selected agencies that
involve online volunteers:
national (united states)

includes international organizations based in the U.S.

To submit an agency for listing here, complete our online survey.

 
Ability OnLine Support Network
http://209.146.155.200/public/default.htm
An electronic mail system that connects young people with disabilities or chronic illness to disabled and non-disabled peers and mentors. This network gives "wings" to thousands of children and adolescents by removing the social barriers that can come with having a disability and illness, and by providing opportunities to form friendships, build self-confidence, exchange information, and share hope and encouragement through e-mail messages.

 
alt.tv-x-files
More than a fan-based online community -- members of this newsgroup have organized several online philanthropic endeavors, as well as used the Internet to coordinate offline donations to selected charities. Members of this group have also provided Project staff with insightful, practical information about the dynamics of online communities, particularly on how to approach them and invite their involvement.

 
American Lung Association
http://www.lungusa.org/vol/index.html
Staff from ALA, based in New York City, have worked the Project informally sharing their experiences working with volunteers virtually.

 
America Online
Representatives from AOL, based in Virginia attended one of the first extensive virtual volunteering workshops, held in Virginia in 1997, to learn more and to share their own experiences working with online volunteers. AOL involves online volunteers to help manage its many online forums, and is now collaborating with the National Mentoring Partnership and the VV Project on its own online mentoring campaign.

 
Ask Adam Volunteer Online Math Tutors
http://www.askadam.com/education/math/tutoring/about.html
Based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, founded by Adam Moore, who is pursuing a computer science degree at Rutgers University. Ask Adam prohibits any direct communication between tutors and students; instead, tutors answer questions on a web-based message inquiry system, and all communications are monitored. No personal information gathered from users by Ask Adam, including e-mail addresses, are shared with any other organization, volunteers or tutors. "When Ask Adam first began in April of 1998, we received about 1-3 questions per week. We are currently receiving hundreds of questions per week. It depends on how close we are to midterms." Volunteers can register to tutor online.

 
Association for Volunteer Administration
http://www.avaintl.org/
This international organization based in Virginia has featured information about the Project in its Journal of Volunteer Administration, and hosted the first in-depth presentation on virtual volunteering, at its 1997 conference.

 
The BarryNet - Barry Manilow International Fan Club
http://www.barrynet.com
This Web site declares, "Barry's FANS...Call THEM Wild, call them 'Maniloonies', call them whatever you like, but at least KNOW that behind all that craziness is Not Only fans CRAZY about Barry, but fans CRAZY about making the world a better place... " There are approximately 70 Local Barry Manilow Fan Clubs around the world, and each sponsors an official charity. The Webmaster for this site provided the Project with information on how chapters use the Internet to promote and organize their philanthropic activities.

 
CompuMentor
http://www.compumentor.org
This San Francisco-based agency provides excellent information to help technical-assistance volunteers work with agencies in face-to-face settings; we've followed many of their guidelines in creating our own suggestions for online volunteers, and you will find links to CompuMentor materials on our Web site. CompuMentor has a new Virtual Mentoring Program, which matches online volunteers with specialized computer and internet-related skills/expertise with not-for-profit organizations needing such assistance. In addition, several CompuMentor volunteers participated in our betatest program, and provided feedback about their online volunteering experiences.

 
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Web Volunteers
http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/volunteers/volindex.html
An international public-interest alliance of computer scientists and others concerned about the impact of computer technology on society. According to its web site, 33 online volunteers have helped with system administration, editing and maintaining a part of the site focused on a particular issue (gender Issues, workplace issues, cyber-rights, social security numbers) or region, and archives, among many other tasks. CPSR gives each online volunteers (all of whom must be CPSR members) detailed guidelines for creating pages and a password to load pages onto the CPSR server.

 
ConvoNation (formerly Convomania)
http://www.convonation.org
Based in Calfifornia, this national endeavor was begun by Apple Computer as a way for kids with a serious illness and/or disability to share experiences with each other via the Internet. They worked in partnership with San Jose Children's Musical Theater to produce an original musical about youth with disabilities.

