On January 23, 2026, the Berlin Football Association held the TEAM BERLIN kick-off dialog at the EUREF-Campus Berlin awarded the Berlin Football 2025 Innovation Prize, focusing on the commitment of its member clubs. The shared first place went to three clubs that are using creative ideas to break new ground in recruiting and retaining volunteers: Askania Coepenick, Polar Pinguin and Berolina Mitte.
/ Our association
Recruitment and retention of volunteers: Innovative ideas from Berlin clubs
New distribution of roles: "Micro Volunteering" by Askania Coepenick
Askania Coepenick received the innovation award for its "Micro Volunteering" concept, which redesigns volunteering structures through clearly defined, time-limited roles and systematically avoids overload. "Mission 2030 grew out of the realization that even well-intentioned volunteering can become unhealthy under inappropriate structures," explains Max Büttner, 1st Chairman of the association. The reorganization project is a combination of several developments. For example, one board member abruptly resigned from all duties, not due to a lack of motivation, but because he was personally overwhelmed.
Fixed roles with manageable time budgets create more quality and reliability in the day-to-day running of the association: tasks are divided into smaller parts, processes are easier to plan and new volunteers are given security through a coordinator system with structured induction, micro-training and 1:1 support. Thomas Dietrich (What role? Project coordinator?) emphasizes the support for young volunteers, who can get started without "learning by chaos" and have fixed contact persons.
The scalable model makes volunteering attractive by asking: "What can you do specifically?" Instead of "do everything", it provides clear offers and thus offers potential for the entire Berlin soccer landscape. "You don't win volunteers with mere requests, but with clear offers," emphasizes Büttner.
Sharing knowledge and resources: "Engagement Assists" from Polar Penguin
"Many people want to get involved, but shy away from long-term commitments," observes Safa Semsary, board member at Polar Pinguin with a focus on anti-discrimination, sustainability and structural association development.The Tempelhof-based association has around 350 members and has been trying out different formats and approaches to strengthen engagement at Polar for many years.The "Engagement Assists" concept, which was awarded this year's Berlin Football Innovation Prize, stands for the idea of preparing access to knowledge and engagement in a targeted manner and then sharing it outside of one's own club: low-threshold, team-oriented and with clear roles.
"We share some of our formats that are manageable in terms of time, offer concrete tasks and at the same time enable real participation - for example micro-engagements on match days, project-related collaboration or clearly defined areas of responsibility," explains Semsary. "The aim is to make it easier for more people to take their first step into volunteering.'Engagement Assists' is not a theoretical project, but has emerged from our everyday club life and is open to other clubs."
Polar Pinguin does not view its own challenges in terms of recruiting and retaining volunteers in isolation, but as part of a task for society as a whole.Cooperation between clubs plays a key role here, with competitive thinking taking a back seat. "Fair sporting competition belongs on the pitch.The major challenges in amateur soccer, such as recruiting volunteers, protecting against discrimination or sustainable club development, cannot be solved in isolation," emphasizes Semsary."When clubs share their knowledge and resources and work together, everyone becomes stronger. No one has to reinvent every solution - and this is precisely where there is enormous potential for Berlin soccer."
In addition to her commitment to Polar Pinguin, Safa Semsary is also the project manager ofReady. Set. Coach.for the BFV.She sees an important role for the association in promoting knowledge transfer and exchange between clubs: "Especially when it comes to commitment, it is worth making successful models quickly shareable.It would be helpful to have more accessible exchange formats between clubs, more platforms for knowledge transfer and further impetus to support clubs in their development.TheTEAM BERLIN kick-off dialogwas a good first step in this direction."
58 interviews have been published since April 2023. Following a maternity leave for the person responsible, the project is set to resume soon. Häußler sees the first place in the Berlin Football Innovation Award as a confirmation of the good work and an incentive to continue: "A prize like this is an enormous appreciation for the voluntary work. It motivates us to keep working on the format and makes it easier to find more people to help.
Giving volunteers a platform: "A portrait" of Berolina Mitte
SV Blau Weiss Berolina Mitte was honored for its "In Portrait" idea. In this format, the club presents various groups of people from its own ranks in order to make its volunteer work visible, to bind volunteers to the club and to attract new interested, committed people.By introducing the format, the club from the heart of Berlin was reacting to the development of the topic of volunteering, as Tilmann Häußler, 2nd Chairman of Berolina Mitte, explains: "In the past, there were fewer volunteer structures and more people. Today it's the other way around. If you need volunteers, you also have to offer something. After all, they give you the most valuable commodity in the world: time.
Initially designed as a series of written interviews on the club's website, "Im Portrait" soon developed primarily into a social media format in video form in order to appeal primarily to young people and achieve sustainable volunteer recruitment. "If you don't play along in the concert of channels, you won't be seen outside the soccer pitch by the primarily younger target group," says Tilmann Häußler, aptly describing the importance of social media in today's world and also formulating how a sports club can use social networks for itself and at the same time limit the high usage times among children and young people: "To find young people, you have to go where the young people are. Social media consumption among young people is alarmingly high, usually several hours a day. But you have to take place in this world if you want to get them out of it".
Mastering challenges: all submissions at a glance
The innovative approaches of all award winners show how Berlin clubs creatively master challenges in volunteering. The BFV invites its member clubs to be inspired by these ideas and to take part next year with their own idea.
All idea submissions 2025 at a glance
Kategorien: Our association
