Tag Archives: service

Milestone: more than 100 virtual volunteering research articles

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As of October 2020, a milestone has been reached regarding virtual volunteering: I’ve found more than 100 research articles, dating back to 1997 and most with a university association, related to virtual volunteering. These are all listed here at the Virtual Volunteering Wiki.

I started tracking published research regarding virtual volunteering – using the internet to engage and support volunteers – when I directed the Virtual Volunteering Project at the University of Texas at Austin. I began heading the project in December 1996 and within several months of looking, I not only had found about 100 programs, most at nonprofits, a few at schools, that were involving online volunteers, I also realized that the practice was at least a couple of decades old, first starting at the Project Gutenberg, a volunteer effort that began in 1971 to digitize, archive and distribute the full texts of public domain books, such as works by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Mark Twain. But what I had trouble finding was academic research on the subject. I had found a fair amount by the time The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook was published, but even so, it seemed still to be rather on the lean side for a practice that was so well-established.

I had no funding to research and write The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, and I’ve had no funding to continue maintaining the Virtual Volunteering Wiki, which tracks news and research regarding using the Internet to engage and support volunteers. But, indeed, I’ve maintained the wiki all these years, focusing on things that I deemed newsworthy and, especially, academic research. When I realized that there are now more than 100 research articles, dating back to 1997 and most with a university association, related to virtual volunteering, I felt it was worth celebrating. And this is just the English-language material: I bet there is a fair amount in Spanish, given Spain’s leadership in virtual volunteering for a couple of decades now.

Note that sometimes research articles do not call the unpaid contributors or unpaid virtual team members “volunteers.” For instance, any research paper on Wikipedia contributors could be considered research on virtual volunteering, as Wikipedia contributors – Wikipedians – are unpaid by Wikimedia for those contributions.

Also note that many of the papers make the mistake of talking about virtual volunteering as new, ignoring or overlooking its more than three-decade history. When I read that this is a “new” practice in an academic paper recently published, especially a thesis or dissertation, it makes it very hard for me to take the rest of the research seriously. I wish more university professors would catch that inaccurate point of view early on in a PhD student’s exploration of the subject.

It’s so wonderful to see that virtual volunteering now has a rich research history to go along with its rich history of practice, and I love reading perspectives about virtual volunteering by people who ARE NOT ME. Look, it’s been fun to be the world’s expert regarding virtual volunteering, but I’m so hungry to read perspectives by other people, particularly regarding what works best in supporting online volunteers, particularly different demographics of such volunteers – is it different to involve teen online volunteers in India versus tech-savy senior volunteers in Germany? Is there something that works well supporting online volunteers in South Africa that is different than what’s done in Spain? Is engaging and supporting rural online volunteers different from engaging and supporting urban or suburban online volunteers, even in the same country? I’d love to see such comparative studies!

What’s not needed? Research on the motivations of people who volunteer online. Good grief, people, ENOUGH!

I would also love beyond words if a university would step forward and be willing to take over management of the Virtual Volunteering Wiki. Having university students and faculty maintaining this would make it a much more rich and valuable resource. Any takers?

Let me be frank: I’m going to eventually retire. I’ll always be interested in virtual volunteering, and I’ll be an online volunteer myself for, I hope, decades to come (in between my extensive motorcycle riding). But just as there is no one Queen or King of All Things Volunteer Management, there shouldn’t be just one person, or always the same person, keeping track of news and research regarding virtual volunteering and distilling the key points of such. It’s overdue for new leaders, and a diversity of new leaders, to emerge in this field. I stand ready to support those new leaders (or, at least, figuratively – I can’t stand as long as I used to).

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.

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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. 

Guidance on Virtual Volunteering – time tested!

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The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook: Fully Integrating Online Service Into Volunteer Involvement was published in early 2014. Now, six years later, is it still relevant? Oh, yes… I know because I’ve been testing all the principles offered in it over and over since it was published (as well as before it was published, when I was still writing it). My latest test: working with more than 150 online volunteers that participated in Knowbility’s 2019 Accessibility Internet Rally.

The book is the result of more than 20 years of research and practical experience by me, with heavy advice and observations by the book’s co-author, Susan Ellis. When we wrote the book, we wanted it to be timeless, like so many of Susan’s own books about various aspects of volunteer management. It’s not that I don’t still have things to learn about working with volunteers, online or off – I do! We all do. It’s that we believed strongly that certain principles would not change, and would be easily adapted no matter how the technology or even society evolved. These were principles that were explored in-depth at a variety of organizations when I managed the Virtual Volunteering Project at the University of Texas at Austin back in the 1990s, and they continue to be explored and tested – and proven.

