A free resource for nonprofit
organizations, NGOs, civil society organizations,
charities, schools, public sector agencies & other
mission-based agencies
by Jayne Cravens
via coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web
site)
Virtual Volunteering in
Europe
From April through October 2013, I researched and wrote about
Internet-mediated volunteering (virtual volunteering, online
volunteering, microvolunteering, online mentoring, etc.) in
European Union (EU) countries for the ICT4EMPL Future Work
project, undertaken by the Information Society Unit of the Institute for
Prospective Technological Studies at the European
Commission's Joint Research Centre.
The final
paper is here, as well as all of the resources I used.
The overall ICT4EMPL project was focused on employability
(developing job skills, exploring careers, etc.) and social
inclusion, so all of my analysis in the narrative regarding
virtual volunteering for the EU ties back to those goals. Here's
some analysis about what I found in my research that either aren't
in the paper I've submitted, but I think they should be out in
public for discussion, or, that are in the paper, but I
wanted to highlight them in particular on my web site, outside of
the official materials, for deeper and ongoing discussion:
- Virtual volunteering is happening all over Europe.
It's not a new practice in Europe, just as it isn't in North
America. There are thousands of people in Europe that are
engaged in virtual volunteering, in some way, either through a
formal virtual volunteering or microvolunteering program, or
just as a part of their volunteer engagement, without calling it
virtual volunteering or any other associated name. I found more
than 60 organizations involving online volunteers in Europe in a
very short time, I image there are far, far more that I didn't
find, just because of my lack of skills in languages other than
English. True, virtual volunteering still isn't as widespread in
Europe as it is in the USA, but its well-established and seems
to be growing.
- Traditional volunteer centers in Europe are ignoring
virtual volunteering. The web sites of volunteer
centers in European capitals, as well as most national web sites
focused on volunteering in Europe by Europeans, were of little
help in this research - they rarely mentioned online volunteers,
virtual volunteering, microvolunteering, etc. Also, many of
their online search engines for volunteering opportunities offer
no way to list virtual opportunities. What is it going to take
for this to change?
- Spain is the European leader regarding virtual
volunteering. Organizations involving online
volunteers and web sites talking about voluntarios
virtuales, voluntarios en línea, voluntarios
digitales, voluntarios en red, microvoluntarios, voluntariat
virtual, voluntaris digitals, voluntariat
virtual abound in Spain. I could have done this report
JUST on Spanish virtual volunteering and had 50 pages of
narrative! Fundación Hazloposible, an NGO established
in 1999 in Spain, launched HacesFalta.org the following year, an
online portal for the promotion of volunteerism, including
virtual volunteering, and its been growing ever
since. Academic articles about this and other online
efforts are plentiful. But why did Spain embrace virtual
volunteering so early, and why did it spread so quickly,
compared to other European countries? I would love to hear your
thoughts as to why.
- Lack of French virtual volunteering efforts.
French is spoken by 74 million people, including in 31
francophone countries of Africa. It's one of the official
working languages of the United Nations. And, yet, information
about virtual volunteering in French is sparse; even when the
France-based France Bénévolat, talks about it, they just mention
the phrase and then link to Canadian materials. Why the lack
of information in French - and the apparent lack of interest in
France regarding virtual volunteering, compared to Spain and
England in particular?
- Where are the online discussion groups for managers of
volunteers in European countries? The United Kingdom
has the wonderful UKVPMs, which brings together hundreds of
people that work with volunteers, regularly discussing
everything from legislation to day-to-day challenges in working
with volunteers. There's E-Voluntas, un canal para
compartir experiencias de intervención e investigación sobre
voluntariado. But where are the discussion groups in
French, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan, German, Czech,
Polish, Estonian, Swedish and on and on? In fact, where are the
associations of managers of volunteers in these countries - not
the volunteer centres, that promote volunteerism, but the
associations that talk about effective management and support of
volunteers? I found nothing on the International
Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) site nor on the European Volunteer
Centre (CEV) about such groups. Without such
associations/communities of practice, there's little chance of
volunteering be elevated to the level of importance many of us
believe it deserves, far beyond "feel good" activities. What
will it take to change this?
