09:25, 22 November 2010
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Forumer.com has been home for my blog since April 2005. I chose Forumer.com because I wanted my blog to be accessible to Mac users still using web browsers for OS 9, something no other blog host seemed to offer then. As someone who has a large percentage of readers and followers who do not have the latest and greatest computers, operating systems and Internet connections, accessibility is really important to me.
Sadly, Forumer.com has had several glitches recently that has made my blog unavailable for a day or two at a time, even an entire weekend. And now that I've got a rather large blog following, I can't afford any downtime.
I'm moving my blog here, to posterous.com. I'm working on a better blog URL, but for now, it's http://coyoteblog.posterous.com
The first post is already up, on how
online volunteers are essential to Wikimedia fundraising.
I'm not sure if I will be able to move all of my blog entries from there to my new blog location. Hopefully, if not, then they can continue to be stored here at Forumer.
10:32, 19 November 2010
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When a big news story or disaster strikes, the result can be hundreds, even thousands, of people contacting organizations to offer help, including potential online volunteers. It could be a natural disaster, an act of violence, or a particular issue suddenly becoming the hot item on the news.
A nonprofit organization, NGO, school, or other organization could suddenly be swamped with emails and phone calls from people who want to help in some way online.
Of course it's appropriate for your organization to encourage these spontaneous online volunteering candidates to make an emergency financial donation to the organization -- and be explicit about exactly what this money will be used for. But in addition, you should
think about ways these spontaneous online volunteering candidates could engage in other activities to benefit your organization in a crisis situation:
-
Put up a page on your web site to direct these people to specifically, thanking them for wanting to help in this time of crisis or intense attention. Outline on that page all of the ways they can help your organization both as donors and online volunteers. Direct them to other organizations if there are ways to volunteer at these organizations in some way.
-
Encourage these spontaneous online volunteering candidates to subscribe to your email newsletter, your blog, your FaceBook or MySpace account and/or your Twitter feed, to stay up-to-date on what your organization is doing to address whatever issue or circumstance is occurring.
-
Encourage them to repost your messages to their own blogs, their own status updates on online social networking sites, etc., to educate their friends and colleagues about what is happening.
-
Direct them to where to find information about the online volunteering activities you currently have available.
- Encourage them to write you if they see misinformation online about your organization and its work in this crisis situation.
- Set up a YahooGroup or GoogleGroup only for these potential online volunteers, and tell them online volunteering opportunities will be announced on this group as soon as they become available. You could use the group to brainstorm with these potential online volunteers what activities they could undertake for your organization.
Some things these spontaneous online volunteers could do regarding this crisis or immediate high-profit situation:
- Translate some of your existing material or new information into another language.
- Translate texts or blog comments coming in to your organization from another language into English, so you can read and respond to such.
- Monitor media reports and bring certain articles or information to your immediate attention.
- Monitor online communities and blogs and bring certain information, and even misinformation, to your immediate attention. (more on How to monitor online information automatically and How to deal with misinformation).
- Research what other organizations are doing that your organization might need to urgently know about, such as projects that are mapping eyewitness/on-the-ground reports of critical needs. For instance, following the Haiti Earthquake, OpenStreetMap created a crisis mapping project, mobilizing highly-skilled online volunteers to layer up-to-the-minute data, such as the location of new field hospitals and downed bridges, onto post-quake satellite imagery. This data was made freely available by for-profit companies including GeoEye and DigitalGlobe. The digital cartography — informed by everything from Tweets to eyewitness reports — helped aid workers speed food, water and medicine to where it was needed most.
- Create a smart phone application that is urgently needed. CrisisCamp mobilized hundreds of online and onsite volunteers in Washington, DC, London, England, Mountain View, California and elsewhere to build and refine a variety of tech tools needed after the Earthquake in Haiti, including a basic Creole-English dictionary for the iPhone to help aid workers.
These are not just nice things for online volunteers to do in a crisis; they are critical services. Depending on what the mission of your organization is, you might want to consider including how to deal with spontaneous online volunteering candidates in your crisis communications plans.
The above information is from the revised
Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, which will be published in 2011.
01:00, 18 November 2010
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Some demographics take to the Internet better than others. I've worked in
developing countries where it seems like every young person I encountered, no matter how poor, was texting on a cell phone or updating a status on an online social network. By contrast, here in Oregon, I regularly encounter groups who haven't updated their web page in years and individuals who tell me that my emails to them have to be printed out by their assistants -- or their husbands -- to be read.