For instance, I learned in the 1990s that the easier I made it for volunteers to sign up to volunteer, the larger the percentage of those volunteers that dropped out without even starting the assignment, let alone finishing it. But just putting in a simple second step that a candidate had to complete before they got to start on the assignment screened out the people who didn’t understand this was REAL volunteering and screened in the people who would take it seriously. It was true in 1998 and it’s true NOW, more than 20 years later.

I learned early on in studying virtual volunteering, a practice that’s been happening since the 1970s, and in working with online volunteers myself in the 1990s, that volunteers need to feel supported and valued or they won’t finish an assignment, or won’t finish it with the quality needed by an organization. In my role with Knowbility this time, I came on very late in the rally process, and because of that, trying to build trusting relationships with the volunteers that were already on board and get answers quickly to their questions proved quite difficult. The problems I have had with volunteers and that they had with their participation can almost all be traced back to that situation.

I learned early on, many years ago, that having expectations of volunteers in writing, online, both in role descriptions and in policies and procedures, was KEY to ensure both volunteers and managers are all on the same page as far as what’s happening and what’s needed, don’t get conflicting information, have a common place to look for guidance, etc. It greatly reduces conflict and misunderstandings, two factors which can lead to a lot of problems in volunteer engagement. Everyone isn’t going to read absolutely all of the support materials, but having it for referral is amazing in getting questions answered and conflicts resolved quickly. This lesson has been reinforced over and over over the years, including during this Knowbility event.

I’m thrilled to know my book is still relevant!

I have more than 100 hard copies of The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook in my possession and I would love for you to have one – or more! You can also order an electronic version. Yes, it’s available via Amazon, but let me be frank: I get far, far more money from the sale if you buy directly from me. Please consider doing so – buy one for yourself and for your favorite nonprofit!

Dealing with customers with diminished mental capacities

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No matter what business you are in, you encounter people with diminished mental capacities caused by dementia, a brain injury, even Schizophrenia. They may be job applicants, they may be applicants to volunteer, they may be attendees to a public event, they may have paid to be a part of a service you have offered, such as a class or a hackathon.

In thinking about customers and clients and public spaces, including online spaces, nonprofits, NGOs, charities, libraries and others need to consider how to balance the priorities of the program and the needs of other clients and customers with the rights of a person with diminished mental capacities who, just like any member of the public, has a right to attend any public events, speak with you in public, come into your lobby to make inquiries, apply to volunteer, apply for a job, comment on your blog, blog about your organization, etc. For me, the boundary is if and when the behavior of someone, for whatever reason, becomes disruptive or they violate the decorum or rules of onsite or online interactions – and that’s a boundary for EVERYONE, regardless of their mental capacities.

I’ve worked in and with nonprofits, in and with agencies focused on international humanitarian work and with people who want to work in these sectors for more than 30 years – I started when I was still at university. This kind of work regularly attracts people who say they want to be considered for work or funding, or want to participate in a program, but who are not capable of such and also have significantly diminished mental capacities.

It’s not always obvious during a first encounter, when the person attends an event and begins asking a question, or calls to set up an appointment, or writes an email asking for information about consulting fees, or even applies for a role: the person may be quite well-spoken, may have a university degree, may be well-read and may have a credible, professional background in a particular field – or seem to. But further conversations reveal the mental issues: a belief that they are freelancing for a major media outlet, a belief that they are in regular contact with heads of state, a belief that a legitimate, credible group has somehow endorsed the work this person wants to do (when, in fact, the group has NO formal affiliation with the person, and either has never heard of the person or actually wants to distance themselves from the person as much as possible), a belief that a certificate of appreciation for attending an event is actually a major, prestigious award, a belief that those they encounter are working for a secret government agency that spies on them, and on and on.

I’ve encountered such people regularly in my work, people who believe they are journalists and asking for interviews with senior staff or high-profile politicians or with celebrities participating in our organization. Or claiming to be experienced humanitarian workers. Or asserting that they have formal connections with a variety of high-profile organizations and government officials. Or claiming that they have a nonprofit or NGO, or are starting such. Or claiming to be the spokesperson for a particular indigenous community or minority group. Or just walking into a conference and then into a workshop and asking questions and joining break-out groups, despite not being registered and having no formal affiliation with any of the subject matter of the conference or workshop. When I realize that the person isn’t who they believe they are or isn’t supposed to be at the conference or event, myself or others are often deeply engaged in a conversation with them – or they are so deeply ingrained in the moment that it might cause a disruption at the event to ask them to leave.

I once attended a conference as the keynote speaker and only after arriving at the venue did I realize, along with other speakers, that the organizer herself was someone of diminished capacity who had put herself deeply into debt renting space and paying for accommodations and travel for speakers and presenters and actually had NO formal affiliation with the organization she had claimed was sponsoring the event. It was a painful experience for everyone, and I learned the importance of always confirming that someone who makes any offer to me regarding a speaking engagement, consultation or interview really is with the agency they claim to be with.

