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Digital Clubhouse Network
http://www.digiclub.org
A not-for-profit organization, spun out from NASA, that is developing a 21st century learning center where people of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds can master networked multimedia technology tools. The Network maintains a Digital Clubhouses in Sunnyvale, California and at the New York Information Technology Center in Wall Street. One of the Clubhouse activities is the Digitally Abled Producers Project, http://dap.digiclub.org/, which pairs youth with disabilities ages 14-24 together with youth without disabilities, and teaches them multimedia, Universally Accessible web page production, networking, and career skills. Participants use the Internet to communicate with each other through e-mail and through chat rooms.

 
Digital Heroes
http://nmp.mentoring.org/dhc_people/
This online mentoring program serves youth involved in PowerUP, a nonprofit organization working to help America's underserved young people acquire the skills, experiences and resources they need to succeed in the digital age. PowerUP has technology centers around the U.S., many of them in public schools and working in partnership with other organizations and programs. The brand new Digital Heroes online mentoring program connects youth in PowerUP with employees of America Online (the primary sponsor of PowerUP) and with celebrity "notables" recruited by People Magazine. Online exchanges take place through a special password-protected web site created by America Online, and exchanges are supervised by the PowerUP site managers. Much of the online training materials for mentors and managers in this program was written by the Virtual Volunteering Project, with additional materials supplied by the National Mentoring Partnership. The VV Project and NMP will use data from this program to help encourage online mentoring in other programs and organizations throughout the U.S., and the VV Project will share learnings and tips from the launch and management of this program via the online mentoring resources section of its web site.

 
Distributed.Net
http://www.distributed.net/
A "loosely knit" group of thousands of computer users from all over the world who take up computing challenges that "no individual, corporation, or government" could tackle alone, such as encryption, cryptography or finding large prime numbers. Some of these challenges are formal, issued by a particular company; others are dreamed up by members themselves. Collectively, members solve these challenges by distributing the cpu power needed over the computers of its members, during their computers' "idle time." It was founded to show the effectiveness of distributed processing, "proving that when you add up all the idle time, on all the computers all over the Internet, that enormous tasks may be accomplished."

 
DO-IT/Camp Courage
http://www.washington.edu/doit/Camps/courage.html
Campers with disabilities, from 13 to 17 years old, corresponded with volunteers via e-mail. The goal was for campers to practice using e-mail and to get comfortable using it to communicate with others, and to have fun socializing online. DO-IT is based out of the University of Washington and works to help people with disabilities successfully pursue academics and careers. It's programs to promote the use of technology to maximize the independence, productivity and participation of people with disabilities.

 
e-Buddies
http://www.ebuddies.org
e-Buddies pairs people with and without mental retardation in e-mail friendships. e-Buddies agree to e-mail ach other at least once a week for one year -- more often if you wish. e-Buddies is free for students and for people with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. Volunteers who are not students are charged a one-time $50 fee to help cover the costs of checking references and processing applications. Best Buddies, the sponsor of this program, check references on all applicants and require parental permission for those under 18. Best Buddies also requires all participants to agree to a code of conduct that prohibits the exchange of addresses and telephone numbers, the transmittal of pornographic information. In-person meetings are also prohibited, unless arranged by a Best Buddies staff member.

 
E-Corps
A project by the Beacon Project, http://www.beaconproject.org
Works to match volunteers with expertise in not-for-profit and business management with organizations that need their expertise. The volunteers provide most of their assistance via the Internet.

 
Electronic Emissary Project
http://emissary.ots.utexas.edu/emissary/
A very successful, well-documented, nationally recognized online mentoring program, based at the University of Texas at Austin. The Project helps teachers locate volunteers for purposes of arranging curriculum-based, electronic exchanges between their students and online mentors; offers a secured, supervised e-mail-based systems for student and mentor interactions; documents school-based online mentoring programs around the U.S.; and offers a great deal of advice for educators interested in setting up school-based programs. We refer to their best practices frequently on the Virtual Volunteering Project site.

 
Emergency Information Infrastructure Partnership (EIIP)
http://www.emforum.org
This organization hosts several online forums for people who work and volunteer in emergency response-related fields. In 1999, EIIP held a "pledge drive," asking volunteers to pledge a certain amount of time to participate in their weekly live chat sessions, thereby boosting attendance. "The rationale was that although we offered consistently high quality information important to the emergency management community, without some sense of committment on the part of our target audience, it is too easy for other, more pressing work to interfere with participation. Therefore, the pledge drive was an attempt to instill a sense of commitment."

