The New York Times, in a story last week, says “Older adults, particularly vulnerable in a pandemic, still work for their causes, but primarily from home now”, via virtual volunteering.

The story notes what all of us that work in or with nonprofits know so well: in March, the health risks of in-person contact brought in-person volunteering to an immediate halt at many programs, particularly for seniors / the elderly. Volunteers are the lifeblood of many nonprofits and other community programs,, but the pandemic has created major barriers to volunteer participation, especially for older people, who face a higher risk of serious illness or death if they contract the coronavirus. As a result, many seniors have pivoted to virtual volunteering, and some of these elderly volunteers are finding themselves devoting even more hours each month to their causes now.

The story profiles two senior volunteers who are doing more virtual volunteering because of the pandemic, and what they are doing as online volunteers:

Before the pandemic, Paula Brynen devoted 15 hours a month to various causes, including arts groups and a volunteer recruitment clearinghouse. For instance, she volunteered onsite for the local chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, volunteering that is especially important to her, having survived leukemia in 2011. She used to help with the setup for the annual fund-raising walk; now, she focuses on fundraising phone calls. Opportunities with arts groups have disappeared for her for now, but she has several new projects, including working as a mentor with Table Wisdom, a St. Louis-based nonprofit that matches older adults with students and young professionals in the United States and abroad who need career advice and help with English-language skills. She connects each week via Zoom with a young environmental engineer in Colombia who is hoping to advance her career by improving her English. Ms. Brynen is also volunteering for Democratic candidates in the November election, and she recently helped a graduate student in psychology complete her training by serving as a sort of virtual guinea pig, doing sessions as an art therapy patient.

Barbara Lewers is a 79-year-old New Yorker who spent two afternoons every week volunteering at Senior Planet’s center in Manhattan before the pandemic. When Senior Planet, a program of the nonprofit Older Adults Technology Services and which helps older adults learn to use technology. shifted its work completely online, Ms. Lewers shifted, too. A retired advertising creative director, she has volunteered in a program that makes check-in calls to older New Yorkers. She has also helped with a program that has deployed 10,000 tablet computers to older low-income residents in city housing, helping to train people how to use them.

The Times article notes that technology can be a barrier for some older adults, who can be less likely to use the latest technology, according to the Pew Research Center; for example, last year 59 percent of Americans age 65 and older had broadband internet connections, roughly 20 percentage points fewer than those in younger age groups. Efforts to help seniors use online tools are noted now almost every week on the TechSoup online community forum (do a search for the world senior, click on forums, sort by date).

I am not surprised at all that the online volunteers profiled in this NYT story are people who already had an established relationship with the nonprofits they are now helping as online volunteers – that’s something that’s usual for online volunteers even when there isn’t a pandemic going on (as noted in The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook). I’m not surprised that these experienced, traditional volunteers are finding themselves spending MORE time as online volunteers. I am very glad the article spotlighted senior citizens as the online volunteers in this story, not just as the recipients of service. I just wish this story had talked to more nonprofits about how they are creating activities and roles for volunteers, what challenges they are facing, etc.

For much more detailed advice on creating assignments for online volunteers, for working with online volunteers, for using the Internet to support and involve ALL volunteers, including volunteers that provide service onsite, and for ensuring success in virtual volunteering, check out The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. Tools come and go – but certain community engagement principles never change, as this Times article confirmed! You will not find a more detailed guide anywhere for working with online volunteers and using the Internet to support and involve all volunteers – even after home quarantines are over and volunteers start coming back onsite to your workspace. It’s available both as a traditional paperback and as an online book. It’s co-written by myself and Susan Ellis.

Also see all of the blogs I’ve developed JUST THIS YEAR to help nonprofits quickly launch online roles & activities for online volunteers and to deliver their programming and services online:

• Roles & Activities your program can launch right now for online volunteers
• How to create partnerships for virtual volunteering
• Virtual volunteering is more than “making cards for the sick/elderly”
• Study measures interest in volunteering in May 2020
• One-ish Day Activities for Volunteering Using IT (Hacks4Good, for instance)
• Your right to turn away volunteers who won’t adhere to safety measures (& your right to refuse to volunteer at an unsafe program)
• You do not need to meet via video conference with every potential volunteer
• Delivering arts programming online & helping arts nonprofits survive COVID-19
• Setting up an online mentoring program
• Free training in virtual volunteering (involving & supporting volunteers using online tools)
• Recruiting board members in the time of social distancing
• Get to know your volunteers now on a new level
• 21 simple things to do while your programs are on hold during COVID-19 quarantines

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