Tag Archives: community

Facebook, Meta, Virtual Worlds – Benefits? Risks? Does Second Life offer lessons?

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a screen capture of a webinar that took place in Second Life, an avatar-based virtual world.

An online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and “live” in an online virtual world. Avatars interact with places, objects and other avatars, exploring the virtual world, meeting other residents, socializing, having business meetings, hosting events, participating in group activities, building, creating, shopping, collaborating, even trading virtual property and services with one another.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse? No! I’m talking about Second Life, which launched back in 2003. The image at the top of this blog, and the image below, are of me, as an avatar, leading an event in Second Life for TechSoup back in 2014:

An image of Jayne Cravens as an avatar in front of a giant silde from her event within Second Life.

TechSoup was an early and passionate adopter of Second Life, hosting numerous online events there. If you do a search for Second Life on the TechSoup forum, you would find numerous references to the platform and TechSoup activities there over the years.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook (now Meta), said to much fanfare that he wanted to launch his own metaverse. The new virtual-reality app Horizon Worlds is Facebook’s first foray into the much-hyped “metaverse” for Facebook parent company Meta. Horizon Worlds, a beta version of which featured prominently in Zuckerberg’s announcement, launched Dec. 9 in the United States and Canada on the company’s Oculus virtual-reality platform and represents its first major attempt to deliver on his vision.

Were you on Second Life? Are you still on Second Life? Did you participate in TechSoup’s events on Second Life, or any other nonprofit-related activities? What do you think emerging virtual worlds, including Meta’s projects, can learn from Second Life? Comment below!

This article from The Duke Law Journal, The Development and Failure of Social Norms in Second Life, seems like something that the Meta folks should read. Its conclusion about Second Life:

Second Life is so thoroughly steeped in conditions that have impeded the development of successful social norms in other communities that any system of social norms in Second Life will ultimately fail. Because social norms will likely fail to successfully maximize resident welfare, regulatory schemes imposed both by the operators of the virtual world and by real-world governing institutions are needed to enhance the functioning of this particular alternative reality inhabited by millions.

Do you think Meta’s virtual world is addressing this issue? Do you think they need to plan for how to address such? And are you worried about safety at all with any online platforms? Comment below!

Nina Jane Patel was targeted with sexual harassment in Facebook/Meta’s platforms. “Within 60 seconds of joining — I was verbally & sexually harassed — 3–4 male avatars, with male voices, essentially, but virtually gang-raped my avatar & took photos…” The 43-year-old mother said it was such a “horrible experience that happened so fast” before she even had a chance to think about using “the safety barrier,” adding that she “froze.” She continued by confessing how both her “physiological and psychological” reaction was similar to it happening in real life. “Virtual reality has essentially been designed so the mind and body can’t differentiate virtual/digital experiences from real,” Patel wrote.

This is similar to assaults that happened in Second LIfe. Examples:

Horizon Worlds is supposed to be limited to adults 18 and older. In practice, however, very young kids appear to be among its earliest adopters. Some say the presence of children in Meta’s fledgling metaverse raises a grave concern: that by mixing children with adult strangers in a largely self-moderated virtual world, the company is inadvertently creating a hunting ground for sexual predators.

When new online forums arise that attract kids, sexual predators “are often among the first to arrive,” said Sarah Gardner, vice president of external affairs at Thorn, a tech nonprofit that focuses on protecting children from online sexual abuse. “They see an environment that is not well protected and does not have clear systems of reporting. They’ll go there first to take advantage of the fact that it is a safe ground for them to abuse or groom kids.”

More on safety for children in virtual worlds from the Washington Post.

Could nonprofits that engage in an online metaverse be putting their clients or others at risk by asking them to be there too? Comment below!

There’s one more consideration: accessibility. If you engage with people in a graphics-based environment, you are leaving out people who have sight-impairments. How will auditory displays work for graphics-based environments to address accessibility issues (I’m asking because I really don’t know)? Or is it a matter of ensuring you never limit your service delivery and volunteer engagement to only a graphics-based environment?

cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices

There is section devoted to virtual volunteering and avatar-based environments in The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. The section offers some examples of nonprofits using Second Life to engage with clients and volunteers, and offers specific advice on how a nonprofit should get started using such environments, considerations to explore and pitfalls to avoid – all of which is relevant for any graphics-based virtual world. The rest of the book is easily adaptable to engaging with volunteers in graphics-based/avatar-based virtual worlds as well.

Looking forward to hearing your comments!

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A Graphic Explanation of the Difference in Email, Social Media & Online Communities

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It can be difficult for people to understand the difference in email, in social media and in online communities. They are different, but they do greatly intersect: email can be used to create an online community, and social media can be used to create an online community (Facebook Groups, for instance). And they all are people sending messages to people – so what, really, is the difference? 

I realized, per an interaction with a student in my Gratz College course, just how much many people struggle with understanding the difference. So I tried to create a way to graphically represent the difference in email, social media and online communities for nonprofits, libraries, NGOs and other mission-based, cause-based initiatives. The differences in narrative form are also shown.

You can see how I did this here. Your thoughts, in the comments, are welcomed. How would you change the graphics or the explanation? What would your graphic representation look like?

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.

Volunteer Bill of Rights – a commitment by a host organization to volunteers

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteers

I ask this on the volunteer subreddit and got just one response… maybe I will have better luck on my own blog.

In 2010, Robert Egger, the founder of the nonprofit DC Central Kitchen, proposed a national Volunteer Bill of Rights. In an interview, he said, “If a program can’t tell a volunteer what they accomplished, allow them to talk to any staff member, provide financial data or allow a volunteer to rate their experience or provide feedback—then volunteers should feel free to call them out.”

