The web-based tools are available for sport organisations to use and are the first of its kind specifically designed for sport organisations.

 

Up to 70,000 volunteers will be needed to work during the 2012 Olympics but new research has found that only a small minority of people polled were encouraged to get into volunteering by the opportunity of working on the London Games.

 

A poll on Volunteering England’s website asking readers to name the most important impact of sports volunteering found that the majority voted for “increased community cohesion” (38 per cent) and “enabling people to gain new skills” (35 per cent).

 

Twenty two per cent chose “getting people fitter” and just five per cent opted for “encouraging involvement with the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games”.

 

The project, which tested the current Volunteering Impact Assessment Toolkit with 100 volunteers and players across three sports, has produced both sport specific tools, and a final report about the methods and findings behind those new tools.

 

The report: "A winning team?" focused on sports clubs from rugby union, hockey and Riding for the Disabled Association groups, found that benefits enjoyed by the volunteers included making new friends, and improving confidence and skills, particularly among young volunteers: there were strong positive impacts on the skills and social awareness of players and the community.

 

However, it also revealed opportunities for improving the experience of volunteers in sport: with frustrations about volunteer shortages, excessive reliance on key individuals and lack of training emerging as areas of concern.

 

These experiences are not new: similar results were reported in the 2002 research by Sport England into sport volunteering.

 

The difference with this project is the new tools now allow individual sport organisations to assess their own volunteering impacts, enabling them to shout loudly or make any improvements.

 

"A winning team?" makes a number of recommendations to address these experiences, including:

 

· Encouraging clubs to create a volunteer co-ordinator position rather than spreading responsibility too generally

 

· Promoting “softer” management practices such as mentoring and buddying

 

· Developing links between sport organisations and volunteering infrastructure bodies such as Volunteer Centres

 

· Better monitoring of individuals’ workloads, delegation and division of tasks

 

· Reimbursing volunteers’ expenses to enable people on low incomes to volunteer

 

Laura Ferguson, Head of Sports Volunteering at Volunteering England, said: “These are the first ever tools designed for sports organisations to demonstrate the difference their volunteers are making, and it is fantastic to see those who have already used them promoting the positive impacts of their volunteers and making positive changes to their clubs.

 

“The report will hopefully show other sport organisations how they can assess the impact of their volunteering, and give them a method of finding out how to improve their volunteering. 

 

"Unless attention is given to volunteering, and ultimately investment is made in sport volunteering, sports organisations run the risk of their volunteers becoming unhappy, and they may even lose volunteers.”

 

Jennie Price, the chief executive of Sports England, said: “Community sport couldn't happen without the thousands of people volunteering as coaches, referees, club administrators and treasurers in over 100,000 voluntary sports clubs across England."

 

Organisations wishing to measure the impact of their volunteers can download the tools from www.volunteeringengland.org.uk/sport.