Another time, I accepted payment for career consulting from someone who, according to her résumé and LinkedIn profile, had an excellent academic background and rich professional history that would make her a good candidate for humanitarian work. After several email exchanges, she said that the CIA regularly tracks her communications and she feared I was working for the agency, among other theories. A Google search of old web sites and newspaper articles showed that she really did have the professional background she had claimed, but at some point, her career had just stopped, during a time when she claimed to have gone back to university for another degree, and there were no more listings for her after a certain date on the Internet. I ended up returning her money, wishing her well, saying that I thought it was best we no longer have communications and blocking her email address so that I no longer received communications from her.

More recently, I volunteered with a local citizens’ advisory group that helps local artistic groups and artists with publicity, grant writing and networking. I encountered an elderly woman who wanted advice on proposal writing and had signed up to get assistance via this group. As we talked, I slowly realized she was someone of diminished capacity: she said she wanted to start a nonprofit, but she was vague on what its mission would be, she had no letters of endorsement from those she claimed her nonprofit would help, she has no board of directors, she couldn’t verbalize any concrete goals or steps and she seemed confused at my questions. She continually talked about how she needed office space so she could do her work – work she couldn’t really describe. She also had some unfortunate, quite racist things to say about the people she wanted to help. After some checking later with others, I found out that, indeed, decades ago, she really did have an extensive, international arts background. She definitely knows about nonprofits in general, and how to find the events this advisory group puts on. But her ideas for her nonprofit were unrealistic: she believes there’s a magical grant that will give her office space and office equipment, even though she still isn’t sure exactly what it is her nonprofit will do, and believes artists will become a part of her program, even though she doesn’t know any personally.

I am not a doctor, a counselor, a therapist, a psychologist or a psychiatrist, and I do not want to imply I am in any way. I do know that there are several health factors that can affect a person’s already-diminished mental and emotional capacity, such as age, fatigue and hearing and vision loss. There are other factors as well, such as a particularly traumatic event, grief or depression. I also know that people with mental illness can come from any racial group, any cultural tradition, any economic level or any level of intellectual capacity (they can have legitimate PhDs). While I am not in any business to help people with emotional or mental challenges, I do know that I am going to encounter people facing such challenges in my work – and during activities on my personal time as well – and I need to be prepared for such.

When I have encountered these situations onsite, my approach has been to remember that this person has a right to attend public events, speak with me in public, ask for a meeting, apply to volunteer, etc. (unless it’s a paid conference or ticketed event- just like anyone who didn’t pay to be there, they will be asked to leave and escorted out if necessary). So long as he or she isn’t profoundly disruptive, doesn’t become insulting and won’t monopolize my time or the time of others at the public event or in the public space, I’ll interact with that person, just as I would with anyone. I have ended up involving people with diminished mental capacities as online volunteers: while I knew they had challenges, per things they said on their application and some of our email interactions, I could also see their capabilities, and I was able to find tasks they could do as volunteers – they were never disruptive and one such person in particular was one of the highlights of my early days working with online volunteers.

In situations dealing with people I suspect have some diminished capacities, I sometimes need to be more explicit about setting and sticking to strict boundaries, such as the time I have available for the meeting, or noting that it’s time for someone else to ask a question and that our workshop does not allow anyone to monopolize workshop discussions. I work to be clear and consistent in what I am saying, staying respectful even as I am being blunt: “I appreciate your goals, however, I have spent 20 minutes speaking with you and now this conversation will need to end. I will walk with you to the front door and then you will have to leave, so that I may do the work I have scheduled for today.” Or “Thank you for your comments, but I’m going to have to stop you now, because other people in this workshop need to be able to speak.” I do not encourage any medical or mental health treatment to the person, but I may ask if there is a family member or someone else I can call to transport the person elsewhere, especially if that person becomes tearful or distressed or seems incapable of removing themselves from the premises. If the person has paid money to attend an event or for consultation time, or has made a financial donation, I do all I can to refund that money as immediately as possible.

If the person does become disruptive, such as refusing to stop talking during a workshop, or is trespassing, I will be more blunt. This happened at a conference in Portland, by a person who had wandered into a conference workshop I was leading. I told the person, in front of all the other workshop attendees, as the person rambled on and on, “You will have to stop talking now and you will need to leave. I will call security immediately if you do not.” The person did leave immediately.

I also make sure co-workers are aware of what is happening and make sure everything that happens is documented in some way. Sometimes, this is just an email to another organizer detailing what happened, what action I took, and suggestions for avoidance and, if that doesn’t work, for future encounters. I make sure all staff know what to do if this person attempts to purchase an event ticket, make a donation, register for an event, etc.

