Technology is changing the way that we engage, train, recognise and retain volunteers
Volunteering Australia has been funded by the Australian Government, Department of Social Services, to implement the Volunteer Management Online Project (VMOP) to support and enhance volunteer management and increase participation in volunteering.
Project Vision – the place for all things volunteering
Provide a nationally consistent, online approach to volunteer recruitment and management, including online tools, training, and resources. This will support Volunteer Involving Organisations (VIOs) to increase the number, retention, and diversity of volunteers across Australia, and build capacity to successfully recruit and retain volunteers online.
Project Scope
Make volunteering easier to do and easier to manage
Volunteer Involving Organisations (VIOs) and volunteers have easy access to online volunteer management tools, training and resources that are nationally consistent and contribute to:
- Increased capacity of VIOs by providing access to online volunteer management tools, training and resources that are nationally consistent, easily accessible, and user-friendly.
- Increased capacity of VIOs to successfully recruit, train and retain volunteers online.
- Increased diversity of volunteers across Australia.
- Reduced duplication across state and territory jurisdictions of volunteer management tools and resources.
- Acknowledges that often an overwhelming variety of solutions leads to fragmentation, and duplication. Accordingly, user experience is inconsistent and efficient.
- It will not solve every problem; it is limited in scope and budget.
- It will not create, or duplicate existing solutions. It will facilitate centralised access to enable improved efficiency, as well as ensure national consistency. Most of the solutions already exist. The platform will link existing solutions to meet project scope, to deliver tools and an experience which meets the needs of the volunteering ecosystem.
Our role in leading VMOP
Volunteering Australia’s ambition is for volunteering to be inclusive of all members of the Australian community. Volunteering offers opportunities for social, economic and cultural inclusion. Everyone has the right to these opportunities.
We are seeking to overcome barriers and leverage current opportunities, including technology, so we can reimagine volunteering for all Australians.
Volunteering Australia is leading VMOP to develop a platform which aims to make volunteering easier to do and easier to manage. Through this platform and the power of volunteering we aim to bring people together, to create connection, inclusion, and opportunity.
Timeline
Project Update: This is what we have heard from you
VMOP themes so far…
All in one
- An all-in-one platform is essential
- VA well-placed to bring together current systems
- Overwhelmed by volume of systems currently existing
- Systems need to sync with other system
National
- Platform needs to be one tool to work alongside others
- Enormous amount of work required to volunteer and to manage volunteers and this is duplicated across roles
- Volunteer passport
- One source of truth
Useful
- Capacity building over time
- Capture and report on data and compliance
- Relevant, consistent and accessible content
- Varying levels of detail
- Data stored in Australia
Accessible
- Cater to varying levels of digital literacy
- Consistent look for end users throughout volunteer journey
- Volunteer focussed not just organisation focused
- Accessible on phone application
- Needs to be affordable to access for all in the community
Responsive
- Responsive to the changes in volunteering offering flexibility and choice
- Scale up and scale down
- Needs to offer crisis response, informal volunteering opportunities, longer-term opportunities
- Sustainable, agile, iterative and responsive to significant change quickly
Partnership
- Better together
- Vendors in the eco-system currently all express an openness to partnership and identify a need to better collaborate to improve the volunteer experience
- All findings so far so consistency between expectations of the volunteering eco-system and the intent, objectives and deliverables of this project
Contact
Danielle Hanisch
Project Manager
E: online@volunteeringaustralia.org
M: 0428 834 145
The National Strategy for Volunteering is funded by the Australian Government.
