Over the past three years PlaygroundIDEAS has helped build 100 play spaces in developing communities around the world.

This fun not-for-profit is committed to the goal that every child should have a place to play where their cognitive, emotional and physical development is supported. PlaygroundIDEAS continues to support their mission by sharing what they have learned to empower others to continue the fun work of building playgrounds. They provide resources and training to interested non-government organisations and local community groups wanting to build play spaces in their home towns.

Additionally, PlaygroundIDEAS maintains a wealth of free playground information and useful tools such as a playground design manual, global playground provider network, volunteer project matching and much more. As priorities at PlaygroundIDEAS have shifted from providing the manual labour for building playgrounds to more strategic activities including knowledge sharing, sustainability planning, marketing and website management, their need for skilled professional volunteers has grown.

PlaygroundIDEAS founder Marcus Veerman came to goodcompany to find a business planner to help his organisation think strategically about their goals, needs and priorities. Through goodcompany's partnership with the NAB, Marcus met Peter Parsons, a Senior Process Engineer with JBWere, part of NAB. Since 2008, NAB has focused particularly on skilled volunteering which has been driven by a strategic approach to corporate responsibility, community engagement, staff leadership development and staff retention. At this time, NAB partnered with goodcompany to assist in the facilitation of skilled volunteer matching and support for NAB staff. In 2010, NAB staff contributed 10,745 days of volunteering back into the community.

Peter collaborated with Marcus over the next two months, meeting weekly, to develop a business plan for PlaygroundIDEAS that clarified year-end objectives and future goals. Business plans are an essential strategic tool that can help any organisation clarify their current needs and position, as well as identify where they want to be in the future. Business plans are a blueprint which can be used to help provide direction, evaluate the environment, and manage resources and funding. Marcus estimates that this successful strategic exercise added $3,000 in value to PlaygroundIDEAS.

Peter also gained from this experience. He has volunteered with goodcompany on several previous occasions and enjoyed being able to use his professional skills to “deliver valued inputs to worthy causes”. Developing the business plan also gave Peter a deeper understanding for the legal and financial challenges facing not-for-profits. Marcus was very glad to have a resource like goodcompany available to help PlaygroundIDEAS tap into such a range of highly-skilled professionals. Finding consistent, reliable volunteers with time to commit is a common challenge for non-profit organisations. “The service goodcompany is providing is amazing” and the “connecting ability has a lot of power to make the difference”. PlaygroundIDEAS has had such a positive experience, they are already connecting with more volunteers found through goodcompany and are interested in continuing to grow both their skilled and general volunteer base.

When working with skilled volunteers on short term projects Marcus recommends:
• Set clear objectives, have a concrete end goal and deadlines
• Recognise and respect that skilled professionals volunteering their time often come from a different work environment than you, embrace the different perspective and abilities but allow time to finding common ground and common language
• Maintain a positive relationship by learning how you work together and meet regularly
• Allow volunteers to own their own task or piece of work

To find out more about PlaygroundIDEAS you can visit their website at www.playgroundideas.org.