
when they started and what help, advice and support would have helped. They identified
(in no particular order):
 „How to plan the aims of volunteer groups‟
 „Policies and procedures for recruitment and management‟
 „How to support user led volunteer committees and keep them going‟
 „How to fundraise‟
 „Frameworks for involvement‟
 „How much control do you give to young people to run their activities?‟
 „Managing expectations‟
 „Information about forums of volunteer managers‟
17 This participant was given a booklet about the Volunteer Centre; it took them 3 attempts at
contact to get a response though once they did they were pleased with the service they
received
- 44 -
Fresh thinking
 „Information about quality training‟

 „Managing conflict between volunteers‟
 „Communication methods to engage better with volunteers‟
Some of the participants were trustees and/or chairs of voluntary and community sector
organisations and identified specific unmet support needs which, if met, would greatly
assist them in fulfilling their roles:
 „Networking with other chairs‟
 „Managing staff as a volunteer‟
Sources of information, advice and support
We asked participants where they found information, advice and support, and whether it
was useful, they identified (in alphabetic order):
 Local Volunteer Centre18
o Experience was mixed
o Some people found their information did not meet expectations
o Fees charged made access to services difficult
o Service very useful, particularly training and volunteer referrals
o Websites can be out of date and lacking information
o Advice and guidance on general volunteering is useful
o Formal procedures for registering opportunities and volunteers are overly
bureaucratic, and some cited the need to have to visit the Volunteer Centre in
order to do this as a real barrier to using the service
o Some suggested that the Volunteer Centre should be „more customer focused‟
with both volunteers and organisations as the customers
In one of the focus groups the presence of two Volunteer Centres in the same area
was identified as causing confusion
 Network with others in similar roles
One participant cited the MS Society‟s London Wide co-ordinators forum as very
useful and a good source of peer support
o Experience was mixed, though generally positive
o Information considered very high quality
o A number had benefitted from their one-to-one telephone and email support
via Information Team.
o Website very useful, especially the Good Practice Bank and information about
training; Volunteer Agreements and other standard forms were mentioned as
particularly useful and available to download - however, a minority found the
website difficult to navigate as they found it contained „too much information
and it was difficult to find what they needed‟; and some had previously been
unaware of the website and only found it through internet search engines
Other sources of information, advice and support mentioned, but not commented on,
included (in alphabetic order):
 Association of Volunteer Managers
 Colleagues
18 As focus groups were held in different parts of the country and drew participants from wide
localities, the comments about Volunteer Centres relate to a number of local services
- 45 -
Fresh thinking
 Consortium of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Voluntary and Community

Organisations
 Institute for Volunteering Research
 Local Volunteer Organisers Forum19
 Other volunteers
 Student Union
 Student volunteer groups
 UKVPMs
 vinvolved team
 Working Together (a local training initiative)
 www.support4groups.org.uk (a local voluntary and community sector support
website)
In addition, participants raised the following issues:
 One participant noted that as they did not have internet access that some of these
sources of information, advice and support were not available to them.
 Training is considered extremely useful as it offers opportunities for face to face
contact and engagement with peers along with the opportunity to access quality
training
 Some of volunteer leaders suggested that there was too much information and
support available making it difficult to know where to go and how to access it
The importance of ongoing support for volunteer leaders was identified:
“I think organisations often start with the best of intentions but generally leave you to go
on with it. The main thing that makes me leave is when staff and other volunteers are not
friendly or welcoming or expect you just to get on with things without taking the time to
show you around etc. I think organisations could do a lot more.”
Focus group participant on the support offered as a volunteer leading a project within a
larger organisation
Additional thoughts
During the course of our research we held a number of informal conversations with
volunteer leaders from unstaffed organisations. They identified that:
 It can be difficult to access support services when you have a full time job and they
are only available during office hours
 The formality and requirements imposed by support services can be inappropriate
for a more informal organisation
 Support services can often not understand the passion, mutuality, trust and
relationships that define many small volunteer led groups
 Good practice information and advice available on websites and promoted by
volunteering support services tends to be predicated on an organisational model
that can be too formal for volunteer led activity and are often not appropriate for
19 In one focus group this was cited as much needed by the majority of people present
although it no longer happened due to lack of funding
- 46 -
Fresh thinking
more informal organisations dependent on mutuality, trust and relationships – a

lighter touch approach would be more beneficial
 Sometimes it is very practical support that is needed, such as somewhere to store
some equipment or do cheap (or even free) copying
Potential volunteers who see a need and a way to meet it can find it difficult to build a
critical mass of people to take action, especially if their immediate relationship networks
are not able to provide initial impetus. It can be difficult for these people to know where to
find support for their idea, especially if the support services that they identify are only
available for limited hours during working days.
„A lot of community groups and charities rely solely on volunteers who are-self starters. It
would be good to empower those people to improve capacity and capability of the
group/charity as a whole.‟
Lessons from Volunteering and faith communities in England

We are not seeking here to explore all of the issues in this new research on volunteering
and faith communities, which we recommend that you read. Rather, we have identified a
few areas that we felt were particularly relevant to this report.
The importance of relationships and a flexible approach to volunteer management
activity was identified by a participant. This is certainly the case with volunteer led
volunteering; in this situation the onus on managing the process has to be taken by
another volunteer or group of volunteers.
„Initially when we started out looking for core members of the group we had a very
high turnover. So people attended the first event and then they were happy to chip
in where they could but didn‟t want to be part of something on a regular basis. In
terms of events and things that we do, then it‟s word of mouth and then we
generally have the same volunteers and we get some new people in. The number of
volunteers we have and the turnover depends on when we are doing events and
things. But I think with any organisation you generally have quite a high turnover of
volunteers. But we‟ve been quite good because most of the volunteers that we have
are friends, people we know, people who are quite interested in doing some work
with us or have been in the past, so we usually get some of those people. Then you
have people kind of come in and out, a revolving door type system of volunteers.‟
In a number of places the report identifies the importance of support services tailoring
their activities to their user groups. The comments we have received during our research
suggests that this is needed for volunteer led groups.
„Local infrastructure organisations had been consulted in several cases (by members
of faith communities) in order to provide initial support in setting up the organisation.
Although this support had been useful, most groups had not felt that there was much
more that these organisations could offer them that would be useful to them in their
current work. Some argued that this was because courses were often focused on
larger organisations rather than small ones like their own, others felt that the cost of
courses provided by these organisations prohibited their involvement, or that the
- 47 -
Fresh thinking
courses were simply not relevant to the needs of the group, or that the delivery of
services by these groups was too impersonal and broad when in fact what was
needed was more tailored, face to face support.‟
„It seems that this (a feeling that they are being kept at arm‟s length) is especially the
case with smaller faith organisations - it is perhaps linked sometimes with relying on
volunteers who themselves come from more deprived backgrounds, not having the
knowledge and social capital necessary to tap into the workings of larger
infrastructure organisations. Time and availability of volunteers are also a key issue
within this, as highlighted by the following account: „....Sometimes I look at some of
the training that they have on offer and I just think well if we were a bigger
organisation and we had the time or we had a dedicated person to access that,
then that‟s fine, but nobody‟s going to take a day off work to go on training that
they may or may not use and not all of it‟s relevant.. It‟s far easier for us to do it
through someone in the group who‟s already got that knowledge base, already
done all those things. So for such a small organisation I don‟t see all of it as being
relevant.‟‟
One quote identifies the tension in professionalising volunteering whilst staying focused on
values, ethos and an individual‟s motivations to volunteer:
„It‟s getting the balance right, its professionalising charities. But it is also all these
things that are terrifying to volunteers as well because you are losing the original,
where we started an hour ago, which is the social networking, the reason why you
are doing it.‟
The report identifies the potential power yet vulnerability of volunteer led activity:
„By far the most common mode of organising voluntary action in faith communities
and groups is informally. This is perhaps why it can be difficult to gauge and classify
the true extent and nature of „volunteering‟. Members of faith groups and
communities are often motivated to organise a service in response to a need of a
fellow worshipper or a member of their community. A 2003 study found that much of
the organisation of volunteering in faith communities “was either informal or
associational where people supported each other or individual-centred where one
person moved around communities to get things done – in both cases without the
kind of organisation which typifies the voluntary and community sector”. Something
similar has been observed by others where volunteering occurs “outside of an
organisational context and on an individual basis”. One Imam when asked on what
basis voluntary activity was organised in his community commented: “normally
enthusiasm”... However, informal organisation is also a relatively unstable method of
organising voluntary activity with some groups folding due to lack of volunteers.
Once again, this mirrors similar issues for the wider voluntary sector; smaller, less well-
resourced and more informal organisations and initiatives are particularly vulnerable
to the impact of change. However, greater degrees of formality and acceptance of
resources from external bodies may necessitate compromise of one kind or another
which may not sit easily with faith-based operating principles.‟
It also highlights a danger in trying to over-formalise volunteer led activity:
„“There is a real concern that by encouraging organisations to take on more formal
roles, the spontaneity and benefits it can bring may be squeezed out. Attempts by
government to direct such activities, even with the best of intentions, could
- 48 -
Fresh thinking
fundamentally change the way faith-based organisations work and their relationship
to their stakeholders. And it could reduce the space for independent voluntary
action and participation in community life.” (Jochum et al 2007)‟
Amongst its recommendations, the report specifically identifies one relating to volunteer
led activity:
„Infrastructure and other coordinating organisations need to recognise the
importance of strong „vertical‟ relationships as well as good „horizontal‟ networks. The
ability to engage and work effectively at a number of different levels is of key
importance... Special attention should be paid to the specific needs of small,
informal groups and how to support them.‟
The youth action approach20

With over 13 years experience of offering support to youth led volunteering, Youth Action
Network has been able to develop a well evidenced framework to support youth action.
Whilst their materials are all focussed on supporting young volunteers, much of their
learning is transferable to the support of other volunteer led activity. In this sub section we
describe the key principles of youth action, support materials that have been produced
and the results of recent research undertaken.
Youth action is a way of supporting young people to develop and lead their own
volunteering opportunities and allowing them to have more choice or say over what
volunteering they do. This involves giving young people opportunities to play a key role in
the design, delivery and evaluation of projects; Youth Action Network calls it putting them
in the driving seat. There are nine key principles at the heart of the youth action
approach:
 Youth participation
Young people are in the driving seat – they decide what happens
 Benefiting others
Young people don‟t just do it for themselves! Others benefit too
 Fun & rewarding
No one wants to do something that‟s boring – it has to be fun!
 Flexibility
It should be when, where and how young people want it
 Support
Young people aren‟t just „left to it,‟ they‟re supported in their aspirations and efforts
 Recognition
Say thank you! Young people‟s efforts should be celebrated
 Progression & leadership
Young people want to develop – they enjoy a challenge – and this should be built in
 Diverse & inclusive
Anyone should be able to do youth action - think creatively to break down those
barriers
20 Source information for this sub section: www.youthactionnetwork.org.uk
- 49 -
Fresh thinking
 Developmental & educative

Youth action is a journey - with learning and education an important part of the
experience
Youth Action Network believes that when all these principles are in place, a young
person‟s volunteering experience is as positive as it can be.
In order to support their approach Youth Action Network has developed Reach as the
quality practice framework for youth action agencies, this has been adopted by v as the
standard that all vinvolved teams must achieve. To assist youth action agencies in their
development, Tread has been produced as a training programme for workers and
projects; young people have also produced the VIP Kit, designed to get young people
more involved in volunteering.
The effectiveness of the youth action approach has recently been examined; Project
Re:action21 was a joint project between Youth Action Network and the Centre for Social
Action at De Montfort University. The project received a research grant over three years
from the Big Lottery Fund and published the results in March 2009.
Project Re:action aimed to find out the difference youth action makes, not only to young
people themselves, but also to their communities. Young people were central to the
project, taking the research out to youth action projects and getting opinions from young
volunteers, project workers and key community members. Throughout their quest, the
research volunteers (Associate Research Assistants) were supported by Youth Action
Network and De Montfort University to ensure they had the skills, tools and knowledge to
utilise their expertise in youth volunteering to produce academically rigorous research
suitable for professional and academic publication.
The research aimed to learn more about:
 The experience of young people who volunteer
 The difference that full participation makes to the volunteering experience
 The most successful ways of promoting participation within organisations
 The wider benefits to, and impact on, the community of this type of activity
The research found:
 Volunteering plays an important part in enhancing social capital
o Volunteering challenges young people's opinions about people who are
different from them
o Volunteering enables young people to build bridges with people outside of
their immediate community or group of friends
o Some volunteering settings create greater benefits (i.e. schools and colleges or
international settings)
o Trust between workers and young people has been shown to be a crucial
element of the volunteering experience for young people
o Not all young people want to lead - but this does not affect their participation
levels
21 www.youthactionnetwork.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22
- 50 -
Fresh thinking
 Participation, sense of influence and being trusted

o One of the most important findings of the research is that there is a strong
relationship between levels of participation, young people's sense of influence
and being trusted
o 44% of those surveyed had a high level of participation, sense of influence and
being trusted
 Volunteering plays an important part in enhancing community cohesion - young
people feel that they can contribute to community cohesion by:
o Breaking down stereotypes in their community and neighbourhood
o Fostering understanding of different cultures and religions
o Solving social problems within communities and neighbourhoods
o Bringing different people from the community neighbourhood together
o Helping others to be more active in their community neighbourhood
It is possible to enhance community cohesions through volunteering. However, the
research tells us that, if volunteering projects aim to proactively enhance community
cohesion, they need to build this in to the project plan and consider how to make
cohesion outcomes sustainable
Volunteer leaders and the use of social network services

We took the opportunity in our survey and focus groups to ask volunteer leaders about
their use of social network services. Although this crosses over with the section specifically
on social network services, it is interesting to note the positive response from this, albeit
small, cohort.
A focus group of volunteer leaders was asked if they felt that volunteering and social
networking were a good mix. Their responses are (verbatim) as follows:
 „Yes very - as at the very least it promotes awareness of the cause‟
 „Yes as most of the time it‟s about who you know, I think the internet is a great place
to source information about where you could find potentially interested parties, and
to make initial contact with someone‟
 „In principle yes - a good way to get the message out about volunteering from
volunteers themselves and a quick way to build up contacts. It also offers the
opportunity to post information, discussions and media clips and could be used to
help network volunteers - particularly to help a new volunteer settle in. However, the
downside is maintaining engagement - it cannot be the only route by which
information is communicated and it needs to be kept updated, relevant and serve a
purpose‟
 „There is a huge opportunity locked up in social networking, no question. It can be
invaluable to establish project, campaign etc. and then build a base of people who
support that thing. It can be used to raise awareness to issues and potentially trigger
new projects, both online and offline in the real world‟
Eight of the online respondents chose to answer questions about the worth or otherwise of
talking with other volunteer leaders online and the use of social network services. Five
respondents said that they would be interested in an online opportunity to talk with other
volunteers leading projects. Two would not. A further respondent said they „may be‟
interested. The following comments were made by respondents about the idea:
- 51 -
Fresh thinking
 „Might be good way to see if we can partner with other grass roots projects who
share the same objectives to my org, thus maximising volunteer contribution by
working collaboratively and sharing resources‟
 „It might provide links to other local people or groups that can help our aim, provide
new volunteers, members of the group‟
 „To exchange ideas on promoting the projects. To exchange ideas on fundraising. To
find better ways to run the project‟
 „Talking about ideas, finding new sources of support‟
 „To pass on info when a project is proven to work in one area and can be made to
work in others, to help find solutions to challenges, just to talk with like-minded
people, to pass on enthusiasm, to find new ways of combating apathy and
recruiting more volunteers, to help 'spur' others on who are perhaps going through a
difficult time‟
 „Understanding of issues and experience feedback‟
 „I think that social networking can be used well to promote a campaign and for
young people to contribute to it. However, I think it can be used best to showcase a
piece of work and start conversations off there. We‟ve used YouTube to promote a
series of videos on HIV awareness and also disabilities. Some of the videos have had
8,000 views with some comments left, some have had a lot less – it seems to depend
on the angle and context of the message. We also received recognition from
YouTube itself with a disability video where it was awarded in the month‟s top non
profit videos, bit of kudos!‟
Conclusions
Whilst volunteer led volunteering is a major part of the voluntary and community sector, it
is not well understood by many volunteering support services and is consequently not as
well supported as it could be.
Special attention should be paid to the specific needs of small informal groups and how
to support them. Volunteer led volunteering is often built on a small group of individuals‟
passion, trust, mutuality and relationships; to support this well a community development
rather than organisational development approach needs to be adopted. Volunteering
support services need to consider how to make their services more accessible to volunteer
leaders, including outside of office hours.
There is potential to learn from some well supported forms of volunteer led volunteering,
and apply the lessons to less structured groups. The possibility of involving successful
leaders of volunteer led activity to provide peer mentoring to others should be explored as
this is done.
The respondents to this survey demonstrated access to a wide range of local and national
resources for support and information. Because of the small number of respondents, it is
not possible to ascertain any bias towards particular sources. Some gaps, however, have
been highlighted in this small sample and this may also be in evidence in a larger sample.
There is an identified need to support governance in small organisations and within groups
that undertake volunteer led activity. Volunteering support services should seek to
signpost appropriate information, advice and support services and broker relationships
- 52 -
Fresh thinking
between these and volunteer led groups, ensuring that the support that is offered is
appropriate for volunteer leaders and the less formal nature of many of their groups.
A range of local volunteer led groups are supported by national organisations to which
they relate. In order to maximise impact and reduce duplication of effort, national
volunteering support services should seek to develop strategic relationships with the
national organisations and cascade information, advice and support on how local
support for the related volunteer led groups should be delivered. This cascade should be
mirrored by action taken by the national organisations to communicate with their
volunteer led groups.
Volunteering support services, nationally and locally, should work together with volunteer
involving organisations in order to develop support for the emerging concept of co-
production.
What to think about when supporting volunteer led volunteering