It's the same for online discussions: some groups -- volunteers, employees of a company, people who are part of a particular profession, members of an association, people interested in a specific activity, etc. -- take to an online platform immediately, asking each other questions, making comments, sharing resources and engaging in debates. Other groups don't at all; while they may get together at a conference or onsite meeting and talk, debate and discuss non-stop, put them together online and they remain silent. They all become lurkers, reading the posts but not responding to them, and rarely, and perhaps, never, posting a question or comment.
It certainly depends on the characteristics of group members as to whether or not they take to an online discussion group. If the group is made up of teenagers, government IT professionals, political activists, 20-something students, or online game designers, the online group is probably going to be oh-so-lively. But if the group is made up of government HR managers, or UN agency administrative assistants, or other very bureaucratic folks, it's probably going to be a very quiet online site.
What keeps online community members from talking online to each other? They:
- are afraid of putting their thoughts in writing because their written words might be deemed later as inappropriate by their supervisors or co-workers.
- don't want to sound "silly" because of how they phrase their question or comment.
- worry that their grammar or spelling isn't up to par, especially if English is not their fluent language.
- are uncomfortable putting a debate into writing.
- don't see the value in asking a question, commenting on a post or debating a topic.
- don't see anything essential about participating.
Notice I don't have they don't have time as a reason. That's because I don't believe it's a valid reason for not participating in an online discussion group. The same argument was used by many bureaucrats and company employees regarding desktop computers when they were first introduced to the work place; once those computers started becoming essential to their work, once they saw the value of those machines,
they made time to use them. It's the same for an online discussion group.
There are ways to encourage members of an online discussion group to start talking online. These activities take months, not days or weeks, to get an online group more active:
- having a core group that commits to regularly posting information and regularly ask questions of each other when a new post is made, so other members start feeling more comfortable about posting themselves.
- referring to the online discussion groups in all onsite meetings and conferences, in print publications, etc.
- have an online event or focused-discussion, one with a definite start date and end date, one that can only be experienced, or can best be experienced, by logging into the group during the appointed time.
How have YOU taken a relatively silent online discussion group, especially one that is focused on professionals or volunteers, and turned it into a more lively online destination?
Let's hear your ideas and experiences here.
.
11:45, 17 November 2010
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I am so pleased to have received a VERA (Volunteer Excellence Recognition Award) from
BPEACE. "We annually search amongst our hard working member/volunteers to identify those, among so many, who deserve a particular call-out and recognition..."
I won the "Purple Heart VERA", for helping to support a gentleman in Afghanistan who wants to start a cleaning business. I "bravely delivered detailed technical advice... and urged him to stretch to meet his goals of starting a commercial cleaning business." Unfortunately, he ultimately dropped out of the program. "And that has to hurt." Yeah, it did a little, but I just turned my energies to
helping the other BPEACE advocates with their entrepreneurs and doing some other volunteering with BPEACE -- all of it online.
.
08:18, 16 November 2010
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I went to your web site. I wanted to buy something. Or I wanted to donate funds. I had my credit card info all ready to go.
But I didn't buy anything. And I didn't donate anything. Because I couldn't use your web site.
I couldn't use it because you designed your web site so that:
- I had to have a particular kind of browser -- one that I don't use.
- The text was too tiny for me to read, even with my reading glasses.
- I couldn't find what I was looking for.
- I got tired of waiting for graphics and videos and all sorts of other bells and whistles to download. before I could read the information I was looking for.
- I had to push down more than one button to make a choice -- and I can't use my hands.
- My special web reader could read it - because I'm blind, and that's what I need to surf the web
- You have to be able to hear essential information, in a podcast or a video, and without subtitles or a text version, I couldn't access that information.
Only four of those circumstances are true for me, actually. But how many are true for users of YOUR organization's web site for thousands, even millions, of people?
Online accessibility is not just for people with disabilities. Research has shown that more than two out of three technology users benefit from accessible design. Additionally, the same techniques used to enable assistive technologies often facilitate access to web sites by mobile phones and other handheld devices.