Psychology Today has an excellent article, “Communicating with People with Mental Illness: The Public’s Guide” that has a detailed list of strategies for communicating effectively with people with mental illness. The article was posted Oct 19, 2010. The suggestions include:

  • Be respectful to the person. When someone feels respected and heard, they are more likely to return respect and consider what you have to say.
  • If they are experiencing events like hallucinations, be aware that the hallucinations or the delusions they experience are their reality. You will not be able to talk them out of their reality. They experience the hallucinations or delusional thoughts as real and are motivated by them. Communicate that you understand that they experience those events. Do not pretend that your experience them.
  • Some people with paranoia may be frightened, so be aware that they may need more body space than you.
  • Do not assume that they are not smart and will believe anything you tell them.
  • Mental illness has nothing to do with the person’s intelligence level. Do not lie to them, as it will usually break any rapport you might want to establish.
  • Try to limit your interventions to relatively short periods of time, but realize that taking time to try to communicate effectively with the person may save you a lot of time in the long run and help someone in the process.
  • Listen to the person and try to understand what he/she is communicating. Often, if you do not turn off your communicating skills, you will be able to understand. Find out what reality-based needs you can meet.
  • If needed, set limits with the person as you would others. For example, “I only have five minutes to talk to you” or “If you scream, I will not be able to talk to you.”

When you realize you are dealing with someone online with diminished capacities, it can be much more difficult: being online may constitute a substantial part of that person’s time every day, and they may rely on online activities to feel included or important, to make their imaginary nonprofit seem legitimate, etc. It’s much easier for any person to appear credible online. Your program should know what to do if they start to suspect they are having such an interaction:

  • Tell your staff that they need to let their supervisor know if they suspect someone they are interacting with online, or someone writing about your organization online, might have mental or emotional challenges, and let staff know the rest of these guidelines (and make sure they understand them).
  • Do NOT say in any public forum or on any social media channel, or to the person, ever, that you think the person is mentally ill, emotionally challenged, etc.
  • If interactions with any person online are disruptive to your business, or you think at any point someone from law enforcement, a judicial body or the person’s family may need to see these exchanges, or you are going to have to cut off communications with this person because of their behavior, screen capture all communications that illustrate how the person is disruptive and save these for future reference.
  • If you are worried in any way about this person escalating their communications and actions to the point of being disruptive or dangerous, have a staff member search online to see if this person has caused issues for other organizations. Searching for the person’s name on Google and Duck Duck Go, as well as on YouTube, will probably be enough to reveal such, but you may need to add words to that search – just the word complaint or words that the person uses frequently in their online interactions with you can lead to the specific information you need to see that you are not the first program targeted. Screen capture any examples you find of this person behaving this way with others (and don’t be surprised to find that you aren’t the first target of this person’s fascination or ire). You may want to discreetly reach out to those earlier targeted organizations and individuals, to see how they handled being targeted by this person and if the situation died down, was resolved, etc.
  • It may be best to not respond at all to blogs they write about your program, or what they write on their own social media channels about your program – but you need to screen capture those references to your organization and your staff for future reference.
  • It may be best to stop engaging with the person – not to reply to their emails, not to reply to their online comments, etc. You need to save those communications for future reference, if needed. You may want to simply stop replying without explanation or you may want to say, “We appreciate the time you have taken to share your viewpoints about our work. We have responded as much as we think is needed and, In the interest of staying focused on our work, we are going to stop replying to your emails.”
  • It may be best to block the person from your online community, not publish the person’s comments on your blog, remove comments from the person on your Facebook page, etc. You may need to go even further and block the person entirely on social media channels so that they cannot see your posts – but know that they can simple create a new account and view your public information from that new account. Know that blocking someone entirely might escalate the person’s hostilities or anger, as they will be able to see that you have blocked them.
  • You may need to let your entire staff and all of your volunteers know about the situation, if they are seeing this person’s posts on social media, on a blog the person owns, on other organization’s blogs, etc. Be very careful in your communications with staff regarding your choice of words to describe the person. An example of how you could communicate this situation in a meeting, “Some of you have noticed that there is a person producing videos about our organization where he says that our Executive Director is engaged in illegal behavior. We are aware of these posts. We ask you to please never interact with this person online, never comment on anything this person says online, and please do not to have any conversations with anyone about this person online. If you see this person doing something online that relates to our organization, please notify such-and-such. If you are worried in any way about this situation, please notify such-and-such.”
  • Once interactions get to the point of screen captures, muting or blocking, notify at least one board member and, if it’s not that person, your nonprofit’s legal counsel, about what is happening. The likelihood of this escalating to legal action is minuscule, but you do need to cover your bases.

