Using Data for Retention Fliss Callanan Deputy Lead Volunteer, Membership Growth and Retention

Why do girls join Girlguiding? Taken from survey sent to parents of girls who have recently left Girlguiding. Talk about the top three reasons to join (new friends, fun and try new things). Any surprises? Do you recognise this from your own experiences of working with the girls? What do girls love about Girlguiding and why do they stay in guiding? What do you notice about the reason to join and actual experience. We’ll come back to this later…

Girlguiding Anywhere County – girl membership numbers (August 2016) 238 1,098 2,069 968

Girl membership – moving up Every year thousands of girls join Girlguiding and experience their first taste of adventure, fun and guiding friendship. But, for every girl who joins Girlguiding another girl leaves. The national (and Girlguiding Anywhere County) %s of girls leaving Girlguiding in 2015 are: Rainbows 40% left (35%) 57% (54%) left at transition Brownies 70% left (66%) 49% (45%) left at transition Guides 86% left (85%) 25% (25%) left at transition 38% of girls stay three years or more years Retention data for internal use only For internal use only Transition is defined as ‘6 months leading into the top age of each section’ (e.g. 10 for Brownie to Guide) Girls staying three or more years is important because our alumnae research shows us that girls really start to benefit from guiding at this point. So the more we can encourage girls to stay and move up the sections the greater the positive impact we will have on their lives Some additional info: slight trend to girls leaving at a younger age, 65% of Guides left by the time they were 13, trends are the same across the levels – but there are local differences.

Stepping off – girls who left guiding in Girlguiding Anywhere in 2015 On average Guides leave at 12.9 years On average Brownies leave at 9.6 years On average Rainbows leave at 6.9 years - 408 For internal use only Numbers in pink are the numbers of girls who left GG in 2015 (Note: we don’t have final figures for The Senior Section as we need to link to adult data to see if girls stayed on as volunteers – currently looking into this) Any thoughts? Comments? - 709 - 237

Why do girls leave? We had other commitments The programme activities weren’t exciting My daughter didn’t learn many new skills My daughter didn’t feel included or valued I wasn’t happy with the behaviour of the leadership group What did you enjoy least? The programme lacked excitement The activities were pitched too young or were boring The social interaction between girls Girlguiding have been conducting online surveys with some of our members/parents of members leaving Girlguiding to find out more. “The research showed a high level of respondents who reported a positive experience; for example over 30% of respondents reported they would change nothing at all about their experience, and as below, the top reason for leaving was more associated with external factors than those related to Girlguiding.” What do you think? Does this chime with your experiences? Note that the sample size was very small so this is not a definitive list just an indication. If the girls are leaving for other commitments what does that tell us about what we are offering? Why do the girls put other commitments above Guiding? How can we change this?

Why do girls join Girlguiding? Look again at the differences.

What are Girlguiding doing? Using the data and research to influence future work: Programme Quality pilots GO development Membership Communication plan around growth Developing new resources to support volunteers with growth and moving girls between sections National volunteer recruitment campaign and ‘recruitment bootcamp’ in 2017 Tools and templates to help volunteers use data to plan for growth: https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/making-guiding-happen/growing-our-membership/recruitment-and-growth-toolkit/creating-a-growth-plan/ Is there anything else that would help?

What can we do locally Go on a journey: Join together: For the girl: Understand what transitions look like in your area Get to know each other and work together to help girls on their guiding journey Create a guiding family and family units to help girls moving up Fill gaps in the local guiding sections/offer Do joint event and activities Go on a journey: Make the most of the new programme launch Learn new skills or invite others to share their skills Share programme ideas and embed quality guiding Have fun adventures Refreshing annual events and avoiding repetition For the girl: Girls designing the programme, being supported to take on new personal challenges, making new friends, keen & excited to take the next big step and supporting their peers to move up Be proud and shout out: Celebrate achievements and special milestones together Let families and your community know about the amazing opportunities available and the impact of guiding

Plan for growth What are your local challenges? E.g. We lose Brownies before they join Guides What does it look like at the moment? E.g. Lots of Brownies aged 10 and Brownies not moving up to Guides. Leaders don’t know each other very well. What would you like it to look like? E.g. More Brownies move up to Guides across all our groups and Leaders work together to help girls on their guiding journey What are you going to do? E.g. 1. Brownie and Guide Leaders to meet up for cake and get to know each other 2. Brownie and Guide Leaders arrange to visit each others groups 3. As an area discuss how girls currently transition and think about what we can do differently 4. Plan a Guides run Brownies night and invite Brownie parents along When are you going to do it? How is it going?

Girlguiding _______ County - Rainbows __ moving up from the section before successfully MOVING UP JOINING IN __ girls leaving Girlguiding August 2015 - 2016 ___ girls and young women __ % of girls were new to Guiding Of which __ girls left within 6 months of transition to the next section __ moving up to next section successfully You can adapt and change to suit your local area and priorities - feel free to add arrows, change arrows, focus on girls or focus on volunteers. MOVING ON MOVING OUT

Girlguiding ______ County - Brownies __ moving up from the section before successfully MOVING UP JOINING IN __ girls leaving Girlguiding August 2015 - 2016 ___ girls and young women __ % of girls were new to Guiding Of which __ girls left within 6 months of transition to the next section __ moving up to next section successfully You can adapt and change to suit your local area and priorities - feel free to add arrows, change arrows, focus on girls or focus on volunteers. MOVING ON MOVING OUT

Girlguiding _______ County - Guides __ moving up from the section before successfully MOVING UP JOINING IN __ girls leaving Girlguiding August 2015 - 2016 ___ girls and young women __ % of girls were new to Guiding Of which __ girls left within 6 months of transition to the next section __ moving up to next section successfully You can adapt and change to suit your local area and priorities - feel free to add arrows, change arrows, focus on girls or focus on volunteers. MOVING ON MOVING OUT

Retention snap shot Rainbows left Girlguiding while a Rainbow NAME: ________________ Thoughts, initial outcomes Rainbows Active members went to Brownies left Girlguiding while a Rainbow left at transition Brownies Active members went to Guides left Girlguiding while a Brownie left at transition Guides Active members went to The Senior Section left Girlguiding while a Guide left at transition

Stepping off – girls who left guiding in 2015 On average Guides leave at 12.9 years On average Brownies leave at 9.6 years On average Rainbows leave at 6.9 years - 408 For internal use only Numbers in pink are the numbers of girls who left GG in 2015 (Note: we don’t have final figures for The Senior Section as we need to link to adult data to see if girls stayed on as volunteers – currently looking into this) Any thoughts? Comments? - 709 - 237