If you are a web developer, web designer, IT manager, IT policy developer, IT administrator, programmer, anyone with IT responsibilities, an IT student or a manager of any of these folks, you need to reserve your place now at the
AccessU West training conference in San Jose, Jan. 10-12.
This is a tremendous professional development opportunity for individuals, as well as a way for companies to demonstrate their commitment to usability and accessibility to customers! This is an excellent opportunity to show that you understand how to bridge an important aspect of the digital divide!
08:04, 12 November 2010
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It's the book that set the course for how I approach volunteer program management.
It's
From the Top Down: The Executive Role in Successful Volunteer Involvement, by Susan Ellis, and the third edition is now available.
In my opinion, the book is
mandatory reading by managers of volunteer programs, no matter what the context -- from an animal shelter to a fire house to a school to a women's shelter to a state park and absolutely everything in between -- as well as by executive staff to whom these managers report.
If you run a nonprofit organization, you need this book.
This book remains the strongest, most compelling argument for executive level support for volunteer involvement at any organization. Because the reality is that, no matter how great the manager of a volunteer program is, that program will NEVER reach its potential without real support at the executive level -- support as in real resources (office space, meeting space, computers, volunteer management training for staff) and real recognition (much more than a mention on the web site and in the annual report saying "... and it wouldn't have been possible without volunteers").
From the book:
"Too many volunteer involvement efforts suffer from "benign neglect." Top executives consider volunteers nice but not essential... volunteer initiatives languish from a lack of high expectations, volunteers are stopped from having substantial impact and from achieving their fullest productivity. The unfortunate fact is that more volunteers are
underutilized than are overburdened."
Some people find the title off-putting, since "bottom up" practice has been a buzz phrase for some time. Susan's book does not dispute the importance of bottom-up program development -- in fact, in many ways, this book is a call for senior level management to support bottom-up development and involvement of volunteers. Rather, its purpose is to help those who work with volunteers to be able to educate their organization's senior management to give real support to volunteers, beyond just lip service. It helps such in-house advocates to encourage senior management to look at the benefits of involving volunteers beyond "money saved in paying staff" and volunteer numbers.
It's not just a lecture book; there are practical tips to help you transform the way your entire organization -- your employees, your donors, even your volunteers themselves -- thinks about and engages with its volunteers.
10:17, 11 November 2010
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I was watching
The Daily Show last night when professional wrestler and best-selling author Mick Foley mentioned that proceeds from his new book,
Countdown to Lockdown, were going to the
Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), the largest anti-sexual assault organization in the USA.
And then he said,
"I'm also a volunteer online!"
VOLUNTEER ONLINE?!
Turns out Mick Foley is a
RAINN Online Hotline Volunteer. In a
RAINN web video, Foley says, “I cannot think of a better way to spend a few hours a week than helping someone who needs RAINN’s services.” In the video, Foley urges others – including more men - to volunteer online with RAIN: “There is a spot on our team for you."
Learn more about volunteering for RAINN's Online Hotline.
That
Daily Show moment was perfect timing for me, since I
just finished second draft of the revised
Virtual Volunteering Guidebook last week - it's is now at the editor and publisher's,
Energize, Inc., to be released early next year.
I keep saying in the book that virtual volunteering went mainstream long ago - now Mick Foley proves it!
I wonder if there are other celebrities volunteering online... David Duchovny, call me and share your story!
16:06, 10 November 2010
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Many public school districts prohibit felons from volunteering or being paid to work in a school, regardless of the nature of the offense or how long ago the conviction. Others employ a more individualized screening method, reviewing each volunteer applicant's situation individually and making decisions on a case-by-case basis.
In Grand Rapids, Michigan,
a parent is trying to change the blanket ban policy in her school district -- she is the mother of four students, and she is not allowed to volunteer at the school or even to go unescorted inside the school or speak to her children's friends at school because of her of bad checks conviction 10 years ago.
Do blanket bans really keep children safe? Research and statistics say no; what is far more effective is screening for character and attitude, appropriate and thorough training and effective supervision. You can find more about on how to keep kids and other vulnerable populations safe in resources like
Beyond Police Checks: The Definitive Volunteer & Employee Screening Guidebook by Linda Graff, available for purchase via
Energize, Inc. or
Amazon, or
Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations, a free publication of the USA National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Since low-income and minority residents are disproportionately affected by the criminal justice system, blanket policies also keep these populations out of volunteering ranks. It also means their children are denied what so many studies say keeps kids in school and helps improve student grades: parental involvement in the schools.