Volunteer led volunteering is not new and will be familiar to most people, even if it is not
identified as such in their minds; after all, volunteer led activity is where most charities
began. Approaching its support will take some thought but will bring new experiences to
your work and a greater breadth of opportunities to your portfolio.
 Gain an understanding of your potential market
o Do you know which of the organisations currently registered with you are
volunteer led? If not, see if you can find out (you could use your next members‟
survey to ask for information about staff numbers – this will give you a big clue)
o Do you know of volunteer led groups in your area that you are not working
with? If not, your local council and/or library and/or Council for Voluntary
Service and/or Rural Community Council will probably have a list of community
groups, tenants associations, residents associations, etc
o If you are not sure how to support volunteer led groups, talk to your local:
 vinvolved team (they support your local Youth Action Team which leads
youth volunteering activity)
 Student Action Group if you have one (they support student led
volunteering activity – if you are not sure if there is one in your area ask the
Student Volunteering Team at Volunteering England or your local Students
Union)
 Rural Community Council (they support all of your local Village Hall
Committees, which in turn often support grassroots volunteering in their
villages)
 Community Associations (many will work to support local grassroots
volunteer led activity)
o Also use these contacts to work out what support is needed in your area – don‟t
duplicate something they are doing already, see if you can plug a gap in the
market
 Work with the ones you know
o Which of your services do volunteer led organisations currently registered with
you use and which do they not?
 Ask them for feedback on their experience of working with you
- 53 -
Fresh thinking
 Ask them for suggestions about how you could support them more
effectively
 See if they would be willing to act as guinea pigs for the ideas that you
come up with together (they might well appreciate seeing that they can
help you to learn and develop services at the same time as benefitting
themselves from your undivided attention)
o Talk to the them, checking out whether the good practice guidance and
support you give is appropriate
 Are there things that should be changed? Can some things be lighter
touch? Are there some things that are not covered?
 Prioritise which volunteer led activities you will seek to support first
o The volunteer led groups in your area will be involved in a wide range of work,
rather than using a scattergun approach to engaging with them, why not work
out where your intervention will have most impact and start there?
 There could be groups in one area of activity that no-one else is
supporting
 You could have a paucity of a certain type of volunteering opportunity or
volunteering opportunities in a certain filed and want to see if you can
help to develop some new ones
 There could be a geographical area within your locality where there are
not many volunteering opportunities and/or there is a local strategic
interest in seeing development (if the latter your intervention could earn
you brownie points with your local authority)
 You might have identified a real need in your local area and can identify
some volunteer led groups which, through your support, can help to meet
 Develop relationships
o Most volunteer led groups are founded on relationships and work with others on
a relationship basis – to win their trust and respect you need to do the same
with them
o Develop partnerships that will help you to support volunteer led activity with
others who are involved in this activity – you probably already meet to discuss
broader voluntary and community sector or volunteering issues, spend regular
time together thinking specifically about how to improve the support for
volunteer led volunteering
 Think creatively and share your learning
o Do you have to do all of this? Could you involve some volunteers in doing some
research and developing some relationships? (In doing this they might well
discover others that share a passion to meet an identified local need and set
up more volunteer led activities)
o Are there practical things you can do? A spare cupboard, the use of a desk
when it is lying vacant, etc could make all the difference to some volunteers –
and if you‟ve built a relationship you will know that you can trust each other
o Don‟t forget to let others know what you are learning, it will help them, and
hopefully they will reciprocate – it will save everyone re-inventing the wheel...
- 54 -
Fresh thinking

Over the next two years of Modernising Volunteering team‟s work we will be further
exploring how to improve support for volunteer led activity.
 We will commission work to be undertaken by a local generalist volunteering support
service (such as a Volunteer Centre) or a partnership (which will include a local
generalist volunteering support service) to explore the nature of volunteer led
volunteering within its locality; work with these groups to identify how best to meet
their support needs; and review the current good practice guidelines for volunteer
involvement in order to identify how they can be amended in order to be relevant
to small volunteer led groups
 Prepare and publish a detailed case study from the pilot, and publish interim case
studies during the life of the pilot
 Seek to identify/develop and promote/publish further case studies about volunteer
led volunteering22
 Disseminate guidance notes on providing support to volunteer led volunteering to all
Volunteer Centres and student volunteering action groups in England and on
Volunteering England‟s mailing list
 Update the guidance notes we have produced, and publish these online
22 If your organisation is using innovative ways of supporting volunteer led volunteering and
wishes to contribute to this activity, please contact chris@redfoundation.org
- 55 -
Fresh thinking
Developing the
role of
Volunteering
Champions
- 56 -
Fresh thinking

In this section we explore the Champion concept with examples of some schemes
currently in operation.
We have identified that there are a number of different ways in which the term
Volunteering Champion is used: peer led recruitment and support for organisations;
championing volunteering at senior and governance levels within organisations; and
championing volunteering at a strategic level. Examples of each of these in action are
given. However, we have found little evidence of widespread adoption of any of these;
rather we have discovered that the confusion about what a Volunteering Champion is in
itself causes confusion. We explore the perceptions that volunteers, Volunteer Managers
and Volunteering Champions have of the role; and identify reasons why it has not
developed further.
The section concentrates on the role of Volunteering Champions at a strategic level – the
concept proposed by the Commission on the Future of Volunteering. It looks at what the
volunteering movement would want from Volunteering Champion schemes and raises
areas that need further consideration as the development of these is piloted over coming
years.
Whilst there is little experience of Volunteering Champions to draw on, key areas for
consideration have been prepared for those considering developing a scheme. Further
work is to be done in this area, and additional guidance issued as this is undertaken.
Summary conclusions
 There needs to be a consensus on what a Volunteering Champion is and what a
Volunteering Champion aims to do
 Although a significant number of concerns about Volunteering Champion schemes
have been raised; many of these can be resolved with greater clarity about what a
Volunteer Champion scheme is and who is involved
 The potential for an online network of Volunteer Champions has been identified
What are champions?

A dictionary definition of a champion is someone who fights in single combat for
themselves or for another or who defends a cause. The act of championing is defined as
challenging and/or defending and/or supporting. Colloquially, champion means
excellent.
Existing champion schemes

The concept of a champion is one that has been adopted by a wide range of causes,
partnerships and organisations in order to further their agendas. Examples include:
 Energy Champions
This created a network of Energy Champions who provide basic energy advice in
the homes of vulnerable people in deprived areas in deprived areas of the East
Midlands. The project aims to improve energy efficiency and affordable warmth
within local communities and to tackle fuel poverty by reducing up to 2,600 tonnes
- 57 -
Fresh thinking
of CO2 emissions per year, saving up to £250 per household visited. The scheme built
on previous work in communities in the region and focuses on equipping community
activists with the knowledge and skills necessary to deliver energy efficiency advice
to vulnerable members of the communities they serve.
 Food Champion
The Food Standards Agency launched the Food Champion Awards in 2007 in
partnership with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, the Trading
Standards Institute, the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services and the
Improvement and Development Agency in order to acknowledge the important role
local authorities play in improving local food safety and standards and in enhancing
community diet and nutrition. The Food Champion Award is a prestigious
achievement. Winning local authorities will have demonstrated good practice and a
shown commitment to making the local community a better place to live. The
awards encourage sharing of good practice across local authorities and enhance
the reputation of winning authorities with residents and visitors alike.
 Street Champions
The Street Champion scheme is a community-led project in Birmingham which
supports residents who are concerned about their environment and want to make
improvements. Over 700 Champions are improving Birmingham‟s environment
through reporting problems in their area, organising activities, and making their views
count through better contact with the City Council. Champions undertake activities
including tree planting, bulb planting, hanging baskets and recycling schemes. The
project is supported jointly by Birmingham City Council, CSV Environment,
Birmingham Association of Neighbourhood Forums and Groundwork Birmingham &
Solihull.
 Compact Champions
The Compact is the agreement between government and the voluntary and
community sector to improve their relationship for mutual advantage and
community gain. All top tier local authorities have a Local Compact for their area.
Compact Champions are considered an important factor that contributes to the
success of Local Compacts23. There is no one single definition of a Compact
Champion, however, their role and function can be broadly described as having
„the responsibility for making the Compact known, understood and used within their
individual organisation, department or sector and through local partnerships, forums
and events. Champions are key in taking the Compact… forward‟24. The Commission
for the Compact estimates that there are around 1,000 Compact Champions25.
However, while there is anecdotal evidence of their success, there is a lack of
evidence on the different models and approaches to championing, their impact,
common themes and best practice. The Commission for the Compact, in partnership
with Compact Voice, has commissioned the Institute of Voluntary Action Research to
assess the role and impact of Compact Champions; the report of this activity will be
available late in 2009.
23 Institute of Voluntary Action Research What makes a successful Local Compact September
2008
24 www.wolverhamptoncompact.co.uk/champions.html
25 Compact Voice, October 2008
- 58 -
Fresh thinking
Volunteering Champions - background

In recent years the concept of Volunteer/Volunteering Champions has begun to emerge.
As a relatively new idea there are still relatively few developed schemes with a
corresponding scarcity of information or support available. This is reflected in the fact that
our survey, completed by 573 people, only had 28 responses (4.8%) about Volunteering
Champions.
There is some confusion about what the term Volunteering Champion means. We have
identified three major ways in which the concept is being used:
 Peer led volunteer recruitment and support for organisations
o Of the organisations responding to the Volunteering Champions section of our
survey, 15 were involved in this style of Volunteering Champion activity
o Of the Volunteering Champions responding to our survey:
 3 indicated that their role included recruiting other volunteers
 5 indicated that their role included supporting other volunteers
 1 indicated that their role included training volunteers
 Championing volunteering at senior and governance levels within organisations
 5 indicated that their role included raising the profile of volunteering within
their organisation
 1 indicated that their role included supporting the charity on developing
ways to make best use of volunteers‟ offer of time and skills
 Championing volunteering at a strategic level
 3 indicated that their role included this model of Volunteering Champion
 5 indicated that their role included raising the profile of volunteering
outside their organisation
Other organisations responses to our survey described the primary purpose of their
Volunteering Champion scheme as:
 „SCA Committee – they run the department and are in charge of policy decision‟
 „Champion projects‟
 „Create awareness of volunteering in the community‟
 „Lobby on behalf of volunteers facing barriers‟
 „To promote and encourage volunteer involvement at a sectional level – especially
where they have not been considered before‟
Peer led volunteer recruitment and support for organisations

This is where a volunteer or a team of volunteers is identified by an organisation to act as
ambassadors and encourage others to volunteer. It can often happen informally, and
where undertaken on a more formalised basis will normally be a development opportunity
for an existing volunteer.
- 59 -
Fresh thinking
Volunteers playing this role can:

 Showcase their activity at events – either by demonstrating it or being on a stand
 Speak about the organisation and their involvement at events
 Recommend volunteering to their friends and colleagues
Whilst this can be seen as a championing role, most organisations do not use this
terminology to describe it and do not run it as dedicated champion programme; rather it
is seen as part of volunteer recruitment, marketing or the fundraising functions/teams.
 Volunteering Champions in the Prince‟s Trust
The Prince‟s Trust Team programme invites young people who have successfully
completed their twelve week programme to return in a voluntary capacity as
Assistant Team Leaders; these ambassadors help to recruit new groups of young
volunteers, provide strong peer-leadership and encourage new teams to work
together to achieve their goals.
 Volunteering Champions in action in Leicestershire
Leicestershire County Council‟s Community Services Department has recently begun
to develop a Volunteer Champions scheme supported by a Volunteer Co-ordinator.
The Volunteer Co-ordinator provides regular information and updates to the group of
12 Volunteer Champions in emails, news-sheets, etc.
Volunteer Champions act as a link between the Volunteer Co-ordinator and the staff
sections; their primary role is intended to be providing information and advocating
on behalf of volunteers and their involvement to staff/ colleagues. It is hoped that be
involving Champions the project will have some ownership at a section level and
give sections an opportunity to feedback information to the project‟s Working
Group.
A task description for the Volunteer Champions has been developed. Under the
heading „Being a Volunteer Champion, what being a Volunteer Champion means to
you‟ the role is described as:
o Personal development, improving knowledge and skills, and direct involvement
are some of the benefits that can be gained by being a Volunteer Champion
o A Volunteer Champion will be a person willing to literally „champion‟
volunteering within the team or sector they work in
o Acting as an ambassador with the task of actively promoting volunteers and
volunteering within their section, ensuring that when planning and delivering
services, consideration is given to any activities that impact on or involve
volunteers and volunteering
o A Volunteer Champion may already be involved with and or manage
volunteers and so can act as a source of support and information on
volunteering. Not necessarily an expert – just know where to go for the right
information and ensure colleagues get updated on any relevant issues
o Being a Volunteer Champion is not expected to add to workloads, just a
willingness to ensure that volunteers and volunteering are taken into account
when planning projects and activities, developing practices etc
o The Champions can directly contribute to the development of the volunteering
project by direct involvement, presenting issues and ideas including ones from
colleagues
o It is hoped that some communication system can be established that can act
as a notice board, keeping Champions up to date on any issues around
- 60 -
Fresh thinking
volunteering, sharing knowledge, raising awareness by asking and answering

questions
The scheme is so new that it is impossible to provide any evaluation; however, the
Volunteer Co-ordinator believes that „having people know that they can have a say
on how the project works and being able pass on important information can only be
positive‟. The Volunteer Co-ordinator has identified the importance of Senior
Management support and encouragement in ongoing project success, and expects
to learn more as the programme develops.
Championing volunteering at senior and governance levels within

organisations
This concept is described in Volunteering: Compact code of good practice, as a
voluntary and community sector undertaking that organisations and groups will
„Identify a named person to be responsible for volunteer involvement and for
monitoring and reporting on it. Also identify a Trustee Board Champion for
Volunteering.‟
Evidence given to the Commission on the Future of Volunteering26 indicated that:
„The fact that the Compact and Code help support the case for proper
organisational support for volunteering was welcomed. One respondent
commented that they „recognise and promote the need for volunteering to be
properly supported, that there is appropriate training and supervision, or at least
oversight of the volunteer‟ (volunteer, local voluntary organisations), while another
suggested that „their usefulness has been working internally with organisations, using
them to back up arguments for supporting volunteering such as having a recognised
champion for volunteering on the trustee board‟ (employee, national voluntary
organisation, older people).‟
Despite this comment and there having been an undertaking in Volunteering: Compact
code of good practice since 2001, it would appear that there is patchy implementation
especially in the appropriate recognition of volunteer management within organisations
and the appointment of Trustees as Board Champions for Volunteering.
A response to the first consultation undertaken by the Commission on the Future of
Volunteering27 identified:
„The importance of raising significantly the role of professional volunteer
management, not as a control function per se, but in the sense of maximising the
potential volunteer contribution overall. There also, as best practice, needs to be
„volunteer champions‟ at the highest level in charity organisations to ensure they do
not suffer from being paid staff led and (partially) blind to the concerns of
volunteers.‟
Whilst the role of Volunteer Manager is becoming more common, the focus groups we
held with members of the Association of Volunteer Managers from a range of
organisations (size, sector and geographical) suggest that there is frustration about the
26 Results of the public consultation, Commission on the Future of Volunteering, January 2008
27 „My vision for volunteering is... I would like the Commission to consider...‟ report on
consultation responses, Commission on the Future of Volunteering, June 2006
- 61 -
Fresh thinking
lack of recognition and status of volunteering in many organisations, with current key
challenges facing Volunteer Managers including:
 „Buy-in in organisation‟
 „Organisation‟s understanding of value of managing volunteers properly‟
 „Wider understanding of volunteer management‟
 „Internal recognition and valuing of Volunteer Manager role‟
 „Attitude of paid staff‟
 „How to help staff realise impact and amount volunteers give‟
 „More understanding within organisation about role volunteers currently play and
could play‟
 „Policy/practice not used, not updated‟
 „Influencing senior staff and trustees‟
 „Back up‟
 „Seeing things through‟
 „Ensuring volunteer input feeds into central strategy‟
Every focus group identified issues of lack of resources and overstretched volunteering
programmes:
 „No budget for doing it‟
 „No funding to advertise‟
 „Justifying how much time I need to do the job properly‟
 „The area I work has expanded but with no extra resources for voluntary services – so
I need more staff‟
 „One person responsible for everything – support and recruitment – not enough for
whole charity‟
 „More resources from organisation or awareness that it is needed to support
volunteer structure and development in organisation‟
Every focus group also identified the need for training for Volunteer Managers, and the
lack of resources to undertake this.
Volunteer Managers in these focus groups also identified that key support and
development needs include:
 „Understanding‟
 „Respect‟
 „Supervision management‟
 „Senior Management support‟
 „Central Office and Board support and engagement‟
The experience of these Volunteer Managers was varied, but many felt undervalued and
unable to effectively influence the agenda for volunteering within their organisations.
These focus groups also reflected on the role of a Trustee Board Champion for
Volunteering. This was a concept many did not recognise as happening within their
organisations. The participants suggested:
 „Have them on the Board! But can be tokenistic‟
 „They represent volunteers and see things from a volunteer‟s perspective‟
 „Addresses the Board to keep the profile of volunteering high‟
In order to increase the number and effectiveness of Trustee Board Champion for
Volunteering, members of the Association of Volunteer Managers identified that there is a
need for:
- 62 -
Fresh thinking
 „Support at Board level‟

