In addition to researching and writing about virtual volunteering, I’m also almost always engaged in the practice, either as an online volunteer, or as a manager of online volunteers.
I recently recruited online volunteers to help with identifying some outreach targets for a nonprofit organization I’m working with. First, I used a volunteer recruitment web site, posting a very detailed task description and asking for a commitment only 3 – 5 hours a week through the rest of the year. For those who expressed interest, I had an oh-so-short screening process: a few questions via email. Their answers show me how well they communicate via the written word, if they truly understand the importance of a prompt response, and if they really do read a message completely.
One of the questions is regarding when the volunteer is planning on working on the assignment: is there a particular day and time they are going to specifically set aside for getting the task done? This question throws a lot of online volunteering candidates. As one put it: “I don’t understand this question, because I thought this was a virtual volunteering assignment.” It didn’t surprise me when that volunteer dropped out after just a week, without doing the assignment.
While an online volunteer can do his or her assignment whenever and, often, wherever, he or she wants to — at 3 a.m., during a four-hour layover at a wired airport, etc. — virtual volunteering takes real time. I’ve worked with online volunteers since 1994, and I’ve found that those volunteers who make a plan for getting an assignment done — who identify a day and time when their work is going to happen — actually get the assignment done. Those who expect available time to spontaneously materialize for getting the assignment done instead send me an email explaining all the many reasons they are unable to fulfill their commitment, always along the lines of “some unexpected things came up.”
Virtual volunteering takes real time and a real commitment, however small, however micro, and there is nothing virtual about the organization’s need for the assignment to get done.
Screening volunteers, even for micro-volunteering assignments, will cut down significantly on the number of “Oops, I didn’t realize I actually didn’t have time to do this. Sorry!” emails you will get from new online volunteers. Your online screening process does not have to be long; it can be done via email, with just a few questions a candidate could complete in just 10 minutes. Don’t be surprised if more than 50% of people who said they were interested in volunteering online with your organization drop out at this point – but isn’t that better than them dropping out after they have officially been given an assignment?
How to screen online volunteers is just one of the many topics that will be explored in-depth in the revised Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, which will be published in 2011. Stay tuned!
Read more about the myths of online volunteering/virtual volunteering.