His Volunteer Bill of Rights, which he implemented at DC Central Kitchen, included the following:

  • The right to work in a safe environment.
  • The right to be treated with respect by all staff members.
  • The right to be engaged in meaningful work and be actively included regardless of any physical limitation.
  • The right to be told what impact your work has had on the community.
  • The right to ask any staff member about the organization’s work.
  • The right to provide feedback about your experience.
  • The right to receive financial information or an annual report.

In 2019, the Association for Women in Communications created its own Volunteer Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. In their document, they said that it is a Volunteer’s Right to:

  1. To be assigned a task that is worthwhile and challenging.
  2. To receive the orientation, training and supervision needed to do the job.
  3. To feel that your efforts have real purpose and contribute to the organization’s mission.
  4. To receive useful feedback and evaluation on the volunteer work that you perform.
  5. To be treated with respect and as an equal partner within the agency.
  6. To be trusted with confidential information necessary to carry out your assignment.
  7. To be kept informed about relevant matters within the organization.
  8. To expect that your time will not be wasted because of poor planning or poor coordination by the organization.
  9. To ask any questions that will clarify a task or assignment.
  10. To give the organization input or advice on how to better accommodate the needs of present and future volunteers.

And they said it is a Volunteer’s Responsibility to

  1. Not to take on more responsibility than you can handle.
  2. Meet time commitments or to provide notice so alternative arrangements can be made.
  3. Perform the tasks assigned to you to the best of your ability.
  4. Provide input on ways your task might be better performed.
  5. Follow organization policies and procedures.
  6. Respect those confidences entrusted to you.
  7. Be open-minded and respectful towards opinions shared with you.
  8. Notify the organization in advance of absences or schedule changes that may affect them.
  9. Accept reasonable tasks without complaints.
  10. Communicate and work with others in the organization if the task calls for it.

I would add that I believe a volunteer has a right to:

  • Ask for a description of a role or task in writing, detailing time commitments, responsibilities, impact of the service to the organization, etc.
  • Ask why a role, or certain roles, are reserved by the organization for volunteers (as opposed to paying people for their time and expertise), and get an answer that is not “because we can’t afford to pay people.”
  • Expect a role to be fun and/or personally fulfilling and/or professionally helpful.
  • Complain and be treated with respect if complaining when an organization has not fulfilled its responsibilities to the volunteer, in terms of providing a safe environment, being treated with respect, addressing harmful and or toxic behavior, provided with appropriate preparation and support for a role or task, information-sharing by staff, what a role is versus how it was described initially to the volunteer, etc.
  • Say no and withdraw from a role without penalties to future volunteering or program participation if a role the volunteer has successfully undertaken changes substantially later in terms of the amount of time required, the responsibilities, the training required, etc.
  • Not face any financial burdens to volunteering in their own communities (where they live geographically) or online, in terms of having to pay a prohibitive fee to the organization in order to volunteer.

What would you add? Or reword? Or do you even think such a Bill of Rights is necessary? And when I say necessary, I mean that nonprofits sign on to it, post it, and voluntarily adhere to it (or try to) – not a legal document, just a promised MO. Please add your ideas in the comments section below.

And what might prevent you, as a volunteer-hosting organization, from implementing such a Bill of Rights for your volunteers? Please comment below!

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.

Helping online volunteers stay engaged & energized

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In pre-pandemic times, an online meeting felt like a luxury, a welcomed relief from driving to a site or taking mass transit. Now, because of COVID-19. when the only way to safely work together is online or via the phone, we’re all burned out by online meetings, and there’s nothing virtual about our fatigue.

In addition, volunteering onsite is a way to be a different person than we are at our paid work or in a classroom or even with our families. It’s a way to feel like we’re making a difference in the world. It can be a refreshing change from other parts of our life. For people that live alone, volunteering onsite can provide a much needed social life. While I think online volunteering can be wonderfully personal, I also know that virtual meetings, virtually all the time, is not the world most of us want to live in.

Volunteers are exhausted. Many that still have jobs and struggling to do those and assume new family care obligations – children are in virtual school and some older relatives have moved back in with younger family members. Many are having to look over their finances every day. Most everyone is scared of for their own health as well as everyone else in their household. And many people, especially living alone, are oh-so-lonely. Volunteering these days doesn’t offer the time out it did in pre-pandemic times – it can just feel like another online meeting.

But nonprofits still need volunteers, and volunteers still need volunteering. I know so many nonprofits, NGOs, charities and other groups have a huge amount on their plate these days and far more stresses than usual, but we all need to take a deep breath and spare some thoughts for both our current volunteers and those we want to recruit.

How to Recruit & Engage Volunteers in a Time of Virtual Fatigue, an article is by WBT Systems, which produces TopClass LMS, a learning management system for membership-based associations, has great advice for any program involving volunteers. It starts with some basics from quality volunteer engagement we should all know and apply even in non-pandemic times, like creating realistic roles for volunteers and emphasizing why the task matters to the program and the difference it will make. But then it gets into more specific advice that relates to current remote working challenges, which I’ve reframed and expanded below.

For instance, we all need to better commit to SHORT meetings that have a definite purpose and a definite start and end time. Don’t have a general, open group volunteer meeting; have a here’s-what-everyone’s-doing meeting, devoted exclusively to elevator speeches from each volunteer. Or have a celebrate-one-accomplishment meeting, devoted solely to quick updates. Whatever the meeting, be able to answer these questions: what do I want to happen as a result of this meeting? Why does this meeting matter? Why can’t you ask for this info via email?

I like to prepare my meetings as though it’s a stage performance: I like start and end on time and know exactly what I want to say, but also be ready for a spontaneous improv moment! I also am ready to facilitate: to frankly, politely tell a person who is going too long that we are going to have to table that discussion until later, for instance, because we need to hear from everyone.