 
Cyberangels
http://www.cyberangels.org
A national program begun in 1995 by the Guardian Angels and based in New York City, it's the largest online safety and educational program in cyberspace. Its mission is to help create a user-friendly and safe online surfing experience for everyone. Cyberangels involves online volunteers in a variety of activities, including: Angels Match (mentoring young people), CyberMoms (monitoring cyber-playgrounds and parenting resources), Net Patrol (patrolling the Internet looking for child pornography, stalkers, child predators, groups advocating child abuse and pedophilia, scam artists and, working with other child advocacy groups compiling and updating lists of sites harmful to children), and Teen Angels (helping to build and maintain a fun and safe place to "hang-out," teach the younger kids , and learn important skills). Their screening and online safety systems for online volunteers are fully outlined on the Cyberangels site and are models for any organization looking to match volunteers with clients or potentially vulnerable populations online.

 
CYBERVPM (formerly Sound Volunteer Management)
http://www.cybervpm.com
During the Project's first two years, Nan Hawthorne, a Seattle-based consultant who runs CYBERVPM, provided insights regarding online volunteering and involving people with disabilities as volunteers. Nan's online discussion group, also called CYBERVPM, gets its content almost entirely from online volunteers -- the subscribers are volunteer managers who participate in this ongoing discussion and donate time and advice to each other.

 
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." Distributed.Net was founded to serve as a gathering point for research and projects related to 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."

 
drkoop.com
http://drkoop.com/community/
This national online company, based in Austin, Texas, is led by Dr. C. Everett Koop, former U.S. Surgeon General, and "others who are dedicated to improving the quality of people's lives by empowering them to improve their health." The site has numerous interactive communities, message boards and chat rooms, all moderated by online volunteers and each centering around a particular health topic or demographic.
 

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://www.tapr.org/emissary/info.html
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 committment."

 
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.

 
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.

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

 
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.  
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 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.

 
ISWorldNet
http://www/umanitoba.ca/isworld/volunteers.html
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.

 
Knowbility, Inc.
http://www.knowbility.org
A national nonprofit organization based in Texas and born out of the annual collaborative effort AIR-Austin , a web design contest that educates the high-tech community about making Web sites and other online technologies fully accessible to people with disabilities. The onsite volunteer efforts for AIR-Austin are coordinated primarily via the Internet, and Knowbility promotes virtual volunteering as a way to help youth with disabilities learn high-tech skills and other skills for the work place.

 
McGraw-Hill Signature Program with NCEE
http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/philanthropy/index.html
and http://www.economicsamerica.org/vv/
In November 1997, the McGraw-Hill Companies, based in New York City, launched the Signature Program with the National Council on Economic Education, an organization addressing economic literacy, as one fulfillment of the McGraw-Hill commitment to America's Promise. The partnership focused on young people to strengthen their levels of economic literacy, and involved a virtual componant to match teachers and classrooms with online volunteers from McGraw-Hill Companies.

 
Math Forum's Ask Dr. Math
http://forum.swarthmore.edu/dr.math
A question and answer service for K-12 math students and their teachers. Students submit questions to Dr. Math by filling out the Web form or by sending in e-mail. Answers (by Swarthmore College math students acting as "Dr. Math") are sent back by e-mail, and these questions and answers are gathered into an online searchable archive organized by grade level (elementary, middle school, high school) and topic (exponents, infinity, polynomials, etc.). There are also materials for math teachers to use.

 
Microsoft Site Builder Network - VolunteerKiosk
http://nonprofit.guidestar.org/classifieds/ms_sbn.cfm
This is a joint project with GuideStar to connect nonprofit organizations with Web developer and designer volunteers. The Microsoft Site Builder Network is a membership program and online resource that supports Web designers and developers with tools, information, and support.

 
Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation
http://www.meaf.org
In addition to funding the Virtual Volunteering Project, MEAF has provided suggestions and feedback on the Project's activities and materials, promoted virtual volunteering to its own employees, and promoted the Project to other MEAF grantees. MEAF is based in Washington, D.C.

 
National Association of Purchasing Management
http://www.napm.org/Education/legacy/1998conf/gary/tsld009.htm
This association based in Tempe, Arizona presented information about on recruiting, retaining, and recognizing volunteers, and an overview of how online volunteers can help, at their 1999 Annual International Purchasing Conference. The presentation advocated that members involve online volunteers to: conduct online research, gathering information on upcoming legislation affecting purchasing, prepare information for chapter Web sites, provide online mentoring to new members via e-mail, and participate in committee sessions online.

