Exploring Volunteering

Context

The group came together through Twitter and the local Devon Social Media Cafe, a monthly meet up for social media users in Devon. The group took up the challenge of organising a local Twestival and worked on its preparation in a matter of six weeks or so. Here’s an explanation of what Twestival is according to Twestival.com:

Twestival„¢ (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good. All of the local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all ticket sales and donations go direct to projects.

By the end of the odyssey, the group in Plymouth had raised almost £6,000 for Concern- making the Plymouth Twestival the third largest in terms of amount raised of all the local Twestivals around the UK in spring 2010. An amazing result, all the more so considering it was the first time the group had organised the Twitter associated fundraising extravaganza. Over 100 people attended the event at Plymouth Argyle.

Highlights included:

• an auction hosted by local celebrity auctioneer Graham Barton (from BBC series ‘Homes Under the Hammer’)
• performances from local musicians Francis and the Drakes, Kitty and the Lost Boys and the Delahays
• free pizza laid on by Domino’s Pizza Plymouth
• and a chance to play with a giant Scalextric set thanks to local company What a Giggle

Learning what’s behind this volunteering success

What follows are thoughts that come out of discussion with Chris Penberthy about his work as part of the group behind the Plymouth Twestival (March 2010).

Organising any Twestival is an incredible challenge. Twestivals are driven by volunteers and are typically organised in short periods of time, powered by the volunteers’ own resources and resourcefulness. What follows is an attempt to identify the reasons for the spectacular success of the group in Plymouth and this new model of volunteer engagement that’s being thrashed out by local groups running Twestival events all over the world.

Recruitment (or how the group’s engagement began)

In terms of volunteers, there were around 10-12 people who helped out in various ways, with a core group of 5-6 people. People joined the group, not so much because they’d seen the volunteering opportunity advertised, but because they already had a contact with someone in the group or because they were drawn in by the Twestival event itself.

The initial contact between the group members themselves and or with the Twestival event in Plymouth were almost all made informally through online social media, in particular Twitter. This meant that the group came from a very diverse range of backgrounds, united by social media and by the links with the local area.

In the beginning of the planning process, it was suggested that members of the group adopt specific roles. However, in the end, people rejected this in favour of a looser, more informal approach with each person doing what they could. Public facing roles (e.g. press, sponsorship, general enquiries, etc.) were assigned to different members of the group for pragmatic communications reasons, so the general public knew who to approach with a specific enquiry. However, behind the scenes, most members of the group ended up helping across a range of different ‘roles’ or tasks on an as needed basis. Although each member brought their own skills and experience, volunteers were not recruited on the basis of formal qualifications.

Interestingly, the vast majority had not volunteered formally before and in fact many didn’t consider their involvement with Twestival as volunteering, rather they were simply helping out with the task at hand. As a result, searching for a volunteering opportunity would have been unlikely to have been a point of entry for them had they been advertised on a volunteering opportunity website like Do-it or Volunteer Match.

Volunteers could come through the Plymouth Twestival page. But many came through simple conversation on Twitter simply tweeting or DM’ing a member of the group or the main Plymouth Twestival twitter account.

As the date of the event got closer, some formal volunteer recruitment to get help with stewarding the event was attempted through local student volunteering services. This recruitment approach didn’t result in any volunteers. In the end, this role was filled by different members of the group who helped out with stewarding on an ad hoc basis on the day itself.

Ripping up the rule book

In many ways, it was a case of ripping up the rule book on traditional volunteer management and starting again in a very different way. Chris enjoyed how this allowed the group to focus on the needs at hand, liberated from the burden of worrying about getting the policies in place beforehand. This more informal approach was possible for a number of reasons.

The group came together for a very specific purpose and was clearly time limited. The date of Twestival is fixed across the world. The group was small which enabled management to be very lightweight and informal. There was strong feeling of serendipity in the way the challenge was approached, rather than planning every last detail.

This should not in any way downplay the enormous amount of work and organisation that took place in the preparation of the event. However, it’s important to note that this work was carried out because members of the group proactively took responsibility for different tasks, rather than relied on tasks to be assigned to them.

There was also a balance of power in the sense in which all group could shape what happened and have an impact on the development of the event.