Also regarding meetings, the article suggests telling volunteers you will open up an online meeting 15 minutes before the start and leave it open 15 minutes after so they have a chance for chatting, if they wish. I have REALLY enjoyed this in meetings and webinars.

I sometimes encourage people I’m meeting with to have the meeting in a different room than they are in usually – and I do the same. The same rules apply: you should be in a well-lit room that does not have lots of distractions, if at all possible (people walking through the space, intrusive sound, etc.). Otherwise, you might be surprised at how refreshing it feels to have a meeting in a different room, or even just in a different place in the usual room.

In addition, I like when I don’t have to have a full meeting to get a question resolved or check-in with everyone – I like having a Slack channel just for volunteers I’m working with, so they can check-in or ask a question of me, any time. It’s a virtual way of dropping by my office. And it keeps messages out of my email in-box.

The WBT Systems article suggests that you “Invite someone to Zoombomb the end of the meeting, perhaps the CEO, board chair or another leader who thanks the volunteers for giving their time and talent.” I LOVE this idea.

I’m somewhat tepid on the idea of things like encouraging everyone to wear a hat, or having everyone bring a toy to a meeting, etc. – the article doesn’t suggest this, but I’ve seen it elsewhere. I’m not big on ice breakers before every onsite meeting – I do not like having my time wasted, especially when I’ve schlepped across town or had to juggle to carve out time for a meeting, and everyone going around the room talking about who their favorite superhero is (Wonder Woman in the DC universe, Jane as Thor in Marvel). Online, I can find meeting games even more annoying. I want to feel like my time is valued and what’s most needed is getting done. In the end, you have to know your audience, you have to experiment and be observant, you have to be open to what is NOT working, and you have to work towards balance.

cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices

Don’t assume staff working with volunteers, or even volunteers themselves, understand how to lead and manage virtually. Yes, I’m going to yet again recommend The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, which emphasizes support for volunteers more than any other topic. Also, if you have time, look for videos and articles that could help others, and if you don’t have time, recruit a volunteer to curate such for you to review and share.

When Susan Ellis and I wrote The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, we never envisioned a global pandemic creating this massive, sudden shift to virtual volunteering for so many agencies. I’m glad to be able to recommend this detailed resource for ensuring success in virtual volunteering, with far more information than a blog or webinar ever could.

Also see:

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site or my YouTube videos and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

Cultivating Online Civility

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When I began writing about online culture, back in the late 1990s, misinformation was at a minimum and easy to identify, and hateful trolls were oh-so-quickly banned from the online communities they tried to disrupt.

Now, hate and misinformation rage online, and not just among strangers – neighbors are raging against each other on local online communities.

Back in the 1990s, in promoting virtual volunteering – using the Internet to support and involve volunteers – people who were new to the Internet (yes, there used to be such people) would ask lots of questions about what it is like to work with people remotely, rather than onsite, in-person. I created a section of the Virtual Volunteering Project web site, and then my own web site, specifically to talk about online culture, about the different ways people expressed themselves online and how to appreciate those differences, and how to quickly ramp up your skills for working with others online. I linked to some netiquette guidelines, but didn’t put much emphasis at all on online civility, dealing with trolls or addressing misinformation.

My, how times have changed…

A recent Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that Facebook was aware of its Facebook groups feature’s polarizing tendencies as early as 2016, and the Facebook groups feature continues to serve as a vector for lies, especially regarding COVID-19, as this Wired article, Facebook Groups Are Destroying America, notes:

Facebook users have been seeing more content from “friends and family” and less from brands and media outlets… Dynamics in groups often mirror those of peer-to-peer messaging apps: People share, spread, and receive information directly to and from their closest contacts, whom they typically see as reliable sources. To make things easier for those looking to stoke political division, groups provide a menu of potential targets organized by issue and even location; bad actors can create fake profiles or personas tailored to the interests of the audiences they intend to infiltrate. This allows them to seed their own content in a group and also to repurpose its content for use on other platforms... Related memes and links to fringe right-wing websites have been shared millions of times on Facebook in the past few months. Users coordinating their activities across networks of groups and pages managed by a small handful of people boost these narratives. At least nine coordinated pages and two groups—with more than 3 million likes and 71,000 members, respectively—are set up to drive traffic to five “news” websites that promote right-wing clickbait and conspiracy theories. In May, those five websites published more than 50 posts promoting Obamagate, which were then shared in the linked pro-Trump groups and pages. The revolving door of disinformation continues to spin.

And that doesn’t even begin to address the problems with dedicated trolls – people who target others online with insults and harassment in an effort to drive the person offline.

I now have a curated list of resources on online civility, and I continue to update my long list of recommendations on how to address online misinformation, which I’ve been maintaining for more than two decades. I also now have a web page of resources regarding online harassment, defamation & libel, and I regularly share on the TechSoup Online Community about how women worldwide are the frequent targets of harassing trolls who dedicate their time to silencing those voices. I never dreamed back in the 1990s things would be so overwhelmingly negative now and these would be the highly critical issues that they are. But, here we are.

Can online civility be restored? Is it possible to challenge misinformation and destructive speech in the strongest, most deliberate of terms without being accused of hate speech yourself? Can there be rules for online civility that don’t stifle much-needed debate? I hope these curated resources can help answer those questions – but, honestly, based on what I’ve experienced myself this year, I’m deeply skeptical. Perhaps I need to create a list of resources on “Learning to live and thrive in a world with hateful, hate-filled people.”

