Volunteers and Technology

What's happening with YOU re: vols & tech?

jcravens42 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:11:12 GMT

Are you volunteering now with an organization, helping them with something computer or Internet-related?

Are you volunteering now with an organization, helping them as an online volunteer, but not necessarily doing an assignment that's computer or Internet-related?

Did you just finish either kind of assignment?

Are you an organization that's involving or recently involved a volunteer helping with something computer or Internet-related?

Are you an organization that's involving or recently involved online volunteers?

Are you an organization that's using the Internet or a specific tech tool to support volunteers in some way, no matter where or how they are providing service?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, let's hear about your experience here on the Volunteers & Technology forum!

For volunteers: how did you find out about this assignment? Or did you come up with the idea yourself? How did you connect with the organization you helped/are helping? What's been good about the experience? What could be improved? What advice do you have for others?

For organizations: how did you find this volunteer, or did the volunteer help you? How did you identify the assignment for the volunteer/s? What online tools do you use to work/communicate with volunteers? What's been good about the experience? What could be improved? What advice do you have for others?

As for me: I'm currently helping my local Girl Scouts of the USA council with internal and public communications, mostly as an online volunteer. I landed the gig simply by filling out the online application. I got a call the same day and was invited to the next monthly meeting at a nearby Godfather's Pizza (food is a wonderful incentive to show up). I sat and listened, and then realized how I could best help -- by getting everyone to use the YahooGroup someone else had set up but could no longer support, by helping troop leaders use GoogleDocs, and by writing and sending out press releases about public events by the local council.

I knew I wanted to help the Girl Scouts, but I wasn't sure how; I knew I didn't want to be a troop leader. So by attending that first meeting, I got to hear about what might be needed, and choose a volunteering role myself (ofcourse, the GS had to approve me before I could get started). Email has been essential in keeping up-to-date. I really appreciated the quick turnaround between my application and the phone call from the GS (same day!). And I get lots of emails thanking me for every little thing I do -- makes me feel very wanted. There are a lot of misconceptions about joining an online group, so it's been a struggle to get everyone on board (still working on that). These troop leaders are younger than me, but they are not tech-savvy, for the most part, and they don't at all see the value of tech tools. I'll be doing a training in the coming months (I'll be interested to see how many of them have children on Facebook or MySpace, while they themselves aren't on such).

And, ofcourse, I volunteer to help with this TechSoup forum. I'm in it only for the free t-shirts. No, really, I love TechSoup and feel very, very appreciated for my contributions. I have no idea how I first got involved with TechSoup. I probably wrote them and complained about something on their web site and they said, okay, YOU fix it, or something like that. Which is a technique I've used frequently to recruit volunteers. And I stay year-after-year for the t-shirts and other swag. No, seriously...

Here are my other volunteering activities.

You?

Any current studies on volunteer management?

Sasha — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:11:26 GMT

Several years ago I read this study, on volunteer management.

Volunteer Management Capacity in America's Charities and Congregations

I wonder what kind of followup may have been done on it, other studies etc, and haven't been able to come on that information through the tried and true method of Google search...

I wonder if anyone else knows if there have been any more recent studies on the state of volunteer management in the nonprofit sector? Did they show a gain in expertese in volunteer management among nonprofits?

Thanks,

Sasha

Mozilla Service Week -- Sept 14.... Sign Up Now

pbarber@eskimo.com — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:47:12 GMT

Forwarded message:

==================

Greetings!

I'm writing to you about Mozilla Service Week, a joint project by the Mozilla Foundation and Idealist.org, which will officially take place from September 14 to September 21. What is it exactly?

Mozilla Service Week is a week-long event during which we are asking individuals to step up and make a difference by using the Web to better their community. Mozilla Service Week is based on the belief that everyone should know how to use the Internet, have easy access to it, and have a good experience when they're online. By utilizing our community's generosity and talents for writing, designing, programming, developing, and all-around technical and Internet know-how, we believe we can make the Web a better place for everyone. More at http://mozillaservice.org/

Mozilla and Idealist have been asking nonprofits to post volunteer opportunities on Idealist.org (see http://mozillaservice.org/learn_more/get_help/en_US or http://tinyurl.com/otdmt8) and starting Tuesday, August 18th, we're asking volunteers to sign up (see http://tinyurl.com/p2clan or http://www.idealist.org/if/mozservice09/en/AdvancedSearch/VolunteerOpportunity/default) and help those organizations with technical needs. During the week of September 14th, we're going to start seeing the results of the volunteer work and post stories and examples of these successes.