 
National Lekotek Center
http://www.lekotek.org
and http://www.meaf.org/lekotek.html
Sponsors Compuplay Summer Camp and CompuClub in Illinois each year, providing computer instruction to children with and without disabilities in a recreational setting. The camp included a "virtual volunteers" program, where volunteers served as online "wizards", answering children's messages about computers and technology.

 
Netscape Open Directory Project
http://directory.netscape.com/
Relies on a "vast army" of online volunteer editors (more than 6,000) to create its "open directory" to index the World Wide Web. It claims to be the third-largest and fastest-growing Internet directory in the world.

 
NetNoir, Inc.
http://www.netnoir.com
'Net' is short for Network and 'Noir' (pronounced know-are) is French for Black. This is an African American online community service begun by America Online. In its initial startup phase, it relied heavily on online volunteers, and shared experiences with the Project via our online survey.

 
No Wonder
http://www.nowonder.com/
Online volunteers help answer computer and software questions via email from users all over the world. "We have volunteers who have been with us for almost our 2 year existence," says founder Scott William. "Include volunteers, make them a part of the decision making process. Let them know they are valued and that their ideas and suggestions are taken seriously."

 
Online Compendium of Federal and State Regulations for U.S. Nonprofit Organizations
http://www.muridae.com/nporegulation/
A central resource for nonprofit organization (NPO) administrators, regulators and the interested public to find information about the laws and regulations controlling NPOs in the U.S. It is compiled and maintained by online volunteers made up of professional nonprofit managers and legal representatives, who submit articles, write pages and maintain sections.

 
Peace Corps CyberVolunteers
http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/cybervol/
In the 2000-2001 school year, the Peace Corps World Wise Schools program offered U.S. teachers and their students the opportunity to receive e-mail once a month from a CyberVolunteer, which is a currently serving Peace Corps Volunteer. The e-mails from the PeaceCorps members talk about their experiences on their assignments, detailing the work that they do, and the people, communities, cultures and environments they experience as part of their service. Teachers can use these e-mails to teach about particular regions, cultures and ecosystems; and about how community service can enhance career development and apply learnings from the classroom (biology, for instance). Teachers can also compile questions from their students for the CyberVolunteer, and submit them to the PeaceCorps for forwarding to the volunteer. It's not a "direct" virtual volunteering experience (students and teachers can't e-mail the volunteer directly), but it is a great example of an organization that has created a way for their volunteers to easily serve another audience -- teachers and students in U.S. classrooms.

 
The Planetary Society
http://www.planetary.org/society/Volunteers/volunteers.html
This international nonprofit organization based in Pasadena, California was founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman to encourage the exploration of our solar system and the search for extraterrestrial life. Volunteers all over the world are assisting the society by using their own computers to analyse batches of radio telescope data for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence, as part of the Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Intelligence (SETI) project.

 
Prison Fellowship Ministries
http://www.pfm.org/cyber_volunteer.html
A national not-for-profit, volunteer-based Christian organization in Reston, Virginia assisting churches in ministry to prisoners, ex-prisoners, victims, and their families, and promoting biblical standards of justice in the criminal justice system. Its websites are maintained by online volunteers, who have produced hundreds of transcripts, enhanced the organizatin's Internet exposure through site registrations, and kept the site updated with position listings, prayer requests and other publications.

 
Probono.net
http://www.Probono.net
This nonprofit organization in New York City is a virtual community of public interest lawyers. It includes an index of links to online resources for volunteer lawyers who are seeking pro bono opportunities, and contains online support and resources for lawyers working on probono cases, including news, a calendar of trainings and events, online listings of new cases for volunteers, a message board that will allow participating lawyers to communicate with other members of the practice area and an online library of training manuals, briefs and practice materials.

 
Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.net/volunteer.html
The first mobilization of online volunteers? Maybe! Begun in 1971 with the uploading of the Declaration of Independance to the pre-cursor to the Internet, the Project converts a variety of Public Domain texts to electronic versions. Its mission is to make information, books and other materials available to the general public in forms a vast majority of the computers, programs and people can easily read, use, quote, and search. This Web site serves as an orientation and guidebook for volunteers who want to help make texts available via Project Gutenberg.

