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Volunteer Makers strengthens the future of volunteering in Museums – by Clare Lyall, Museum expansion Director at Trowbridge Museum

15th November 2017 /0 Comments/in , , /by

On the 10th November,Trowbridge Museum staff attended an excellent Volunteer Makers workshop run by Claire Sully, discovering how they could utilize a pioneering app to enable us to develop an effective strategic approach to volunteering. The software provides you with a digital platform which you then build upon to create a volunteer community which encompasses […]

Volunteer Makers – a tool for the savvy Accredited museum by Vicky Dawson

9th November 2017 /0 Comments/in , , /by

Vicky Dawson explains how, through the organisation-wide adoption of Volunteer Makers, museums can achieve and evidence their core strategic aims of improving how they are run and the experience of their users.  These two aims are cornerstones of Museum Accreditation, the national standard scheme for museums in which over 2,500 public museums of all sizes […]

Guest blog by Hannah Rose Mather – How much time do you have?

19th September 2017 /0 Comments/in , , /by

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums is a regional museum, art gallery and archives service which manages 9 museums and galleries across Tyneside and the Archives for Tyne and Wear.  They have recently launched a new, creative, way to make volunteering with them much simpler and I love it!  By clicking this link you can now register online to be […]

A volunteer revolution – an unsung hero of the UK economy

1st September 2017 /0 Comments/in , , , /by

“My prediction is that 2017 might just be the year of micro-volunteering and data donation, with cheap technologies allowing everyone to volunteer from home for short and sweet periods of time, no matter how much time they have to give.”  NESTA Around one in three of us volunteers in the UK.  This ratio could be […]

The rise of micro-volunteering and a very British volunteer revolution

15th April 2017 /0 Comments/in , /by

Digital and social media makes it easy for volunteers to actively engage with their favourite museums, arts organisations and charities, while many more people are prepared to give short bursts of time rather than a longer term commitment to volunteering.  Put the two together (digital and short bursts of volunteering activity) you have the rise of micro-volunteering. […]

Microvolunteering under the spotlight

13th April 2017 /0 Comments/in , /by

Innovation foundation Nesta has predicted 2017 to be “the year of microvolunteering” – and more and more organisations are now using this flexible approach to 21st century volunteering. With National Microvolunteering Day coming up this Sunday, the topic is covered in an article in today’s Guardian – with some handy advice on what to think about when […]

Museum trends show need for blended, digital volunteer approach

6th April 2017 /0 Comments/in , /by

A major report into the state of the museum sector shows mixed picture of rising visitor numbers but falling funding – with a shifting relationship between museums and their audiences, the digital revolution and a move towards socially-engaged practice shaping the sector’s future.

The Museum Association’s Museums in the UK Report 2017 shows that trends that led to the development of the Volunteer Makers approach are continuing to impact museums.

Pioneering Volunteer Makers goes national with Arts Council England support

2nd August 2016 /0 Comments/in /by

Innovative volunteering programme Volunteer Makers has been given Arts Council England backing to deliver its programme to museums across the UK. The company behind Volunteer Makers, Bristol-based Tickbox, have been awarded £100,000 from the Museum Resilience Fund to deliver training, support and a national conference to support more than 300 museums in adopting a new […]

Volunteer Makers programme looks to roll out nationally

3rd May 2016 /0 Comments/in , /by

Building on an extensive digital museum training programme in the South West and a pilot volunteer engagement programme, a museum-specialist digital company are looking to roll-out a national Volunteer Makers Engagement Training and Support Programme. Tickbox, based in Bristol, will be building on their Volunteer Makers training and development pilot programme they ran from Jan-April 2016.