 „Champions at Director level or above‟
 Clarity about „how it is different from my role as a Volunteer Manager?‟
Championing volunteering at a strategic level

The England Volunteering Development Councils‟ submission to the Commission on the
Future of Volunteering28 stated that:
„Volunteering is part of active communities (whether geographical, cultural or in any
other way self defined). Volunteering should be recognised at all levels as an agent
of change in community development. Volunteering should be recognised, valued
and universally understood as an integral part of a healthy community. A healthy
community will have volunteers of all ages and from all sections of society.
Opportunities to volunteer should meet community needs and people‟s aspirations,
expectations and motivations. Young people should be encouraged to „get the
volunteering bug‟ and be supported from early on, right through life to participate
within their communities of choice.‟
The Councils identified a number of issues that should be addressed in order for this to
happen, these included:
„A lack of leadership and insufficient numbers of people championing the role of
volunteers‟
The Councils suggested that the Commission could explore the potential for:
„Encouraging more volunteering champions at senior levels, for example designated
volunteering members of local authorities‟
In its final report29, the Commission on the Future of Volunteering made a central and
some linked recommendations about Volunteering Champions. Their main
recommendation was the introduction of Volunteering Champions at local level. In
support of this recommendation, the Commission said:
„We propose that Volunteering Champions are established in each local authority
area, linked to the wider modernisation agenda...
These Champions could work either individually or in groups, and could be based
either within existing volunteer development agencies or other relevant agencies or
within the local authority itself.
The Volunteering Champions should be volunteers, and sufficient funds need to be
made available... to provide proper support and training.
The role of the Volunteering Champions would be to work with infrastructure
agencies and local government to promote the value and benefits of volunteering
to individuals and organisations.
We are impressed with v‟s strategy to develop youth volunteering champions in
each region of England and would like to see this extended to other groups of
volunteers.‟
28 Our vision for volunteering and issues that we believe the Commission should consider,
England Volunteering Development Councils, June 2006
29 Report of the Commission on the Future of Volunteering and manifesto for change,
Commission on the Future of Volunteering, January 2008
- 63 -
Fresh thinking
The Commission linked this recommendation to further proposals that these Volunteering
Champions should play a part in its recommendation that there should be „a sustained,
high-level approach to raising the profile of volunteering. As part of that, we recommend
that existing events to promote volunteering be enhanced and made more effective‟.
The Commission also recommended that „funds be made available to assist with the
modernisation of the volunteering infrastructure at local level‟. The recommendation was
supported with this statement:
„We propose the establishment of a Volunteering Matched Fund totalling £5 million a
year for three years, to which partnerships of local infrastructure organisations and
local authorities could bid to support the strategic development of volunteering.
Central government funding would be contingent upon a similar matched funding
amount being provided by the local authority or partnership and upon well thought-
out strategies for long-term financial sustainability. The fund would also support the
establishment of teams of local Volunteering Champions.‟
In its response30 to the first two recommendations the Government said:
„As Manifesto for Change demonstrates national campaigns are just one part of
raising the profile of volunteering and they are most effective when supported by
local campaigns and initiatives. The Commission therefore proposes the introduction
of local volunteering champions in each local authority area.
Government has considered this recommendation and is pleased that Manifesto for
Change recognises the approach that v are taking at a local level.
v is creating a network of local vinvolved and Youth Action Teams. The Youth Action
Teams are a network of youth ambassadors to champion volunteering at a local
level and inspire their peers to volunteer. vinvolved teams are a network of youth
experts on the ground who will encourage more community organisations to open
their doors to young volunteers. v‟s investment will support volunteering by and for
young people and will be an important step in developing future volunteering
champions at a local level.
In response to this recommendation the Government will follow the developments of
v‟s local work to learn from their approach.
In addition to our financial investment through v the Government has included a
performance indicator on volunteering in the new set of 198 indicators for local
authorities. Each local authority will be assessed on performance against these
indicators and the indicator provides a real incentive for local authorities to support
volunteering at a local level.‟
In response to the recommendation about funding to support Volunteering Champions,
the Government said:
„The role of local volunteering infrastructure organisations is crucial, but as Manifesto
for Change reports, it is often under resourced and its contribution under recognised.
Manifesto for Change recommends a specific fund to support local volunteering
infrastructure. We have considered this, but we will not be implementing this
recommendation in the way that Manifesto for Change recommends. Instead
Government will be investing in local infrastructure in three ways:
30 Government response to the Commission on the Future of Volunteering, Cabinet Office –

Office of the Third Sector, 2008
- 64 -
Fresh thinking
 In the case of youth volunteering v will be investing significantly to support local

volunteering infrastructure through £42.6 million to create Youth Action and
vinvolved teams
 Capacitybuilders have announced an £18 million fund for local and regional
priority projects which will invest in changes to the way that support to the Third
Sector is delivered - and would expect volunteering infrastructure to be among
the range of initiatives supported under this fund. The first tranche of projects will
be announced in March 2008
 Capacitybuilders are also currently working on plans for £5 million of capital
investment over the next 3 years which will also be aligned to the
transformation and modernisation of sector support
Aligned to this investment the new local performance indicators on volunteering and
the environment for a thriving Third Sector provide a real incentive for local authorities
to support local volunteering infrastructure.‟
The Modernising Structures Action Group, established by Volunteering England to take
forward some of the recommendations of the Commission has stated31 that it would like to
see „Champions across the country to increase quality and quantity of volunteering and
excellence in volunteer support‟ and identified that „the National Support Service to lead
on reviewing existing Champion schemes and define and resource a volunteering
scheme if appropriate‟. The Action Group believes32 that Volunteering Champions need
to be pivotal in their communities and stimulate and record activity. It has suggested
initially creating Volunteering Champions in local authorities that have chosen Local Area
Agreement National Indicator 6. Members of the Action Group agree that this is a key task
for Volunteer Centres, and they should be supported in doing this.
Information:
Youth Action Teams
The Russell Commission identified the importance of positive peer influence in engaging
more young people in volunteering. Youth Action Teams can act as a catalyst for youth
action by:
 Promoting the benefits of youth volunteering to their peers and recruiting young
people to get involved
 Developing consultation surveys to seek young people‟s views about what matters
to them and what difference they‟d like to make in their communities
 Identifying community issues and developing projects to address them
 Inspiring organisations to involve more young volunteers, and providing training
and top tips to help them shape their projects
 Getting feedback from young people on their volunteering experiences and
contributing to content and discussion forums on www.vinspired.com
 Raising awareness of the difference young people are making through their
volunteering and organising celebration events to recognise their contributions
There is a Youth Action Team covering every local authority area in England. Each team
31 Briefing – modernising structures, Volunteering England, October 2008

32 Minutes of meeting, 25th November 2008, Volunteering England
- 65 -
Fresh thinking
is made up of young volunteers aged 16-25. In addition to the functions described

above, Youth Action Teams also help to develop, influence and support the activities of
vinvolved teams.
This model is still new. v has commissioned an external evaluation of its funded activities,
including Youth Action Teams; this work is currently being undertaken.
Participants in the Association of Volunteer Managers focus groups reflected on the

potential for Volunteering Champion schemes working strategically at a local level. Some
felt that Volunteering Champions „can be inspiring‟, whilst others were „not sure‟ or said
they „don‟t get it‟. This reflected on the newness of the ideas being proposed. Some felt
that Volunteering Champions „should be a volunteer‟, others that they should „have
experience of volunteering‟ or be „respected in their field, organisation or peer group‟. It
was suggested that „surely strategic local champions is bread and butter Volunteer
Centre work‟. The Chairs of the England Volunteering Development Councils were also
identified as Volunteering Champions; although conversations with the Chairs have
suggested that this is not always how they perceive themselves.
At these focus groups some participants suggested that „it always takes more than one
person‟ and others that they would like to see schemes developed but they had „no
resources to do it‟. Where Volunteering Champions schemes were being implemented
they were still in the very early stages of development.
We asked the focus groups to consider the key elements of a Volunteering Champion
scheme, or what could be done to improve existing ones. They told us:
 Underpinning issues that need to be addressed:
o „Be clear about exactly what Champions should do‟
o „Give Champions tools to fulfil their role‟
o „Promote Champions – being demanding of them‟
o „Support at board level‟
 Volunteering Champions should be/have:
o „Movers and shakers‟
o „Existing volunteers and organisations to promote volunteering‟
o „At director level or above‟
o „Passion‟
o „People who understand volunteering and current climate of volunteering –
correct skills set/knowledge and good practice‟
 Volunteering Champions should:
o „Join up approach at a local level – organisations approaching authorities
together‟
o „Consider events and link ups with weeks and days‟
 Consideration should be given to „on-line Volunteering Champions‟
 Be cautious:
o „Volunteers don‟t care about volunteering itself – care about
cause/organisation‟
o „Do not assume a volunteer is better than a Volunteer Manager doing this'
- 66 -
Fresh thinking
Strategic Volunteering Champion in action nationally33 34

Baroness Neuberger was appointed as the Government's Volunteering Champion in June
2007. She is working closely with Kevin Brennan, the Minister for the Third Sector, and
reporting directly to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has asked her to look at how the
public services can make better use of volunteers.
In March 2008 Baroness Neuberger published her first report, Volunteering in the Public
Services: Health and Social Care. The report is the first in a series examining the role of
volunteers in public services. It found much potential to expand volunteering in health and
social care to create more people-centred services, and a better understanding of
service users.
In March 2009 Baroness Neuberger published a report on volunteering in the criminal
justice system. The report found that volunteers could „blow fresh air‟ into often closed
institutions. However, it did find that whilst some parts of the criminal justice system rely
heavily on volunteers, particularly in the care of victims, other sections remain suspicious of
involving volunteers in their work. On the day the report was published the Lord Chancellor
and Secretary of State for Justice appointed the Justice Minister, Shahid Malik as his
Ministerial Champion for Volunteering. As Volunteering Champion, Mr Malik will work with
criminal justice agencies to identify practical opportunities to enhance their work through
the use of volunteers and improve the Ministry of Justice‟s engagement with the
community.
Baroness Neuberger describes her role as being to „support, encourage, nag, thank,
argue, explain to volunteers and about volunteering‟. Whilst acknowledging that it is „hard
to judge‟ whether the model of Volunteering Champion she undertakes is effective, she
does feel that „more staff and more encouragement from voluntary organisations‟ would
assist her to be more effective in her role.
Strategic Volunteering Champions in action in Westminster
Westminster City Council launched its Volunteering Strategy 2008-16 in June 2008 with the
aim of increasing the number of people volunteering in Westminster, to improve the
capacity of organisations in Westminster to involve volunteers and to improve the co-
ordination of volunteering in Westminster. Volunteering Champions are emerging in
various forms through this:
 Westminster City Council Chief Executive Mike Moore is actively promoting
volunteering at a high level and is supportive of work being done to achieve the
aims set out in the strategy
 One project currently being developed is the Westminster City Council Employer
Supported Volunteering Scheme – this project will enable staff to undertake
volunteering activity in work time and will involve recruiting Volunteering Champions
in each service department to promote the role and benefits of volunteering to
colleagues
The Policy Team at Westminster City Council works towards delivering actions arising from
the Volunteering Strategy, championing volunteering internally and with external partners.
33 www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector/volunteering/Volunteering_champion.aspx
34 www.justice.gov.uk/newsrelease030309a.htm
- 67 -
Fresh thinking
Delivering the Volunteering Strategy enables the Team to champion volunteering and
ensure the links are made where appropriate to promote volunteering opportunities.
The Team is working towards promoting volunteering as a means to support small and
medium enterprises, third sector organisations and people entering or re-entering the job
market. It is anticipated that these projects will deliver some tangible results over the
coming months.
Within Westminster City Council, the concept is likely to be developed to refer to a team
of „Champions‟ who will promote volunteering amongst colleagues. The emerging
Volunteering Champions in Westminster believe that a virtual „Volunteering Champion
Network‟ could be useful to share ideas and information about volunteering and best
practice in promoting volunteering and engaging volunteers.
Support for Volunteering Champions

Volunteering Champions who responded to our survey identified the sources of useful
support they received from inside their organisations as:
 Other paid staff (5)
 Volunteer Manager (4)
 Volunteers (4)
 Other Volunteering Champions (2)
 Trustees (1)
 1 identified that they did not feel they had any support from within their organisation
They also identified the following as providers of useful support from outside their
organisation:
 Paid staff in other organisations (4)
 Volunteers in other organisations (2)
 Volunteering Champions in other organisations (1)
 Council for Voluntary Service (1)
 2 identified that they did not feel they had any support from outside their
organisation
The Volunteering Champions were asked whether they have the opportunity to talk with
Volunteering Champions in other organisations:
 1 has frequent contact
 4 have occasional contact
 3 have no contact
When asked why they did not have opportunities for contact three identified:
 „A lack of structured forums/networks‟
 „The opportunity has not arisen, I‟ve not sought it out and I‟m not sure how relevant it
would be‟
 „Perhaps parochial attitude on my part‟
We asked the Volunteering Champions to identify the main barrier to achieving their aims:
 Funding (3)
 Lack of support from volunteers in their organisations (3)
 Lack of support from paid staff in their organisations (2)
 Lack of time (1)
- 68 -
Fresh thinking
Two respondents also identified:

 „Lack of knowledge within the organisation re. the benefits and not considered a
high priority‟
 „Volunteer involving organisations‟ lack of capacity to support volunteers or be
creative in thinking how to involve volunteers‟ skills and expertise to develop the
organisation strategically (aside from fundraising and frontline services)‟
In considering these responses, it is worth noting that four of the eight respondents came
from the London region, the other four being scattered across regions in the North and
Midlands.
Conclusions
While the conclusions to be drawn from this section are limited because of the limited
response from the online survey and the disparate meaning given to the term
„Volunteering Champion‟, one conclusion is arguably very clear – there needs to be a
consensus on what a Volunteering Champion is and what a Volunteering Champion aims
to do.
The focus groups raised a significant number of concerns, about Volunteering Champion
schemes. Many of these could be resolved with greater clarity about what a Volunteer
Champion scheme is and who is involved.
Interestingly, given the small number of people responding to this part of our survey, the
potential for an online network of Volunteer Champions was raised both in a survey
response and by Westminster City Council.
What to think about when setting up a Volunteering Champion scheme

Volunteering Champion schemes are currently under-developed, and it is therefore
difficult to provide detailed guidance. The work that Modernising Volunteering will do over
the coming two years will lead to this being produced. In the meantime, here are some
things to consider:
 Consultation
Ensuring that you have good knowledge about what is required for your situation
therefore conducting a simple consultation exercise will solve this as well as provide
some initial publicity for the scheme
 Clarity
It is important to be clear about which model is best for the organisation or
geographical area right from the offset. This includes providing a widely agreed
definition of „volunteer‟ for all stakeholders within the scheme
 Requirements
Make sure the role description and person specification are clear and well researched
as well as the time commitment and any other requirements and ensure there appear
in recruitment advertising
 Communication
- 69 -
Fresh thinking
This is important especially if there are multiple Volunteering Champions working across
a local authority area or organisation. Networking with other Volunteering Champions
will also have the benefit of reducing isolation
 Publicity
In order to have maximum impact the Champion scheme should be widely publicised
and regularly evaluated for its impact on policy and service delivery
 Training and Support
Ensure that there is a designated source of ongoing support for the Volunteering
Champion(s) as well as induction and ongoing training
 Information
If signposting is part of their role, the Volunteering Champion(s) will need access to all
the relevant information and data. This will need to be regularly reviewed and
updated.