A school or other organization that is going to have a ban similar to the one in Grand Rapids should at least prepare an online resource or booklet for students' parents, grandparents and others who fail a criminal background check, that lists school-related service for which they remain eligible, activities they can undertake to support their child's academic goals, and places to find volunteering elsewhere.
My two cents.
09:03, 9 November 2010
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CartONG is a French NGO that provides mapping and information services to the humanitarian aid community, promoting standardisations of data between donors, NGOs and the United Nations. CartONG is currently working on something called
the NOMAD project and is seeking to hear from people regarding their experiences in mobile data collection in humanitarian efforts and post-conflict situations, to gather information to compare paper versus satellite phone/GPS-enabled PDAs.
If you have such experience, please consider filling out
the CartONG survey.
From the web site:
Satellite, mobile phones and GPS-enabled PDA’s have recently become more than just communication devices and have been piloted successfully in humanitarian operations, though few organisations have standard procedures in place and started to use it for all their data needs.
How about your organisation? Have you carried out assessments with satellite phones or GPS-enabled PDA’s? Are you interested in these technologies? Have you embedded this technology into your data analysis and reporting cycles?
Again: if you have such experience, please consider filling out
the CartONG survey.
The NOMAD project is a partnership among
CartONG,
AUVEA,
CNES (the French government space agency),
IMMAP (a nonprofit that applies appropriate information management practices and new information technologies in service to the humanitarian community, enabling them to solve pressing global humanitarian challenges),
MEDES and the
World Food Programme (WFP).
13:21, 8 November 2010
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Plan now on how to leverage
International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development, December 5, for your organization!
This isn't a day to honor only international volunteers; the
international in the title describes the
day, not the volunteer. It's a day to specifically recognize
those volunteers who contribute to economic and social development.
Such volunteers deserve their own day!
How do your organization's volunteers contribute to the economic or social development of your community? Start brainstorming now with your volunteers, employees and clients about how your organization's volunteers do any of the following:
- help improve your community,
- bring people together,
- help educate and create understanding,
- address social issues,
- improve people's economic stability,
- etc.
Make brainstorming a fun activity: introduce it as a topic on your online discussion group for volunteers, introduce it as a brown bag lunch topic, make it a blog topic, solicit ideas on
SurveyMonkey from your volunteers, employees and clients, and on and on.
Your goal is to be ready with a press release to send to your local media outlets and a message to post to your web site and blogs about how your organization's volunteers contribute to economic and/or social health in your community on December 5!
In addition, 2011 is the International 10th anniversary of International Year of Volunteers (IYV+10), and the
United Nations Volunteers programme is
leading its promotion. There is already a
IYV+10 logo for you to use in your own materials that recognize this event. In addition, 2011 is also the
European Year of Volunteering 2011. Learn more about
leveraging international days, weeks and years for your organization.
08:13, 3 November 2010
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There is a
FANTASTIC article about the realities of using online tools to mobilize people into action, using the elections in the USA yesterday compared to 2008 as an example.
This article examines why online tools played such a HUGE role in getting Democrats elected in 2008, but those same tools, those same networks, those same mailing lists, did NOT garner the same results for Democrats in 2010. As the article says, "Using social networks and online tools to mobilize people was effective only because this sense of euphoria already existed... Now that Obama's in office, he should be more concerned with creatively controlling the overall narrative rather than encouraging users to post buttons on people's Facebook walls.
I am
not trying to be political with this blog, not trying to endorse anyone or debunk anyone's political views; I'm sharing this article and blogging about it
to point out, once again, that
it takes good old-fashioned strategies for online tools, or any outreach tools, to be effective in mobilizing people into action and cultivating supporters. Regardless of your political views, use this as a learning moment, to realize the limits of Web 2.0.
This is a reality check regarding online communications and mobilizing supporters using online tools. Also see my blog about a similar article,
the revolution will not be tweeted: outsized enthusiasm for social media.
What I wish this article had focused on more was
how effective Web 2.0 tools are in promoting misinformation and negative speech, as that played a HUGE role in the elections yesterday, as well as in all political discussions in the USA (
one in five Americans, 18%, believe President Obama is a Muslim!). So I'll plug my web page,
How to Handle Online Criticism.
