What was the project all about?
In 2005 BAA Communities Trust committed £75,000 over three years to support Do-it.org, the UK’s national volunteering database run by YouthNet. During that period, YouthNet and BAA also worked in partnership to maximise the success of BAA’s employee volunteering programme, I-Volunteer. YouthNet syndicated a feed of Do-it opportunities to BAA’s intranet, ensuring that BAA employees had access to volunteering opportunities in their local area. I-Volunteer aimed to promote the benefits of employee volunteering and to make it as easy as possible for BAA employees to give their time to community projects in their area.
Partnership achievements
With BAA’s funding, YouthNet was able to invest heavily in Do-it and hugely improve its reach. Back in 2005, volunteers could search 500,000 opportunities to volunteer across the UK. When the partnership ended in 2008, a massive 1 million opportunities to volunteer were available to search– that’s double the number that were available at the start of the partnership. The number of users registered on Do-it also rose from 41,000 to a fantastic 225,000 people, giving even more volunteers the opportunity to make a positive difference to the world around them.
A wide geographical spread of volunteering opportunities was particularly important to BAA because they operate from seven airports and a range of locations across the UK. Therefore, Do-it was perfectly placed to provide this.
Mike Toms, Chairman of the Trustees, BAA Communities Trust said:
“The donation is a reflection of our company’s commitment to giving something back to the community. The service YouthNet provides is key to the way that we inspire our staff – located at airports around the UK – to volunteer. We encourage our employees to access do-it.org.uk through the BAA intranet and by doing so they make a tangible difference to the communities where they live and work.”