- Where are materials in languages other than English to
help organizations involve online volunteers? I don't
mean just the Guía de voluntariado virtual, the
translation of the Virtual Volunteering Guidebook I
co-authored with Susan Ellis back in the 1990s, or translations
of web materials I've written. I don't mean just the UN's Online Volunteering service English
materials translated into French. I mean advice written in
Spanish about Spanish experiences for a Spanish audience, or
advice written in French about Francophone African experiences
for a Francophone African audience, regarding how to
identify tasks that might be undertaken by online volunteers,
how to screen online candidates for volunteering, how to keep
online volunteers motivated, how to supervise and support online
volunteers, how to create an online mentoring program, how to
create microvolunteering opportunities how to work with virtual
teams of online volunteers, and on and on? I am so hungry to
read a non-USA perspective about how to create online
volunteering tasks, how to support online volunteers, the
benefits of such engagement for organizations (not just the
volunteers), etc. Are these out there and I've missed them? And
I am ready to write an impassioned endorsement for anyone who
wants to undertake such an endeavor for his or her respective
country/region.
- There are far, far, far more efforts in Europe to
promote virtual volunteering, including microvolunteering, to
potential volunteers than to volunteer hosting organizations.
I found lots of material geared towards potential online
volunteers, or talking about online volunteers and how they
benefit, but scant information about why organizations in Europe
involve volunteers, and why they should. Without focusing much,
much more on hosting organizations, Europe is in danger of
creating many thousands of disappointed people - people that
wanted to volunteer online but couldn't find tasks to do.
Doing this project was a lot like when I began researching
virtual volunteering back in the 1990s for the Virtual
Volunteering Project:
- Back then, a lot of traditional volunteer centers and national
organizations focused on traditional volunteering had nothing on
their web sites, in their publications or in their trainings
regarding virtual volunteering - and many were openly reluctant,
if not hostile, to the idea of talking about online volunteering
as anything normal or soon-to-be mainstream. I encountered the
same unwillingness - and even hostility - by many of the primary
institutions in charge of promoting volunteerism in various
European countries (except for Spain) - or for all of Europe.
- In the 1990s, because traditional volunteer centers and
national associations focused on volunteerism in the USA didn't
take the lead in researching and promoting virtual volunteering,
I had to go to the grassroots level, talking to individual
volunteer-involving organizations, rather than umbrella or
research institutions, to gather the research I needed for the
Virtual Volunteering Project. The same was true this time for
Europe: volunteer centres and the primary institutions in charge
of promoting volunteerism in Europe don't or won't talk about
virtual volunteering, so I had to go directly to
volunteer-involving organizations themselves. It was easier this
time, however, because there was Google - something that wasn't
fully formed back in 1996 when I started research for the
Virtual Volunteering Project.
One of the most important tools in my research for this
initiative was archive.org;
it allowed me to go through earlier iterations of web sites to
determine when an organization first started talking, at least
online, about virtual volunteering. I could not have done the
research without it.
As part of this project, I created a wiki of
all of the various resources I used for my research and many of
the appendices. It includes:
- References used in early drafts of the paper (not all made the
final version of the paper)
- Online Volunteering-related recruitment or matching web sites
- Organisations that involve online volunteers in the EU
- Resources related to volunteering as a contributor to
employability
- Resources and research related to Internet-mediated
volunteering (focused on, but not limited to, Europe)
- Resources related to volunteer engagement and volunteerism in
EU countries statistics, studies, volunteer centres, volunteer
matching sites, sites for volunteers, sites for those that want
to involve volunteers, etc.
In addition, several portions of the paper were cut before it was
finalized. I've used that cut information to create these two
resources:
Please note that I am no longer
researching virtual volunteering in Europe. You can feel
free to use
all of this data in any report or resource you are putting
together, so long as I am credited in some way with providing the
data.
Now, it's time for traditional volunteer centers and
volunteerism institutions in Europe to embrace their role in
tracking and promoting virtual volunteering - as well as group
volunteering, family volunteering, episodic volunteering, and all
of the various other forms of non-traditional volunteering. I look
forward to seeing this information added to their web sites,
publications and trainings.
Also:
The Last Virtual Volunteering
Guidebook
available for purchase as a
paperback & an ebook
from Energize, Inc.
It includes the basics for getting started with involving and
supporting volunteers online, but also offers detailed information
to help organizations that are already engaged in virtual
volunteering with improving and expanding their programs. It is a
practical guide, though it does include some case studies and
research.
Also see
- Studies
and Research Regarding Online Volunteering / Virtual
Volunteering
While there is a plethora of articles and information about
online volunteering, there has been very little research
published regarding the subject. This is a compilation of
publicly-available research regarding online volunteering, and a
list of suggested possible angles for researching online
volunteering. New contributions to this page are welcomed,
including regarding online mentoring programs.
- Microvolunteering and
Crowd-Sourcing: Not-So-New Trends in Virtual
Volunteering/Online Volunteering
Provides a long list of what online volunteering as
microvolunteering looks like, examples of organisations engaging
such short-term online volunteers, and tips for making these
specific types of volunteer engagement work.