Hootsuite has an excellent blog about dealing with online “trolls” – people who “deliberately provoke others online. By saying inflammatory and offensive things. They live to make people upset and angry.” I think that most such people are dealing with diminished mental and emotional capacities. One section of the blog asks, “Troll or upset customer” and notes that it can be hard to tell, as “Both might appear irked, perhaps even furious or enraged.” The blog’s advice:

  • Stay calm. Look at the substance of their words. That’s usually the tell-tale.
  • Listen and think about their motivation. Do they appear frustrated, stating a seemingly authentic claim about your business, product or service?
  • Do they seek truth?
  • Or… do they sound outraged, seething and trying to incite rage in your brand or in other users?If so, you’ve got yourself a live, social media troll—an internet misfit, in the digital flesh.
  • For the un-delighted customer, listen to them. They want to be heard. If you address and resolve their issue, they’ll be satisfied and those unhappy messages will cease.
  • But not the online troll. They won’t stop until they’re forced out or get bored.
  • Trolls aren’t looking for resolution. They want to engage in battle, one that nobody can win.

To be clear, while I do think trolls are people with diminished mental and intellectual capacities, I don’t think all people with diminished mental or intellectual capacities are trolls.

The situations I have had talking with people with diminished mental capacities have not turned dangerous or litigious for me (yet), but I always have that potential in mind, however unlikely. I am also thinking about the safety of myself and others at the facility or within the organization where I am working. The importance of having other people around during onsite conversations and encounters, and having screen captures of online encounters that your board, other staff or legal advisors could reference if needed, cannot be stressed enough.

If I see the person somewhat regularly, know them by name, etc., and I perceive a progression of behaviors that I believe could lead to violence, such as yelling or crying, I will contact a family member or friend the person has identified to me to come help in the situation. I would call the police if the situation had the potential to become dangerous for anyone, including the person I’m talking with.

One thing I do NOT do is “kick the can down the road” – as in suggest to the person that the person go to another nonprofit or consultant because it is my hope that this will take the person’s attention off of me. I may recommend another organization if I think the experience might help the person understand that, for instance, they will not be able to get funding for a nonprofit they are dreaming of building, or that they are not going to get support to go to another country to do work they’ve always dreamed of.

If your nonprofit has a mission to work with people with diminished mental capacities, such as people who are experiencing dementia, I have a suggestion for a funding source: offer short courses for businesses, government offices and nonprofits in recognizing customers, clients, volunteers and staff who may have such issues. We need this training!

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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. 

No fooling: advice for volunteers

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteersMy consulting work is focused on helping nonprofits, NGOs, government programs, etc. But I monitor online sites like Quora, Reddit and YahooAnswers, as well having conversations with various people, and the result of that is that I have found many people are struggling with a whole host of issues related to their own volunteering – or attempts to volunteer.

So many corporate folks thought all potential volunteers needed was a web site to search for opportunities. But while such sites have proliferated, guidance on how to choose a volunteering assignment, the options available, things to consider before signing up, even how to complain about a volunteering experience, are severely lacking.

Because of this lack of guidance for volunteers and people that want to volunteer, I created a section on my web site focused on helping people who want to make a difference in some way, through volunteering or through a career. The pages also are meant to help people who are assigned community service by a court or by a school, not only to help them access opportunities but also to move beyond “I have to do this so I am.” Please note that the pages do have advertising – clicks on ads help me pay the costs of hosting my web site, including the blog you are reading now, and pay for Internet access. Please also note I receive no funding for the time I spend researching topics and creating materials for this blog or my web site. 

The resources also include:

Detailed information for teens that want or need to find community service or volunteering tasks.

Ways you can volunteer, no matter how young you are (a lot of folks are under 13 but really, really want to do something)

Advice for family volunteering – volunteering by families with children.

Advice for volunteering as a group / volunteering in a group and a special page of advice specifically regarding group volunteering for atheist and secular volunteers (how to find welcoming opportunities for groups of volunteers that are not religious-based/faith-based).

How to find or create volunteering opportunities to help seniors / elders / the elderly that moves well beyond the “go be nice to old people” advice on other pages. 

Advice for finding volunteer activities during the holidays (spoiler alert: start looking in as early as August – not even kidding).

Online Volunteering / Virtual Volunteering: finding volunteering tasks you can do from wherever you are in the world. While my book with Susan J. Ellis, The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, is focused on helping organizations, this page is meant to help people that want to be online volunteers.

Volunteering to help after major disasters for those that have ever wanted to help people affected by a sudden event like an earthquake, flood, tornado, hurricane, fire or human-caused event, this resource details what you need to do NOW. 

Volunteering to address a volunteer’s own mental health, designed to help a person have realistic expectations for volunteering to address his or her own loneliness, depression, anxiety, etc., and to avoid an experience that will make the volunteer feel worse instead of better.

