Volleyball England and Social Value Engine launch volunteer impact pilot

Volleyball England and Social Value Engine have launched a nine-month pilot using My Impact to understand and measure the social value created by volunteers across volleyball in England.

The pilot will involve selected Volleyball England-affiliated clubs, major events, National Teams and the HEVO programme, building a picture of volunteering from individual activities through to its contribution across the sport nationally.

Volunteers from clubs, regions and local leagues will also be able to use My Impact directly. They can record activities including coaching, officiating, administration and other volunteer roles, and see the social value associated with their contribution.

My Impact uses evidence-based financial values to help people understand the social value created through the activities they undertake. Each activity includes information explaining how the value has been calculated and the evidence supporting it. For more on how outcomes are valued, read what social value means.

Building the evidence from individual volunteers upwards

Volunteers play a fundamental role in grassroots and competitive sport, but the scale and nature of their contribution can be difficult to capture consistently.

The pilot is designed to provide more detailed evidence by starting with what individual volunteers actually do and bringing that information together across clubs, events, programmes and Volleyball England as a whole.

Volleyball England believes this will be the first time a national governing body in sport has attempted to capture and value volunteering at this level of detail.

The resulting evidence will help Volleyball England better understand its volunteer communities and support future planning as it develops its new strategic plan.

For individual clubs, the information could also provide useful evidence for funding applications, conversations with partners and recognising the contribution made by volunteers locally.

Volleyball England Chief Executive Officer Charlie Ford said:

We’re hugely proud and thankful for the amazing contribution volunteers make to volleyball in all its formats across England. As we have said many times, the sport simply would not exist at the level it does today without them.

What this partnership gives us is the opportunity to understand that contribution in far greater detail than we have been able to before. We will be able to see the impact volunteers are creating through their day-to-day and week-to-week activities, both individually and collectively as part of a club, competition or programme.

For clubs, that could be incredibly valuable. Being able to demonstrate the contribution their volunteers make to their local communities in meaningful figures could strengthen funding applications, support conversations with partners and give them new ways to recognise the people who make their activities possible.

Developing My Impact for the sports sector

The partnership will also help Social Value Engine learn more about the ways My Impact can support sports organisations, clubs and individual volunteers.

Social Value Engine Marketing and Product Director Maddie Kortenaar said:

What makes this partnership particularly exciting is the level of detail we will be able to capture. We already know that volunteers create enormous value across sport, but much of the evidence available is at an aggregated level. This pilot gives us the opportunity to build that picture from the individual volunteer upwards.

My Impact enables people to record what they actually do and understand the social value of those activities. Bringing that information together can then show what volunteers are contributing across a club, an event, a programme and ultimately an entire sport.

That creates a much richer evidence base. It can help volunteers see and communicate the difference they make, give clubs stronger evidence for funding and planning, and give Volleyball England new insight into where and how volunteering is creating value.

Learning from participating volunteers, clubs and programmes during the nine-month pilot will be used to further develop My Impact and inform its wider rollout across the sports sector.

The partnership was introduced by Jo Maher, whose support brought Volleyball England and Social Value Engine together.

Measure your own impact

Individuals can already use My Impact to record their activities and understand the social value they create through volunteering, learning, skills development and other activities.

Create a free My Impact account.