Over the next two years of the Modernising Volunteering team‟s work we will be further
exploring the role and potential for local strategic Volunteering Champion schemes.
 We will commission work to be undertaken within a Local Strategic Partnership area
to develop a new or further develop an existing Volunteering Champion scheme
 Prepare and publish a detailed case study from the pilot, and publish interim case
studies during the life of the pilot
 Seek to identify/develop and promote/publish further case studies about
Volunteering Champion schemes35
 Disseminate guidance notes on Volunteering Champion schemes to all Volunteer
Centres and student volunteering action groups in England and on Volunteering
England‟s mailing list
 Update the guidance notes we have produced, and publish these online
35 If your organisation has, or is developing, a strategic Volunteering Champion scheme and

wishes to contribute to this activity, please contact georgina@redfoundation.org
- 70 -
Fresh thinking
Appendices
- 71 -
Fresh thinking
Appendix 1:
Data report
1 Introduction to the data

During the last quarter of 2008, an online survey was promoted for those involved
with volunteers or who were volunteers themselves. While a single gateway, the
survey was designed to elicit information from three groups:
 Individuals (paid staff) managing volunteers36
 Volunteers:
o Volunteers managing volunteers
o Volunteering Champions
o Volunteer leaders
 Representatives of infrastructure organisations (organisations supporting
volunteer involving organisations)
After initial identifying questions, the survey led each group to a bespoke set of
questions. The questions focused on the support issues experienced by the
respondents, social networking and sources of information and advice, as well as
related topics. Managers of volunteers, for example, were asked a sub-set of
questions if they indicated that they operated a Volunteering Champions scheme.
The online survey was distributed through the Red Foundation‟s networks and
through the networks of Volunteering England, the Association of Volunteer
Managers and UKVPMs. A media release was also issued. A prize draw was offered
as an incentive to complete the survey. The survey closed on January 6th 2009.
573 individuals completed the online survey37 in the following categories:
 Individuals managing volunteers (paid) 295
 Individuals managing volunteers (volunteers) 62
 Volunteering Champions 8
 Volunteer leaders 14
 Infrastructure organisations 194
Additionally, five discussion groups were held around the country to talk about the
issues raised in greater detail.
 Volunteers leading volunteer activites and using social networking in rural areas
 Association of Volunteer Managers (workshops held at annual conference)
 Brighton volunteer involving organisations
 Stoke – older volunteers (aged 50+)
 Westminster volunteer involving organisations
36 Importantly, we were not only seeking those whose role is entitled „Volunteer Manager‟ as it
was felt that gleaning information from those who took on the role of managing volunteers
(or whose role encompassed managing volunteers) would be a broader, and thus more
useful, exercise.
37 573 represents the total after those who had failed to answer questions, those who were
working outside England, and those who did not fall into any of the categories required had
been discounted.
- 72 -
Fresh thinking
Interviews were conducted with a number of individuals, some of which led to the
formulation of case studies. Illustrative quotations are included in the followed text
from these.
This appendix looks at all data in the following order:
 Section 2. Individuals managing volunteers
 Section 3. Volunteering Champions
 Section 4. Volunteer leaders
 Section 5. Infrastructure organisations
All quotes are given verbatim, unless otherwise stated and all percentages are given
as a proportion of those who answered the question.
While respondents were given the opportunity to give their contact details for the
purpose of participating in the prize draw, all answers have been anonymised. Any
identifying features in quotations have been removed.
2 Individuals managing volunteers

357 individuals stated that they were managers of volunteers in the online survey. 62
of these (17.4%) were doing so in a voluntary capacity.
Of the 62 volunteer managers of volunteers, 62.9% described themselves as a
volunteer, 25.8% described themselves as a manager of volunteers. The remainder
used other terminology.
The managers of volunteers (both paid and voluntary) worked throughout all the
English regions as illustrated in Table 1. A bias is demonstrated toward London (14.9%
of respondents) and the South East (16.7%).
8.7% of respondents worked in an area that is primarily or exclusively rural. 45.4%

worked in areas that are primarily or exclusively urban.
Table 1: Location of respondent‟s work as a manager of volunteers
Region % of respondents
Eastern England 10.2
East Midlands 8.0
London 14.9
North East England 6.9
North West England 10.0
South East England (excluding London) 16.7
South West England 8.6
West Midlands 10.2
Yorkshire & Humberside 7.6
Other38 6.9
38 Mostly including UK-wide organisations
- 73 -
Fresh thinking
2.1 A divided role?

64% of paid managers of volunteers and 89.7% of voluntary managers of volunteers
said that managing volunteers was not the main or only component of their job.
“Part of my role is to manage volunteers but I am not called or seen as a volunteer

manager and this needs to be made more explicit then routes of support will be
more obvious.”
Other roles that respondents were taking on include, most commonly:

 Chair of trustees
 Project manager
 Administrator
 Chief Executive
With just 10.3% of voluntary managers of volunteers having a role dedicated to the
task, it is likely that this will impact on the nature of other answers in this survey in
relation to support needed and accessed.
2.1.1 The nature of the role
39.0% of the paid managers of volunteers (as illustrated in table 2) were managing
more than 50 volunteers per year. By contrast, 9.3% of the voluntary managers of
volunteers were managing more than 50.
Table 2: Number of volunteers managed each year39
No. of volunteers Paid volunteer Voluntary volunteer

managers managers
(% of total) (% of total)
0-5 3.8% 18.5%
6 - 10 7.7% 20.4%
10 - 50 43.6% 51.9%
51 - 100 13.2% 3.7%
100 + 25.8% 5.6%
Similarly, there is also a significant difference between paid and voluntary managers
of volunteers in terms of the numbers of paid staff in the team in which the
respondent is working. The paid respondents cited a mean of 15.6 full-time staff and
10.6 part-time staff members in the team. The voluntary respondents cited a mean of
1.1 full-time staff and 1.6 part-time staff members. The very different team size is likely
to impact on later questions about access to support.
39 These figures do not add to 100% because of the proportion not answering the question or
giving unquantifiable answers such as „hundreds‟.
- 74 -
Fresh thinking
2.2 Sources of support accessed

Respondents were asked what sources they had accessed in the previous 12 months
(thus, covering the period between October 2007 and December 2008) in three
categories – general support, advice and information. While it is understood that
these three categories overlap, it is useful to look at the different emphasis given by
the division into separate categories.
“It‟s not so much the support and advice available, of which there is plenty – it is
the time and staff capacity to do this that is the problem.”
Each respondent was then asked to given a score of their general satisfaction when
using the source cited as a number between 1 and 10, where 1 is least satisfied and
10 is most satisfied. These answers are given in Table 3 over the next 3 pages.
Of key significance from Table 3 is the reliance on internal sources of support, advice
and information. Internal sources were cited as line managers, colleagues,
established support systems, fellow volunteers. Internal sources are, with the
exception of information, the most commonly cited sources and are cited far in
excess of the next most commonly cited source.
For example, looking at where paid managers of volunteers access support, 42.8%
cited internal sources. The next most commonly cited source was the local Volunteer
Centre with 15.4% of respondents citing it as their primary source. Both were rated
similarly with a mean score of 7.7 and 7.5 out of 10 respectively.
More than half of all respondents did not see internal sources as their primary source
of support:
“I am sure I am not alone in not receiving more regular and structured support –
this is fairly common in small organisations.”
It is in terms of the access of information that the gap between internal sources and
other sources lessens. For voluntary managers of volunteers, 35.1% cited an internal
route as their primary source, whereas 16.2% cited a Council for Voluntary Service.
For paid managers, 27.4% cited Volunteering England, with 24.2% citing an internal
source.
In the majority of cases, the mean rating was above 6 / 10 thus suggesting a high
level of satisfaction if we take the mid-point (5/10) as being a non-committal not
pleased / not displeased level.
- 75 -
Fresh thinking
Table 3: Primary sources of support, advice and information accessed in previous

12 months40
Paid managers of volunteers Voluntary managers of volunteers

% of Mean % of Mean
Source Source
respondents score/10 respondents score/10
SUPPORT accessed SUPPORT accessed
Internal 42.8% 7.7 Internal 54.3% 7.7
Council for
Volunteer
15.4% 7.5 Voluntary 17.1% 9.3
Centre
Service
Council for
Volunteer
Voluntary 10.0% 7.5 11.4% 8.0
Centre
Service
Community
Volunteering
7.5% 8.3 Service 5.7% 6.5
England
Volunteers
National
Council for
v 4.0% 7.5 2.9% 6.0
Voluntary
Organisations
Association of
Other local
Volunteer 3.5% 5.3 8.6% 7.7
sources
Managers
Mentoring & 2.0% 6.5
Befriending
Foundation
UKVPMs41 2.0% 4.0
Workers in
Student
1.5% 8.7
Community
Volunteering
Community
Service 1.5% 7.3
Volunteers
Other 10.0% 7.7
40 Respondents could name one primary source only.

41 UK Volunteer Programme Managers – a virtual Yahoo discussion group
- 76 -
Fresh thinking

% of Mean % of Mean
Source Source
respondents score/10 respondents score/10
SUPPORT accessed SUPPORT accessed
Council for
Volunteering
18.0% 8.0 Voluntary 18.4% 8.0
England
Service
Volunteer Volunteer
12.5% 7.2 10.5% 7.0
Centre Centre
Council for Community
Voluntary 8.0% 8.4 Service 2.6% 10.0
Service Volunteers
Association of
Volunteer 3.0% 9.8 v 2.6% 7.0
Managers
Volunteering
v 2.5% 7.0 2.6% 8.0
England
National
Council for
Internet 2.0% 6.0 2.6% 6.0
Voluntary
Organisations
Community
Other
Service 1.5% 8.7 7.8% 5.7
(national)
Volunteers
Workers in
Student
1.5% 8.0 Other (local) 7.8% 7.3
Community
Volunteering
Other 13.5% 8.2
- 77 -
Fresh thinking

% of
% of % of
Source Source Source respond
respondents respondents
ents
INFORMATION accessed INFORMATION accessed
Volunteering
27.4% 8.1 Internal 35.1% 8.3
England
Council for
Internal 24.2% 8.2 Voluntary 16.2% 9.3
Service
Council for
Volunteering
Voluntary 9.7% 7.9 16.2% 5.7
England
Service
Volunteer Volunteer
9.4% 8.2 5.4% 9.0
Centre Centre
Community
Internet 9.4% 7.1 Service 5.4% 8.5
Volunteers
v 3.2% 7.0 v 2.7% 7.0
National
Association of
Council for
Volunteer 1.6% 9.7 2.7% 6.0
Voluntary
Managers
Organisations
UKVPMs 1.6% 7.3 Internet 2.7% 8.0
Mentoring &
Other
Befriending 1.6% 7.7 13.5% 6.8
(national)
Foundation
Other 12.4% 8.0
Some respondents felt that the general volunteer agencies were not sufficiently
tailored to their particular needs as an organisation as evidenced by the following
quotation.
“Haven't used any of the above that much, easier to work with other cultural
heritage organisations for help and advice as not much sector related information
available from national volunteer organisations.”
Online respondent
Members of the focus groups held as workshops at the Association of Volunteer

Managers conference were asked about the support sources they accessed. These
were given as follows:
- 78 -
Fresh thinking
 Association of Volunteer Managers (6)

 Council for Voluntary Service (2)
 Volunteer Centre (4)
 Internal (4)
 Volunteering England (6)
 Email groups (5)
o UKVPMs (3)
o Yahoo groups
o OzVPMs (international peers)
 YouthNet
 Third Sector
 Office of the Third Sector
 Suzie Lamplugh Trust – „good training‟
 Peer groups (4)
 National Network of Volunteer Involving Agencies (2)
 England Volunteering Development Council (2)
 University volunteering managers
 v teams
 Institute of Advanced Volunteer Management – „run every year – very valuable
(but not available to all)‟
 Line managers – „Head of Volunteering Strategy – some people have this extra
help‟
 „Knowing the other Heads of Volunteering‟
2.3 Online sources of support used
2.2.1 Association of Volunteer Managers fora
2.2% of paid managers of volunteers and 2.1% of voluntary managers of volunteers
described themselves as active users of the fora or Wiki on the Association of
Volunteer Managers website. A further 13.9% and 12.8% respectively said that they
had visited but were not active users. The majority of respondents 83.9% and 85.1%
respectively had not used the Association of Volunteer Managers online facility.
When looking at respondents working in primarily or exclusively rural areas, none

described themselves as active users. 16.6% said that they had visited but were not
active users, 83.3% said that they did not use it.
2.2.2 UK Volunteer Programme Managers Yahoo discussion group
“UKVPMs serves all my needs. Please don‟t duplicate this existing effort – it will just
dilute the networking by volunteer managers.”
“I find UKVPMs a bit of a pain, usually only around 1 in 10 of the messages has any
useful information, adding strain on my already bulging inbox.”
“I registered with UKVPMs but found I never really had time to take part.”
Three views from online respondents
A slightly higher proportion of respondents described themselves as active users of

