Welcome to the Digital in Volunteering Community of Practice!
What is a Community of Practice?
A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a passion or interest and want to learn from and support each other. CoPs can be formal or informal and can be based on a short or long-term commitment. CoPs often form when people with a shared interest regularly interact. This interaction can lead to a sense of commitment to the community as a whole.
What do CoPs usually do?
- Facilitate the sharing of knowledge and expertise, helping members to learn from each other.
- Explore new ways of working, identifying common solutions and improving work processes
- Support members’ career development, increase role satisfaction, break down silos.
What are the aims of the Digital in Volunteering Community of Practice?
The CoP is here to support the key objectives of our Toolkit – helping leaders in volunteering to adopt the digital practices and solutions that are right for them. We will achieve our vision through the recognition that we must build bridges between technologists and volunteer managers, translating technical information for non-technical audiences. As such, our Community of Practice will be dedicated to:
- Learning: sharing our knowledge and experiences, for peer support
- Influence: mobilising our voice, shaping the market and contributing to national agendas
- Access: offering priority access to Parts 2 and 3 of the Toolkit and related training opportunities.
At the heart of this work we stand for:
- Empowerment: using digital to give organisations and volunteers more power.
- Innovation: Emphasizing the use of new and creative digital solutions to our most pressing challenges in volunteering.
- Collaboration: Stressing the importance of working together and sharing knowledge.
- Impact: Focusing on the positive outcomes achieved through effective volunteer engagement.
- Accessibility: Ensuring that digital tools are available and easy to use for everyone.
- Efficiency: Streamlining processes and making volunteer management more effective.
- Connection: Fostering a sense of community and shared purpose.
- Growth: Supporting the development and expansion of volunteer programs.
We seek to integrate these values into our work through an emphasis on clear communication, offering diverse learning formats, creating supporting environments and focusing on the practical applications of digital in volunteering.
Who runs the Community of Practice?
Like the Toolkit itself, the Community of Practice is hosted by TeamKinetic, with content and agendas developed by TeamKinetic, Gethyn Williams and Ruth Buchanan Leonard. We are also grateful for the engagement of the Association of Volunteer Managers and their members, who help shape our work at key stages.
Despite the involvement and support of TeamKinetic, everything we develop for the Toolkit and Community of Practice will be ‘vendor-neutral’. This means we discuss and include a range of different companies, software and platforms in our work – our over-riding interest is to showcase practical, empowering digital solutions for leaders in volunteering.
The costs of hosting and supporting the Community of Practice will be met and managed through a new Community Interest Company (VolunteerTech Ltd.) owned jointly by TeamKinetic’s Chris Martin, Gethyn Williams and Ruth Buchanan Leonard.
Membership and Pricing
The Community of Practice is, and will remain, completely free to join.
Likewise, all parts of the self-serve Digital in Volunteering Toolkit are, and will remain, free to download and access for all. By joining the Community of Practice you will have the opportunity to hear about new Toolkit elements first, shape its content and set the agendas you want to cover with your peers.
Some additional services will carry a small or reasonable charge. This will include training packages relating to the Toolkit and joining other online sessions and workshops associated with different elements of the Toolkit.