How Volunteero launched GNAAS into the 21st century
The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) brings pioneering pre-hospital care to the scene, rescuing hundreds of severely injured or ill patients every year. They serve North Yorkshire, the North-East, Cumbria, the Scottish borders and the Isle of Man. We spoke to Sophie Snowdon, their Fundraising Lead, about their experience with Volunteero.
GNAAS has long relied on the dedication of volunteers to support its vital mission across an expansive 8000-square-mile area. From talks and events to administrative tasks, volunteers play a crucial role in the organisation's success. However, managing volunteer engagement efficiently presented significant challenges for GNAAS in the past. Before embracing Volunteero, GNAAS was struggling with disjointed systems, relying on HR software like Breathe and Excel spreadsheets to manage volunteer details and activity schedules. This fragmented approach led to inefficiencies, with volunteers often missing out on relevant opportunities. The manual processes consumed substantial time for both staff and volunteers, resulting in limited uptake and frustration “The volunteers would have to filter to see what they wanted to take part in and then send an email back with the reference numbers of the activity they wanted to attend. This was time-consuming for both staff and volunteers and resulted in little uptake from volunteers as the process was very clunky.”
Enter Volunteero – the software to transform GNAAS's volunteer management processes. With Volunteero, GNAAS witnessed remarkable improvements across various aspects of volunteer engagement. Sophie stated "Volunteero has revolutionised the way we utilise volunteers and their precious time! It's brought us into the 21st century with volunteering."
Streamlined Onboarding Process
By centralising their volunteer onboarding process into Volunteero, the HR and volunteer management team have been able to collaborate in a more streamlined manner to manage the application and onboarding process seamlessly. Additionally, Volunteero’s automated reference collection feature has been a game changer for GNAAS, as the system sends out, reminds and captures references for applicants significantly. reducing the administrative burden on the HR team.
Enhanced Volunteer Matching and communication
The instant sign-up feature stands out as a favourite, allowing volunteers to choose missions promptly while enabling GNAAS to track participation. They would spend a lot of time emailing their volunteers to see if they were available in the past. Gone are the days of manually reaching out to volunteers to fill activity slots, Volunteero's intuitive interface allows volunteers to instantly sign up for missions in their area of interest. This resulted in a marked increase in volunteer engagement. “Volunteero has really changed the way we work with volunteers and how effective we are able to make volunteering for us"
Rather than emailing their volunteers and pilling up their inboxes, the built-in chat functionality of Volunteero facilitates seamless communication between the team and volunteers. From quick questions to group discussions, volunteers can stay informed and connected without sharing personal contact information. GNAAS use this to keep them all informed about the updates within the charity.
Although hard to estimate, GNAAS believes there has been a vast overall time saving from this reduced administrative burden and by streamlining communications.
Simplified Reporting:
Volunteero's robust reporting capabilities provide valuable insights into volunteer hours and activities for Sophie. Before Volunteero GNAAS didn’t track their hours as the work was too manual to keep track of. This not only facilitated better communication with volunteers but also served as compelling data for social media and PR efforts. With over 180 reports submitted in 2023 amounting to almost 800 hours of volunteering, the volunteers are really showing the impact they are having at GNAAS.
GNAAS's experience with Volunteero has been immensely positive, thanks to the platform's user-friendly interface and the proactive support from the Volunteero team. Sophie said: ”On the whole, we have had a very positive response to volunteero from all volunteers, there are a couple at the start who were resistant but once they saw how easy to use and how effective it can be they soon got onboard.”
As the organization continues its journey, it looks forward to leveraging Volunteero's evolving feature suite to further enhance volunteer engagement and impact. GNAAS is grateful for the partnership with Volunteero and excited about the possibilities it holds for the future of volunteer management.
“We are so happy we made the leap to change from the old into the new!”
If you’d like to bring your volunteering program up to speed and prepare for the future, why not get in touch and book a demo today!
