As COVID-19 spread over the world and consequently over Britain, many organisations were affected and needed to act fast to adapt to their new realities. Such a challenge heavily resonated with Volunteer Edinburgh (VE).
Located in the centre of Edinburgh, VE is a Not for Profit organisation that manages volunteering opportunities across Scotland. In a matter of just a couple of days, the volunteering managers at VE were quickly overwhelmed and unfortunately not prepared for the enormous influx of volunteering enquiries that came in. They had to think of a quick solution to efficiently sort, manage and deploy their volunteers more than ever before.
At the forefront of the pandemic, VE’s volunteers would be crucial in helping reduce the spread of the pandemic and in helping the NHS manage the global crisis at a local level. Due to the urgency of the issue at hand, Color decided to deliver this project pro bono to VE as part of their Pledge 1% initiative and to show generosity in this time of need and to help the most vulnerable.
A New Reality
Through a series of conversations, Color and VE decided the most crucial area of work to focus on is their Response Pipeline or ‘Taskforce’ Management System. VE utilises a vetting process to sort through and make sure the appropriate and most qualified volunteer is matched to the right opportunity, delivering maximum value. This is accomplished via a number of different steps which include the gathering of information through forms from Survey Monkey, questionnaires, email exchanges, and the scheduling of interviews.
“The support that Color gave Volunteer Edinburgh was invaluable to our Covid-19
Pandemic response. Color’s commitment, skill and understanding of our business needs and
their work done on our Salesforce org enabled us to respond to a genuinely unprecedented
demand and enabled us to efficiently process a huge number of prospective volunteers and
deploy them in record time so they could support vulnerable people during the heights of
lockdown. Without Color’s support, we would not have been able to react as efficiently and
effectively as we did.”
Paul Wilson | Chief Officer, Volunteer Edinburgh
A Platform for Growth
In a matter of a couple of weeks, Color delivered VE’s very own Taskforce Management system. It integrated Survey Monkey’s contact information into their Salesforce org, a streamlined process to help Volunteer Managers sort through the numerous enquiries and volunteer tasks, create Contact records and schedule phone interviews through automation in a matter of a couple of clicks.
This collaboration enabled Volunteer Edinburgh to adapt to their organisation’s new increasing demand in volunteer enquiries efficiently and to deliver maximum value to their community. VE was able to train their Volunteer Managers quickly due to the new intuitive user interface and to ultimately deploy their volunteers in the most needed sectors and areas of Scotland.
This consequently reduced the onboarding time of Volunteer Managers, the processing time of the volunteers themselves and finally, the solution helped Volunteer Edinburgh to be a positive influence in Scotland and reduce the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To demonstrate the positive impact of the solution to VE’s internal processes, below is a chart that shows the number of volunteer records they were able to manage within the first few weeks using the system. Insights like these are instrumental for Volunteer Edinburgh in understanding their social impact in the community as well as tracking their efforts and to ultimately send help to the most vulnerable places in their region.
