Delivering Measurable Impact: How Platform Housing Streamlined Volunteering with Goodsted

Sevgi Ceyda Sairoglu Sezginer

Verified writer

PUBLISHED ON April 24, 2025

Since mid-2023, Platform Housing Group has been partnering with Goodsted to transform its volunteering programme - making it more accessible, structured, and impact-driven for both colleagues and customers.

Before this collaboration, volunteer management relied on manual processes like emails, spreadsheets and SharePoint. This led to inefficiencies, low engagement, and limited impact tracking. Goodsted’s platform introduced a centralised hub for volunteering opportunities, streamlined communication between volunteers and activity leads, and enabled robust data reporting.

Since launching the platform, Platform Housing Group has significantly increased engagement — delivering 214 activities across 28 local authority areas in 2024 alone. In 2024, over 500 participants took part in volunteering opportunities on the platform. This partnership has not only aligned volunteer efforts with key community priorities but also established a scalable and measurable framework for long-term impact.

Client background

Platform Housing Group is one of the UK’s largest housing associations, serving approximately 80,000 customers across 14 counties. With 1,700 employees, the organisation is deeply committed to community engagement - delivering initiatives that promote cohesion, tenancy sustainability, safety, digital inclusion, environmental responsibility, and overall well-being.

Challenges

Before adopting Goodsted, Platform Housing Group faced several barriers in managing its volunteering programme:

• Inefficient programme management - Volunteer coordination relied on emails, spreadsheets and SharePoint, making admin time-consuming and limiting visibility into engagement.
• Limited feedback and impact tracking - Without a structured system to capture data or gather qualitative insights, measuring the true impact of volunteering and identifying areas for improvement was difficult.
• Lack of personalisation and alignment - Opportunities were not tailored to individual interests or aligned with strategic community goals, leading to lower engagement and impact.
   

Solution and impact

To address these challenges, Platform Housing Group partnered with Goodsted to deliver a more structured, accessible and scalable volunteering programme. This collaboration brought measurable improvements:

• Centralised and tailored opportunities - All 214 activities conducted in 2024 are now hosted on one platform, making it easy for over 500 participants to find roles that match their interests and community needs.
• Faster promotion and registration - Preparing promotional material now takes just 30 minutes per activity, and tracking sign-ups has been reduced to 30 minutes.
• Improved coordination and engagement - Time spent managing confirmation emails and queries has dropped from 2 hours to just 30 minutes per activity.
• Simplified reporting and data collection - Quarterly report preparation now takes just 2 hours. Data collection per activity has been reduced by 70%, enabling quicker and more accurate measurement.
   

By embedding Goodsted into its volunteering programme, Platform Housing Group has created a scalable solution that simplifies participation and reporting - saving over 3,300 hours annually across programme coordination and participant engagement. For a programme of this scale - with over 500 participants and more than 100 activities - this translates to an estimated over £80,000 in staff time saved each year, based on average salary rates for mid-level roles.

Client Testimonial

“Our partnership with Goodsted has been transformative. I love the flexibility and opportunity the platform offers to all stakeholders, not just employees. We now have an efficient, structured programme that connects our employees and customers with meaningful opportunities.”
– Chris Pinson-Bradley, Community Engagement Manager

Lessons Learned

• Centralising opportunities reduced the workload for promotion and registration
• Tailored roles helped increase engagement and involvement across many activities
• Streamlined communication saved time and improved coordination
• Automated reporting enabled quicker, more data-driven decisions

Ready to make an impact?

Book a demo call, or contact us at hello@goodsted.com