Quick Q & A’s for the sceptic:

A thinking tool to consider if joining Time & Talents for Westminster is right for your organisation.

1. Why do we have to pay to volunteer?

‘If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly’

o   When setting up a new employer supported volunteering programme or developing an existing one, it is worth getting the right things in place that can lead to success for all involved, i.e.:

• Beneficiaries and the wider community
• Charity partner(s)
• Employees
• The business

o   Time & Talents for Westminster has a longstanding history of working with all sides to facilitate successful outcomes for all.

Volunteering support isn’t free

o   While the principle of volunteering is that it is a free resource, a distinction needs to be made between the act of volunteering, and support for volunteering projects. Essentially employee volunteering can have three main areas of cost:

1) Volunteer brokerage and coordination of projects

This is chiefly around paid staff time to set up and facilitate projects between employers and charities. We currently have a team of three people (one person is part time).  

2) Project costs and expenses

Each volunteering project is unique and may or may not have additional costs involved. For example these could be things like: CRB police checks, paints, DIY materials, gardening tools, refreshments, handouts for a workshop, travel expenses, etc. Some community partners will have all the materials needed, while others will require support to buy what is needed for a project. NB practical projects can often incur more costs than skills based activities due to the physical materials required.

3) In the case of Time & Talents, our membership package entails dedicated staff time to support partners on joint initiatives such as:

• Enoticeboard of live employee volunteering opportunities
• Annual networking events through the year
• Project evaluation system
• An awards scheme
• Volunteering good practice updates and news
• A Time & Talents website with resources, case studies, and partner information
• Consultancy and support for charities developing employer supported volunteering opportunities

The sometimes hidden support of a broker

o   Picture a team of people running an art workshop in a school. Seems simple enough in theory! Now think through all the actions needed to make it a success:

• Calling community organisations to find out ways a group can help and discussing ideas (2 hours)
• Looking at diaries to find a time that works for all (trying to get hold of busy teachers who are teaching all day) (1 hour)
• Site visit and planning: identifying key tasks, deliverables, success criteria, who doing what, risk assessment, health and safety considerations, written notes for all, etc (3 hours)
• Background research on the student group to ensure the right content for the workshop (1 hour)
• Supporting volunteers with content development and materials for workshop (2 hours)
• Liaison with both sides in run up to project (1 hour)
• On the day support, such as welcome briefing, photos, debriefing etc (4 hours)
• Evaluation feedback from all sides, including telephone interviews and project write up (2 hours)

TOTAL SUPPORT TIME: 16 hours

Our social enterprise model

o   In order to provided dedicated staff (currently a team of two and a half) to support charities and employers, we have found that the best means of financial sustainability has been to charge employers for our support costs. We have seen projects in other areas collapse when council funding has been pulled away 

o   The employer financial contribution means that our support time with charities is subsidised, adding to the social impact that the employer membership enables 

o   We have also observed that when an employer financially invests into the Time & Talents partnership, they have made a conscious decision to join and become more actively involved

2. Why should we use a broker when we can organise volunteering for our staff internally?

Saving time and money

o   Utilising support from a broker saves staff time in researching and scoping new volunteering projects. We have strong relationships with over 80 charity partners and have hundreds of employee volunteering opportunities at any given time

o   As a charity at the heart of the community we always have an ear to the ground and know what is going on in the area and what support is really needed

o   Through trusted sustainable relationships, we can make matches during windows of opportunity

o   We can play an educational role for staff in learning about local needs and thinking about how best to offer their time and skills

Social return on investment

o   We can enable more of your staff enquiries about volunteering to go through to actual projects, with tailored telephone and face to face support

o   By balancing the needs of employers and charities, and co-creating projects together, projects are much more likely to meet real needs on both sides and make a genuine difference

Sustainable support for charities

Trying to help a charity is not always as straightforward as it might first appear. In order for a charity to receive support, dedicated liaison time is needed to get projects going that can take staff away from core activities. Capacity in small organisations can be the biggest barrier to working with employers, and in having the time to identify what support is really needed first. Time & Talents provides ongoing assistance to our charity partners, building an understanding of needs over time so that we make things as manageable as possible and target efforts to best affect. 

Adding value to your community engagement work

Working with Time & Talents strengthens your offer:

o   A hub of the local community

Every year during our annual feedback survey, charity partners tell us the Volunteer Centre is a trusted and vital organisation that provides important local infrastructure. All our employer partners benefit from our history, knowledge, expertise, and network of organisations, etc

o   Support that adds to the capacity of charity partners

We consciously seek to support the capacity of the charities we work with, so that projects are less time intensive for them and where they put time in, that their involvement is properly targeted    

o   Neutral mediation through challenging projects

We provide support as needed from start to finish. If challenges arise between partners, we can help to create a safe space for open dialogue and support solutions that work for all sides

o   A social investment 

The employer financial contribution can been seen as a social investment in a small grassroots charity at the heart of the community, which in turn supports hundreds of local charities

o   A partnership collaboration

It is easy to feel that volunteer projects are a drop in the ocean of significant community need. Partners can feel more confident that their individual efforts contribute to a bigger collaborative effort. 