 
Evergreen State Society
http://www.tess.org
This organization in Seattle, Washington was one of the VV Projects Affiliates, and our web site features a very detailed profile of this organization and how it has involved online volunteers.

 
Flashcorps
http://www.flashlite.net/community/flashcorps.html
A new, growing group of online volunteers from around the world offering probono multimedia and web development experience, particularly "flash" technologies, to nonprofit organizations.

 
Four Directions Electronic Mentoring Project
http://www.tapr.org/4d/
All schools in this project serve Native American children, and many are located in remote, rural areas. The Project links volunteer on-line mentors with 4D Native American students and their teachers, to collaborate to complete learning projects of mutual interest. The Project acts as a "matching service" that helps teachers locate volunteers for purposes of arranging curriculum-based, electronic exchanges between their students and online mentors. This program, based at the University of Texas at Austin, works in connection with the Electronic Emissary Project (see above).

 
Free Our Parks and Forests
http://www.freeourparks.org
This all-volunteer organization in Seattle uses the Internet to promote its mission, running a list server and posting to USENET, and uses a password-protected administrative area on its Web site for volunteers to schedule activities and report progress.

 
German Charities Institute
http://www.dsk.de and then "English"
This organization was one of the first to provide information to the Virtual Volunteering Project about its involvement of online volunteers.

 
Girlstart (formerly SmartGrrls)
http://www.girlstart.org
This nonprofit organization based in Austin, Texas was one of the VV Projects Affiliates, and our web site features a very detailed profile of this organization and how it has involved online volunteers, including information on its virtual "Take Our Daughters to Work" Day.

 
Glaucoma Research Foundation
http://www.glaucoma.org
This national organization based in San Francisco, California was one of the VV Projects Affiliates, and our web site features a very detailed profile of this organization and how it has involved online volunteers.

 
Globewide Network Academy
http://www.gnacademy.org
A not-for-profit organization with 15,000 courses and programs, from kindergarten to doctoral programs, in its online distance learning catalog. Much of the site is maintained by volunteers.

 
Gore 2000 Volunteer Source Code Project
http://www.algore2000.com/getinvolved/
In the spirit of the Open Source movement, the Al Gore Presidential Campaign is inviting online volunteers to look at its Web site's source code and provide feedback via a special e-mail address. The Web site says that more than 100 different suggestions from source code volunteers have been implemented on the site. Of particular note is the site's legal notices for online volunteers, which are excellent examples of providing guidelines and setting clear expectations for potential online volunteers. If you know of another presidential campaign (or any campaign, for that matter) that involves virtual volunteering in a particularly innovative way, or posts information on their web site for online volunteers that are examples of good volunteer management practices, please contact the VV Project.

 
GriefNet
http://griefnet.org/
A national service operated by the nonprofit Rivendell Resources in Ann Arbor, Michigan, GriefNet consists of more than 30 e-mail support groups, managed by online volunteers, to provide support to people working through loss and grief issues of all kinds.

 
Group One (GO)
http://www.sonoma.edu/virtcomm/
GO is organized under the aegis of the Hutchins Center at Sonoma State University in California, and is dedicated toward helping communities experience the positive attributes that local network applications have to offer, both for the individual and the community. GO involves online volunteers to build and maintain its web pages and resources. "Anatomy of a Virtual Community" is a course in electronic community offered at Sonoma State University and is affiliated with this program.

 
Haskell University / Santa Clara Day School
E-Mail Mentoring Project
Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, this project focused on bringing together Native American elementary-school kids in Espanola, New Mexico with college students attending Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas, via the Internet. The class chatted once a week with Haskell education majors studying mulit-media technology in the classroom. Initial exchanges involved informal talks about musical tastes, favorite hobbies, etc. Later, the class worked with Haskell mentors on collaborative projects. The project was part of 4Directions, which focuses on integrating Native American culture and technology .

 
HerDomain.Org
http://www.herdomain.org
This nonprofit group works to encourage and support women in Austin, Texas "who embrace the culture and technology of the Internet as a vehicle for creative and professional pursuits." Members meet online via HerDomain's private e-mail list, and at face-to-face monthly meetings, "to find jobs, find employees, compare notes on their respective trades, and learn from each other in an unintimidating environment." Members of HerDomain frequently volunteer online for various community-focused groups, including the Virtual Volunteering Project.