UKVPMS. 7.2% of paid managers and 4.3% of voluntary managers described
- 79 -
Fresh thinking
themselves as active users. 9.8% and 10.7% respectively had used the service but
were not active users, leaving 83.0% and 85.1% who did not use it.
Interestingly, taking only those respondents working in primarily or exclusively rural
areas 87.5% did not use UKVPMS. None described themselves as active users.
2.2.3 Facebook and other social network services
Between a fifth and a quarter of respondents had tried to use a social network
service successfully to communicate with existing volunteers. While this was the most
cited use by respondents, two-thirds of respondents had not used a social
networking site for this purpose and were not planning to.
“It has been a great arena to enable students to get to know each other
informally prior to volunteering projects. It also means that the students can put a
„face‟ to a name immediately and thereby recognise their fellow volunteers when
meeting up in person for the first time.”
Interviewee talking about a Facebook group developed for their volunteers
15% of paid managers and 12.8% of voluntary managers had successfully used a
social network service as a means of recruiting volunteers. A further 3.3% and 5.1%
respectively had tried it without success.
Table 4a: Experiences of using Facebook and other social network services in
different elements of work with volunteers. Clear cells are answers from
paid managers of volunteers; shaded areas are the answers of voluntary
managers of volunteers.
Planning to
Tried it Tried it with
Not tried it try it in the
successfully42 no success
future
To recruit 15.0% 3.3% 69.2% 13.1%

volunteers 12.8% 5.1% 66.7% 17.9%
To 21.5% 1.9% 68.4% 8.1%
communicate
with existing 24.4% 2.4% 61.0% 14.6%
volunteers
To promote 6.7% 0 83.3% 10.0%
volunteering
good practice 8.1% 0 86.5% 8.1%
To promote 21.6% 2.0% 67.2% 10.3%

volunteering
events 19.0% 2.4% 64.3% 14.3%
42 Respondents were not asked to define what they meant by „success‟.
- 80 -
Fresh thinking
The following example is given to illustrate how recruitment might take place.
Figure 1: An example of volunteer recruitment on an Eastbourne „appreciation‟
site:
Case Study:
Duke of Edinburgh Society, University of Durham
A personal account by Andrew Steer
I have utilised the social networking site Facebook to organise an expedition to
Iceland and assist with the running of a university Duke of Edinburgh Society, in my
capacity as Expedition Leader and Vice President respectively.
The former of these roles involved me coordinating and delegating tasks to a large
group of people, as such Facebook proved an invaluable tool to keep people up
to date with developments, contact people individually and broadcast common
messages to the group via the „Message‟ function. Furthermore, social events and
meetings pertaining to the expedition could easily be organised at the touch of a
button, saving both time and money in comparison with telephone calls and text
messages. The diary function of Facebook ensures people are kept up to date and
reminded of important expedition meetings and events. In terms of efficiency, it
transpired quite early on in the expedition that people tend to check Facebook at
more regular intervals than e-mails, thus replies are often more prompt.
In my role as Vice President of the Duke of Edinburgh society, I used Facebook for
many of the same functions. Crucially, Facebook proved a useful marketing tool
for increasing awareness of and participation in the society throughout the
university. Several specialised events were organised to raise funds for the society,
one of which was a Tyne Bridge Abseil. Again, the „Event‟ function proved useful as
I, together with several other executive members, used this function to invite
several hundred people to the event, via our Facebook accounts. As a result,
interest in the Abseil soared, several people signed up to take part and the event
- 81 -
Fresh thinking
proved resoundingly successful.
Thus, the fact that several tools are incorporated into one website within
Facebook, e.g. e-mail, message board, calendar and event manager, greatly
adds to its wide appeal and usefulness amongst group leaders or those involved in
university societies.
A contrary perspective is given in the following quotation, typical of many concerns

raised:
„I think where social networking falls a little is that social networking is assumed to
mean FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter and Bebo. Young people, workers and
everyone else use these sites to publish information about themselves and their
lives. They share this information with friends that form their network. There's a
work/life balance issue here. If a worker, for example, creates a group of young
volunteers to create something, and then that worker has pictures or video that
are fine to share with friends but not necessarily a group of young people, what
does that tell the group? Youth workers are often role models for young people
and perhaps a video of them dancing around a club with three bottles balanced
on their head, might cause a problem with keeping order! As a youth worker, we
are all aware of boundaries when working with young people, should there not be
boundaries therefore for online youth work?
It's the same with young people, they use MySpace etc for expressing their lives,
their hobbies, their friends etc. Do they want to expose this to their worker?‟
Focus group participant
With an average of 10.4% of paid respondents and 13.7% of voluntary respondents

planning to try a social network service for their work with volunteers in the future, this
may be a significant growth area.
„For future Volunteering projects, I would certainly use both Facebook and
MySpace to promote and recruit volunteers because the young people at
present spend a lot of time on these social networking sites. It is evident that these
sites put volunteering in a 'cool' light to young people today.‟
Focus group participant
The table below suggests a lower level of use of social network services in
volunteering in rural areas. 90.9% had not used social network services in the
recruitment of volunteers, for example. And the 4.5% that had tried it had done so
without success.
- 82 -
Fresh thinking
Table 4b: Experiences of using Facebook and other social network services in
different elements of work with volunteers – respondents working in
primarily or exclusively rural areas
Planning to
Tried it Tried it with
Not tried it try it in the
successfully no success
future
To recruit
0 4.5% 90.9% 4.5%
volunteers
To
communicate
4.5% 4.5% 86.4% 4.5%
with existing
volunteers
To promote
volunteering 0% 0 100% 0
good practice
To promote
volunteering 4.8% 4.8% 85.7% 4.8%
events
Focus groups held under the auspices of workshops at the Association of Volunteer
Managers annual conference were asked what they felt were the challenges of
using social network services to communicate with volunteers. The issues they raised
are as follows:
 „Teenage volunteers want to be my friend! – No! How do I keep my home life
separate? – then my friends will see their friends‟
 „Can be discriminatory for older people‟
 „Could be a fad‟
 „Some Volunteer Managers don‟t like it‟
 „Unrestricted forums – poor advice could be harmful – safeguards re libel, etc‟
 „Unknown return for investment‟
 „Research who‟s tried what, what worked? How to translate to others/
organisations‟
 „Security‟
 „Facebook/sites blocked by IT at work‟ (3)
 „Too much spam generated‟
 „Would potential volunteers go to organisation‟s website first rather than a
social networking website?‟
 „Time to set up/manage‟ (2)
 „Volunteer Manager‟s lack of knowledge/expertise‟
 „Social element vs recruitment ask‟
 „Privacy concerns‟
 „Best site for my organisation or audience? – Facebook? Bebo?‟
 „It‟s another thing to do‟
- 83 -
Fresh thinking
2.4 Networking with other volunteer managers
„I am the only one in this organisation in this role [volunteer manager] and it can be
a lonely, unsupported role.‟
26.9% of paid managers and 37.0% of voluntary managers stated that they did not
have the opportunity to meet with other volunteer managers, or did so only rarely.
This compares with 16.6% of respondents working in rural areas.
43.0% of paid managers are able to meet with other volunteer managers
occasionally, and 30.0% do so frequently. For voluntary managers the proportions are
41.3% and 21.7% respectively. For rural managers, it is 58.3% and 25%.
For 71.8% of paid managers (and 76.2% of rural managers) these meetings take
place at formal external events such as conferences and training courses. The
corresponding proportion for voluntary managers is 52.8%.
For voluntary managers the most common means of contact taking place with other
managers of volunteers is informal social contact outside work (55.6%). 23.6% of paid
managers and 33.3% of rural managers meet other volunteer managers in this way.
42.9% of rural managers meet other volunteer managers through a Volunteer
Managers Forum organised by a Volunteer Centre, in comparison with 22.2% of
voluntary managers and 35.4% of paid managers.
63.9% of respondents felt that contact with other volunteer managers was very
useful. The remainder thought it was a little useful.
2.4.1 Online networking
47.2% of respondents who were paid managers of volunteers thought an on-line
opportunity to communicate with other volunteer managers in the workplace would
be of interest to them, along with 37% of voluntary managers and 33.3% of rural
managers.
11.6% of paid managers were not interested, along with 6.5% of voluntary managers
and 8.3% of rural managers. The remainder stated that they may be interested.
14.1% of all respondents who were not interested said that it was because their IT
network would not allow access to a social network service. 7.8% said it was a matter
of a lack of funding. The most common reason given for not being interested was a
lack of time – cited by 35.9% of respondents.
Under the auspices of workshops at the Association of Volunteer Managers
conference, focus groups were held with volunteer managers. Participants were
asked what they would like to see in an online networking facility for volunteer
managers. Issues they raised are listed here:
 „Talk to colleagues‟
 „Ask questions‟ / „ask about problems‟
 „Groupings – e.g. animal care, working with young people‟
 „Promote expertise‟
 „Gather interest for events‟
- 84 -
Fresh thinking
 „Sophisticated search for specific information‟

 „Signpost to experts‟
 „Live chat/discussion forums‟
 „Clear and easy to understand‟
 „Easy to access if you don‟t use social networking now‟
 „Finding out about resources‟
 „Funding info‟
 „Encouraging Volunteer Managers to use! – already a lot to do already‟
 „Reviews on articles etc to give us key points‟
 „Knowing which Volunteer Managers are working on what projects in order to
contact them‟
 „How will it be different to existing networks?‟
 „Members only‟
 „Talents list – what skills all have‟
 „Anonymous responses to all‟
 „Matching service to find a mentor‟
 „Search for someone in my area (geographical/topic – e.g. animal charities)‟
 „Time for a volunteer to manage /admin the email group‟
3 Volunteering Champions
3.1 Survey background
Each volunteer and each volunteer manager completing the on-line survey was
asked to complete a number of questions specifically relating to Volunteering
Champions.
Of the 357 respondents who said that they managed volunteers, 20 (5.6%) answered
the questions on having a Volunteering Champion scheme. Of the 141 volunteers
who completed the survey, eight (5.7%) said that they were Volunteering
Champions.
The small numbers involved mean that few conclusions can be drawn from the data.
However, the paucity of responses about Volunteering Champions from this large-
scale national survey does suggest that Volunteering Champions schemes are not as
commonplace as might have been thought.
3.2 What is a Volunteering Champion scheme?
„Clarify what championing is! And how it is different from my role as a Volunteer
Manager.‟
A plea from a focus group attendee
Volunteer managers were asked what the primary purpose of their Volunteering
Champion scheme is. 75.0% said their scheme was to encourage volunteer
recruitment and support. However, this is not the only purpose stated. 45.0% said that
the primary purpose (or one of the primary purposes)43 was to champion
volunteering at senior and governance levels within their own organisation. 35.0% felt
43 Respondents could opt to have more than one primary purpose.
- 85 -
Fresh thinking
that the purpose of their Volunteering Champion scheme was to promote

volunteering at a strategic level in their area.
25.0% of respondents said that their scheme had another primary purpose from those
listed in the above paragraph. These included lobbying on behalf of volunteers
facing barriers; running the volunteer department; and being in charge of policy
decisions.
The following quotation perhaps illustrates one of the many demonstrated
misconceptions about Volunteering Champions:
„We don‟t have a Volunteering Champion scheme. We‟re not children who need
gimmicks, we are all here because we want to be and to help others is reward
enough.‟
Volunteering Champions were asked what they saw as being their role as a
Volunteering Champion. 62.5% said their role was to support other volunteers; the
same proportion said that it was to raise the profile of volunteering within their
organisation; 50.0% said it was to raise the profile outside their organisation. 37.5%
said their role was to recruit other volunteers. Additional roles were given as
„supporting the charity on developing ways to make best use of volunteers' offer of
time and skills‟ and training volunteers.
Interviewees included Baroness Neuberger who is arguably the most prominent
Volunteering Champion. She described her role as to “support, encourage, nag,
thank, argue, explain to volunteers and about volunteering” on behalf of the Prime
Minister.
Thus, respondents have given a picture of a scheme under a single name
„Volunteering Champions‟ which works in a number of different areas, some internal
to the organisation, some external, some working directly with volunteers, others
working at strategic level. This does not mean that all Volunteering Champion
schemes are not effective in what they do. Take the following quote of a scheme
which is being rolled out to a wider geographical area.
„For us the [Volunteering Champion] role is about being a local contact to

encourage the recruitment of volunteers. Having a plan, taking small steps to help
recruitment, promoting [our cause], following up „leads‟ i.e. the details of possible
volunteers.
Our model of „Volunteer Recruitment Champion‟ varies in its effectiveness as our
volunteers bring different skills to the role and have different amounts of time to
offer.
As a county we have included in our development plan a commitment to having
Volunteer Recruitment Champions in every district so we will need to look at a
strategy and support to achieve this.‟
Interviewee
- 86 -
Fresh thinking
3.3 What are the benefits of a Volunteering Champion scheme?

Given the disparate aims of Volunteering Champions schemes, it is unsurprising that
the benefits given by respondents are also varied in their scope.
Responses from volunteer managers included44:
 Promotion - „[The scheme is] the face of volunteering‟
 Undertaking tasks - „They [the Volunteering Champions] are there to run one-off
events that I don't have time to do!‟
 Volunteer recruitment - „Helped to obtain greater volunteer numbers‟
 Volunteer support - „We call it mentoring – [it] allows extra support to new
volunteers‟
Issues raised by a focus group of volunteer managers about the benefits of
Volunteering Champion schemes:
 „They represent volunteers and see things from a volunteer‟s perspective‟
 „They can be inspiring‟
 „Existing volunteers champion the cause and recruiting more volunteers‟
 „Existing volunteers train new volunteers‟
 „Peer recruitment‟
 „Speaker volunteers raise awareness‟
3.4 Barriers to Volunteering Champions
Volunteering Champions were asked what they felt were the main barriers to
achieving their aims as Volunteering Champions. Funding (42.9%) and a lack of
support from volunteers (42.9%) were the two main barriers cited.
„A virtual „Volunteering Champion‟ network could be useful to share ideas and

information about volunteering and best practice in promoting volunteering and
engaging volunteers.‟
Interviewee
Issues raised by a focus group of volunteer managers about the misgivings of

Volunteering Champion schemes:
 „Have them on the board! But can be tokenistic‟
 „[Our organisation] didn‟t use „champion‟ terminology‟
 „Surely strategic local champions is bread and butter Volunteer Centre work‟
 „Experience of champion schemes is that it always takes more than one
person‟
 „No resources to do it‟
 „Don‟t get it‟
 „Needs movers and shakers‟
 „Support at board level‟
 „Should have a joined up approach at a local level – organisations
approaching authorities together‟
 „Being clear about exactly what champions should do‟
 „Giving champions tools to fulfil their role‟
 „Need champions at director level or above‟
44 The researcher‟s own headings
- 87 -
Fresh thinking
 „Clarify what championing is! And how it is different from my role as a Volunteer
Manager‟
 „Volunteering Champions to recruit volunteers – not really effective – informal
word of mouth – yes‟
 „Volunteers don‟t care about volunteering itself – care about cause/
organisation‟
 „Appoint people who understand volunteering and current climate of
volunteering – correct skills set/knowledge and good practice‟
 „Do not assume a volunteer is better than a Volunteer Manager doing this‟
4 Volunteer-led activity
Respondents to the online survey were asked if they were volunteers who were
leading projects. Of the 141 volunteers who responded to the online survey, 14 (9.9%)
said that they, as volunteers, were leading projects. Given the small numbers
involved, it is not possible to derive statistical conclusion from the data but the
respondents‟ answers are given in this section to illustrate the issues raised.
„I enjoyed taking part in this survey and I enjoy my work as a volunteer too. I firmly
believe that volunteers have an extremely important role to play in umpteen
aspects of the government's guidelines on sustainable communities for the future.‟
4.1 Who are the volunteer leaders?

Three of the 14 respondents said that they were trustees of the organisation/project
they were leading and thus had a legal responsibility for the organisation and its
workings.
The number of volunteers in the organisations described ranged from one to 90. Five
of the organisations had no paid staff members.
„The people I work with do not see themselves as volunteers and do not recognise
that they are being managed. As a small community group we are not a very
formal organisation in structure or operations.‟
4.2 Support needs of volunteer leaders
Respondents were asked what sources of advice and support they had accessed
over the previous 12 months. Sources were listed as followed (in alphabetical order):
 Business Links
 Charity Commission
 Corporate/business mentors
 Local authority
- 88 -
Fresh thinking

 v
„I had not appreciated that there were places to find volunteers and support.‟
Two respondents said that they had support needs which were not being fully met.
Seven said that they did not.
The unmet needs were given as follows:
 Leadership training for grassroots level community workers/volunteers
 Funding
 Recruitment of board members with specialist skills
„I think organisations often start with the best of intentions but generally leave you
to go on with it. The main thing that makes me leave is when staff and other
volunteers are not friendly or welcoming or expect you just to get on with things
without taking the time to show you around etc. I think organisations could do a lot
more.‟
Focus group participant on the support offered as a volunteer leading a project
within a larger organisation
4.3 Social network services and volunteer leaders

Eight of the online respondents chose to answer questions about the worth or
otherwise of talking with other volunteer leaders. Five respondents said that they
would be interested in an online opportunity to talk with other volunteers leading
projects. Two would not. A further respondent said they may be interested.
The following comments were made by respondents about the idea:
 „Might be good way to see if we can partner with other grass roots projects
who share the same objectives to my org, thus maximising volunteer
contribution by working collaboratively and sharing resources‟
 „It might provide links to other local people or groups that can help our aim,
provide new volunteers, members of the group‟
 „To exchange ideas on promoting the projects. To exchange ideas on
fundraising. To find better ways to run the project‟
 „Talking about ideas, finding new sources of support‟
 „To pass on info when a project is proven to work in one area and can be
made to work in others, to help find solutions to challenges, just to talk with like-
minded people, to pass on enthusiasm, to find new ways of combating apathy
and recruiting more volunteers, to help 'spur' others on who are perhaps going
through a difficult time.‟
 „Understanding of issues and experience feedback‟
A focus group of volunteer leaders was asked if they felt that volunteering and social
networking were a good mix. Their responses are (verbatim) as follows:
- 89 -
Fresh thinking
 „Yes very - as at the very least it promotes awareness of the cause‟

