Volunteer Now, the lead organisation for promoting and supporting volunteering across Northern Ireland, today launched its revolutionary new volunteering opportunity search portal in conjunction with partner, Be Collective.
The Be Collective platform is the first of its kind to be implemented within the charity sector in Northern Ireland and aims to revolutionise volunteering and its impacts for businesses, community groups and individuals across the region.
The new platform cohesively connects volunteering, organisations, outcomes and social value through innovative social infrastructure and for the first time quantifies volunteering contribution by giving individuals and businesses a social “record”.
Commenting on the new platform Denise Hayward, Chief Executive of Volunteer Now, said: “As Northern Ireland’s regional volunteering organisation, we are continually looking for innovative ways to serve our partners and provide volunteers across Northern Ireland with the support they need to find relevant opportunities.
Having worked with a wide range of business partners over the years across various sectors, we know that volunteering is a key component for many organisation’s corporate social responsibility programmes and we have listened to their needs in terms of how we can support the successful integration of volunteering within their organisation.
We are thrilled to officially launch the Be Collective platform and to unveil a fresh new volunteering portal which streamlines the volunteering process for businesses, groups and volunteers. This new technology really will revolutionise how we connect volunteers with real time opportunities, providing support for communities across Northern Ireland and, importantly, delivering quantifiable and demonstrable impact for organisations investing in their people.
We’re delighted to see so many of our partners embrace this new platform and we would encourage any organisation considering volunteering to get in touch with us and register with the platform. With a wide variety of live volunteering opportunities, there has never been a better time for volunteers, or those considering getting into volunteering, to find their perfect match.”
Be Collective is an organisation building digital community infrastructure to support community action and social change. It is backed by over 30 years’ experience in championing social enterprise and community development projects. Founded by Rob Wise, the organisation is steeped in philanthropy with the Wise family initiating, developing and operating many social projects with the purpose of strengthening communities including high profile projects such as The Big Issue and The Body Shop in Australia.
Rob Wise, Founder and Director of Be Collective, commented on the new partnership: “We’re delighted to partner with Volunteer Now as our first key partnership in Europe. As we connect and grow the volunteering ecosystem in Northern Ireland, we will see the collective impact of our communities increasing, becoming more focused and strategic. For the first time we will have immediate access to volunteer engagement data that will enable Volunteer Now to better understand the impact and benefit for Northern Ireland.
At Be Collective, we recognise that while our communities are more digitally connected than ever, they are not nearly as engaged. That’s why we developed this exciting new platform, to transform volunteering and make collective goodwill easier to achieve.
This new technology benefits the whole of community across all sectors. Volunteer Now have shown a commitment to building digital literacy and capability beyond their own internal requirement, extending access to free social infrastructure to their charity and business partners. For individuals volunteering, our new technology means better opportunity matches based on skills and interests. For businesses, Be Collective lifts participation, assists with skill development of employees through volunteering and provides a verified Social Impact report.
We’re excited to see the impact this innovative social infrastructure will have for Volunteer Now, truly connecting volunteers and organisations, and measuring the outcomes and social values created by these connections.”
For more information on registering your business or to access volunteering opportunities via the Be Collective platform please visit www.volunteernow.co.uk or follow @VolunteerNow1.
