Platform makes managing volunteers easier
Following the government's push to promote volunteerism among Singaporeans, as announced in Parliament in March, one start-up thinks it can solve part of the problem.
Created by four National University of Singapore (NUS) undergraduates in 2017, the company, bantu, aims to help non-profit organisations retain their volunteers and attract fresh blood.
The company creates a platform for organisations to manage their volunteers effectively. Data such as a person's skill set, number of hours volunteered and volunteer locations can be keyed in and pulled up with a click.
The company has around 20 organisations currently signed up to use its platform. Users pay subscription fees for the platform, for a month, for instance.
One of bantu's co-founders, Mr Joshua Foong, 25, said: "The platform is meant to help organisations better manage their staff. It can save time on logistic and data processes and even send out scheduled reminders for volunteers."
In the future, it might also be able to match volunteers to opportunities that require their skills.
Mr Foong said that one of the reasons they started the platform was to help organisations retain their volunteers.
He said: "I have volunteered before and I have seen that the attrition rate of volunteers is high.
"Many of them leave their organisations because the way they are kept engaged is poor."
By tracking the work and skill sets of volunteers, Mr Foong hopes that organisations can show volunteers that they are appreciated and inspire them to volunteer more regularly.
He said: "It's hard to create sustained volunteerism when the organisation doesn't know what the volunteers are doing. "
He added that some bigger organisations lack centralisation and they cannot track where volunteers are going.
This makes volunteers feel their efforts are not understood or appreciated.
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