At this moment, 2,670 volunteer hours have been donated to all kinds nonprofits, below are a few examples - Donor Database Developer Database Design/training Computer Trainers Needed for Students with Disabilities CiviCRM administrator Web Design Help Salesforce Help Help with Joomla Branding (logo, letterhead, bookmarks, website) Videographer web design for a humanitarian development community group Volunteer Website/ Graphics Designer

We need your help finding volunteers. On Tuesday the 18th, we're asking for folks to donate their Facebook status or a simple tweet, with something like "Make your community and the web a better place, volunteer your tech expertise for Mozilla Service Week! http://bit.ly/152UBz"

A blog post on the 18th would be incredibly helpful too. If you're interested or would like more information, please let me know. You can also find more information on Mozilla Service Week here: http://mozillaservice.org/learn_more/faq/en_US.

Thanks for your time and your help! We really appreciate it.

Scott Stadum

Idealist.org

=====================================

Putnam Barber

Action Without Borders / Idealist.org

206 250-2268

Can volunteering benefit you in today's job market?

APreciousF — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:57:32 GMT

Absolutely. In today's market, where job openings are far and few inbetween, it would certainly benefit you to do some volunteer work. How so?

Skills: What better way to keep your skills sharpened or learn new ones? I can't think of a better forum to learn about new software and updated networks.

References: It looks good on your resume to be involved. Not only with your own cause, but with others as a collective. A volunteer I personally know volunteered enough hours that the company's CEO referred to her as a uncompensated full time staff member.

Purpose: We all need a sense of belonging or being needed. Pick something you feel strong about or enjoy doing.

Some people are not sure what they can do with today's job market looking so bleek. And my response is always the same: "Get involved." So, if you are seeking volunteers, share with them what specific skills they can gain from working with you, as well as the excellant job reference you will provide.

Salesforce!

goodemily — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:42:32 GMT

Hi all!

I see there's been a lot of posts about volunteer management programs, but I thought I'd make one specifically about Salesforce. I work at Goodwill in San Francisco, and we don't currently have a volunteer program, but my job is to create one. We already track our donors in Salesforce, so people are saying that I should find a way to track volunteers with it too. I've seen other organizations do this, but their Salesforce is highly customized. Ours is pretty much out of the box, and it's not clear to me at all how it could be used for volunteers. I can't see a way to track peoples' hours, which I think is crucial. Has anyone else here used Salesforce for volunteers? Or should I just use something else?

Thanks in advance!

managing the revolving door or techies

lbaxter — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:01:12 GMT

the nature of our bussiness has our volunteer techies coming in an out I am the one constant right now being a staff. How do i keep an even keel with all the info and how to's when there are always new people? any thoughts

Volunteer Management/Tracking Databases

Marinermanjp — Wed, 28 May 2003 23:10:00 GMT

I am totally fed up with the bugs and glitches and lack of flexibility in my current Volunteer database software. I would be interested in hearing from other users of various databases what they have, what their experiences are, and such. I am seriously thinking about designing my own database program.

Pro Bono Redesign

visuals4u — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:59:44 GMT

I represent a local non-profit that serves thousands by promoting economic self-sufficiency. They rely on private donations and volunteers to drive their mission so their clients can live better lives. Can someone here help them revamp their web site into a more visual and robust internet presence? They are also considering adding the following components:

- Online shopping cart

- Intranet

- Database for our donor information with login capability

- An attractive template that our other chapters can use it

- Flash landing page

I look forward to hearing from a member.

- La'Shon

www.visuals4u.com

Volunteers database in access needed please

mshalabi — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:05:56 GMT

Hello everyone,

I took on the responsibility of creating a new MS Access database for Volunteers event/hour tracking.

Here’s what I have so far:

3 tables (Personal, event, Personal_event).

The personal tables hold contact information and an “hours” field to record their hours worked. The event tables hold the event information including name, data, location, etc. The last table is a join table for the many-to-many relationship between the first two tables.

Here’s where I’m hitting the wall at. I can get form/subform to work correctly. Meaning I can’t seem to get the correct information to pop-up. My thought I somewhere in the relationship or the form-design isn’t correct.

I’ve read other posts here asking for the same thing. However no real templates were provided. The only thing that came close was VMS program but that’s way of an overkill for what we are trying to do.

If someone have an Access template 2003/2007 to track Volunteers hours for events and willing to share. Please let me know. Thanks in advance

Filemaker CRM Development

Robertsa4h — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:42:37 GMT

I'm volunteering for an organization building a FileMaker database. Records have been ported in, but it's gigo, so we're building a cleanup form to port the data into the new database structure. Both master and new tables with relationships have been built, but I'm struggling with the layout, keeping the development within the specification requests, and need a volunteer developer to finish up the project. Someone with experience could have this completed in a day or less.

Please contact me, 6465158087, Robertsa4h@yahoo.com, or Marjorie Spiegel, 2127410338 (idea09@earthlink.net) for further details.

