Project

A community services organisation with a strong history of engaging and using volunteers in service delivery wanted to engage current volunteers to investigate: how to maximise the engagement and contributions of current volunteers; how to recruit new volunteers; and how to give volunteers the most positive experience possible in their volunteer roles. This information was to contribute to a new 3-year strategic plan.

Actions

• In collaboration with the CEO, the Volunteers Coordinator, Starfish Strategy and Creating Communities (other consultants simultaneously engaged by the client), the desired outcomes for this project were defined and agreed in a written brief.
• Sotica designed and facilitated an engaging evening workshop for the client’s volunteers.
• Input, experiences and suggestions from volunteers was discussed, recorded and written up in a brief report.
• The final report was provided to the CEO the following day.

Outcomes

• Volunteers were affirmed in their roles with the client.
• The 3-year strategic planning process was informed by valuable input from the client’s current volunteers.

Value to client

• Potential sources of new volunteers were identified.
• The client is able to use targeted strategies and actions to improve volunteers’ experiences in their roles.

Feedback from client CEO – “Sotica helped us with a project designed to assist in the development and recognition of Volunteers at ECHO Community Services. They met with us on several occasions to clarify the brief and the organisation’s expectations. Leighton organised and facilitated a Volunteer’s evening and the outcome was a detailed report which has been reported to the Board and will be used as the basis for some future strategies. The feedback from the Volunteers who attended was that they thought the evening was one of the best events we have ever held and the information they provided is proving extremely valuable in our desire to improve the Volunteering experience.” Phil Baker, CEO.