16:23, 1 November 2010
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Online accessibility is not just for people with disabilities. Research has shown that more than two out of three technology users benefit from accessible design. Additionally, the same techniques used to enable assistive technologies often facilitate access to web sites by mobile phones and other handheld devices.
If you are a web developer, web designer, IT manager, IT policy developer, IT administrator, programmer, anyone with IT responsibilities, an IT student or a manager of any of these folks, you need to reserve your place now at the
AccessU West training conference in San Jose, Jan. 10-12!
Some big announcements regarding the
AccessU West training conference in San Jose, Jan. 10-12!
Check out these
photos from past AccessU events. And don’t delay — sign up so you can learn from top experts and get on the cutting edge of compliant, universal design. It's something your company needs, and it's something that increases
your value to any employer!
With AccessU West's
general registration you can pick and choose from classes in three suggested tracks. Or, you can pick just one track to concentrate on:
- The Design/Development Track: Make it Accessible, for people creating content, software, web sites and multimedia. All the how-to knowledge you need to be sure that people with disabilities can use what you create and to make accessibility part of your design strategy.
- The Policy and Administration Track: Set the Direction, for administrators, managers and policy makers. Know the laws, and learn how to set up a program that works for your company and your team
- Specialized Usability Track: Make it Usable, for people creating or evaluating technology – Learn how to make sure that your websites and software are usable by people with disabilities.
This is a tremendous professional development opportunity for individuals, as well as a way for companies to demonstrate their commitment to usability and accessibility to customers! This is an excellent opportunity to show that you understand how to bridge an important aspect of the digital divide!
This event is being organized by
Knowbility.org, a nonprofit I've long been associated with and feel quite passionate about -- they are doing great work, and
AccessU West is but one example of that great work. Knowbility's mission is to ensure barrier-free IT - supporting the independence of people with disabilities by promoting the use and improving the availability of accessible information technology. Knowbility's award-winning programs and services are designed to provide universally-available, barrier-free information technology solutions that help the blind visualize the world around them, help the deaf communicate with the hearing world, and help those with mobility impairments “travel” via the Internet.
Knowbility was recently featured on
NPR’s
On the Media with Bob Garfield
Complete information about this conference:
http://www.knowbility.org/accessu-west/
PLEASE REBLOG THIS!
09:16, 27 October 2010
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I have heard many representatives of nonprofit organizations say things like:
- We need an attorney on our board.
- We need an accountant on our board.
- We need a PR person on our board.
And my response is: No, you do NOT. There are many reasons this is a BAD idea, and this article, "
Finding Pro Bono Help through Board Recruitment," details why better than I can say myself!
Yes, it is a great idea to seek pro bono help for your nonprofit or NGO! By all means! You can get volunteers who are accountants, experts in public relations, and even lawyers to help your nonprofit organizations. But there is a BIG difference in recruiting a volunteer for his or her expertise, so that he or she will provide your organization that expertise, and recruiting a volunteer to serve on your board.
Also see:
- Pro Bono / In-Kind / Donated Services for Mission-Based Organizations:
When, Why & How?
There are all sorts of professionals who want to donate their services -- web design, graphic design, human resources expertise, legal advice, editing, research, and so forth -- to mission-based organizations. And there are all sorts of nonprofits and NGOs who would like to attract such donated services. But often, there's a disconnect -- misunderstandings and miscommunications and unrealistic expectations that lead to missed opportunities and frustrating experiences. This resource, prompted by the topic coming up at the same time on a few online discussion groups I read, is designed to help both those who want to donate professional services and those who want to work with such volunteers. It's applicable to a variety of situations, not just those involving computer and Internet-related projects.
- Short-term Assignments for Tech Volunteers
There are a variety of ways for mission-based organizations to involve volunteers to help with short-term projects relating to computers and the Internet, and short-term assignments are what are sought after most by potential "tech" volunteers. But there is a disconnect: most organizations have trouble identifying such short-term projects. This is a list of short-term projects for "tech" volunteers -- assignments that might takes days, weeks or just a couple of months to complete.
