Outputs
On this page, we'll post outputs from the project and from the pilot project that preceded it. This will include reports & papers as well as links to talks that we've done.
Survey of Volunteer Managers - Full Report PDF 1,511Kb
In 2025, we carried out a survey of volunteer managers from across all volunteer-involving sectors and the whole of the UK.
The survey was based on the findings from our interviews with staff at our case study organisations. Our goal was, partly, to understand whether what we had learnt from our case studies would resonate with volunteer managers (and other people who work with volunteers) in the wider heritage sector and beyond. We also wanted to learn from a wider set of volunteer managers so that we could develop a stronger evidence base for our (forthcoming) 'toolkit' of good practices in this part of volunteer management.
The report is also available via: https://doi.org/10.57711/ggsn-kx17
Survey of Volunteer Managers - Executive Summary PDF 215Kb
This document is the Executive Summary as a standalone pdf. The full report is available above.
Although we are working on a toolkit, we hope that these documents will be useful in themselves. If you download the report / exec. summary and find it helpful, please let us know via bruce.davenport@newcastle.ac.uk or yang.wang@newcastle.ac.uk
Paper from pilot study PDF 464Kb
This is the paper we published based on the pilot study for this project. The findings are based on 3 cultural heritage organisations in the North East of England.
Talks
As part of the project, Bruce & Yang have delivered a couple of on-line talks about the project and what we've been finding. We've also contributed to seminars delivered by others. Some of these are online and these are links to those.
Talk for Heritage Volunteering Group in October 2021 - Bruce talked about the findings from the pilot study. (Alas, Bruce also lost his voice part way through the talk!)
Talk for Make Your Mark in September 2022 - An on-line talk about the pilot study and the current study. Staff at MYM also turned that into some tips for supporting older volunteers.
Museums Association webinar (in association with HVG) - Future of Museums: Engaging Volunteers. Yang and Bruce joined the session as participants but, in the background, Yang worked with the organisers to present case studies that were based on data from this project. The webinar is only accessible to members of the MA.