Thanks,

Alice

Part time Office (clerical)

salbrent — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:52:50 GMT

I belong to a microbiology educational non-profit (www.scacm.org) and we need part time Office support. Duties include membership management, audioconference orders, reples to email, voicemail and faxes. Workload varies over the year and we cant find suitable staff. Ideal person should live in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. All of our volutneers are microbiologists and we need additonal support.

How do other np provide office support

Thanks

Brent

survey re: online tools to support volunteers

jcravens42 — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:16:31 GMT

In the late 1990s, I co-wrote The Virtual Volunteering Guidebook with Susan Ellis. It is a free manual to help organizations involve online volunteers, as well as to use online tools to support all volunteers. I am currently revising this Guidebook.

If you ever have been a volunteer, OR if you have worked with volunteers in *any* capacity -- side-by-side or as a manager/primary staff contact -- I invite you to complete this survey regarding the use of online tools to support volunteers, to help me in my efforts to revise this guidebook.

By volunteer, I mean someone who has provided some kind of work support without pay to a nonprofit organization, community-based group (such as a school), or government initiative focused on the community (such as a city-sponsored park cleanup).

When talking about your experience, you can talk about more than one organization. But remember that most questions relate to your experience only regarding volunteering or working with volunteers.

Please note that this survey is NOT limited to any country or region.

I plan to share the results in the next edition of the Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. I'll announce when the guidebook is released here on the TechSoup Volunteers & Tech forum, as well as via my blog and Tech4Impact (my email newsletter).

Thanks, and feel free to spread the word!

April 23 online event: working with IT volunteers

jcravens42 — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:34:19 GMT

On Thursday, April 23, I will present a free, live webinar for TechSoup on how to effectively involve volunteers in computer and Internet related tasks at your organization. The webinar will focus on ways nonprofit organizations can identify such tech-related assignments, ways support volunteers in these assignments, and, ofcourse, methods to recruit and screen such volunteers.

Nonprofit staff members can feel a sense of both awe and fear about tech volunteers, and this can lead to misunderstandings and frustrations on the part of both parties. This webinar will help nonprofit staff stay in control of tech volunteering tasks so that the finished assignment meets the nonprofits' needs and the tech volunteer has a satisfying experience.

You will hear my voice live via your computer and see a slide presentation, then you can text your questions via the webinar platform, and listen to my answers.

The webinar is at 11 a.m. Pacific USA time, 2 p.m. East Coast USA time, and 8 p.m. Central Europe time. See times around the globe (specifically the meeting planner) for other times worldwide. Sign up for the live webinar here. Space is limited!

Green Tech Presentation for Southern NJ Public Library

CWoodWDFPL — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:40:30 GMT

WDFPL is seeking a fun interactive green tech presenter for a Thursday evening presentation targeting an adult audience June through Sept. 09. West Deptford Free Public Library is implementing a green grant in partnership with the Gloucester County Cultural and Heritage Commission entitled "It's So Easy Going Green." Please email cwood@westdeptford.lib.nj.us or send CarolynWood a Twitter DM to suggest a presenter or volunteer. Thanks for your help.

Short-term IT volunteers needed for Tanzania & Kenya in July

jcravens42 — Mon, 04 May 2009 11:45:33 GMT

The World Computer Exchange (WCE) is currently recruiting for two volunteer service trips to Africa: Tanzania and Kenya. Both trips are scheduled to start on July 10 and return July 26. Volunteers need one or more of these skills: using the Internet in education, network troubleshooting, computer repair training, website development and Linux LTSP thin-client lab installation. WCE also seeks help researching and developing plans for appropriate computer disposal in these countries.

Volunteers need to speak English. In most cases, volunteers need to be at least 21 years old. The WCE sites for these trips have more information about application procedures.

Volunteers must pay for all travel, accommodation, administrative and volunteer-support costs themselves. Costs range from $2,615 to just over $3000, depending on which countries to which the volunteer is traveling. Accepted volunteers for the trip are welcomed to encourage donations from friends, family and colleagues to WCE to cover the costs of his or her trip.

For those who think it's wrong to have to pay to volunteer overseas: it is much more beneficial to local communities to use funds to hire local people than to use those resources to bring in an outside volunteer. Volunteers from outside of a community are often needed to fill gaps in local skills and experience, as is the case with WCE's project sites, but it's not cost-effective for most organizations to pay for someone to come only for a few weeks or months. If you want a short-term volunteering assignment, be prepared to pay for at least your travel and accommodations, so that no funds are taken away from the local community.

More information about volunteering abroad with other organizations.

Working with Technical Volunteers: A Manual for NPOs

BeckyW — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:54:09 GMT

Just to let you know, TechSoup has recently updated a terrific manual for helping nonprofits manage IT and tech volunteers: Working with Technical Volunteers: A Manual for NPOs.

The manual has been updated to include the latest tech specs to ask your potential volunteers about during interviews, a comprehensive list of worksheets, sample applications, volunteer contracts, and questionnaires to help guide your nonprofit to tech volunteers who can suit your needs.

