Nesta’s Give More Get More fund was focused on developing and testing innovative and effective programmes of intensive volunteering for over-50s – short, domestic “gap years” with tangible results.

Following an open call for ideas, Nesta funded a number of proposed projects from prototyping through to launch and delivery, with a view to scaling up the most successful ones. We were brought in as Nesta’s learning partner, supporting them to shape, monitor and evaluate their overall programme.

We interviewed key staff members, volunteers and beneficiaries of the funded projects and undertook sector research and impact evaluations to assess how effective they were at delivering public services.

Our research involved assessing the impact of intensive volunteering on the individual, the community and public services, as well as what motivates volunteers, the advantages over traditional volunteering and the best ways to scale up and improve these and similar programmes.

We combined these insights together as reports, creating a blueprint for similar organisations to replicate learnings, and case studies, helping Give More Get More to scale up its programmes and ultimately to assess the viability of intensive impact volunteering as a concept across the voluntary and public services sector.