How do other organisations use V-Base and what are the benefits? Find out here.

Heather Allen - Manager, Volunteer Centre Dacorum

What do you like most about using V-Base?

V-Base was devised by someone who really understood what we do. It covers our day-to-day work in a straightforward and logical way.

Which functions do you use most often?

We use everything: daily recording of volunteers; opportunities and organisations; the activity log; the reporting function (particularly good for reports to funders); and, most importantly, the calendar function.

Has V-Base changed the way your organisation works?

Definitely! The calendar function enables efficient management of information. We have a different staff/volunteer combination in the office every day, so it enables messages to be carried forward and for us to field phone calls, enquiries etc. in a businesslike manner with all the previous information to hand. Pre-booking follow-ups is a great function too. It enables any of our volunteers to walk in and immediately have a job to do.

How many people in your organisation use V-Base?

Four members of staff and six volunteers. It's quite intuitive to learn. Most of us have taken V-Base training days with do-it.org.uk and picked up new tricks each time. We now feel confident enough to share our knowledge with any newcomers. We have found that a non-networked laptop is useful for training purposes and to let learners play without fear of messing up the master records. We back up onto memory sticks daily – a different colour for each day of the week!

Cath Bavage - Manager, Volunteer Centre Tower Hamlets

How long have you been using V-Base?

We've been using it fully since April 2006. It took us about a year to load up all of our organisations and opportunities, which we needed to do before we could start entering volunteers and using V-Base as a matching tool.

What do you like most about V-Base?

The best thing is having opportunities and volunteers stored electronically in the same place. The matching facility is great. It's also good to be able to have linked access databases to do standard access queries. It is helpful to be able to print out or email PDFs to organisations so that they can check them and send us updates.  

What difference has it made to the way your organisation works?

We can now keep tabs on organisations and volunteers, and follow things up better. 

How many people in your organisation make use of V-Base?

All five of the staff team here use V-Base.

How important is online volunteer recruitment to you?

It's become very important to us. Over half of the enquiries we receive about volunteering come from do-it.org.uk. In particular, it has helped us to reach communities who we weren't previously reaching, especially people who are not confident speaking English on the telephone and prefer to communicate in writing.

How to apply

For more information about V-Base, or to buy a copy of V-Base, please contact us.