3. Why would we join a local scheme in Westminster, when we have offices in other areas?

A ‘glocal’ vision– providing connected support across different office sites

We understand that many employers, indeed many we already work with, are large multinational corporations that operate around the globe and across the UK. We believe in global strategy with local delivery and adaptation. Where employers have offices in other areas, we are keen to explore ways that we can work in partnership with local agencies to provide consistent support for employees. In conjunction with Volunteering England, we are building a Time & Talents Network (link), and also have connections with other Volunteer Centres in various parts of the country.     

Replicable project templates

Where employees are being encouraged to develop their own relationships with charities in others parts of the world, we can co-develop project tools and templates with employees in London. These tools are designed around your organisational needs, and tried and tested before they are shared to other areas.

Local focus while making volunteering accessible to staff across your organisation

By working locally you can support some of the charities and communities most in need. There are often bigger returns on investment, where your resources can make a more significant impact, than if you were only to work at the national or regional levels. Working locally also gives employees a real learning experience where their input will be measurable. All this is available while also connecting local schemes to ensure volunteering support is accessible across different office sites.

4. Isn’t Westminster a rich borough anyway?

You may be surprised to know that overall Westminster is in the bottom 40 most deprived out of England’s 354 districts. Sitting alongside great affluence are significant pockets of hidden deprivation. Some of Westminster’s neighbourhood wards are in the top 3 – 10% most deprived areas in the country. Click here to read more 

5. Our staff only want to do fun things that are different to their normal day jobs, like painting and gardening – so why should we encourage them to do anything else?

As set out above, a well developed volunteering programme will bring back many business benefits. For optimal results volunteering activities could be aligned to:

o   Business objectives

o   Skills and competencies

o   Development goals, e.g. Personal Development Plans, appraisals, etc

o   Values, culture and internal initiatives

For example a recruitment company might focus its efforts on employability support for job seekers. This would most likely enable the company to make the biggest impact in the community while developing and motivating its own workforce.

In Westminster there are hundreds of small charities and organisations who are reaching out for help in this challenging economic period. Requests are chiefly around skills that charities cannot afford to buy in, e.g. I.T, marketing, HR, strategic development, fundraising, etc. 

o   A CEO painting a wall for a day; when he / she could have spent a more targeted 30 mins speaking with a group of young people to inspire them to aim high.

o   A group of employees undertaking a DIY makeover when no one in the group has any DIY experience and they turn up at the charity venue in suits. This kind of situation could potentially take charity staff away from their frontline roles, or even incur damage / expenses for professionals to re-do the makeover properly. Instead, employees should be encouraged to reflect beforehand on how they can provide genuine support to charities at this difficult time. E.g. alternative team projects could be a skills-sharing workshop for charity staff, or storytelling to primary children, etc. Click here for more examples

Employees can then come away after the project feeling proud of their contribution knowing that they have made a real difference, as well as having had a new experience away from their normal day job.

6. What is Time & Talents in a nutshell?

Function (most basic description of what we do):

We match employee volunteers with local charities, with a focus on skill-sharing and sustainable relationships

Goal (what we seek to do):

We create partnerships between employers and charities that achieve community impact and business benefits

Purpose (our higher vision):

We connect people from different worlds (different sectors and organisations) to support positive social change

Three levels of support: Project; Programme; and Partnership

o   Project support:

A dedicated broker works with you to set up new projects and partnerships, providing ongoing and flexible support

o   Programme support:

Consultancy to develop your bespoke community programme and strategy

o   Collaborative partnership support:

Reach new levels of excellence in your community engagement by focusing efforts strategically and in collaboration with others.   

Through a joint programme of events with partners from the private, public and voluntary sectors:

• Avoid working in isolation where individual projects could be ‘a drop in the ocean’ or designing work that duplicates what is already going on
• Meet with others to explore synergy and evolve organic working relationships 
• Utilise the strong history of the partnership and learnings from what has worked well in the local area to maximise efforts
• Strategise and co-create with key stakeholders from the start of new initiatives to build in success from the outset
• Glean tips and ideas to accelerate your programme

7. What are the USPs (Unique Selling Points) for Time & Talents?

• Innovative and flexible support unique to your situation and goals
• Local brokerage within a registered charity at the hub of the community
• Meaningful, skills-based volunteering that meets the needs of charity and business
• A not for profit partnership working with private, public and voluntary sector organisations  

8. How do we know if Time & Talents is right for our organisation; or if our organisation is right for Time & Talents?

• Do you want to develop a responsible and impactful volunteering programme?
• Are you looking to make a difference in the local community, while at the same time bringing back business benefits for your organisation and your people?
• Do you want to develop skills-based volunteering, and sustainable partnerships?
• Are you looking for creative and flexible support without someone outside your organisation taking over?
• Do you want to lead and champion community engagement beyond the limits of your own organisation?
• Do you want access to real solutions that really work and that save your organisation time and money? 

If the answer is yes to any of these questions we would like to arrange an exploratory meeting to discuss how we might be able to support what you are trying to do.

Arrange a meeting to explore working together