Also see:

Also, the Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook: Fully Integrating Online Service Into Volunteer Involvement can help you better work with people online – specifically volunteers. These can be volunteers in short-term, “microvolunteering” tasks or longer-term, more high-responsibility roles. These can be volunteers who do some or most of their service onsite, at your organization or volunteers who do most or all of their service remotely, rarely or ever onsite and in-person with you. This is the most comprehensive resource anywhere on working with online volunteers, and on using the Internet to support ALL volunteers, including those you might not think of as “online” volunteers.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

The Nonprofit & NGO Guide to Using Reddit

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A new resource from me: The Nonprofit & NGO Guide to Using Reddit

As of July 2019, Reddit ranked as the No. 5 most visited web site in the USA and No. 13 in the world. Reddit is a community of communities, and its communities are called subreddits. Statistics suggest that 74% of Reddit users are male. Users tend to be significantly younger than other online communities like Facebook with less than 1% of users being 65 or over.

If you want to reach a younger demographic regarding your volunteering opportunities, your awareness messages, your data that shows your value to the community and more, you need to build posts to Reddit into your marketing strategy, no matter what your nonprofit’s size or focus. This resource tells you how to do it. It covers how to find subreddits to join or read regularly based on your nonprofit or NGO mission, how to choose a user name, how to guide staff who may already have a Reddit user account, whether or not you should create your own subreddit and more.

And note: manging your Reddit presence and monitoring Reddit for discussions about your organization or program is a terrific role for an online volunteer!

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

You do not need to meet via video conference with every potential volunteer

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Most virtual volunteering assignments are text-based or designed-based: translating text from one language to another, transcribing podcasts, captioning videos, managing an online discussion group, designing a database, designing a graphic, and on and on. And one of the reasons I have really loved virtual volunteering is that, when it’s also limited to text-based communications with volunteers, potential volunteers can’t be judged regarding how they look or sound. Instead, volunteers in virtual volunteering, at least until recently, are judged by the quality of the character they show through their words and work. I don’t like to think of myself as prejudiced, but I have often wondered if I have been reluctant to involve a volunteer onsite because of unconscious bias on my part upon meeting a volunteer candidate face-to-face.

Virtual volunteering encounters in previous years have hidden the weight, ethnicity, hair color, age, accents, and other physical traits of online volunteers from the person onboarding that volunteer, and vice versa. But now, video conferencing is all the rage, and many programs are requiring that volunteer applicants participate in a live online meeting before they can volunteer online. As Susan Ellis and I note in our book, The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook:

Today’s preference to actually see and hear each other online is a double-edged sword: it can make electronic communication more personal and personable, but it can also inject offline prejudices evoked by how someone looks.

As a result of this rush to online video, are online volunteering candidates being turned away from programs because of possible but unacknowledged biases on the part of the manager of volunteers or whoever is initially screening applicants?

Are people that want to volunteer online hesitating to apply because they do not like how they look on video, don’t feel confident regarding their speaking voice or presentation skills, or are uncomfortable with welcoming someone “into” their home, even virtually?

Do people that would be interested in volunteering with you online on a text-based assignment decide not to apply because their Internet access isn’t fast enough for live video conferencing?

Are there people that would be interested in volunteering with you online that aren’t in your same time zone or who work or have home care duties that prevent them from being available at all the times you want to have a live video chat?

Think carefully before you make a meeting by video with potential volunteers mandatory. Is such a video meeting really necessary for the assignment the volunteer will do? Absolutely, certain tasks and roles require you to know if the volunteer is well-spoken, understands how to present themselves in a reputable, credible, clear manner, etc. But if it’s not required, per the role the volunteer is applying for, then consider how to balance your need for something personal with the volunteer’s desire for privacy. Consider how freeing it can be for a volunteer to be judged by the excellent web site they build for you rather than the physical disability people see immediately upon meeting them (not that people with disabilities EVER want to hide!). Consider how good it can feel for a person who is uncomfortable with his or her weight to be valued because of the excellent moderation skills and dynamic personality they show on your online community (again, not that any person, regardless of their weight, should EVER want to hide!).

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For a lot more about screening and orienting online volunteers, as well as designing tasks, providing support for volunteers using online tools, evaluating virtual volunteering, designing an online mentoring program and much more, check out The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, available for purchase as a traditional print book or as a digital book. The book is an oh-so-much-cheaper way to get intense consulting regarding every aspect virtual volunteering, including more high-impact digital engagement schemes, than to hire me. You will not find a more detailed guide anywhere for working with online volunteers and using the Internet to support and involve all volunteers. It’s available both as a traditional paperback and as an online book. I also think it would be a great resource for anyone doing research regarding virtual volunteering as well.

Also see:

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

21 simple things to do while your programs are on hold during COVID-19 quarantines

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WIth movement limited, public gatherings banned and so many people on home quarantine, many nonprofits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), charities, government programs and other programs focused on helping or enhancing our communities or the environment are on hold. Some offices are closed entirely.

But there are LOTS of simple ways to use this “down” time that will benefit your program and make your program even stronger when physical distancing is no longer required. Many of these activities will help in fundraising efforts later.