 „Yes as most of the time it‟s about who you know, I think the internet is a great
place to source information about where you could find potentially interested
parties, and to make initial contact with someone‟
 „In principle yes - a good way to get the message out about volunteering from
volunteers themselves and a quick way to build up contacts. It also offers the
opportunity to post information, discussions and media clips and could be used
to help network volunteers - particularly to help a new volunteer settle in.
However, the downside is maintaining engagement - it cannot be the only
route by which information is communicated and it needs to be kept updated,
relevant and serve a purpose‟
 „There is a huge opportunity locked up in social networking, no question. It can
be invaluable to establish project, campaign etc. and then build a base of
people who support that thing. It can be used to raise awareness to issues and
potentially trigger new projects, both online and offline in the real world‟
4.4 Information needs of volunteer leaders
Respondents were asked what sources of information they had accessed over the
previous 12 months. Sources were listed as followed (in alphabetical order):
 Business Links
 Community Matters
 Local authority
 National Council for Voluntary Organisations
 Third Sector magazine
 Timebank
 v
One respondent said that they had not accessed any source of information over the
previous month. Asked what unmet information needs they had, the respondent
stated „networking opportunities‟.
4.5 Locating volunteers
Respondents were asked where they had found other people to get involved in their
project. The following sources/avenues were cited (in alphabetical order):
 Do-it.org.uk
 Facebook
 Internet search engine
 Jobcentre Plus
 Local Rural Community Council
 Local student volunteering group
 Media advertising
 Other online social network service (excluding Facebook or MySpace)
- 90 -
Fresh thinking
 Parent organisation
 Schools and colleges
Two of the respondents had used Facebook successfully to recruit volunteers and the
same numbers had used Facebook to communicate with existing volunteers. None
of the respondents reported having tried Facebook for either task without success.
5 Local infrastructure – support organisations

194 organisations completed the online survey questions relating to their role in
support of volunteer-involving organisations.
Each was asked to answer questions purely in relation to their role in support of
volunteer involving organisations. This undoubtedly means that issues relating to other
areas of their work was not raised in this survey.
The respondents included local Councils for Voluntary Service and Volunteer
Centres. 56.8% (the highest proportion of respondents) answered the questions as a
Volunteer Centre45. 35.3% were Councils for Voluntary Service. Other respondents
included local v teams (6.3%), and student volunteering groups (1.6%).
As table 5 below illustrates, the sample has a bias towards the North West of England
(21.1%) and the South East of England (17.5%) and, in contrast to the sample of
mangers of volunteers reached by the online survey, a smaller proportion (7.7%) of
the sample is based in London.
The majority of respondents (67.4%) has a local remit i.e. it covers the local village,
town, district or city or part of such area. 14.5% of the support agencies had a
county-wide remit, 6.7% were regional. 3.6% covered England as a whole.
10.2% of respondents worked in an area that is solely or primarily rural. 31.6% are in an
area that is solely or mainly urban. The majority (58.3%) work in mixed urban and rural
areas.
45 One respondent termed itself a Volunteer Bureau, the former name of Volunteer Centres. For
ease of comprehension, this organisation has been classified in the data as a Volunteer
Centre.
- 91 -
Fresh thinking
Table 5: Location of support agency
Region % of respondents
Eastern England 9.3
East Midlands 8.2
London 7.7
North East England 9.3
North West England 21.1
South East England (excluding London) 17.5
South West England 12.4
West Midlands 13.4
Yorkshire & Humberside 11.3
Other46 3.1
5.1 Who can use infrastructure organisations?

The volunteer-involving community is a complex one with many new types of
organisation entering. Each support agency has to make a decision about each
new request based on its validity and relevance to the support agency‟s own aims
and objectives and funding.
„We work with everything from tiny community groups to international charities.
We also work with public sector and social enterprise, but only where genuine
volunteering opportunities exist.‟
As the following table illustrates, businesses, statutory organisations, non-tradition

groups are each less likely to be offered services by their local support agency than
other types of volunteer involving organisations.
46 Mostly including UK-wide organisations
- 92 -
Fresh thinking
Table 6: Types of volunteer involving organisations which can be offered support47
Type of volunteer involving organisation % of respondents

Non-registered charities 94.0
Informal associations 86.9
Non traditional groups e.g. Plegebank users 58.3
Faith groups 85.1
Student groups 66.7
Social enterprises 67.9
(For-profit) businesses 9.2
Statutory / public organisations 33.6
„Our funding for this work is for supporting voluntary and community sector
organisations but we spend a lot of time supporting public sector organisations
too without any funding for this work. We can't find a suitable source of funding for
supporting public sector but they do use a lot of volunteers‟
„Support‟ in the description „support agency‟, encompasses a range of services.

What perhaps might be considered the traditional role of support organisations,
brokerage and the development of volunteer opportunities were offered by 79.5%
and 83.8% of respondents respectively. This leaves a fifth of respondents not taking
on one of these traditional roles.
Interestingly, the service offered by the most respondents is good practice
development, a relatively intangible service that many volunteer involving
organisations may not realise they are taking on board.
47 It is useful to note that these proportions are given as percentages of those who answered
the question. Thus, it is possible to surmise that if 58.3% of respondents said that they offered
support to informal groups, 41.7% do not.
- 93 -
Fresh thinking
Table 7: Types of support offered to volunteer involving organisations48
Nature of service offered % of respondents

Good practice development 90.3
Developing volunteer opportunities 83.8
Training 80.5
Volunteer brokerage 79.5
Strategic development of volunteering 76.8
Marketing volunteering 75.7
Networking 73.0
Policy response and campaigning 66.5
Funding 35.7
Mentoring 31.5
Finance advice 27.6
External supervision 11.4
Other 15.7
The „other‟ category included funding advice, governance, organisational

development, premises.
In terms of networking, 65.3% of respondents offered conferences and seminars,
38.1% offered social events, 15.3% offered some type of forum.
5.1.1 Barriers to providing support
Table 8: Barriers to providing support to volunteer involving organisations
Barrier % of respondents
Funding 76.7
Lack of time 70.9
Hard to reach some organisations 57.0
Lack of interest from organisations 40.1
Cultural barriers 15.7
Language barriers 11.6
The above table of barriers presents a picture of support agencies struggling with
internal issues such as funding (76.7%) and a lack of time (70.9%) but also barriers
coming from the volunteer involving organisations they are endeavouring to support.
40.1% of respondents felt that the volunteer involving organisations simply were not
interested. 15.7% felt that they existed cultural barriers to working together.
48 Respondents could select more than one option.
- 94 -
Fresh thinking
Additionally, 10.5% said that they experienced barriers not given in the list of options
(table 8). The majority of these were based on „capacity‟ such as „capacity within
our own organisation‟, and „lack of paid hours in the Volunteer Centre‟. They also
included the following quotation relating to an issue of whether all groups see their
unpaid workers/helpers as „volunteers‟ raised by managers of volunteers (section 2 of
this Appendix):
„Some local groups (e.g. sports) don't see the relevance or even recognise their
volunteers as 'volunteers'.‟
5.2 Online support opportunities

24.3% of respondents said that they did not offer any opportunities for online support
for volunteer involving organisations49. A further 20.8% offered only a free website
containing information for volunteer involving organisations.
In total, 64.2% of respondents offered a website providing information for volunteer
involving organisations. As this was an online survey, it might be expected that more
than two-thirds of respondents would have developed websites. 52.6% offer
volunteer involving organisations an e-newsletter.
14.5% of respondents offered free online fora in which volunteer involving
organisations can discuss volunteering. 9.2% offered social networking opportunities.
An example of the latter is given below.
Figure 2: An example of a social networking facility (on Facebook). While this was
cited by a respondent as an example of online support for volunteer
involving organisations, the site is geared towards individual volunteers, it
could provide valuable communication opportunities and feedback for
the volunteer involving organisations in which the volunteers are placed.
49 It is important to note that this was an online survey. Should there be support agencies
without access to email, they will not have been able to participate in this survey. It is also
likely that this group will not be offering online support services to their users.
- 95 -
Fresh thinking
There is a significant diversity of level of use of online opportunities amongst the

respondents. Almost a quarter of all respondents offer nothing, not even web-based
information. Others offer sophisticated online opportunities related to the needs of
their service-users. One respondent, for example, said their organisation offered
online video links to those volunteer involving organisations in remote rural areas.
Another offered IT support on Skype. Three respondents said they were in the process
of developing online opportunities:
„We are looking to start a forum for offenders to discuss with voluntary
organisations what their needs are.‟
5.2.1 Barriers to offering online support

Respondents were asked what the barriers to offering online support were. The
answers, as illustrated in Table 9 below, focus primarily on capacity – both the
capacity of the support agency and the capacity of the volunteer involving
organisation which would be using the online support.
81.6% of respondents felt that a lack of funding was a barrier. 68.7% felt that a barrier
was the lack of appropriate equipment or technology within the volunteer involving
organisations.
- 96 -
Fresh thinking
Table 9: Barriers to online support
INTERNAL barriers % of EXTERNAL barriers % of

respondents respondents
Lack of funding 81.6 Service users lack 68.7
appropriate
equipment /
technology
Lack of in-house 46.8 Service-users lack 61.2
skills appropriate skills
Lack of appropriate 34.8 There is no demand 14.3
equipment/ for it
technology
Lack of time 16.5
The following quotations from online survey respondents illustrate some of the
additional internal barriers cited by respondents:
 „Have to use our funder‟s website which is VERY basic!‟
 „De-motivated staff who are burnt out by the struggle to keep the Volunteer
Centre going‟
 „Access to social networking sites denied by management‟
 „Cultural and social - a lack of trust‟
The following quotations from online survey respondents illustrate some of the
additional external barriers cited by respondents which question volunteer involving
organisations‟ motivation and ability to use online support services:
 „Service-users do not make time and understand the value of on-line support‟
 „Some organisations reject offers of help‟
 „Service users lack motivation‟
 „Groups and organisations want personal support by phone or in person‟
 „They would rather use the telephone, or drop by for a chat than send an
email‟
 „Service-users lack time‟
 „Of the groups on our database we know that only just over half have email
addresses and a proportion of those that do have email do not have
broadband‟
 „We are asked to provide such support, however, without a lot of prompting
and 'push' strategies, there is little engagement or interaction from users who
could benefit‟
 „Online networking has great potential to support those volunteer involving
organisations who are unable to engage due to time constraints as it is
accessible 24/7. This is an area we are focussing on developing although the
skills of the volunteer managers to use the technology can be prohibitive to it
being successful‟
Online survey respondents were asked how they know that there is no demand for
on-line support. The following answers typify the responses:
- 97 -
Fresh thinking
 „I wouldn't say there was no demand, but there is not a high level of demand.
For example, we wrote to all our volunteer involving organisations (around 130)
asking if they would like to join a volunteer management forum, which could
either function online or meet in person. We only had one positive response!
National online support is very good, e.g. Volunteering England Good Practice
Bank, and UKVPMs, and so when organisations do have a need they can
usually be satisfied with these sources, plus a very good county wide support
website we have developed. I would be reluctant to see these efforts
duplicated at a local level when a regional or national approach seems more
effective and efficient. I feel that volunteer involving organisations find one to
one, face to face support from Volunteer Centre staff the most helpful form of
support.‟
 „Very few groups take up suggestions of on-line support when suggested
through organisations like Volunteering England or our local learning and skills
resource‟
 „We do not get asked for this type of support - we have pages on the website
relating to volunteering but have no evidence as to its use and have not had
additional questions posted‟
 „Little use of existing systems on offer via website‟
 „We've never had time or funds to offer this support so we haven't investigated
the need for it. None of our members has ever asked for it either‟
 „There is demand for on-line support - but only from certain larger voluntary
organisations who have the staff/capacity/ skills to receive information in this
way. Much of our work is with local, community groups, run solely by volunteers
who are not at the end of their email everyday and often sending information
out to one inbox contact for a group, it does not get disseminated effectively
amongst all other members - so loses its impact‟
5.3 Support development aspirations
Respondents were asked if there were any areas of support they would like to
develop. This was as an open question and generated 111 responses. These have
been grouped and labelled as follows50:
 Increased support to specific groups
o Sports organisations (2)
o Rural groups / areas (2)
o Organisations which do not employ staff
o Very small organisations (2)
o Volunteers with extra support needs (5)
o Vulnerable volunteers (2)
o Young people (2)
o Volunteers with mental health problems (4)
o People with disabilities (2)
o Vulnerable neighbours
 Online support
o Web-based/online support (6)
50 Where the specific topic was raised by more than one respondent, the number of
respondents involved is recorded in parenthesis.
- 98 -
Fresh thinking
o Online learning/meetings
o Online newsletter/e-newsletter (2)
o Online discussion forum (11)
o Facebook group for volunteers
o Social networking (2)
 Information on specific topics
o Legal issues around staffing and volunteers (2)
o Monitoring and evaluation of volunteers
o Employee-supported volunteering
o Software development for volunteer involving organisations
o Self-service so volunteer involving organisations can upload volunteer
opportunities
o Improvements to v-base
 Support for managers of volunteers
o Networking support for volunteer managers
o Training for volunteer managers
o Training in management of volunteers for volunteer involving organisations
(3)
o Volunteer managers‟ forum
o Online support for volunteer co-ordinators
o Peer support for volunteer managers
 Miscellaneous
o Training (8)
o Good practice development (4)
o IT (2)
o Funding advice
o Development of social enterprises
Of course, not all online survey respondents felt that it was appropriate to think about
new developments:
 „No, we are already operating beyond capacity‟
As a final word on the role of support agencies, the following quotation is offered
which describes the dilemma experienced by many of the respondents:
„It seems that either volunteer-involving organisations have the resources (staff and
funds) to support their own volunteers, and hence do not need additional support
from us. Or, organisations (such as community groups) do not have the time or
internal resources to see through the implementation of policy and standards that
can increase volunteers or the support given to them. Either they need more help,
but can't follow through on all recommendations; or don't need support as they
can already successfully support their volunteers.‟
- 99 -
Fresh thinking
Appendix 2:
Young people and social network services; managing
risk – lessons from Devon County Council 51
The youth participation team at Devon County Council has been exploring how it can use
social network sites to involve young people in decision making. After an early planning
meeting they realised:
 They needed to know more from young people about how this should work
 They needed a clear policy that would make sure the safety of young people was
put first when using social network sites
In order to address these issues, the team held a consultation with over 60 young people in
order to discover what young people thought about:
 Local authorities using social network services for participation
 The important safety messages for using social network services
 How local authorities should display and verify their identity on social network
services
 Any rules for discussions in social network services discussion groups
 Different ways of the local authority communicating with young people on social
network services
The team also wanted to ask young people’s advice, guidance and insights in general.
As a result of the contribution made by young people Devon County Council has
produced a Social Network Consultation Strategy. The aim of the strategy is to provide
opportunities on Social Network Sites for young people to influence decisions in Devon
(alongside many other in person and online opportunities to get involved). The strategy
recognises that:
 Not all young people in Devon can access regular opportunities for face-to-face
participation in local decision making. Providing participation opportunities online
makes them accessible to more young people.
 Rather than ask young people to come to a new website, and to sign up to a new
discussion, we are going to places where young people are already spending time
online, and where the environment and discussion tools are familiar – Social Network
Sites like MySpace and Bebo.
 Using Social Network Sites also lets us find new consultation and discussion methods
(e.g. comments around videos and photos), and provides new ways to get the
message out about opportunities to get involved.
In outline, the strategy says:
51 Source documents:
 Social network sites in youth participation: Report of a consultation day at Kongomana
2008, Devon The National Youth Agency, 2008
 www.geturvvoiceheard.co.uk
 Social Network Consultation Strategy, Devon County Council, 2008
 Participation & Democracy Development Team SNS 2009 Objectives (unpublished
presentation)
- 100 -
Fresh thinking
 We will create a participation ʻhubʼ using a Bebo group. We will invite young people
to join this group - and members of this group will get updates about participation
opportunities. We will also create a ʻhubʼ on Facebook and on MySpace.
 For each participation opportunity that arises we will create a new group on each of
the sites where discussion can take place. Members of the hub group will be invited
to join the discussions in these issue-based groups.
 That way, individual discussions are self-contained, but young people have the
option of getting involved in a wide range of participation opportunities -and the
Bebo hub becomes a single easy-to-find and easy-to-update location that gives an
overview of all current and recent participation in Devon.
The strategy contains:
 A social network pathway of participation
 Details about social network service accounts and groups, including rules for staff
involvement
 Guidance on facilitating discussions, and the potential for young people‟s
involvement in this
 A Participation Group checklist
 Agreed next steps, which have been taken forward
The Participation & Democracy Development Team has developed a diagram describing
the interface between itself, its website and its social network profile (in practical terms,
the website and social network profiles have been set up with active links between them
to make it easy for them to be used together)
- 101 -
Fresh thinking
Appendix 3:
Case study: The Scout Association, integrating use of
social network services in communication messages 52
Campaign message
"Inspire! Become a leader"
Aim
To raise the profile of the Scouts and recruit more members and more volunteers
Number of people involved
4
Launched
On-going
Working with celebrities
The Scout Association chose to approach ex-Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan 3 years
ago to work with them to help raise their profile and membership. Peter Duncan became
Chief Scout in 2004.
„Peter really reflects the sorts of people we want to attract to the Scouts. He has
experience in youth work; he has an adventurous streak and enjoys helping people.
He is also very eloquent in front of the camera (so great to do media work with) and
crucially our target audience will remember him presenting Blue Peter-and be
parents themselves now.‟
Simon Carter, Head of Media
PR work
The Scouts have had great success in getting media coverage with Peter Duncan. He has
appeared on behalf of the Scout Association across the media. He has featured on prime
time television such as the BBC 6 O'clock News, CNN, Radio 4 and Radio FiveLive. In
August 2007 he appeared on BBC News 24 in celebration of the Scouts Centenary- the
Scout‟s „I want to join‟ enquiries shot up by 100% after this broadcast. You can watch this
broadcast on the Scout‟s website. He also wrote an article for The Express on Sunday.
The Scout Association has also created a partnership with Sainsbury's and v. One of the
aims of the partnership is to encourage more 16-25 year olds to become volunteers for the
Scouts. They have run adverts about volunteering in the Sainsbury's in-store magazine,
Fresh Ideas.
Online activity
Scouts have also started using new media to create awareness and raise membership.
„You have to catch volunteers where they are at to make sure the Scouts are on their
radar‟. The Scouts are currently using Facebook, MySpace and YouTube to encourage
people to get involved.
52 Source: www.volunteergenie.org.uk/the-scout-association
- 102 -
Fresh thinking
The Scout Association has a section of their site called Scouts' Campfire Circle to
encourage past scouts to become volunteers and use their online network:
www.scouts.org.uk/campfirecircle
They also provide information for people interested in volunteering for the Scouts:
www.scouts.org.uk/join/volunteer.html. This section focuses on case studies and profiles
some of their current volunteers and the work they do for the organisation.
Outside agencies involved
None
Results
The Scouts membership went up by 0.4% in 2005 and 1.6% in 2006.
www.scouts.org.uk
- 103 -
Fresh thinking
Appendix 4:
Facebook 53
Facebook is a general friend of a friend social network service. Individuals join Facebook
and make personal profiles, which include their picture, information about their interests
and links to their friends. Organisations, however, do not make profiles but instead make
pages and their „friends‟ are called fans.
Pages are tailored for organisations, not individuals. Thus there are no unnecessary
sections like birthday, gender, etc. Also, pages are public, meaning that someone does
not need to be signed into Facebook to view your page. However, someone does need
to be signed into Facebook to become a fan and use the features on the page. Thus, you
can send people who are not Facebook users to your Facebook page, something you
cannot do with an individual profile.
To create your organisation‟s Facebook page, create a profile of someone in your
organisation. It could be the person managing the Facebook page or you can create a
pseudo profile of your Director. Do this by going to www.facebook.com and sign up for
an account. Note that you will need to sign into this account to administer your Facebook
page, so try to avoid using the personal account (and personal password) of someone in
your organisation because once that person leaves the organisation, so does your
Facebook login.
Once you have an account, login and scroll to the bottom of any Facebook page and
click on Businesses. Then click on Facebook Pages and click the button at the upper right
that says Create a Facebook page. On the next screen, click Brand or Product as the
category and then click Nonprofit in the pull down box. Follow the rest of the instructions
to create your page. Consult The Proper Way for Your Organization to be on Facebook54
for step-by-step instructions on how to create a Facebook page.
Note that while the personal profile was used to create the page, that person‟s profile will
not be seen by your eventual fans. Everything that person does in relation to the page will
be marked as an action by the organisation, not the individual.
While you can add friends and send messages to people as an individual on Facebook,
you cannot do so as your organisation. For instance, if you used Sue‟s account to create
your organisation‟s Facebook page and you want to send a message to Bob, the
message Bob receives will be from Sue, not your organisation. Therefore, people have to
find your page and become your fan by themselves. This actually happens a lot easier
than you might expect due to the viral nature of Facebook.
For instance, Facebook has a feature called a news feed. When every Facebook user
signs into Facebook the first page they see is their news feed, which provides updates on
what their friends have done recently on Facebook. For instance, if you are friends with
Bob and Bob joins a group or becomes a fan of an organisation, then your news feed will
tell you so. This is what makes Facebook so powerful. If one person becomes a fan of your
53 The information in this Appendix is drawn from:

54 www.knowledgeharbor.com/facebook-for-small-organizations-and-associations
- 104 -
Fresh thinking
organisation, all of that person‟s friends will see that they did that. Some of them will
become your fan as a result and it will snowball from there.
Features of Facebook Pages
 Fans
Instead of having friends of your organisation like on MySpace, on Facebook you
have fans of your organisation. When someone becomes a fan of your organisation,
it alerts all of their friends through the news feed. Once someone becomes your fan,
he or she can contribute to your page by starting a discussion topic, adding photos
and videos, and writing on your wall. Also, only fans receive Updates, which is
described below. Whenever a fan does anything on your page, like write on your
wall, all of that fan‟s friends will be notified via the news feed. Therefore, it is
important to get a lot of fans and to engage them to spread the word about your
page.
 Updates
Facebook Pages allow you to send an update to all of your fans about anything you
want to inform them of. You may want to disseminate some breaking news, a new
addition to your page, or anything else. Updates are sent to all fans.
 Notes
In addition to updates, which are sent to all of your fans, you can write notes, which
are displayed on your page for everyone to see. People can leave comments on
them and you can attach photos to a note, both things you cannot do with an
update.
 Discussion Boards
Your Facebook page comes with a feature that allows you to start interactive
discussion topics. The page administrator (you) and all of your fans can create a
topic and all Facebook users can reply to a topic. This is great for encouraging
people to come back to your page and actively participate in the issues relevant to
your organisation.
 Wall
Like Facebook profiles, your Facebook page comes with a Wall. The Wall is the part
of your page where fans can leave comments for everyone to see.
 Photos
You can upload photos to your organisation‟s page on Facebook. Also, your fans
can add their own pictures to the page, but you have the right to delete any photos
fans add. This can help make your page more interesting and also foster involvement
with your fans.
 Videos
You can upload videos to enhance the appeal of your page. Your fans can also
upload their videos to the page, but you have the right to delete any that you find
inappropriate. Like photos, adding video can make your page more interesting and
also foster involvement with your fans.
 Events
You can post information about upcoming events on your Facebook page and
update all of your fans about them. These events are posted on your page so in
addition to your fans, all visitors to your page will be able to view them. This feature
can help you publicise an outreach event, a presentation, and more.
- 105 -
Fresh thinking
 Other Applications
You can expand your Facebook page by adding features called applications. There
are a variety of applications that you can add to your page, such as ones to show
your YouTube videos, show where you have been around the world, and more. By
going to your page manager and scrolling down to the More Applications section,
you can browse hundreds of these Facebook applications. Some useful ones are
below:
o Facebook Causes – There is a Causes application that allows people with
Facebook profiles or pages to create a cause page such as “Help Educate
Girls” in order to raise money for that cause. The cause creator chooses an
organisation that the cause benefits such as UNICEF and all money will go to
that organisation. The creator can then invite his or her friends to join the cause
and donate money. Each cause page has a wall people can write on, the top
recruiters and donors listed and can also have links, photos, and videos.
Currently, only US and Canadian based nonprofits can be listed as
beneficiaries, however AP partners can contact AP and they can discuss
hosting a cause on your behalf. Then you can add the cause to your
organisation‟s page to promote it.
o Profile HTML – This application allows you to copy and paste HTML on your
Facebook page. This lets you post YouTube videos, widgets (charity badges),
and any other HTML you want on your page including your newsletter
subscription box if you have one.
o Simply RSS – This application allows you to run updates from your RSS feed on
your Facebook page.
o YouTube Box – Allows you to post your YouTube videos easily on your Facebook
page without having to upload them individually to Facebook.
In addition to your Facebook Page, you should use your individual profile to take
advantage of Facebook Groups. You can make a group on Facebook by logging in and
clicking on Groups on the left hand side of the screen. It is a good idea to make a group
for your organisation, or even a cause you work on, in addition to your page in order to
reach out to more Facebook users.
Organisations with pages cannot make groups, only individuals with profiles can. Unlike a
page, the creator of a group is listed for all Facebook users to see. Therefore, it will not
show your organisation as the creator of the group but rather the individual who created
your organisation‟s page.
Groups are different from pages because groups can be closed, meaning that it is
restricted to people who are invited (however, this is not recommended). Another
difference is that groups cannot be expanded with applications like pages can. Also,
while you can send a message to all group members, this only applies to groups with
fewer than 1,200 members. If you have any more than that, this feature is disabled.
Therefore, while it is a good idea to have a Facebook group for your organisation and/or
cause, this should not replace your Facebook page, which should be viewed as your
primary and official Facebook presence.
- 106 -
Fresh thinking
Facebook Tips
 Do not add inappropriate applications to your page. There are many applications
on Facebook that you can add to your page. Some are useful for an organisation‟s
page, like the ones mentioned above, while some are inappropriate and
unprofessional.
 Only send updates about important things. If you send too many updates, your fans
may disable updates from you. Therefore, send updates about the things that matter
most, leaving the less important ones for people to view on your page.
- 107 -
Fresh thinking
Appendix 5:
MySpace 55
To create an account on MySpace, go to www.myspace.com and click the orange „Sign

Up‟ button.
To get started, you need to fill out your profile with the necessary information such as
About Me. This will be your „user homepage‟ that you will see every time that you log in to
MySpace. Two things to do:
 Pick your user name - once chosen, you will NOT be able to change this and it will
become your MySpace URL (address) so make sure that you choose something
which reflects your organisation and what you do:
o Cancer Research UK chose to use their own name, and can be found at
www.myspace.com/cancerresearchuk
o For MySpace UK's new channel promoting causes and social action, the
MySpace UK team chose the URL www.myspace.com/impactuk
 Verify your email address: this will allow you to send messages, post comments, post
bulletins and add friends to your page
Then start exploring the features of MySpace.
 Friends list and Top Friends
To build your organisation‟s network on MySpace, you can search for friends and
add them to your friend‟s list. Then on your profile page, there will be a box where
people can view your Top Friends (you can change how many Top Friends are listed
and who you feature there). People can also click on the box to view all of your
friends. This is a great networking tool since you can visit the MySpace page of like-
minded voluntary and community sector organisations, view their friends and then
invite their friends to be your friends as well. One way to get the most out of the
friends feature is to friend a popular organisation in your field and ask them to list you
as a Top Friend for a day, a week or a month. This will increase your visibility and get
you a lot of friend requests. The „Nonprofit Organizations‟ page rotates their tops
friends frequently so become friends with them! Send an email out to your distribution
list asking them to join MySpace and look at your profile. Simply fill in the email
addresses, write a message and click invite.
 Comments
You can post a comment on your friend‟s profile and pictures. Your comment
appears for everyone to see so this helps improve your visibility and relationship with
your supporters.
 Groups
MySpace has a large group section that you can use to increase your visibility with
people with similar interests. There is a section devoted to the UK‟s voluntary and
community sector called „Impact UK‟. It is a good idea to join groups related to issues

 www.advocacynet.org/modules/fck/upload/file/buildingyouricthouse/SocialNetworkin
g.pdf
 http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=186434389&blogI
d=347692434
- 108 -
Fresh thinking
you work on so that other members of the group can find you. To facilitate this, be
an active member of the groups you join to increase your visibility. Also, groups pull
together people with similar interests, so if the group allows you, you can invite
members of the group to be friends of your organisation (some groups explicitly ban
sending friend requests to members).
 Events section and Calendar function
You can post information under the MySpace Event section to publicise an event
you are hosting. In addition, you have a calendar that allows you to add events
directly on your profile for everyone, or only your friends, to see.
 Photos
Follow the Instructions to upload images relevant to your organisation. You can
upload logos, photos, artwork or anything that you feel represents your organisation.
The images appear on your profile and can highlight your work, your staff, your
beneficiaries, etc; they give a face to your organisation and personalize your work.
One of the images will be your default image, i.e. the image that will be displayed as
your profile picture – it is sensible to use your organisation‟s logo or branding to
increase recognition.
 Videos
You can upload your videos using the MySpace TV section. It works similarly to how
YouTube works and allows other MySpace users to put the video on their profile. This
can help you disseminate your videos but should probably not be the only place you
post your video.
 Blog
MySpace has a blog feature that allows you to post blogs on your profile and send
updates to those who subscribe to your blog on MySpace. It is not suggested that
you use a MySpace blog as your primary blog since it has limited features and
capabilities, but using the MySpace blog to repost other, important blog entries or
update your MySpace friends with information is useful. However, the bulletin feature
is more effective in reaching all of your MySpace friends who may not view your
profile often or subscribe to your blogs.
 Bulletins
MySpace has a feature that allows you to send a bulletin to all your MySpace friends
at once. You can allow people to comment on your bulletin if you want to
encourage a discussion. This is a great dissemination tool and can be used for
sending out your press releases, news from your organisation, or anything else you
want to communicate to all of your MySpace friends.
 Forums
MySpace has a forum section that encourages people to post questions or topics in
order to start a discussion with other MySpace users. Forums allow you to increase
your visibility and start a discussion about an issue relevant to your organisation.
Unfortunately, there is no voluntary and community sector focused forum, but there
are topics that could be relevant to the sector such as „News & Politics‟.
 Customisable profile, HTML friendly
You can change the look of your profile to match your organisation‟s „brand‟. You
can do this by inserting HTML code into parts of your page, which allows you to be
creative and insert objects like slideshows. There are many websites that provide you
with HTML code to insert in your profile to customize your page. Note that adding
- 109 -
Fresh thinking
images and graphics will make your page load very slowly, especially on a slow
Internet connection.
MySpace Tips
 Do not add music
MySpace has a feature that allows you to add a song to your profile. While this is a
nice feature for your personal page, it is not professional and thus should not be on
your organisation‟s page. It distracts visitors and lessens your message.
 Don‟t overdo your page‟s customisation
It is good to customise your page to look more professional and exciting, but do not
go to the extreme. Avoid animations and distracting colours that steal attention
away from your organisation. Think of designing your MySpace page as if it is your
website – be professional.
 Keep an eye on the comments you receive
Make sure you pay attention to the comments you receive on your profile and on
your pictures. The comment feature is fun but there is a lot of spamming and
inappropriate material that can end up on your page. You have the ability to delete
such comments if they appear. If this turns into a large problem, you can adjust your
account settings to require that you approve all comments before they are posted.
 Use your logo as your profile picture
It will help make you immediately recognisable to your volunteers and supporters as
well as the wider public.
For more MySpace advice, see
www.diosacommunications.com/myspacebestpractices.htm
- 110 -
Fresh thinking
Appendix 6:
10 Twitter tips for non profit organisations 56
Newsweek said it best, „suddenly, all the world is a-Twitter‟. Simple and powerful, Twitter is
a must for non profit organisations. I created and manage a portal to non profits on
Twitter @nonprofitorgs and based on my experience using the site, I have crafted ten of
my favourite Twitter tips for beginners:
 Authenticity before marketing - have personality - build community

