Short-term assignments for tech expert volunteers
04:43, 28 October 2008
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An upside of the current economic situation is that there are more people with a lot of computer and Internet expertise who have time to volunteer for short-term assignments with mission-based organizations (nonprofits, non-governmental organizations/NGOs, schools, etc.). As people who have been laid off are looking for a job, including people with tech expertise, they often are very open to undertaking special volunteering assignments with nonprofits that utilize their expertise, in order to keep their skills sharp, to further build up their CV, and to network with others. But most organizations have trouble identifying such short-term tech volunteer projects.I have a long list of one-time, short-term projects that nonprofit organizations and others can offer to tech volunteers. These short-term assignments might takes a few days, a couple of weeks or a couple of months to complete. Each have a definite start date and end date, and do not require a volunteer to make an ongoing, long-term commitment to the organization. These qualities make such volunteering opportunities exactly what so many tech expertise volunteers are looking for.
There are also many long-term, ongoing assignments for tech volunteers, ofcourse, such as web design, web site management, being on-call for tech problems, etc. But before you involve volunteers in such high-commitment endeavors, consider creating a few short-term assignments, to get used to working with tech volunteers and to help you identify the best candidates for longer-term assignments.