Here are 21 ideas. Please add more in the comments:

  1. Make a list of your city, county, regional, state and national elected representatives and their contact info, if you don’t have it handy already. Going forward, you are going to always email these people about public events when your program starts having them again, and you are going to better advocate for your programs and all nonprofits, NGOs and charities as a result. An online volunteer could help you compile this info if you don’t have time.
  2. Make a list of all the off-site places your organization has held events, including meetings, classes and workshops, in the last few years. Put this list on a GoogleDoc or other shared space and ask staff and volunteers to comment on them in terms of what they liked about them, what they didn’t, etc. As a result, you have a robust database of event and meeting sites for the future.
  3. Make an archive of data you have always wanted to have handy: a list of every Executive Director your organization has ever had, or a list of every board member that has ever served, a list of every winner of a Volunteer-of-the-Year award you have given, a list of every major grant your program has ever had, etc. You can use past versions of your web site archived at the Internet Wayback Machine to access past info to the late 1990s (or ask a volunteer to do it). Such archives are great resources for institutional memory, to renew old contacts, to show your credibility, etc.
  4. Look over old versions of your web site at the Internet Wayback Machine and think about pages and resources your program has gotten rid of over the years that might need to be brought back and updated. This is a project multiple people can work on, including online volunteers.
  5. Find out the most-visited page on your web site, other than your home page. And what’s the second most-visited page? The third? What pages aren’t visited much, but should be? What can you do to make sure under-visited pages get noticed? Or should some pages be deleted per lack of interest, because they are so outdated, etc.? Compile this info and work with your web master or a volunteer to improve your site.
  6. Are your policies and procedures up-to-date regarding confidentiality, safety and sexual harassment, including in terms of online activities? Research the policies of similar programs (most will be happy to share them with you if they aren’t online already). Online volunteers can help with research.
  7. Define or revisit your organization or program’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and their answers. Documenting this helps new employees and volunteers and helps guide our web site design and communications strategies. The best person to define your program’s FAQs is the person who answers the phone and your main email account the most. Ask that person the top 10 – 20 reasons people call or stop by your organization or email your organization. Also ask this person to whom he or she transfers the most calls, and then talk to that person/persons as well, asking him/her/them what the top 10 reasons are that people call or email them.
  8. Do you have all of the information you should have on your web site for potential volunteers and for current volunteers? This is a great time to get your policies and procedures uploaded, an electronic version of your volunteer application posted (a volunteer can help you), photos of volunteers in action on the site, etc.
  9. Research Facebook groups and Reddit communities (subreddits) focused on your geographic area and think about how you could better leverage them in the future to promote your events, share new volunteering opportunities, share any messages meant to influence the public about an issue, etc.
  10. Create an online survey, or more than one: a survey to find out about the level of satisfaction of current volunteers (before lockdowns began) and where things can be improved, a survey of event attendees about what they would like to see in the future offered by your organization, etc.
  11. Create an online discussion group for your current volunteers. You can use GoogleGroups or https://groups.io/ for free. If you already have such an online discussion group, create a question or discussion of the week: How could our web site be better to represent what volunteers do at our organization? What’s the most challenging thing you’ve faced as a volunteer and how did you address that challenge? What’s a skill or talent you have that most people don’t know you have? Share a photo of you “in action” as a volunteer.
  12. Ask volunteers and clients to take a video of themselves on their smartphones or computers, something under one-minute, saying what your program has meant to them, why they think it’s valuable, etc. Tell them you will be using clips from these videos for a compilation video you will post on YouTube. Once you get enough footage, recruit a volunteer to knit these together, adding a title page, fade ins and outs, music, etc.
  13. Get your Twitter lists in order.
  14. Do you have raw footage of videos of events or training that aren’t shared with the public – but you wish you could do something with them? You could recruit volunteers to do things with such: make a one-minute or three-minute video with copyright-free music that offers program highlights, or to edit a video down to something that could be shared with the public.
  15. Add robust descriptions to your YouTube videos: name of the video, a summary of what it is, the full name of your organization, names of people featured in the video, a web address for more information, keywords/tags, etc. This will vastly improve the findability of these videos.
  16. Ask volunteers to caption your videos on YouTube so that people with hearing impairments and people who are in an environment where they cannot listen to them can experience them (YouTube will caption these automatically and then a volunteer can fix them).
  17. Ask volunteers to transcribe your program podcasts so people can read them (not everyone wants to listen to them).
  18. Ask volunteers to add alt text on all of your photos and graphics on your web site, making the site more accessible for people with sight impairments.
  19. Get rid of all “read more” and “click here” links on a web site, replacing them with descriptive links, so that the web site is more accessible for people with disabilities (you can ask a volunteer to do it if you don’t have time).
  20. Add appropriate titles in the title HTML for every page on your web site. This will improve Search Engine Optimization, improve accessibility for people with sight impairments, and means when someone types the URL (web address) of a web page into something like Quora, the correct title of the page will automatically show up.
  21. Take a deep dive into expanding virtual volunteering, exploring how to use the Internet to support ALL of your volunteers, including your traditional, onsite volunteers, is via The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, which I wrote with Susan Ellis. It is the most comprehensive, detailed resource available regarding virtual volunteering, and a copy of my book is far cheaper than hiring me to do a workshop!

And a reminder that there has never been a better time for your organization to launch immediate activities and roles for online volunteers. How they could help you with the aforementioned activities should be obvious. Here are even more ideas, from my last blog.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

Your favorite non-English resources re: volunteerism or nonprofits?

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I asked this back in 2011, but it’s time to ask it again:

I would like to know YOUR favorite online resources regarding volunteerism / volunteers (especially the support and management of such), nonprofits or NGOs (non-governmental organizations), including Tweeters, in languages OTHER than English.

Spanish, French or German are most desired, but any language – Arabic, Persian Farsi / Dari / Tajik /, Hindi, whatever – would be welcomed.

In short, I’m looking for the Spanish, French, German, Arabic and other non-USA, non-English-language versions of Energize, Inc., of VolunteerMatch, of resources for those that manage volunteers like what I have on my web site, etc.

Please send the name of the resource, the URL of the resource, and a summary of what the resource is – does it focus on volunteer management? On nonprofits / NGOs / charities using the Internet? Or helping organizations recruit volunteers? Or fundraising / resource mobilization? Or any aspect of management? Is it a web site? A database? A Twitter feed?