- Recruiting Local Volunteers To Increase Diversity Among the Ranks
Having plenty of volunteers usually isn't enough to say a volunteering program is successful. Another indicator of success is if your volunteers represent a variety of ages, education-levels, economic levels and other demographics, or are a reflection of your local community. Most organizations don't want volunteers to be a homogeneous group; they want to reach a variety of people as volunteers (and donors and other supporters, for that matter). This resource will help you think about how to recruit for diversity, or to reach a specific demographic.
- Using Third Party Web Sites Like VolunteerMatch to Recruit Volunteers
There are lots and lots of web sites out there to help your organization recruit volunteers. You don't have to use them all, but you do need to make sure you use them correctly in order to get the maximum response to your posts.
08:22, 26 October 2010
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Don’t you want
this person, featured on this CNN blog, and
millions like him, to be able to access YOUR web site or online tool?!
Don't you want him and millions like him as a customer?
If you are a web developer, web designer, IT manager, IT policy developer, IT administrator, programmer, anyone with IT responsibilities, an IT student or a manager of any of these folks, you need to reserve your place now at the
AccessU West training conference in San Jose, Jan. 10-12!
Check out these
photos from past AccessU events. And don’t delay — sign up so you can learn from top experts and get on the cutting edge of compliant, universal design. It's something your company needs, and it's something that increases
your value to any employer!
But accessibility is not just for people with disabilities. Research has shown that more than two out of three technology users benefit from accessible design. Additionally, the same techniques used to enable assistive technologies often facilitate access to web sites by mobile phones and other handheld devices.
With AccessU West's
general registration you can pick and choose from classes in three suggested tracks. Or, you can pick just one track to concentrate on:
- The Design/Development Track: Make it Accessible, for people creating content, software, web sites and multimedia. All the how-to knowledge you need to be sure that people with disabilities can use what you create and to make accessibility part of your design strategy.
- The Policy and Administration Track: Set the Direction, for administrators, managers and policy makers. Know the laws, and learn how to set up a program that works for your company and your team
- Specialized Usability Track: Make it Usable, for people creating or evaluating technology – Learn how to make sure that your websites and software are usable by people with disabilities.
This is a tremendous professional development opportunity for individuals, as well as a way for companies to demonstrate their commitment to usability and accessibility to customers! This is an excellent opportunity to show that you understand how to bridge an important aspect of the digital divide!
This event is being organized by
Knowbility.org, a nonprofit I've long been associated with and feel quite passionate about -- they are doing great work, and
AccessU West is but one example of that great work. Knowbility's mission is to ensure barrier-free IT - supporting the independence of people with disabilities by promoting the use and improving the availability of accessible information technology. Knowbility's award-winning programs and services are designed to provide universally-available, barrier-free information technology solutions that help the blind visualize the world around them, help the deaf communicate with the hearing world, and help those with mobility impairments “travel” via the Internet.
Knowbility was recently featured on
NPR’s
On the Media with Bob Garfield
Complete information about this conference:
http://www.knowbility.org/accessu-west/
PLEASE REBLOG THIS!
09:30, 25 October 2010
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I get contacted frequently by people who have a question about communications,
virtual volunteering,
working in Afghanistan,
working for the UN, and on and on. And I get a LOT of requests for my guide to
Basic Fund-Raising for Small NGOs/Civil Society in the Developing World.
Sometimes, the work that the requester is doing -- usually in a developing country -- really gets my attention. The person is doing something especially difficult, or something that
I'm interested in professionally or personally. So in addition to answering the question, I ask, "Do you have a
blog about your work? Or have any photos online about your work?" And most of the time, the answer is "No."
Sigh.
There are people out there that want to read about your work, that want to support it in some way, that want to tell their friends and colleagues about it. But we cannot unless you
share information online about it. A
web site is great, and you absolutely need one, but there also needs to be
frequently updated information available to those who want it. Even a once-a-month email newsletter people could sign up for!
You are probably already taking photos, already writing emails to supervisors, already writing donor reports about your work. Why not excerpt some of that as a blog entry? Or a Facebook status update?
The world wants to hear from you!
09:07, 23 October 2010
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As long as the sun shines and the fish swim and the birds fly, celebrities will get into trouble with the law.
When I read a report of Mr. or Ms. Famous being arrested and then being assigned community service, I play a mental game of trying to place that person in the appropriate volunteering gig.
