Volunteers' Week 2009

Rewarding, recognising and recruiting volunteers

Volunteers' Week Newsletter

Volunteers' Week is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2009. This annual awareness week celebrates volunteers and volunteering. With more than 22 million people throughout the UK donating their time and effort in one way or another every year, this week is used to recognise their valued contribution to society as well as encouraging others to consider getting involved.

Click here to view the online version of the newsletter

What a week!

A big thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the survey included in the enewsletter last month. Your feedback was appreciated and will assist in planning for Volunteers’ Week in 2010.

Some interesting information was provided through the survey, with 61% of respondents working in the voluntary sector and the majority as a Volunteer Manager or Coordinator.

Just over 40% of survey participants had been involved in Volunteers’ Week previously, with all respondents using the website to learn about or register events, download resources, read about anniversary partners, leave a thank you message or purchase merchandise.

Of the 47 survey participants, 29 stated they had purchased merchandise with the majority using these items to reward their volunteers. Of those that did not purchase merchandise 50% indicated it was due to budget constraints and the price of items, with 19% indicating merchandise availability as an issue.

Forty-three of the 47 people who provided feedback held events during this year’s Volunteers’ Week. Of those 22% held an awards ceremony for volunteers, with eight respondents holding recruitment drives. Of those that held events, 23% had between 31 and 50 volunteers participate, with 33% having up to 70 people attend events.

Of 44 responses 27 stated their event was to reward and recognise the work of volunteers, with only four events focussed on recruitment. Nearly 59% of the respondents received media coverage of their events in the form of local radio (50%), newspaper articles (28%) and local television (3.6%).

Nearly 90% of survey participants indicated they would be take part in VW in 2010 with 87% stating they would hold an event.

Some of your thoughts about the week were:

"Meeting and celebrating together with a group of volunteers from my local neighbourhood made me feel that our efforts are worthwhile on several fronts. It was great to be re-motivated and enthused." - Karen

"Volunteers' Week provides a great opportunity to focus on the contribution which volunteers make." - Lizzie

"The logo was eye-catching, the certificates beautiful!" - Gwynneth

"Volunteers' Week was a great opportunity to give something back to our volunteers and the volunteers of organisations we support." - Jo

" I had a great time!" - Lynn

Some impressive figures

After reviewing all that took place during the week we are excited to share some remarkable facts and figures with you.

The Volunteers’ Week website had 53,341 visitors to the website between January and June with 42,710 of these being first time visitors. This was a 91% increase in visits compared to 2008. Most visits to the website were to view the event finder, learn about the week and to purchase merchandise.

This year a total of 751 events were registered on the Volunteers’ Week website with many more taking place throughout the UK. Data retrieved from the website indicates that 2,300 certificates, 1,245 flyers and 917 posters were downloaded directly from the site. More than 350 online requests for poster and flyers were made, with Volunteering England mailing out 9,723 posters and 9,349 flyers.

There was an increase in media coverage for the week compared with 2008, with 985 articles in national, regional and trade press between 1 May and 30 June 2009. This equates to a value of £507,493 of coverage with press clippings still coming through to us from regional newspapers.

More than £191,300 of television and radio coverage was generated during the week. Information about the week was broadcast on 50 radio stations equating to approximately three hours and 40 minutes of air time with a value of £52,936. These broadcasts are expected to have reached an audience of more than 3,421,000 listeners.

Valuable television coverage was also obtained on BBC East Midlands Today and GMTV. In total approximately 12 minutes of air time was obtained with a value of £138,300 and reaching an audience of 3,450,000 people.

So once again, we would like to say thank you to all who took the time to promote their events and worked with us to promote volunteering stories to their local media. This coverage not only helped to promote Volunteers’ Week but also ensured volunteers across the UK were rewarded, recognised and recruited.

Sharing your event memories

As we look ahead we ask you send through any 25th anniversary memories you may have captured during this year’s events. If you have some pictures or footage showcasing your event and are happy for these to be used please send them to volunteersweek@volunteeringengland.org.

Looking ahead

Planning has begun for next year’s Volunteers’ Week. We look forward to building on all the successes of this year’s campaign and encourage you all to keep in touch via the Volunteers’ Week email volunteersweek@volunteeringengland.org if you have any thoughts or suggestions for next year’s campaign.  Keep an eye on the www.volunteersweek.org web site too, as you will see some changes to it in the coming weeks in preparation for VW 2010. 

We look forward to doing it all again with you in 2010!

Be a part of the volunteering movement

Volunteering England is the leading national volunteer development agency and a membership organisation in England. In addition to Volunteers’ Week, we work throughout the year to support an increase in the quality, quantity, impact and accessibility of volunteering throughout the country.

Our knowledge and expertise can help you to harness the power of your volunteers, whatever they are helping with, whether it’s gardening, running an event or fundraising.

As valued participants of Volunteers’ Week, we would like to offer you a unique opportunity to claim a special discount on Volunteering England membership. A 10% discount is available on all membership rates, only until the end of September 2009.

To claim the discount, please use either of the forms provided below:
Membership application form (PDF)
Membership application form (Word)

Please complete the forms and attach payment and return to the address provided towards the end of the form, by the end of September 2009.

Membership benefits include:
• 10% discount on all Volunteers’ Week merchandise
• Access to up-to-the minute information on volunteering
• A chance to be involved in our work representing the volunteering movement in England
• Many networking and marketing opportunities
• Discounts on products and services, such as the Investing in Volunteers quality standard.

 “Being a member of Volunteering England is a crucial way of staying up-to-date with new initiatives and changes across the sector.” Linda Davis, The University of Nottingham.

For further queries, please email membership@volunteeringengland.org.

An initiative of Volunteering England, Wales Council for Voluntary Action, Volunteer Development Agency (Northern Ireland) and Volunteer Development Scotland, the week will focus on rewarding, recognising and recruiting volunteers.