- Short-term Assignments for Tech
Volunteers
There are a variety of ways for mission-based organizations to
involve volunteers to help with short-term projects
relating to computers and the Internet, and short-term
assignments are what are sought after most by potential "tech"
volunteers. But there is a disconnect: most organizations have
trouble identifying such short-term projects. This is a list of
short-term projects for "tech" volunteers -- assignments that
might takes days, weeks or just a couple of months to complete.
- One(-ish) Day "Tech" Activities
for Volunteers
Volunteers are getting together for intense, one-day events, or
events of just a few days, to build web pages, to write code, to
edit Wikipedia pages, and more. These are gatherings of onsite
volunteers, where everyone is in one location, together, to do
an online-related project in one day, or a few days. It's a form
of episodic volunteering, because volunteers don't have to make
an ongoing commitment - they can come to the event, contribute
their services, and then leave and never volunteer again.
Because computers are involved, these events are sometimes
called hackathons, even if coding isn't involved. This page
provides advice on how to put together a one-day event, or
just-a-few-days-of activity, for a group of tech volunteers
onsite, working together, for a nonprofit, non-governmental
organization (NGO), community-focused government program, school
or other mission-based organization - or association of such.
- Finding a
Computer/Network Consultant
Staff at mission-based organizations (nonprofits, civil society
organizations, and public sector agencies) often have to rely on
consultants, either paid or volunteer, for expertise in computer
hardware, software and networks. Staff may feel unable to
understand, question nor challenge whatever that consultant
recommends. What can mission-based organizations do to recruit
the "right" consultant for "tech" related issues, one that will
not make them feel out-of-the-loop or out-of-control when it
comes to tech-related discussions?
- Myths About Online Volunteering
(Virtual Volunteering)
Online volunteering means unpaid service that is given by
volunteers via the Internet. It's also known as virtual
volunteering, online mentoring, ementoring, evolunteering, cyber
volunteering, cyber service, telementoring, online engagement,
and on and on. Here is a list of common myths about online
volunteering, and my attempt to counter them.
- Hosting International Volunteers: A
Where-To-Start Guide For Local Organizations In Developing
Countries
For organizations in developing countries in Africa, Asia,
Eastern Europe and South America interested in hosting
volunteers from other countries.
- Recruiting Local
Volunteers To Increase Diversity Among the Ranks
Having plenty of volunteers usually isn't enough to say a
volunteering program is successful. Another indicator of success
is if your volunteers represent a variety of ages,
education-levels, economic levels and other demographics, or are
a reflection of your local community. Most organizations don't
want volunteers to be a homogeneous group; they want to reach a
variety of people as volunteers (and donors and other
supporters, for that matter). This resource will help you think
about how to recruit for diversity, or to reach a specific
demographic.
- Using Third Party Web Sites Like
VolunteerMatch to Recruit Volunteers
There are lots and lots of web sites out there to help your
organization recruit volunteers. You don't have to use them all,
but you do need to make sure you use them correctly in
order to get the maximum response to your posts.
- Using Video to Support Online
Volunteers/Remote Volunteers.
Video is a great way to further support volunteers, and your
computer probably already has all of the tools you need to make
a video, or to engage in a live video conversation with others.
Video isn't something to use only with online volunteers or
remote volunteers (those providing onsite service at a different
location than yours). It's also a tool you can use with new and
current volunteers. In addition to an organization producing
videos for volunteers, it can also work the other way around:
volunteers can produce videos for organizations. This resource
provides information on your options, and links to my own short
video on the subject.
- Using Real-Time
Communications With Volunteers
A growing number of organizations are using real-time
communications -- including video conferencing, online phone
calls, chats and instant messaging -- to hold online meetings
with volunteers, to allow volunteers to interact with staff,
clients, or each other, or to involve volunteers in a live,
online, real-time event. This resource provides more information
on real-time communications with volunteers -- what the various
tools are, how agencies are using them to interact with
volunteers, and tips to encourage and maintain participation in
synchronous communications.
- Recognizing Online Volunteers &
Using the Internet to Honor ALL Volunteers
Recognition helps volunteers stay committed to your
organization, and gets the attention of potential volunteers --
and donors -- as well. Organizations need to fully recognize the
efforts of remote, online volunteers, as well as those onsite,
and not differentiate the value of these two forms of service.
Organizations should also incorporate use of the Internet to
recognize the efforts of ALL volunteers, both online and onsite.
With cyberspace, it's never been easier to show volunteers --
and the world -- that volunteers are a key part of your
organization's successes. This new resource provides a long list
of suggestions for both honoring online volunteers and using the
Internet to recognize ALL volunteers that contribute to your
organization.
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