For those who are super talented and at least marginally well-liked, it's easy: help the person to lead a workshop for kids in acting, singing, dancing, sculpting, whatever. Have the person help sell tickets to an upcoming performance by a community theater, community choir concert, etc. Take massive amounts of photos and post them on
Flickr with complete info on the nonprofit they are helping. Show them sitting in on the volunteer orientation, and when a new volunteer says he or she doesn't have time, you say, "Look -- Mr./Ms. Famous had to go through our orientation! We make exceptions for no one!" As long as the celebrity in question is talented, known to be somewhat nice, and hasn't done something so awful that I wouldn't want it associated with any organization I care about, I can come up with at least several dozen ideas for them.
But what about the celebrities who are famous for nothing? Or are not nice? Or are not anyone you want anywhere near your clientele? Or aren't anyone you want identified with your nonprofit in any way?
What if the celebrity is, say, Paris Hilton?
Paris needs to do 200 community service hours, no kidding. Or what if its Lindsay Lohan -- who actually
is talented, but the talent is buried beneath a range of very bad behavior and denial? Or Mel Gibson, also talented but also someone who has engaged in behavior many nonprofits do NOT want associated with their organization?
Post your thoughts here. Answer any of these questions:
- If you represent a nonprofit organization, would you involve Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan or Mel Gibson as a volunteer? If so, say what your nonprofit does and what activities you would have any or all of these folks do as volunteers.
- If you represent a nonprofit that would NOT involve any of these folks because their past behavior and involving them could reflect poorly on your organization (and even conflict with the mission of your organization), what kinds of volunteering elsewhere would you recommend for them?
- If you said yes to involving Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan or Mel Gibson as a volunteer, and you started getting calls from current volunteers saying they are going to quit because they don't want to be associated with your organization or these people, or from donors who say they will never donate again, what would you say?
I have my ideas, but
I want to hear from you.
08:00, 22 October 2010
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In June 2010, I launched a new section on my web site designed for those who are
not volunteer managers and are
not professional nonprofit staff -- rather,
these new pages are for individuals, particularly young people, who want to do some good, or need community service hours, or want to fund a volunteering trip abroad, but aren't sure where to or how to get started, etc.
There are now even more resources since that launch four months ago. The newest resources:
The inspiration for these pages came from the
community service section of YahooAnswers, where the same questions about volunteering, community service and fund raising events get asked over and over again. That message board has given me a lot of insight into what young people are thinking regarding community service, as well as how they use technology (they are NOT as savvy about tech as the media and various consultants would have you think).
Other resources include:
By clicking on any of the ads on these pages, you help me raise funds to maintain my entire web site (web hosting, domain name ownership and, ofcourse, my time). Also, I'm not responsible for the advertising that appears on these pages (ads are Google's decision).
08:42, 21 October 2010
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I've added a new page to my web site:
Micro-Volunteering and Crowd-Sourcing: Not-So-New Trends in Virtual Volunteering/Online Volunteering
Back in the 1990s, I called it
byte-sized volunteering: online volunteering tasks that take just a few hours or a few days to complete, like translating some text into another language, gathering information on one topic, tagging photos with certain keywords, etc. Now, the hot-new term for this is
micro-volunteering.
Let's be clear: it's no different than offline, episodic volunteering; just as volunteers who come to a beach cleanup or participate in a Habitat for Humanity work day don't undergo a criminal background check, don't receive a long pre-service orientation, don't fill out a lengthy volunteer application form and may never volunteer with the organization again, online volunteers that participate in a micro-volunteering task may get started on their assignment just a few minutes after expressing interest.
But just as offline episodic volunteering like beach cleanups are more about building relationships, creating more awareness and cultivating more supporters than getting work done,
micro-volunteering needs to have the same goals in order to be worth doing, and that takes having established, tried-and-true volunteer management standards in place.
Micro-Volunteering and crowd-Sourcing are long-term practices -- nothing new about them -- and here are
details about making it work for your nonprofit organization/NGO/public sector org.
20:50, 20 October 2010
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I am frequently asked What is next for virtual volunteering? What will be happening 10 years from now?
As the practice is more than 30 years old, it's an intriguing question. The practice is no longer new -- it's mature and well-established. So, where will it go from here?
Here is both where I think it will go, and where I hope it will go:
- There will be less and less talk of two groups of volunteers -- online and onsite. I've been discouraging the practice of talking about two different groups of volunteers since I started advocating regarding virtual volunteering back in the 1990s, but many organizations and consultants continue to separate the two when talking about volunteers. But the boundary will not last much longer.
