Lifting the lid on volunteering; how to get game-changing insight to maximise your volunteering offer

Our sector runs on an army of volunteers.  Building an understanding of how well our programmes are working, what it’s like to be a volunteer, what barriers they may face, difference it makes to them and what could work better is critical to attracting and retaining a diverse team of volunteers.

This autumn we’ve crafted two Masterclasses designed especially to support you in evaluating your volunteering – at an individual volunteer-level, and for programme-wide review. Book on both and receive a £30 discount.

Thursday 26th September – First Steps in Evaluating Your Volunteer Experience

9.30am-1pm on Zoom

This Masterclass will focus upon how to evaluate with volunteers, to better understand how volunteering is working with them, barriers they might be experiencing and how to improve inclusivity, what they’d like to see happen in the future, and to build up a picture of what volunteering means to them and how they are personally benefitting, for example, through wellbeing, skills development etc.

Designed for anyone managing volunteers or running a project involving volunteers, this is an invaluable opportunity to:

  • Share practice with others who also work closely with volunteers
  • Discuss the key questions to ask when evaluating with volunteers
  • Think about when and how to evaluate the volunteer experience
  • Arm yourself with practical tools to evaluate with volunteers
  • Consider how to maximise your response rate.

You’ll leave the Masterclass feeling enthused and confident about evaluating with your volunteers.

Thursday 3rd October - Reviewing your whole volunteering programme.

9.30am-1pm on Zoom

Are volunteers essential to your organisation?

Would you like to make sure your volunteering offer is relevant, inclusive and sustainable?

Has your programme been running a while but has not had a review? Then this Masterclass is for you!

A periodic ‘root and branch’ review of your volunteer programme is essential to ensure it is fit-for-purpose, enjoyable and sustainable. This Masterclass will focus on how to approach such a review, and practical tools for gathering the insight you need to optimise your volunteering programme.

Designed for anyone managing a volunteer programme, or managing those who do, this Masterclass is an opportunity to:

  • Share practice with others who also manage volunteer teams, and wider programmes including volunteering
  • Consider when a review is helpful and how the results can be used
  • Think about who should undertake the review, who are key stakeholders, and how much resource is needed
  • Discuss how to approach a review of your volunteering programme and areas you might want to investigate
  • Pick up options for evaluation tools to use
  • Spend time thinking about how to involve stakeholders, communicate and act upon the results.

You’ll leave the Masterclass feeling ready to start planning your volunteer programme review, and excited about what you might find.

9.30am-1pm on Zoom

Here’s what previous Masterclass attendees thought:

“Really worthwhile, thought provoking with lots of practical ideas and tools.”

“For once I feel excited about doing evaluation, rather than fearful.”

“Great, informative, informal, and adapted to what participants said they were interested in learning.”

Both Masterclasses are a safe-space in which to share experiences, pick-up tips and tools, and to frankly discuss what works and what doesn’t.

£135 ex VAT (£25 discount for current clients)

This will be a fun and effective Masterclass session 😀 with a small group of like-minded people.