A giant leap for volunteering

Fantastic. Amazing. Brilliant. I watched BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) with sheer delight. Not just because of the amazing sporting achievements but for the profile of volunteering. Volunteers and volunteering were centre stage in the ceremony and on social media thanks to the #BigThankYou campaign led by @EddieIzzard @BBCGetInspired and @joininuk The #BigThankYou hashtag was trending worldwide and held the top spot on twitter in the UK for several hours - no mean feat when the X-factor final was on. Professional sports people talking about the difference volunteers made to their early careers, and the unsung hero award recognised a local swimming coach of 60+ years were highlights.

There have been lots of volunteering campaigns before but this feels different

Volunteering being given the SPOTY spotlight will no doubt attract more people to give their time to volunteer with sport. But watching the twitter feed, the effect went well beyond the sporting arena and started to engage other people who are giving their time in lots of other ways to help others and make a difference. There have been lots of volunteering campaigns before but this feels different. The approach is different a different scale from the many previous 'ask' campaigns from traditional volunteering bodies. Let’s hope the campaign really does make a giant leap for sport volunteering, as well as helping to propel volunteering more generally into everyone’s hearts and minds for good.