Yet another volunteer week, starting Sept. 14
09:37, 26 August 2009
Post your comments using your Google, Yahoo, AIM or OpenID account.
There's yet another please-go-out-and-volunteer event in the USA, this one called Mozilla Service Week, taking place Sept. 14 - 21. Organizers are encouraging nonprofit organizations to post short-term tech-related volunteering opportunities via a special web site linking to Idealist. Volunteers do NOT have to wait until the service week to start signing up for assignments. During the service week, organizers will post stories and examples of these successes.Like other please-go-out-and-volunteer event, all the publicity will probably lead to there being far more volunteers that want to help than assignments for them to do, leading once again to many disappointed, disillusioned potential volunteers -- something we don't need. Just as I wish there would be a moratorium on new volunteer-matching web sites in the USA (and a culling of what's already out there), I'd be happy if there would be no more new please-go-out-and-volunteer events -- and, instead, there were lots of let's-help-nonprofits-have-the-resources-needed-to-involve-more-volunteers events.
That said, nonprofits should, indeed, think about leveraging this event to get some short-term tech assignments done. You do not have to be the volunteer manager at your organization to identify volunteering assignments, tech or otherwise. You do not have to be a paid staff member at an organization to identify potential volunteering assignments, tech or otherwise (though volunteers should always get approval from the organization they are helping before ever recruiting volunteers anywhere on its behalf). You could even recruit a volunteer to help you identify tech assignments at your organization, or within an individual program.
And remember that involving volunteers should never be just about getting work done; instead, it should be about inviting members of the community into your organization to see your work first hand and hoping they become advocates for your organization to their family and colleagues, about allowing members of the community to have personal investment in your organization's work, and about making real, meaningful connections with people who could become supporters beyond the service they provide the organization.
