Organisation Overview

The Brain Tumour Charity is the world’s leading brain tumour charity and the largest dedicated funder of research into brain tumours globally. Committed to saving and improving lives, the charity is relentless in its pursuit of better treatments, exceptional support, and driving urgent change. 

The charity’s Involvement and Impact Team, manages three distinct volunteer groups: Involvement Champions, Young Ambassadors, and an extensive Involvement Network of over 800 individuals. These volunteers play a crucial role in advancing the charity’s mission by participating in research reviews, representing the charity at events, and engaging in numerous internal and external projects. We spoke with Kiran Cheema an Involvement and Impact officer at The Brain Tumour charity about the team's experience of implementing Volunteero. 

Pre-Volunteero Challenges

Before adopting Volunteero, the team relied on fragmented systems to manage volunteer involvement. Communication with the network was conducted through monthly mailouts while Young Ambassadors interacted via Google Docs for opportunity sign-ups, and Involvement Champions were managed through Teams channels and emails. This decentralised approach created several challenges:

• Time-Consuming Processes: Creating and updating Google Docs and coordinating across multiple platforms required significant administrative effort.

• Inefficiency: Opportunities were scattered across channels, making it difficult to track participation and maintain a clear record.

• Lack of Accessibility: Volunteers faced confusion navigating disparate systems, impacting their ability to engage effectively.

“It was just very time-consuming,” Kiran noted. “Things were all over the place, and it wasn’t very efficient.”

Improved coordination

The transition to Volunteero consolidated all volunteer management processes into a single platform. 

The team often work on research-related projects and have frequent busy periods, such as grant rounds, and researchers will request volunteer input on lay summaries and other materials.

Missions became the cornerstone of this transformation, allowing the team to post opportunities, set deadlines, and monitor responses seamlessly.

“Volunteero works really well for us. Whenever I get a new opportunity, I can write up the mission and put the ask out to all our groups at the same time,” Kiran explained. “It’s all in one place, and I can easily track who has signed up.”

In 2024 the team published an astonishing 136 missions onto Volunteero and 80% of their Involvement volunteers claimed a mission. This shift significantly reduced administrative overhead and made it easier for volunteers to engage with opportunities.

The efficiency gained through Volunteero has been transformative for the team. With the platform’s streamlined processes, Kiran and her colleagues can focus more on impactful work and less on managing logistics.

“It’s really quick to put a mission up—just a few steps and it’s out in two minutes, That’s been a game-changer.”

Engaging volunteers 

The platform’s accessibility has also enhanced engagement with Young Ambassadors. This group makes up a quarter of the Involvement Team volunteers and whilst the belief is that younger volunteers often prefer platforms like WhatsApp, 95% of Young Ambassadors have engaged successfully with the Volunteero app. 

Kiran told us that they have adapted well to Volunteero for structured opportunities because of it’s centralised features and ease of use. 

Some volunteers who were used to the previous way of engaging were initially hesitant about the new system, but have gradually adapted. “Some volunteers were worried about navigating the platform, but most have come around and are using it now,” This result has been transformative for the team and whilst they still send out a monthly newsletter to make sure all communication methods are covered, Volunteero allows the team to achieve more with less administrative burden.

Streamlining Systems

For Kiran and her team, Volunteero has centralised all volunteer activities, eliminating the need for multiple platforms and streamlining communication. Gone are the days of multiple Excel spreadsheets and Google Forms, Kiran and the team now only need to visit Volunteero. Kiran described this process as extremely time-consuming and they found it difficult to easily track who had signed up for what. Now, with Volunteero the team can open up a view of all the upcoming missions and see which ones have been filled and by who. 

In addition, Volunteero’s native chat function has streamlined communication between organisation and volunteers. The involvement team are able to create and manage 1:1 and group chats for their volunteers.

“It’s put everything in one place and made our work much more streamlined,” Kiran noted. 

Favourite Feature

When asked about her favourite feature, Kiran highlighted the simplicity of posting missions.

“It’s so quick and easy,” she said. “It’s my go-to feature because it saves so much time.”

And also told us how this feature has transformed how they work as a team, noting “Volunteero works really well for our team. Because of the nature of our work and how many things we’re constantly putting out to the community. So overall, I think implementing Volunteero has been a very positive thing and it's really enhanced the way that we work and made everything a lot more streamlined.” 

Final Comments

Reflecting on the impact of Volunteero, Kiran shared her enthusiasm for the platform:

“It’s really enhanced the way we work and made everything much more efficient. For our team, Volunteero has been a very positive change.”

As the charity continues to innovate, plans are underway to host in-person events and further enhance volunteer experiences. As we head into 2025 The Brain Tumour Charity is well-positioned to strengthen its community and expand its impact.