Volunteering with organizations that help animals and wildlife. This is one of the most sought-after types of volunteering, and many people think they should pay large amounts of money to go overseas and help wildlife (and that wildlife is, in fact, being exploited and endangered by these volunteers).

Volunteering on public lands in the USA. While national parks, national forests, national monuments, federally-managed historic sites, Bureau of Land Management land, state parks, wetlands, etc. have fairly decent and easy-to-find information for potential volunteers, there’s no one page that tells people what all of their options are – I’ve tried to address that.

Using your business skills for good – volunteering your business management skills, to help people start, expand or improve small businesses / micro enterprises, to help people building businesses in high-poverty areas, and to help people entering or re-entering the workforce.

Volunteering in pursuit of a medical, veterinary or social work degree / career – volunteering that will help build your skills and give you experience applying skills to work in these fields.

Ideas for Leadership Volunteering Activities. These are more than just do-it-yourself volunteering – these are ideas to create or lead a sustainable, lasting benefit to a community, recruiting others to help and to have a leadership role as a volunteer. These can also be activities for a Capstone project, the Girl Scouts Gold Award, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (U.K.), a mitzvah project, or even scholarship consideration. This is also a resource for any person that wants to create his or her own volunteering activity.

Fund raising for a cause or organization – how to raise money for a nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO), charity or program you care about.

Crowdfunding for a personal cause: raising money to help with health care costs for a sick family member, someone in a dire financial crisis, etc. (as opposed to raising money for a nonprofit)

Donating things instead of cash or time (in-kind contributions) – do people living in poverty, or people after a disaster, really want your used shoes, your used clothes, your used car, etc.?

Creating or holding a successful community event or fund raising event – before you throw a concert or marathon or comedy show or whatever to raise money, read this.

How to make a difference internationally / globally/ in another country Without going abroad. Yes, there really are ways you can help without moving or traveling.

Ideas for Funding Your Volunteering Abroad Trip. This resource includes suggestions of ethical programs and questions to ask any program that wants your money to give you your feel-good short-term volunteering experience in another country.

Tax credits for volunteering – advice for residents of the USA.

How you can advocate for an issue important to you. If there is something you want to tell people about, to prompt them to care, even to prompt them to action, this resource is for you.

Also see my blogs to discourage people from voluntourism and the dangers of “volunteering” to help wildlife abroad.

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.

Expand national service programs in the USA?

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteersAccording to this story from National Public Radio, the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, a federal panel (USA), says it is working on answers to those questions — and is considering how the USA could implement a universal service program and whether it should be mandatory or optional. The commission is due to submit its final report in March 2020. Between now and then, the panel will hold public hearings on ideas of how to meet America’s service needs. The first such hearing is slated for Feb. 21 in Washington, D.C.

The possibilities under consideration range from boosting the stipend volunteers receive during service to awarding college credit for national service work. Another potential plan would create a Public Service Corps program, similar to the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, which could offer scholarships and special training to “students at colleges throughout the nation in exchange for a commitment to work in civil service.”

And the commission noted an option to “retain programs to forgive student loans for Americans who work in public service careers for at least a decade.”

My thoughts: initially, President Trump proposed eliminating all of the current USA national service programs – AmeriCorps, SeniorCorps, etc. – so any recommendation to actually expand national service would be DOA during this administration. Also, mandatory service is VERY expensive to implement: this new, additional workforce, even if they are entirely unpaid, must be properly screened, trained and supported in whatever volunteer role they take on, and organizations will need funding to create roles for this new volunteer workforce – where will those additional funds come from? Young people who engage in community service for several weeks will need to receive something substantial, such as a living stipend (in lieu of paid work – money they very much need), or significant breaks on tuition. Finally, Germany got rid of its mandatory service requirements a few years back – it was just way, way too expensive to maintain anymore.

Your thoughts?

Anti-volunteerism campaigns

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This week marks the 20th anniversary of the Presidents’ Summit on America’s Future in Philadelphia, a three-day event that was aimed at boosting volunteerism and community service efforts across the USA. President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, former Presidents George Bush, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and retired Gen. Colin Powell all participated. The original web sites of these campaigns are long gone, but I have screen captured them from archive.org and linked them from my web page tracking anti-volunteerism campaigns.

The summit resulted in a lot of press coverage, the launch of at least one nonprofit, and a huge boost for the Corporation for National Service, particularly AmeriCorps. But the summit also resulted in some anti-volunteerism campaigns, both on the political left and the political right.

I’ve been tracking campaigns against volunteer engagement since that time, and I’ve linked everything I’ve found from that aforementioned web page as well. These anti-volunteerism campaigns are not just in the USA: I have information about anti-volunteerism in Europe and elsewhere as well.

