The national charity for homeless people, Crisis, has received over 30 percent more applications to volunteer for its annual Crisis at Christmas event than this time last year, aided by the Crisis at Christmas Volunteer Community (http://christmas.crisis.org.uk). Developed by web-enabled technology specialist Totally Communications and launched a month ago, the online volunteer portal has seen record numbers of people apply to help deliver Christmas to homeless people in the UK over the festive period.

With an average annual volunteer rate of around 8,000 people, all performing one of 100 roles across the charity’s network of nine local centres and one operations centre, Crisis at Christmas had previously processed applications manually. Since the launch of the Crisis at Christmas Volunteer Community last month, Crisis is now one month ahead of last year’s event in terms of building its volunteer base, which currently stands at over 7,300.
Totally logo
Totally logo

“The new system is testament to the hard work put in by Totally Communications and the technical team at Crisis,” comments Ashley Bladon, Project Manager and IT & Systems Coordinator for Crisis at Christmas. “We had nearly as many applications on the first day as we have previously got in two weeks we have already processed and accepted around 90 per cent of the applications, which is unheard of! Typically this time every year the staff at the Crisis head office are extremely busy processing applications manually, but because everything is automated this year, we have been able to plough many more resources into the event itself.”

In June 2011, Totally Communications was chosen by Crisis to develop a web-based application that completely automates its previously time-consuming administration and paperwork. Through the Community, prospective and existing volunteers can apply for roles, view their shifts and request changes as well as communicate with other volunteers.

Bladon says: “Thanks to the ease of using the new system, as well as the great new community area, anecdotal evidence suggests all queries are down by around 60 percent.”

Andy Margolis, Managing Director of Totally Communications adds: “Crisis has already experienced some true measurable success since the portal went live – and there is more to come! Once the volunteer operation is fully under way, Crisis centres benefit from full attendance monitoring and access to operational data in real-time. Paperwork has already been dramatically reduced and volunteers are creating a great experience by interacting online.”

The Crisis at Christmas Volunteer Community is taking applications at http://christmas.crisis.org.uk.