The gift relationships that bonded the group were never lost from sight, which meant people had flexibility to carry out the tasks when they could based on their actual capacity. The only pressure was the pressure people put on themselves. The group’s expectations were based on the assumption that each was delivering the best they could, not against unrealistic or imposed targets.

It was people getting together in their spare time and as a result one important ingredient in the mix was the clear sense of fun in which the group took on the challenge. This playfulness in spirit was driven by the group members themselves, but also through a sense of good-natured rivalry with events being organised in different parts of the South-West such as Bristol and Exeter .

People were motivated by the fact they were clearly autonomous, and had a lot of freedom to do what they wanted. There was no ambition from the central organisers of Twestival to control or dictate how this group in Plymouth (or any other) should approach the challenge of fundraising for the internationally nominated charity Concern. There was also no centralised centrepiece, as is often the case with national fundraisers driven by mass media. Absence of any national centrepiece provides the Plymouth group with the space to create it’s own distinctive style which perhaps explains why it is such a powerful motivator of volunteer engagement.

It’s also important not to forget how the very social aspect of the volunteering, not only drew people to get involved, but also meant that the group stayed together up to the event itself. In fact, the group continues to meet together socially now after Twestival, which gives you an idea of the strength of the relationships and level of companionship within the group. It’s a clear example of how links built online can contribute to building social capital in local communities.

One reason why people’s commitment to the group grew was because it’s designed in a way that means volunteers’ personal interests are compatible with a broader collective interest. Twestival comes with a clear purpose or target for social impact: fundraise for a good cause. But at the same time, it leaves plenty of space for volunteers to express their personal freedom through their volunteering.

As a result volunteers were free to play out their involvement to fundraise for the cause at hand, in a way that often brought the happy side effect of meeting some of their own more personal interests. For example, through the volunteering activity many group members discovered contacts with others in the local area that could well prove useful in their wider lives as members of the community. Another example was that through their support and association with the event, volunteers could get a certain amount of valuable publicity and help build their own professional reputation.

This reason this was possible was again due in part to the informality of the event’s organisation. Each member of the group’s involvement was based not formally representing another organisation, rather people were involved more in a personal capacity. In addition, because the event is time limited and the beneficiary alternates (the next Twestival will be fundraising for a local charity) it reduces concerns about a conflict of interest arising between the fundraising purpose of the group and individual personal interests.

Limitations of informality

One specific limitation for the group in its informality was in cash handling. This limitation was overcome in the first instance because there were very few requirements to handle cash. Moreover, much of the support was in gifts in kind, many costs such as expenses were covered by each individual, and online payment methods avoids the need to a large extent for cash handling.

Technical tools

The group used the following social media tools:

• Twestival blog
• Twitter account for Plymouth Twestival
• Facebook page – public facing
• Huddle group for password protected discussion
• Good old fashioned email

Conclusions

Interestingly, Twestival clearly taps into the three key motivations cited by Daniel Pink in his latest book Drive: being autonomous, achieving mastery and having purpose. The example of the group in Plymouth clearly demonstrates the importance of having a sense of purpose and feeling independent were key factors in terms of motivating the members volunteering for the event. If the group continues to take on and organise further events, mastery and the challenge of getting better and improvements could well kick in too.

Here’s a summary of some of the learnings from this Twestival for involving volunteers:

1. Time limited event – time limits commitment and provides impetus to organisation
2. Clear collective purpose – fundraise for a good cause
3. Twestival organised locally, not nationally – centralisation is at a minimum
4. Social impact centrally defined, personal freedom undefined (how you volunteer is down to you
5. Twestival provides space for local autonomy, scope to mastery as a group and a clear central purpose (in this case fundraise for Concern)
6. Engagement driven by desire to be part of a community, rather than volunteering in a particular role
7. Group was largely self-organised, rather than centralised by any particular member of the group
8. Engagement sustained by bonds through social media, being from the same local area and volunteering in a personal capacity, rather representing an adopted organisation

Thanks again to Chris Penberthy for help with this post!

Further reading

Twestival March 2010 from Machine Media on Vimeo.

Official Plymouth Twestival video by Machine Media.

Posted on Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 at 8:51 pm in Gift economy, Volunteer management, Volunteering | rss feed for comments| You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.