 
HP E-Mail Mentor program
http://mentor.external.hp.com/
A program by Hewlett Packard, whose corporate headquarters are in California. Web site includes links to K-12 resources (science, math, online libraries, etc.) to assist both mentors and mentees in their work, and links to other online mentoring programs.

 
I*EARN (International Education and Resource Network)
http://www.iearn.org/handbook/service.html
I*EARN brings students together from around the world, online, "to undertake projects designed to make a meaningful contribution to the heath and welfare of the planet and its people." Through I*EARN, students engage in various online projects that will benefit a particular community or explore the impact of student volunteerism.

 
iMentor
http://www.imentor.org
Serving the New York City metropolitan area, this non-profit Internet-based mentoring program provides young people from underserved communities with adult mentors, the opportunity to explore career options, and basic technological literacy training. Although communication takes place primarily online, iMentor also schedules occasional events where mentors and students can interact face-to-face. "We conduct three telephone reference checks, a telephone interview with the mentor, and a police background check of every mentor," says Richard Buery, Executive Director of the agency. "We communicate extensively with prospective mentors through telephone and e-mail." His advice for agencies interested in virtual volunteering: "You must treat on-line volunteers as you would traditional volunteers. Volunteers need to be managed, trained, recognized, and appreciated."

 
Information Access
(formerly the Science, Engineering, and Math (SEM) Program)
http://www.ee.udel.edu/InfoAccess/
This University of Delaware-based effort sponsors numerous ongoing telementoring projects, including Scientopia http://www.ee.udel.edu/InfoAccess/Scientopia/, an online community consisting of students, mentors, and advocates who are interested in actively discussing issues in education, research, careers, and news developments with a special emphasis on the sciences and disability; the Math Mania Contest; Science Serendipity Contest; and Student Cyberfairs.

 
Intercultural E-Mail Classroom Connections
http://www.iecc.org
IECC is a free service linking teachers with partners in other countries and cultures for e-mail classroom pen-pal and project exchanges. It is based at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. At last count, more than 7650 teachers in 82 countries were participating in one or more of the IECC partnerships. IECC e-mail-based discussion groups include IECC-HE, for teachers seeking partner classrooms for international and cross-cultural e-mail exchanges with institutions of higher education; IECC-INTERGEN, for teachers and volunteers over 50 years of age seeking partners for intergenerational e-mail exchanges; IECC-PROJECTS, for teachers to announce or request help with specific classroom projects that involve e-mail, internationally or cross-culturally; IECC-SURVEYS, for students and teachers to post requests for assistance on projects, surveys, and questionaires; and IECC-DISCUSSION, about the applications and implications of intercultural e-mail classroom connections. IECC also provides a page of links to Other International E-Mail Classroom Connection Projects.

 
International Telementor Center
http://www.telementor.org/
Based out of Fort Collins, Colorado, this is a new program to help corporations create telementoring programs similar to the HP E-Mail Mentor program (see above).

 
Internet Nonprofit Center
http://www.nonprofits.org
This organization has involved online volunteers in the creation of a variety of resources on its Web site, including the NONPROFIT FAQs (frequently asked questions and their answers).

 
Internet Technical Group
http://www.sandia.gov/itg/index.html
ITG, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has created a community for professionals from industry, academia and government organizations who share a common interest in Internet technologies and related behavioral phenomena. "From the guys who put so much work into setting [the group] up, to those who run the listserv and those who created and run the ITG web site, the newsletter, the job section, and many more," ITG relies heavily on online volunteers, all "busy professionals in the industry who have given up some of their time to make it [ITG] work." ITG is affiliated with Sandia National Laboratories, operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company.

 
Internet Volunteer Team for Kanagawa Volunteer Support Center
http://www.ivt.org/kvsc-sp/
This group of online volunteers in Japan created and maintain this Web site in support of their local volunteer center. While this site does have an English version, note that the translations from the original Japanese were probably done by an online tool, and, therefore, the web site's English text is not always easy to understand.

 
ISWorldNet
http://www.ivey.uwo.ca/faculty/dneufeld/isworld/default.htm
Part of the Association for Information Systems, this project provides "information management scholars and practitioners with a single entry point to resources related to information systems technology" and promotes the "development of an international information infrastructure that will dramatically improve the world's ability to use information systems for creating, disseminating, and applying knowledge." ISWorldNet's core population are information systems researchers and educators working in colleges and universities throughout the world. ISWorldNet involves hundreds of online volunteers in a variety of activities to maintain the organization's online projects.