Making a business case for volunteering
19th April 2022
With a mission to make volunteer services more business-like and an understanding of what makes a good business case, Helpforce has supported the volunteer team at George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust acquire the tools they needed to secure funding to recruit and retain staff. George Eliot set up a response volunteering service in 2020 in response to the pandemic. The team knew that volunteering on a larger scale would be valuable and wanted funding to establish a permanent service. Making a business case was crucial but not something the team had done before: Volunteer Service Manager Becky Millward at George Eliot explains:
“It was the first time I had written a business case and I wanted to get it right. It was important to me to evidence the impact of volunteering not just on services, staff and volunteers but also on patient and carer experience. I turned to Helpforce for support.”
How Helpforce supported the team
“When helping us with the business case, the Helpforce team gave me invaluable advice,” Becky explained. “They helped give me structure to the case and pointed me in the direction of powerful evidence of the impact of volunteering. We looked at not only the money that volunteers would save the Trust but more significantly, the added value of volunteers. We cited specific examples of how volunteers had improved experience such as connecting patients with their relatives using the iPads while visiting restrictions are in place. They read through the case and provided feedback to ensure it had all the relevant information.They also gave me tips on how to present the case to the board to achieve maximum impact with minimum time.”
Becky and the team used the evidence, drawn from the Volunteering Innovators Programme Report (2020), to back up their case. This showed how volunteers can speed up the discharge service, and give nursing staff extra time to focus on patients who need medical attention.
This wasn’t the first time Helpforce supported Becky and her team. Becky said: “Helpforce has been a critical friend to us. They shared great advice with us to adopt and adapt the Response Volunteering model. For example, they helped us plan the project and gave us tools and tips to help us stay on track and monitor and report on our progress.”
The benefits of working with Helpforce
Becky has high praise for the support she and the team received. She said: “The whole experience has been incredible and I still can’t believe that this level of quality of support and expertise is available to us and doesn’t cost us a penny. Working with Helpforce has been tremendously beneficial as they have extensive knowledge and understanding of challenges faced by the NHS, best practices when developing a new volunteering intervention in health and care settings, and project management.
“From working with them, we have learned a lot about how to improve our services and identify new volunteering opportunities that can benefit the Trust. I absolutely feel that the GEH volunteering team and the Helpforce team were in it together, sharing the same aims and objectives.”
The funding secured allowed Becky to keep her volunteer coordinator, and fund a new volunteer service manager and a voluntary services officer. With the additional resources, the team plans to scale up their current support, such as volunteer driving, response volunteers and cancer support. Becky is also leading a volunteering project across North Warwickshire.
You can see the business case that the team wrote here. If you would like help taking a more business-like approach to your volunteer service speak to use at Helpforce.