I track anti-volunteerism campaigns, and share what I find, for two reasons: (1) Those that promote volunteerism need to be aware of criticisms to their belief that volunteer community service is a great thing, and know how to counter such criticisms, and (2) Some of the complaints these campaigns have about volunteer engagement are absolutely legitimate, and also need to be addressed.

Actually, there is a third reason I share what I find: (3) I had someone that heads a major international organization that promotes volunteerism deny that these campaigns exist at all, particularly in Europe.

My only fear in sharing this information is that anyone would think I’m opposed to volunteer engagement! I hope that doesn’t happen…

One more thing: one of the most outspoken organizations against volunteering, which is cited on this page, is the Ayn Rand Institute. And, yet:

Yes, they are against volunteering UNLESS it’s for their organization.

Anyway… here is a long list of great reasons to involve volunteers.

Update: July 13, 2017: I strongly believe that many of these anti-volunteerism sentiments are being driven by disgruntled volunteers who feel like they are being involved at nonprofit organizations only to save money, and that if an organization had money to pay staff, they would gladly replace volunteers with such. Remember, Volunteers DO sue sometimes for back pay. In addition, unpaid interns are pushing back against not being paid, including at nonprofits and international agencies. In fact, there are even blogs that give advice to unpaid interns – volunteers – on how to sue.

National Summit on Volunteer Engagement Leadership, July 26-28, 2017

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Registration is now open for the 2017 National Summit on Volunteer Engagement Leadership, July 26 – 28, 2017 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration (MAVA) is hosting the first national conference in the USA in more than a decade for people in charge of supporting and involving volunteers. This will also be the first time in more than a decade the profession’s most well-known thought leaders, authors, and trainers will be together in one place.

The Summit will offer more than 100 workshops to increase knowledge and skills regarding the management of volunteers. There will also be plenaries and group discussions to determine how to build a new national presence for leaders of volunteer engagement, tackle the issues that affect this profession, and ultimately increase the community impact of the volunteers engaged. There will also be special sessions focusing on grant makers and other philanthropic organizations which support volunteer engagement with funding, providing a unique opportunity for funders and nonprofit leaders alike to learn more about each other’s perspectives, approaches to collaboration, and challenges.

With the budgets of so many nonprofits and community-focused government programs on the chopping block, I hope this conference will also talk about how to advocate for those programs to voters and legislators.

It’s really wonderful that someone is attempting to have a national conference for managers of volunteers – it hasn’t happened in the USA since 2005. Back in 2006, the Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA), the national association of managers of volunteers, went under, due to financial mismanagement. With it went the annual national conference, the largest event in the world focused on the people and systems needed to support and involve volunteers, and event that helped elevate conversations about volunteerism beyond people-that-work-for-free-are-so-nice. The loss of AVA and its annual conference hurt not just managers of volunteers, but all volunteerism – there was no one who was championing the people in charge of creating tasks for volunteers and supporting volunteers in those tasks, and there was no one advocating for the resources those people need to do those jobs. I believe it’s why it’s been so hard to refute claims that the best way to measure volunteer value is by giving a monetary value to service hours, and why, in this era where everything is about community engagement, managers of volunteers at nonprofits have been largely left out of the conversation.

And, as I said the last time I blogged about this conference: if someone doesn’t update the Wikipedia page for the Association for Leaders in Volunteer Engagement (ALIVE) with citations OTHER than the ALIVE web site, the page is going to get deleted. I’ve donated a LOT of time to updating volunteering-associated pages on Wikipedia – it’s time for others to step in.

20 Years Ago: The Virtual Volunteering Project

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vvlogoThe Virtual Volunteering Project officially launched 20 years ago this month. It was the first attempt by anyone, anywhere, to research online volunteer service and document what works, and what doesn’t. I directed the initiative at its launch – and now, two decades later, I’m in a mood to reflect.

The Virtual Volunteering Project was the brainchild of Steve Glikbarg and Cindy Shove, co-founders of Impact Online (what became VolunteerMatch). In fact, Glikbarg probably originally coined the phrase virtual volunteering, back in the mid or even early 1990s. In its first two years, the Virtual Volunteering Project was funded primarily with the support of the James Irvine Foundation. Additional support in this first phase of the Project came from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Morino Institute and the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation. The Charles A. Dana Center, a research institute at the University of Texas at Austin, hosted the Project for most of its life.