 
Progressive Learning
http://www.progressivelearning.com
An online program in California assisting students who require help and attention beyond the resources of their schools and families. In addition to receiving intensive one-on-one face-to-face instruction, students also engage in ongoing mentoring from a personal Academic Coach and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) via the Internet. Coaches and SMEs work with individual classroom teachers to meet specific goals and objectives. SMEs, working as online mentors, describe to students the typical working conditions advantages, drawbacks, academic prerequisites, etc., associated with their work. The mentors also make recommendations to help students pursue career goals. A once weekly exchange of eemail is the typical scenario.

 
Safeguarding Our Children - United Mothers (SOC-UM)
http://www.www.soc-um.org
This national, all-vollunteer nonprofit in Tracy, California is dedicated to public awareness and prevention of child abuse. Volunteers act as moderators for SOC-UM's survivor forum, providing support for familes whose child has been the victim of abuse. Volunteers must pass a police check in their local communities before they can participate online. The organization also holds its board meetings online (it's legal to do so in California).

 
SeniorNet
http://www.seniornet.org/
A national nonprofit organization in San Francisco, California for computer-using adults, age 50 and older. SeniorNet involves dozens of volunteer CyberHosts and volunteer Discussion/Community leaders. In 1998, SeniorNet hosted the Olympic Cyber Volunteer program, where students in grades four through eight competed for "medals" by responding to academic challenges online.

 
Service Corps Of Retired Executives (SCORE)
http://www.score.org/
A resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration, dedicated to aiding in the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide. SCORE offers an email counseling at no cost (for U.S. citizens and resident aliens only); its huge searchable databank helps users find the SCORE member whose expertise best addresses their business needs. The expertise of members if highly varied and specialized -- users can get email counseling in everything from tropical agriculture to unemployment compensation to wholesale lighting equipment. The Web site also has a database for finding local SCORE affiliates.

 
Sword and Staff
http://www.sword-and-staff.com/
Made up of fans of "Xena:Warrior Princess" who "work to better the lives of people in their own communities through donations and volunteerism." They use the Internet to coordinate a variety of onsite volunteer activities and fundraisers, and in 1998, various chapters raised almost $40,000 for various charitable organizations. Organizers provided the VV Project with valuable information on how they coordinate volunteer efforts using the Internet.

 
STARBRIGHT World
http://www.starbright.org/projects/sbw/index.html
A private, interactive computer network where hospitalized kids from across the nation can interact with a community of their peers, helping each other cope with the day-to-day realities of living with illness. Kids learn about illnesses, procedures and coping and learn the definitions of difficult terms. There is a list of participating hospitals on the STARBRIGHT Web site.

 
Twangfest
http://www.twangfest.org
The volunteer board of directors of this nonprofit, born out of an annual music festival in St. Louis, Missouri and an online community known as Postcard2, uses the Internet to research grants, to outreach to potential donors and current supporters, to market their festival to audience members and potential performers, to communicate with other volunteers and coordinate activities, and to discuss various issues and activities before its face-to-face board meetings and votes. The board members, volunteers and other supporters are scattered throughout the United States. Read more about this online community and learn about the intricacies of working together via the Internet here on our web site.

 
United Nations Association (UNA)
http://www.unausa.org
Based in Palo Alto, California. UNA is looking into virtual volunteering to help it communicate better with its volunteer chapters throughout the U.S.

 
Virtual Volunteering Project
http://www.serviceleader.org/vv/
We not only promote the idea of virtual volunteering, we also involve online volunteers ourselves. Read how more than 100 online volunteers have contributed to our project to date.

 
Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA)
http://www.vita.org
VITA's Inquiry Service enlisted volunteers serving as technical experts to answer requests about a variety of development issues that come from around the world. These experts provided their assistance mostly via phone, fax and postal mail, although they experimented with an online version of the program. VITA hopes to revive the program, and expand its use of online interactions.

 
The WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link)
The WELL began in 1985, as a dialog between the writers and readers of the Whole Earth Review. The WELL is now a "cluster of electronic villages on the Internet." There are more than 260 Conferences open to WELL members, all managed by volunteers, covering subject categories such as "Parenting," "The Future," or "Pop Culture." The WELL's Community Guidelines are an excellent example of rules for online communities and moderators. WELL member experiences have been used to explore online culture and community, such as in Howard Rheingold's The Virtual Community.