- More and more volunteer management trainings and books will fully integrate virtual volunteering practices into their recommendations, doing away with the need for separate virtual volunteering trainings, separate chapters, etc.
- More academic researchers and research institutions will include virtual volunteering in their studies regarding volunteer practices. A report about the state of volunteering in the USA, for instance, will include detailed information about how volunteers are using the Internet as a part of their service, and how organizations are using the Internet to support and involve volunteers.
- Being able to engage in virtual volunteering -- involving and supporting online volunteers -- will become a standard expectation of volunteer resources managers in the USA. Those volunteer resources managers and organizations that keep avoiding virtual volunteering will slowly be pushed aside by people and organizations that have long known virtual volunteering is no fad.
- Volunteer ranks will become more and more diverse at organizations throughout the USA, as the Internet allows for the involvement of a variety of different groups. No one age group or economic level will dominate most volunteer ranks, for instance.
- There will be more and more virtual teams of volunteers -- teams of online volunteers -- working on assignments together, as organizations become more savvy about creating assignments for these volunteers.
- Virtual volunteering will become much more widespread outside of the USA, with many more examples from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
- There will be much more information available online and in print about virtual volunteering in languages other than English.
- Just as different cultures approach volunteering and people management in different ways, they will put their own unique spins on virtual volunteering. What works in Bangladesh will be different than what works in Ghana, for instance.
- People will continue to come up with new jargon for old practices. For instance, the current talk of micro-volunteering is merely a re-branding of a practice that's been around since the 1980s. The cloud is just another word for cyberspace. The challenge will be to figure out when a new technology term is actually referring to something they have already been doing, versus when it's referring to something truly new.
- The fundamentals for volunteer management -- and, therefore, for virtual volunteering -- will stand. There will never not be a need for clear volunteer task descriptions, for instance. There will never not be a need to recognize the contributions of volunteers in some way. There will never not be a need to know what online volunteers are doing.
Those are my predictions. What are yours?
Post them here.
12:46, 19 October 2010
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Wikipedia is free. It has more than 12 million articles that you can access free of charge. It's a web site maintained by more than 100,000 online volunteers, who create articles and translate them into over 265 languages.
Wikipedia/Wikimedia may not call its contributors online volunteers, but that's what they are, and that makes
Wikipedia/Wikimedia the world's largest
online volunteering endeavor.
Unlike most organizations that involve volunteers, Wikipedia doesn't screen the majority of its volunteers; anyone can go in an edit just about any article, any time he or she wants to. You want to volunteer for Wikipedia, you just start editing or writing any article. That makes it
micro-volunteering, the hot new term for short-term episodic online volunteering.
But, wait -- maybe it's
not free...
The Register, or "El Reg" as its loyal readers call it, reported in January 2009 that
Wikipedia/Wikimedia had estimated that it needed just under $6m to fund its operations through June 30, the end of its fiscal 2008/2009 year.
So, Wikipedia is not free. It has expenses.
Nearly half of that ($2.7m) was for technology expenses. But, why does Wikipedia need to pay any paid staff? After all, volunteers are FREE, right? And Wikipedia doesn't get bogged down with all that traditional volunteer management stuff, like screening and ensuring quality among volunteer contributions, right, so need for any staff to do those things? No need to fund any volunteer management?
Wrong.
It takes a tremendous amount of time, effort and expertise to wrangle more than 100,000 online volunteers and all that they do on behalf of an organization -- even if Wikipedia doesn't call them volunteers, and even if most people at the organization don't consider themselves
volunteer managers.
In addition, while just to edit Wikipedia doesn't require any screening or supervision on the part of Wikipedia, Wikipedia
does have volunteers that help in the management of the site and, indeed, the organization screens and supervises those high-responsibility online volunteers -- just like
any nonprofit organization does.
No, volunteers are not free, not even so-called micro-volunteers. I've said it
before, and
before that and... well, you get the idea. And I guess I'll keep saying it until I stop hearing people say, "Volunteers are great because they're free!"
On a related note: last year, I
joined a Wikimedia task force - specifically, the
Community Health Task Force. Here are
my favorite recommendations. Note that one of them is
my own proposal regarding volunteer recognition for Wikimedia onlien volunteers.