I have some of these resources already, but I would like to have more. Plus, mine need updating:

I will share what I’ve compiled already and what’s submitted – and is what I’m looking for – on my web site, and announce the page here on my blog, as well as my Twitter feed and my Facebook page.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.

Factors for Success for a Neighborhood or Town-Based Online Community

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Back in the early 1990s, before the World Wide Web began dominating the Internet landscape, there were different platforms that various individuals, groups and communities were using to share resources, have discussions, etc., and some city governments, like Cupertino and San Jose in California, were quick to try to harness such to create more transparency regarding information and decision-making with their constituencies.

Now, 25 years later, city and county governments in particular avoid online engagement. They will post information to agency Web sites but rarely offer a way to comment or discuss such online. A municipality may have a Facebook page for city government, they may have individual Facebook pages for different departments (parks and recreation, health department, etc.), and they may have a Twitter account or two – but citizens are actively discouraged from using the comments on Facebook or replies on Twitter to ask questions, report an issue, express an opinion, etc., and government employees, even volunteer members of government advisory boards, committees & decision-making commissions, are discouraged from interacting with anyone on a public online forum (some go so far as to encourage interactions via email as well).

In April of 2014, Ashley Roth, a resident of Forest Grove, Oregon, population 24,000+, started a moderated Facebook group for the community. She is neither an employee with a government agency nor an office-holder in the city, and she has no affiliation with any newspaper, nonprofit or civic group. Her vision for this online community was similar to those early regionally-based online community efforts back in the 1990s: to create an online discussion space, “a watering hole of sorts for the community, a bulletin board, a place to share events and get involved with volunteering and with the city in an uplifting manner. To positively impact your immediate surroundings and to encourage others to do so, leading by example with what you would like to see from everyone else.”

I’m profiling her Forest Grove Facebook Community here in my blog because I think it’s a great example of the kind of online community those Silicon Valley government leaders envisioned back in the 1990s, and I think the way Ashley administers the group provides a terrific model for any municipality that might dare to buck the current fear-based approach to social media and decide to use it, instead, to engage with their constituency.

What’s also remarkable about Ashley and this group is that Ashley has no formal training regarding meeting facilitation or online community management – yet, her group and moderation style are, in my opinion, a model for others. I’m on or have been on more online communities than I can count, starting back in the 1990s with USENET – my perspective is from more than two decades of experience.

I interviewed Ashley in April 2019 via email for this blog. In the interest of transparency, please note that I am one of the volunteer moderators of this community.

Ashley noted in our interview, “When I first started FGC, I only anticipated reaching roughly 500 members. Little did I know that 500 would more than quadruple in the first two years.” In fact, as of the date of this blog post, there are almost 8000 members of the community. The group averages anywhere from 15 to 40 posts a day – and comments in one day can be just a few dozen to hundreds.

The Forest Grove Facebook community’s region is defined as all of Washington County west of Hillsboro, including the rural communities of Cornelius, Gaston, Gales Creek, Banks and Timber. The group is moderated, but neither posts nor comments are reviewed before they are published – posts and comments are removed only if a moderator notices a violation or such are reported by a community member. The rules for the community are posted on the “about” section of the community, and set the tone for what the community should feel like as well as detail appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Reminders about the rules are posted to the community regularly:

Welcome to the Forest Grove Community page. This page was created by citizens of FG and is not affiliated with the City of FG or its employees. The admins and mods are all volunteers and help to run this page out of the kindness of their hearts :-). Our goal is to keep the community informed on events, history, local meetings and happenings in our town, along with healthy and constructive conversations between all of us. It is always best to lead with respect, as these are your friends, neighbors, teachers, gas attendants, waitresses and business owners. Let’s be exceptionally helpful, we can make this world what we would like to be if we lead by the example we would like to see.

There are rules implemented to make everyone’s life here easier, they are as follows:

  1. No spamming FGC with multi-level marketing posts or click bait. We DO have a weekly Friday post where you can add your MLM business.
  2. Slandering a specific person or small local business is highly frowned upon and can/will result in a muting or a ban. We understand rough days but follow protocol with the person/business first, then go ahead and vent.
  3. Small businesses in our area, feel free to post once per day if it applies to you. Local farms included. While big box stores are fine to share, let’s keep them to a minimum of one per week.
  4. Please refrain from publicly shaming people unless you have filed a police report and are actively searching for the vehicle/person.
  5. Politics are fine if they are local to our area. If you have a political discussion you would like to have with the group that is not local to our area, find an admin and run your idea by them first.
  6. Make it a goal to positively impact your community online, and in person.
  7. PLEASE feel free to share history, stories, photos, events in town, and any other information that may be beneficial to the community.
  8. Look at the list of admins, find one you are comfortable with, when it comes time to tag an admin, use your tagging power if you think a post should be examined.
  9. PM your admin of choice if you are iffy on what it is your posting, they can reassure you if it is appropriate for the page or not.
  10. Garage sales are totally fine to post, but personal sales (like classified ads) are not. If you have something for free you are giving away to a family in need, those are typically okay to post as well.
  11. Freedom of speech does not apply to facebook groups, If you want to freak out about free speech and censorship this can and will result in an immediate ban. Private FB groups do not have to cater to your opinions on how the group should be run. This does not make anyone a communist, you were invited into our living room and if you start breaking stuff you don’t get to stay.
  12. Try to keep the content FG related or related to our general area (Gaston, Cornelius, Banks, Timber, Gales Creek, Vernonia, Cherry Grove, Manning, Buxton, West Hillsboro, Dilley, Laurel) Thanks all! ~FGC Admins

People are added to the community by requesting to join through the Facebook function for such and then answering three questions:

  • Do you currently live in FG/Banks/Gaston/Gales Creek/Cornelius/Timber/Vernonia? What is your zip code?
  • Are you capable of maintaining civil discourse even in heated discussions?
  • Do you agree to check out the “about” section upon joining and agree to the rules posted?