Those non profits who are most successful at utilising social network services like
Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace know from trial, error, and experience that a
„marketing and development approach‟ on social network sites does not work.
Simply put, it comes across as lame. Traditional marketing and development content
is perfectly fine for your web site and email newsletters, but Web 2.0 is much more
about having personality, inspiring conversation, and building online community.
Nowhere is this more true than on Twitter. Relax, experiment, let go a bit… find your
voice. Be authentic.
 Be nice - be thankful - reply and Retweet!
Twitter functions much like Karma. The nicer you are to people in the Twitterverse,
they nicer they are to you in return. The more you ReTweet others, the more they will
ReTweet your Tweets in return. And whether it‟s Twitter, MySpace, Facebook or
YouTube, if someone does something nice for you in the public commons of Web 2.0,
it is always a good practice to send them a message of „Thanks… much
appreciated!‟. Kindness and appreciation will make you stand out from the others
and makes an excellent impression.
 Follow everyone who follows you
This is a hard one for a lot of non profits. They want to keep their „home‟ view clutter
free and controlled and only follow a select few. Honestly, they only want to follow
those whose Tweets that they are really interested in reading. But I say this often…
„This time it is not about you, it is about them.‟ Web 1.0 communications is all about
us and our messaging i.e. your web site and email newsletter. Web 2.0 is all about
your supporters and their messaging. It‟s better to create a personal Twitter profile in
order to only follow those select few you are interested in reading, but if you are
going out on Twitter behind your organisation‟s logo a.k.a. avatar, it is a mistake to
not follow all your followers in return. Why?
o Twitter is about conversation. You can‟t have a conversation on Twitter if you
are not following your followers. It is a one-sided relationship.
o They can‟t message you on Twitter if you are not following them.
o It‟s a snub. Let‟s face it… people on Twitter want to be followed. That‟s what
the site is about! How can you build community on Twitter if you won‟t even
participate with your followers?
Have a look around Twitter… you will see the most successful, ReTweeted non profits
follow everyone who follows them.
 Use „Favourites‟ to organise the chaos and feature your most important Tweets!
So, if you are going to follow everyone who follows your organisation (which is
hopefully thousands of people) then „favourite‟ Tweets by those who you are most
interested in reading and „favourite‟ your most important Tweets. The „favourites‟
option on Twitter is a simple, excellent tool to help you organize the chaos.
56 By Heather Mansfield: Mar 18, 2009 Source: Change.org's Guide to Nonprofit 2.0,
www.nonprofits.change.org
- 111 -
Fresh thinking
 Don‟t Tweet about your coffee (unless it is fair trade), the weather, or how tired you
are - provide value to your followers, not chit-chat!
It‟s one thing to chit-chat about the weather, your headache, or how you need
coffee to wake up in the morning on your personal profile on Twitter, but it‟s quite
another if you are active on the Twitterverse via your organisational profile. The
messages you send reflect upon your organisation. Example of what not to Tweet:
„Such-and-such non profit got stuck in traffic this morning. Ugh! I need coffee and a
vacation… and I think I am getting a headache!‟ No one likes a whiner and this just
makes it sound like such-and-such non profit is not a fun place to work. People follow
you because they want good content from your organisation on subjects relevant to
your mission. Make sure your Tweets provide value and are Re-Tweetable.
 Don‟t only Tweet your own content
Twitter is a news source. Participate in news. Tweet articles or blog posts by your
favourite newspapers, bloggers, or other nonprofits (yes... other nonprofits! Find allies,
build relationships). If it is a good read or a good resource, it reflects well upon your
organisation that you Tweeted it. There is also a good chance you might get
ReTweeted if the article is deemed timely and worthy by the Twitterverse.
 Send messages, but not via auto-responders
There are tools out there that will automatically message your new followers. Don‟t
use them. It‟s Spam. It‟s not authentic. It‟s not human. It's lazy marketing.
 Don‟t worry about those that „unfollow‟ you
It‟s easy to feel slighted when someone stops following you. What did I say? Did I do
something wrong? Let it go. Who knows why they followed you in the first place. Give
it no more than 3 seconds thought and then move on.
 Limit your Tweets to 5 per day, and no more than 6!
I have been polling on Twitter and the Twitterverse has revealed that less is more
when it comes to Tweeting.
 Twitter is what you make of it - you get out of Twitter what you put into it - this is the
same of all Web 2.0 social network services
Twitter is a fun, valuable tool that can drive significant traffic to your website (start
watching your website referral logs!) and help build and strengthen your brand in the
online world of Web 2.0, but just like Facebook and MySpace, Twitter requires time
and energy to produce results. You get out of it what you put into it. If you do one
Tweet a week, you will get the results of one Tweet. But if you Tweet 4 times daily
Monday through Friday… you will get the results of 20 Tweets weekly.
Again, it‟s about community building around your mission and programmes. Just having a
profile on Twitter (or MySpace, or Facebook) does not magically produce any results. You
have to work these profiles. Find the person on your staff who loves Web 2.0 and enjoys
working the sites and/or find a marketing/pr intern from your local university that needs to
do a senior project! If they are getting college credit, then you know they have to stay
around for at least a semester.
- 112 -
Fresh thinking
Appendix 7:
YouTube 57
YouTube is the most popular video sharing site, and one of the most popular websites in
general. There, you can upload videos that you have created and share them with the
entire world.
To view videos on YouTube, you do not need an account, but to upload videos and
interact with the YouTube community, you need to sign up. To sign up go to
www.youtube.com and click Sign Up at the top of the page. Choose your username
wisely as it will appear as your channel‟s URL like www.youtube.com/user/username. Your
channel is the page that hosts your profile as well as lists all your videos, your friends and
subscriptions. It is the page that you will direct people to go to in order to see a list of all
your YouTube videos. Therefore, it is a good idea to have your username be the name of
your organisation.
While your channel indexes all your videos, each video “lives” on an individual page,
which hosts the one video, its comments, ratings and video responses.
While using YouTube as a place to host your video is a good enough reason to create an
account, there are several other features of YouTube that make it a social networking
community:
 Comments and video comments
Every YouTube member can write a comment on videos posted on YouTube. Also,
users can post video responses to a video that you post. At the bottom of their video,
there will be a note saying that the video is a response to yours. On the page where
your video is, there will be a box underneath the video with all the video responses to
that video. This can help your organization start a discussion around a particular issue
with your video acting as the catalyst. The more comments you get, the more likely
you will appear under the Most Discussed YouTube section. The more video
responses you get, the more likely you will appear under the Most Responded
YouTube section. Being featured in either of these sections will raise awareness about
your work and your video.
 Rate videos
YouTube allows all users to rate the videos they watch, from one to five stars. One of
the YouTube browse options is to view the highest rated videos. Therefore, the higher
your video is rated, the more likely it will appear under the Top Rated section of
YouTube.
 Friends
You can add other YouTube users as friends in order to send them bulletins and easily
share videos with them by clicking the Share Video link under a video you want to
share. If someone adds you as a friend, you appear in their friend section of their
channel so all people viewing their page will see that they are friends with you. Also,
it acts like a bookmark so they can easily refer to your channel if they want to see
your new videos.
 Subscriptions
YouTube users can subscribe to your channel to receive email updates when you
post a new video. These email updates are sent out once a week. In addition to
emails, when the user visits YouTube, the home page will list new videos from

- 113 -
Fresh thinking
channels the user is subscribed to. Try to build up your subscriber list so that your
video gets disseminated widely when it is posted.
 Favourites
When YouTube users view a video they like, they can add it as one of their favourites.
This essentially bookmarks it so they can refer to it later. Marking a video as a
favourite also allows everyone who visits that user‟s channel to view that user‟s
favourites. Therefore, you want people to mark your video as a favourite so that it is
more visible. Also, the more people that add your video as a favourite, the more
likely you will appear under the „Top Favourites‟ YouTube section.
 Bulletins
You can send bulletins out to all of your YouTube friends with the click of a button.
Go to your channel, scroll down and click „Broadcast a message‟. You will be able to
send a message to all of your friend‟s YouTube inboxes. You can use this to
announce a new video you posted (if your friends are not also subscribers), draw
attention to a discussion forming around a video, tell people about a group you
made, or more.
 Groups
Users can join groups on YouTube to post videos related to a topic and have
discussions about them. If you have a lot of staff in your organisation shooting video,
you can create a YouTube group for your organisation where all the videos can
come together and be discussed. Also, you can search for or create a group about
an issue you support in order to bring together your and other‟s videos about the
topic. Additionally, you can use a group to host a video contest for your
organisation. For instance you can ask YouTube users to compete to create a video
about a certain issue. Note that while there is a specific Contest section on YouTube,
that it is only for paid advertisers. People or groups that are not paid advertisers are
allowed to create a contest for free using YouTube groups. This makes you a more
active in the YouTube community and will drive more traffic to your videos.
- 114 -
Fresh thinking
Appendix 8:
Flickr 58
Flickr is a photo-sharing site with a social networking component. Thus it is a purpose driven
social network service, forming around the goal of posting and sharing photography. If
you have a great deal of photos that you want to share, this is a great site for your
organisation to be part of.
Flickr is a site with users from all over the world and is available in eight languages.
Flickr works by having its members upload their photos to the site, tagging them with
keywords and allowing other users to search those keywords to find photos. The social
networking aspect comes in by the multitude of Flickr features, allowing people to
comment on photos, add notes to photos, join groups, choose favourite photos and
more.
To join Flickr, you will need to make an account for your organisation. Note that it has to
be clear that the account you make is an individual account, not an account that is
shared by everyone in the organisation. It is acceptable to create an account, name it
your organisation and upload your logo as the icon picture. Flickr just wants to make sure it
is an individual account to prevent accidents occurring from an account with multiple
users. If you have many people wanting to add photos to your organisation‟s account,
create a group for your organisation, have the others create their own account and then
have them add their photos to the group. For more on the topic of creating a Flickr
account and group for your organization, read How Nonprofits Can Get the Most out of
Flickr59.
Below is a description of the social networking features of Flickr:
 Contacts
Like friends on other social network services, Flickr has a feature that allows you to
add contacts so that you can stay up-to-date with other Flickr users. When you add
someone as a contact, you can see on your Flickr homepage when they post new
photos. In reverse, if someone adds you as a contact, then they are updated
whenever you post new photos. All users can see who has added them as a
contact. Also, a user can view the contacts of his or her contacts, which allows
people to create a network and become contacts with their friend‟s contacts.
Therefore, you should try to encourage people to add you as a contact so that your
photos reach a large number of people. A good way to do this is to join groups and
to search for photos similar to your own, comment or leave notes on them and hope
that those users add you as a contact. There is more on comments and notes below.
 Favourites
You can browse other people‟s photos on Flickr and add them as your favourites.
Then all people who view your profile on Flickr can view your favourites. Therefore,
you should try to get a lot of people to favourite your photos so that their contacts
see your pictures and potentially add you as a contact if they like what they see.
 Comments
Other Flickr users can view your photos and leave comments about them. You can
do the same. To build a relationship with your contacts, consider commenting on the

59 www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page8291.cfm
- 115 -
Fresh thinking
photos that you like. Also, consider commenting on photos that do not belong to
your contacts to encourage people to add you as a contact.
 Notes
Flickr allows users to post notes on other user‟s photos. A note is different from a
comment because a note shows up directly on the photo. For instance, if you think a
part of the photo is particularly interesting you post a note on that part of the photo.
When other users scroll over the picture with a note on it, they will see a transparent
square where the note was placed. When they scroll over the square, they will be
able to read the note. Posting notes has a similar effect as posting comments
(building a relationship and increasing your visibility so that others add you as a
contact).
 FlickrMail
You can send messages to other Flickr users using the FlickrMail feature. To send mail
to a user, hover over a user‟s icon, click on the arrow and click Send FlickrMail. Use
this to network with other users and foster a relationship with them. Do not use this
feature to spam users with „Add me as a contact‟ mail.
 Groups
The most exciting feature of Flickr is its groups. Users can create and join groups to
share their photos with other members of that group. For instance, if your
organisation takes a lot of photos of women‟s rights activists, then you might want to
create or join a group about women‟s rights. In the group, you can post some of
your photos and start a discussion with other group members. Creating and joining
groups is a good way to increase the number of people who add you as a contact.
- 116 -
Fresh thinking
Appendix 9:
Online guides to using social network services
We have discovered little UK based information on this subject, with most resources being
American. Whilst this is generally transferable, care should be taken about use of specific
applications within mainstream social network services, as these might only be relevant in
America due to different legal and financial frameworks.
General information and advice
 TimeBank‟s „Volunteer Genie‟
An online guide about volunteer recruitment and marketing, Volunteer Genie is an
excellent source of user friendly content containing tips and advice on how to reach
and attract potential volunteers. These links contain information about new media
and social networking
www.volunteergenie.org.uk/new-media-adventures
www.volunteergenie.org.uk/social-networking-and-online-communities
 Media Trust
The country‟s premier charity bringing the third sector and the media together to
build effective communications for the third sector; they have a range of online
guides to help with marketing and communications, including social networking
www.mediatrust.org/training-events/training-resources/online-guides-
1/social_networking
www.mediatrust.org/training-events/training-resources/online-guides-
1/Sharing%20photos%20online/
www.mediatrust.org/youth-media/interactive-guide/
 Technicavita
A really useful UK website offering tips, case studies and interviews about third sector
use of social network services
www.technicavita.org
 Network for Good
American guide that provides easy and affordable online fundraising activities;
includes a section on using social networks for fundraising which translates well for UK
use (Note: we have found this site slow to load)
www.fundraising123.org/social-networking
 Idealware
American website that reviews software and online services for non profits, useful
guide on whether social networking is appropriate for your needs
www.idealware.org/articles/should_you_social_network.php
 TechSoup
American site covering a wide range of technical related guides and reviews for non
profits and charities, this feature includes useful tips and advice on getting the most
out of social networks, including overcoming some of the challenges and advice on
how to get noticed in a crowded marketplace
www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page5504.cfm
- 117 -
Fresh thinking
 Christine.net
American venture capitalist with special interest in new technologies; this is a useful
list of tips on how to effectively use social networks to campaign
www.christine.net/2007/04/7_tips_for_succ.html
 Wild Apricot
American website providing advice and information on a wide range of information
and communications technology issues for both non profits and commercial
organisations; blogs have some very useful guides and insights on using all the main
social networks
www.wildapricot.com/blogs/
 Coyote Communications
American website with a range of articles and resources on technology issues,
communications and volunteering; it not only contains useful tips, it also carries the
personal thoughts of its creator (Jayne Cravens, a regular contributor on UKVPMs) on
this range of topics – so it‟s not only practical it‟s also relevant and thought provoking
www.coyotecommunications.com
Network Specific Features/Advice/Tips
 MySpace
o How to Use MySpace to Raise Awareness
Interviews with three American organisations that provide insights into how they
are using MySpace
o Do‟s for MySpace Success
Tips for using MySpace to raise awareness and promote advocacy
www.gettingattention.org/my_weblog/2006/12/nonprofit_dos_f.html
o Humane Society case study on MySpace
A profile of how this charity has used MySpace to promote its cause
www.frogloop.com/care2blog/2007/5/7/sunny-the-seal-melts-hearts-on-
myspace.html
 Facebook
o Using Facebook in your non profit
A useful blog entry on the basics of Facebook, as well as how to use it like an
expert
http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog/2007/04/some_res
ources_.html
 Flickr
o How Nonprofits Can Get the Most out of Flickr
A very useful feature about Flickr and what it can do for your organisation;
includes information and tips on how to use Flickr in compliance with its
community rules and how to take advantage of its many features
- 118 -

FreshThinkingfullrep

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

FreshThinkingfullrep

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Modernising Volunteering

Modernising Volunteering is part of Improving Support, a Capacitybuilders funded

Published April 2009 by Red Foundation

The role of social network services in supporting volunteering 8

Improving the support for volunteer led volunteering 34

What is in this section? 35

What is volunteer led volunteering? 36

Volunteer led volunteering – an overview 36

Current support for volunteer led volunteering 42

Volunteer leaders‟ support needs 44

Lessons from Volunteering and faith communities in England 47

The youth action approach 49

Volunteer leaders and the use of social network services 51

What volunteering support services should consider when supporting 53

The vibrancy and impact of the volunteering movement

We are conscious that volunteering is not a static concept. While

We know, from our personal experience of volunteering and working in volunteering

Developing the role of Volunteering Champions

The role of social

What is in this section?

What are social network services?

Social network services – an overview

Use of social network services for community/society benefit

1 Utilising online social networks

Use of social network services to support volunteering

Recruitment Talk with Promote Promote

Used it 14.6% 22% 7.3% 21.5%

There is a huge opportunity locked up in social networking, no question. It can be

We spoke to two managers of Student Community Action Groups based in universities

Interview: The use of Facebook to support Student Community Action

volunteers when meeting up in person for the first time

Volunteering support services online

Specialist and bespoke social network services

 Knowledge and learning

Junction49 is an initiative of volunteering charity TimeBank. It was launched in 2007 with

What volunteering support services and volunteer involving

3 The information in this section is drawn from:

 Keep text to a minimum

What Modernising Volunteering plans to do next

What is in this section?

 National volunteering support services should work with national organisations

What is volunteer led volunteering?

Volunteer led volunteering – an overview

Russell Commission and subsequently v through the creation of vinvolved teams

o Within the volunteering movement, the Association of Volunteer Managers is a

 Dr Justin Davis Smith, Chief Executive of Volunteering England, has spoken on a

Current support for volunteer led volunteering

Online survey respondent

Volunteer leaders’ support needs

 „Information about quality training‟

 Consortium of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Voluntary and Community

more informal organisations dependent on mutuality, trust and relationships – a

Lessons from Volunteering and faith communities in England

The youth action approach20

20 Source information for this sub section: www.youthactionnetwork.org.uk

 Developmental & educative

 Participation, sense of influence and being trusted

Volunteer leaders and the use of social network services

What to think about when supporting volunteer led volunteering

What Modernising Volunteering plans to do next

What is in this section?

What are champions?