How did I start on the road to becoming a virtual volunteering expert? In 1995, while working at Joint Venture: Silicon Valley, the two volunteer interns I’d taken on to build web sites for all of the initiatives we were managing said they would prefer to build the sites on their own computers back on campus, rather than at our office, because their computers were better and it was more convenient for them. They would bring their work to me on disks when they were finished. What a great idea! It worked out very well – they got to work on their own schedule, from their homes, on better computers, and I got what I needed. So I offered the option of working remotely part of the time, even most of the time, to every volunteer I recruited after that at Joint Venture. The next year, Cindy contacted me about running a new virtual volunteering initiative she and Steve had just gotten funded. “What’s ‘virtual volunteering?'” I asked. “It’s what you’ve been doing with your volunteers and talking about on USENET!” she replied.

The Virtual Volunteering Project officially launched in December 1996. It was quite rough at first; the vast majority of the programs that involved volunteers donating some or all of their time online never used the phrase virtual volunteering. In fact, that’s still true today! I remember thinking in those first several weeks that most online volunteers would be 20 something men living in Silicon Valley; imagine my surprise to find out, rather quickly, that most online volunteers were women living all over the USA – and beyond! I was also stunned at how quickly I found more than 100 virtual volunteering initiatives, most of which didn’t know about each other. With the help of online and onsite volunteers myself, I researched virtual volunteering activities, created and continually updated web pages about it, and marketed what I was learning, via both traditional press releases and frequent posts to various online discussion groups. I also involved online volunteers myself – more than 300 over more than four years. As a result, I was invited to speak at a lot of conferences and was quoted in a lot of traditional press, like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

I left the Virtual Volunteering Project in Janaury 2001, to prepare for my move to Germany to work for the United Nations to run the virtual volunteering component of NetAid, which became the stand-alone Online Volunteering service. I got that UN job because of my online activities, including participation in various online communities. In subsequent UN and international work, even when the focus isn’t virtual volunteering but, say, communications, I’ve found a way to inject at least a little virtual volunteering capacity building and involvement into the work.

Now, it’s 20 years after the launch of the Virtual Volunteering Project, which is archived here. Not much has changed in terms of best practices in virtual volunteering, the practices that make virtual volunteering effective for nonprofits, NGOs, government programs, schools and more, though there’s lots of new jargon now in the mix: micro volunteering, crowdsourcing, digital volunteering, the Cloud, etc.

vvbooklittle The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, by Susan J. Ellis and myself, is our attempt to document all these best practices over the more than three decades virtual volunteering has been happening, in a comprehensive, detailed way, so that the collective knowledge can be used with the latest digital engagement initiatives to help people volunteer, advocate for causes they care about, connect with communities and make a difference. It’s a tool primarily for organizations, but there’s also information for online volunteers themselves. It’s available both in traditional print form and in digital version. Thanks to everyone who has purchased it so far! Bonus points if you can find the sci fi/fan girl references in the book…

Also see:

Early History of Nonprofits & the Internet

Al Gore Campaign Pioneered Virtual Volunteering

Lessons on effective, valuable online communities – from the 1990s

Online volunteers created a music festival in St. Louis

Updated: research regarding virtual volunteering

2017 National Summit on Volunteer Engagement Leadership

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The Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration (MAVA) is going to host the first national conference in the USA in more than a decade for people in charge of supporting and involving volunteers. The 2017 National Summit on Volunteer Engagement Leadership will be
July 26 – 28, 2017 in St. Paul, Minnesota. If you want to present at the conference (presenters are NOT paid), your proposal is due November 30, 2016. Please review the Request for Proposal Instructions before submitting a proposal.

Registration to attend the conference will open February 1, 2017.

It’s great that someone is attempting to have a national conference for managers of volunteers – it hasn’t happened in the USA since 2005. Back in 2006, the Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA), the national association of managers of volunteers, went under, due to financial mismanagement. With it went the annual national conference, the largest event in the world focused on the people and systems needed to support and involve volunteers, and event that helped elevate conversations about volunteerism beyond people-that-work-for-free-are-so-nice. The loss of AVA and its annual conference hurt not just managers of volunteers, but all volunteerism – there was no one who was championing the people in charge of creating tasks for volunteers and supporting volunteers in those tasks, and there was no one advocating for the resources those people need to do those jobs. I believe it’s why it’s been so hard to refute claims that the best way to measure volunteer value is by giving a monetary value to service hours, and why, in this era where everything is about community engagement, managers of volunteers at nonprofits have been largely left out of the conversation.

I would love to attend but, unfortunately, I don’t have the funds. If you would like to sponsor part or all of my flight or accommodation costs, please contact me ASAP at jc@coyotecommunications.com (as the deadline for presentation proposals is Nov. 30, I need ot hear from you before then!).

And on a side note: if someone doesn’t update the Wikipedia page for the Association for Leaders in Volunteer Engagement (ALIVE) with citations OTHER than the ALIVE web site, the page is going to get deleted. I’ve donated a LOT of time to updating volunteering-associated pages on Wikipedia – it’s time for others to step in.