Check it out, feel free to download as a PDF or Word document, print out any of the sample worksheets and customize them for your needs!

And if you have suggestions for additions, changes, or want to add any resources your organization couldn't live without, let us know via email or reply to this thread!

Need a Volunteer-Tech-Savvy to Build/Design Web-Site for New Non-Profit--LIFE FOR MOTHERS

operatorsm — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:41:37 GMT

New foundation just received 501 (c) (3) one month ago--based in NYC.

We need someone to build/design Website for LIFE FOR MOTHERS--it's mission is to reduce maternal/neonatal/child mortality in developing countries and promote awareness and advocacy in US and world-wide to this neglected tragedy.

I am happy to provide additional information.

Harry

operatorsm@earthlink.net

Wikipedia nonprofit entries need online volunteer editors

jcravens42 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:42:38 GMT

Often, when you do an online search on a topic, the first page that comes up in a search tool such as Google is Wikipedia (at least for search phrases in English and German). Also, many people go straight to Wikipedia to get a briefing about a particular topic before they look for more detailed information.

That's why, IMO, it's so important that pages on Wikipedia relating to nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), volunteering/volunteerism, etc. are robust, with accurate information from a variety of knowledgeable people.

If you have expertise relating to any of the following topics, please consider devoting some virtual volunteering/online volunteering time and help edit these Wikipedia pages. Additional information with inline citations is very much needed for these pages relating to nonprofits:

Replicating Day of Service (4/26 w NTEN) in Boston

btrandolph — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:40:17 GMT

I met Beth Kanter at a tweetup last week and we exchanged a few emails about the upcoming Day of Service event in SF. (bit.ly/uMdvl) I was disappointed to learn that there was no comparable event in Boston, then I thought what if? I have some contacts in the NFP space, so I think I could produce a wish list of "quick fix" projects. However, I am pretty clueless about how to marshall the tech talent to work on the projects. If I can pull it together by April, great - otherwise I'm thinking May or June timeframe.Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Todd

Starting a Volunteer Program

dwinston — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:05:03 GMT

Hello to all!

I was wondering if anyone will instruct me on how to start a volunteer program within my church. I know I need to identify skills, but I don't know the preliminaries. Are there grants available for this type of program? If so, how do I locate them? Are there any IRS issues? Insurance issues? Legal issues? I've become weary searching the web. I hope someone can give me some good instruction. Thanks to all!!

volunteer tracking software

SusanReamsFrank — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:48:03 GMT

We are an all-volunteer Christian based non-profit that provides no-cost home repairs to very low-income elderly homeowners. We track our volunteer hours by project and on a yearly basis for grant applications. We have been using MS Excel for 3 years, but this is really time consuming. Any suggestions for volunteer tracking software? I noticed ClickTime here on Tech Soup. Has anyone used it? Comments?

Volunteer Technology Committee for Planning

kathygale — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:17:23 GMT

Hello - I am a nonprofit Executive Director with a recently merged much larger agency. We utilize 1500 volunteers in our programs, but have our IR serviced by a paid service.

I would like to gather IT experts in the area to form an advisory team of sorts to help us with planning, development of web 2.0 and evaluate what new services we might need.

Has anyone had experience with this type of group? Would you be willing to share any committee descriptions or plans that you use?

Thank you!

Volunteer employee hand book

shane@trailcrew.org — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 15:10:00 GMT

Dose anyone have a good volunteer employee hand bood template thay can shre with us please

Volunteer skill set categories

hvalli — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:34:58 GMT

Hi. I'll be helping put together an online form for a volunteer recruitment drive aimed at computer techies interested in helping improve health care in developing countries--primarily Open Source developers, but also any other interested cadres. We're wondering if there should be a drop-down menu with skills, to help organize our volunteers and link them up with opportunities. Do people have any experience with this sort of recruitment division, please? Do you have suggestions on skills to list, or how finely we should be dividing and tracking people at this point? Any suggestions or lessons learned from similar experiences would be appreciated. Thanks!

tech online volunteers supporting aid workers

jcravens42 — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 12:03:00 GMT

I volunteer with the Aid Workers Network, , an all-volunteer online community for people working in aid, relief & development. The people who help maintain AWN are professional aid workers who donate their time and expertise, often while they are working in a developing country under contract with an aid agency, to help keep AWN operating.

I recruit and support volunteers who maintain the AWN site and its operations.

I'm using the network itself, as well as the UN's Online Volunteering service to recruit additional online volunteers to support AWN. I've got five opportunities posted there right now, some of them specifically tech-related. You can go directly to our account to view the opportunities.

So if you are interested, just to see how one all-virtual organization recruits its online volunteers or if you want to join in as a volunteer, please check out those aforementioned links.