Before approving a member, Ashley can see their answers to these questions as well as the name they use on Facebook, how many friends they have, how many groups they are a part of, when they joined Facebook, and any information they have chosen to share in their profile, such as where they live, where they work, where they went to school, etc. If they haven’t made their posts private, Ashley – and anyone else, for that matter – can see those too. Requests for membership are rejected if the person doesn’t answer the questions, joined Facebook only recently, has no obvious ties to the community, or has a page filled with especially volatile messages, such as tirades against various religions or ethnic groups, insults against ex spouses or ex employers, promotion of violence, etc.

“Profiles with no pictures, no friends, brand new profiles, and covered with troll pictures (yes this is a thing) are not accepted. I have to find at least 1-2 things on your personal profile or by your answers that ties you to our area. If you aren’t very clear, you don’t get to join.”

One of the keys to the community’s success is that Ashley adds new members slowly – just a few each day. “I try my best not to overload the community with new members, because let’s face it, not everyone interacts the same way, and if you add 100 people at a time, all at once, you’re going to have problems immediately.”

Ashley doesn’t manage the community alone: she has anywhere from 4 to 12 volunteer administrators and moderators at any given time. Deleting and banning members is still left entirely to Ashley, but the other resident volunteers help introduce topics, review posts and comments that have been reported by community members for review, delete inappropriate content and remind users of the group’s rules.

Moderators have also begun tagging posts so that certain posts can be more easily found in using the Facebook search function. Tags include:

#event

#government

#police

#volunteer

#fundraise

Ashley identifies and reaches out to potential moderators based on behavior she sees on the community.

“I look for people who are passionate about specific things. Whether it be animals or small businesses, local politics or are really good with laws. I find one trait that stands out above the rest and have them kind of make their presence in that area. I appreciate someone that can use their presence on a post to turn the post from a seemingly negative, into a positive as well. That is very hard to do, but once you get it down, it’s an amazing tool to have in your back pocket.”

The community has helped with recruiting volunteers for various agencies, such as a local homeless shelter, gathering items for a school or art project, rehoming dogs and cats, finding lost pets, educating each other about scams, coordinating ride shares, finding various resources and turning out a large audience for various events. Recently, a woman looking to borrow a sewing machine for a project ended up getting an old but useable machine donated to her. The kindness of someone in line at a grocery store, in a parking lot, or at any customer service situation is a frequent subject. There is a monthly photo contest to choose a new cover photo for the community and a regular Thursday thread for complaints on any subject. Ashley sometimes issues challenges to the community, such as describing their day in meme-form. One of the most memorable threads on the community was a debate about whether or not heavy cream and heavy whipping cream were the same thing, a debate still joked about among long-time community members.

A particularly satisfying moment for Ashley was at a forum for candidates running for the local city council. The organizer asked attendees to raise their hands regarding how they had heard about the event. Just a few hands went up regarding NextDoor. A few more went up regarding the local newspaper. More than half the room raised their hand when Facebook was mentioned – and most were referring to posts on the Forest Grove Community. At least two of the candidates mentioned the group specifically in their remarks.

“What a confidence booster it has been to know roughly 7,000+ of our community members have such a massive amount of trust in me, in what I’m capable of doing, what I bring to the table, and how well I maintain a healthy platform for civilized discussion. Of course, those rewards are typically met with just as much opposition, but I tend to side with light heartedness, it has taken me much farther than misery ever has :-)”

Even with the community continuing to grow and being relied on by so many residents for their information about events in the city, no public officials or only a few city employees will post to the group – and most such posts are in response to a specific incident that is leading to a lot of online speculation.  

“The presence of a city official on the community is rare, but it is huge. It helps us as admins to have someone with clear answers to come forward – their official answer shuts up the pitchfork wavers. This is especially true if the community needs an answer that no one else else can seem to find.”

Since city officials and most nonprofits and civic groups are reluctant to use the community, some volunteer moderators make a particular effort to share official news they see on the city and county government’s official Facebook pages, on the pages of local libraries, civic groups, community centers, churches, youth groups, etc. – far more resident volunteers share this information on the community than actual government or nonprofit employees. But since no one has a mandate to share this essential, public information on the community, many events and resources are overlooked.

Moderators delete posts that are only meant to insult (She’s stupid!) or that encourage violence or other criminal behavior (I think you should shoot that rooster that’s waking you up!). Criticisms of businesses are allowed but only if the person first talked to the business in question and tried to get a resolution, and only if the complaint is fact-based, with dates and a description of what happened, rather than out-and-out-opinions about what happened. Posts that show police work in progress in real time – like police with lights flashing outside of a residence – are also not allowed. Political news is allowed – announcements of legislators having a town hall, dates of a public hearing on a local issue, encouragement to vote, links to position papers about upcoming legislation, summaries of what happened at a city council meeting, etc. – but political discussions and debates remain difficult to manage and comments for such often get turned off, or even entirely deleted, when insults, accusations without sources cited and misinformation starts flying.

The busiest days on the community are probably when it snows and the group is flooded with questions and reports about road conditions and school closures.

“I was pleasantly surprised to see that I spend only an average of 1.7 hours on Facebook every day. An average no drama day I search for events to share, or a location/local business to highlight while I’m out running errands for the day.”

But what about a day when an argument breaks out about a new housing development or the closure of a beloved, or controversial, restaurant? “A high drama day, causes massive anxiety and underarm sweat, and I can stare at the page every ten or so minutes for the majority of the day.”

