Business Advantages of Supporter Community ... - Supporters Direct

VolunteeringWe asked supporters both whether they currently volunteered for their cluband also whether they would be more likely to volunteer if the club wassupporter owned.Current Volunteering● In general levels of volunteering were very low. Only 15% of allrespondents currently volunteer for their club.● However, a huge majority of these, (92%), were supporters of supportercommunity owned clubs.Future Volunteering● 51% of respondents said they would be more likely to volunteer if theirclub was supporter owned● Just 2% said that they would be less likely to volunteer● 35% said that it wouldn’t make a difference or that they didn’t know.● 58% of supporter community owned club respondents said they wouldbe more likely to volunteer if the club remained supporter owned, butonly 23.5% of respondents who support other clubs said the same.Lewes FC – A More Professional Approach From VolunteersCharlie Dobres, from Lewes FC said that when they started toestablish a community ownership and community benefit model,many people misunderstood the concept. However, they havemanaged to demonstrate that even at a relatively small club, theownership model has helped them tap into a well of professionalskills and experience that the club would otherwise not be able toafford. This, he argues, has resulted in a more professionally run club.‘What we’ve tried to demonstrate is that it’s about opening the doors so thatyou’ve got greater usage of human resources. The people we’ve got running theclub are professionals in their field, almost all of whom give their time entirelyvoluntarily and are happy to do so. Ironically, by becoming community owned,we’ve actually opened ourselves up to far greater professionalism in the runningof the club – it’s not one man and his dog any more. We’ve found that we nowhave a far greater call on resources, both financial and human, because of beingnot-for-profit as well as the community mutual ownership model.’32 Supporters Direct Briefing Paper No.4