Laura M Baird

Laura Baird, BSc, PG Dip in Industrial Administration, is a freelance researcher and evaluator with a strong background in volunteer development. Her experience has been gained from a twenty five year career in the third sector during which time she has held a number of positions including Research Co-ordinator and Policy Officer for Volunteer Development Scotland (2001–2006) and Regional Volunteering and Training Manager with Oxfam in Scotland (1995-2001). She has also managed volunteer teams and worked in a Volunteer Centre helping to match up people with volunteering opportunities.

Laura has particular expertise in:

• Evaluating volunteer-involving projects and programmes
• Researching the impact and social value of volunteering on society, organisations and individuals through the use of recognised methodologies.
• Social Return on Investment (SROI) methodology to calculate the social value of a project, activity, or organisation
• The Institute for Volunteering Research ‘Volunteering Impact Assessment Toolkit’ to measure physical, human, social, economic, and cultural capital generated by volunteering

Recent commissions include:

• Working as an Associate of greenspace scotland on their Big Lottery funded ‘greenspace is good……so prove it’ SROI research project (2011)
• A baseline survey of the diversity of museum volunteers and research into volunteering equalities policy and practice at Glasgow Museums. (2011) 
• Data analysis and reporting on the Review of the Refreshed Volunteering Strategy in the NHS in Scotland for the Scottish Health Council (2011)
• A review of the Scottish Dementia Working Group (2010)
• A service evaluation of Perthshire Women’s Aid (2010)
• A study for Museums Galleries Scotland into the role and impact of volunteers in museums and galleries in Scotland. The Volunteering Impact Assessment Toolkit was used for part of the study. (2009)

I have worked with Laura for many years as a colleague at Volunteer Development Scotland, and more recently on an impact evaluation project for Museums and Galleries Scotland. Return to associates