“I check the community page as I would a newspaper every morning, except now, everyone is their very own columnist, and some of them flunked out of basic English long ago and didn’t seem to learn about basic etiquette. You have to constantly add the content you want to see or you end up fighting battles against keyboard warriors all day and night. I think it’s important for moderators to be consistent, to be honest, to be fair, to be transparent about decisions and rules, and to show up. “

But it’s not always easy.

“There are new people added every day. These new people don’t understand the history of the page or why it is the way it is, so they come in and often will beat a dead horse, write angry messages, and belittle other people. Half the time they come around after a little one on one convo with me. The other half of the time I’m given a middle finger emoji and a threat of violence. That’s a reflection of them, not me. We go our separate ways or find a way to work together. Most members understand why it is all unicorns and rainbows, but there is a specific demographic of people that will never be okay with this way of thinking.”

“Every once in a while we have ‘rage quit the page’ posts, where a person feels so personally offended by having their commenting turned off on their post, or by being put in their place by someone sharing facts against their opinion. They make a list to bash the entire page, the admins, and the people of the town before leaving, after the bashing bandwagon shows up to play. The funny thing is, they tend to want to come back a month or two later. The irony of rage quitting is equivalent to just having a bad day and freaking out on anyone within earshot willing to listen. We move on pretty quickly and hope the domino effect doesn’t take place. Once one person starts, it tends to go haywire for a little while. “

“If you come in guns blazing and are VERY set in your ways and ideas, and won’t hear what anyone else has to say? Those are the most inappropriate for the community page. If your personal biases and what you stand for can be presented in a way where there is wiggle room for conversation, then, and only then is it appropriate for the community page. See also: politics, parenting, schools, restaurant blunders.“

And how does she try to calm someone down online?

“95% of it is just throwing a compliment at the most angry person on the post. They tend to either hush up or calm down. 🙂 “

Moderators will end commenting on threads if the thread turns into speculation or overly-negative commentary, or when the person who started the thread with a question has had that question answered.

There are many online communities set up for people working in a particular profession or people who have a particular hobby, but online communities set up for neighbors in a community can have a much more personal quality – for better or for worse. I asked Ashley why she thought people can get so emotional on or regarding this particularly online community:

“Every post hits home cause it is our home! Community pages are emotional because it is personal. Every change, every tree cut down, every new establishment and closing establishment. We feel it cause we ARE it. As much as I would love to have everyone on the same page emotionally, I certainly wouldn’t try to fill the ocean with a paper cup.”

It’s that personal nature of the community that can make moderation most difficult: people know each other, their spouses, their children and their extended families offline, face-to-face. They will encounter each other at school functions and city events. They may work together. They may be neighbors. That means a heated online argument isn’t something abstract: it’s with a real person in your actual, physical community. This can be particularly taxing for the moderators – especially the founder:

“I have had death threats, I have been hacked and had to change my phone number, email address and even my Facebook profile for a bit to ‘hide’ from people who hated that I took their ‘rights away’ from them because I have removed them from the group for violating our rules. And they stay off until they calm down and apologize and want to join the group again, of course, I am a sucker for second chances. A blessing and a curse. The ONLY thing that prompts threats are people assuming I am taking their basic rights away, freedom of speech, in particular. The threats can be unnerving. To say I am fearful is not true, but to say I am very careful is. To be a great admin, you must take shape, stance, and emotions similar to a robot :-)“

Ashley makes a screen capture of every post, comment or direct message to her, on Facebook or via another platform, that is especially insulting or is threatening, in case a situation with someone escalates to the point of needing a legal intervention which, so far, has not been necessary. Ashley has also taken breaks from moderating for weeks, even months at a time.

“Being a leader on a small town community page comes with much more heartache I can’t even begin to explain to you, but alas, the good is worth it in the end. I also had no idea that you CAN help people change their way of thinking, and to encourage mature conversation, and then watch it executed out of someone you never in a million years thought would be able to calm down and make sense. That was all just wishful thinking that has become reality, for the most part.“

Other, rival Facebook communities for the city have been attempted by those that do not like that the Forest Grove Community is strictly moderated. Two have survived – one with about 1700 members and about eight posts a day, another with less than 200 members. A group that is supposed to be just about “what’s happening” will go weeks with no posts at all. For whatever reason, the Forest Grove Community has not only lasted, but continued to grow.  

Ashley won’t be the moderator forever – but also hasn’t been able to find an agency or organization willing to assume responsibility for the group when she wants to step away. No matter who is in charge of the group, whether someone entirely on their own or someone representing a program or agency, that person will change the group with his or her own interpretation of the community’s mission and rules. It’s natural for online communities to change, evolve, splinter or even die off. But without a strong, community focused newspaper and/or local radio station, it’s hard to say what would keep so many residents informed and engaged to discuss local issues.

What is Ashley’s advice for other moderators of such regionally-based online communities, regardless of the platform used?

“Have a clear reason what the community is for and state it, repeatedly. Have a clear purpose for every message. Have facts to back up comments. Have patience to deal with folks from all walks of life and with a variety of communication levels. It’s all about what you say and how you say it that generates responses. I could piss everyone off in the same sentence as picking everyone up in the group, but they WILL remember the negative thing I said 10 times more than the positives. To put yourself out there, you have to be ready to do so. Remember that no one has the same heart as you. No one has the same interests, ideas, or opinions as you do. No one is superior or inferior to you. We all live here together. Sometimes shifting our own thinking is key to being an all inclusive community.

And don’t push yourself farther than your mental health can handle. ♥️”

Are you interested in starting an online community for a neighborhood, town, city, county, school, or other small, defined region, one that’s meant to promote civility, promote civil society and build understanding? Please see this resource to help you.

Also see:

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into developing material, researching information, preparing articles, updating pages, etc., here is how you can help.