How is your organization handling integration of internet with non-internet volunteers?

We have a lot of lower-income volunteers (ours is an all-volunteer grassroots organization).  We are well-established, in our tenth year now, but still locally supported (i.e., no federal grants, no major program funding).  It's time-consuming and frustrating to try to reach all our volunteers who might be interested in an activity, every time, when some are regular readers of email, others want the latest web 2.0 technology notifications, and still others visit the local library in order to read email once a week or so.

I'm sure others have dealt with this problem in nonprofit activity.  What worked best for your oranization?  What works to keep those "non-internet" volunteers in the loop?  Some of them are our most reliable volunteers, but they don't get the word until something is already over :-(

Thanks!

Linda

Maybe a sort of mentoring program is in order.  Maybe ask those people who feel more comfortable with newer technology might help adopt the newcomers and help them get up to speed.

What type of organization do you have?  Might something like this work in your environment?

Hi Linda,

The concept of 'chapters' has worked well for us in the past - probably not dissimilar to what Rog is suggesting - volunteers regularly meet in groups where the more technically enabled volo's pass on information to others. We also ensure our scheduling fits the model of volunteer comms we have deployed - ie events are scheduled in the knowledge it may take a week or more for some people to be notified of the event

Hi, Linda,

In addition to these good idea above, I am thinking that you might have a feature in your donor management software to automatically designate which volunteers receive information by email or by land mail. For instance, if you send an email letting volunteers know about an activity, it would go by default to email for everyone who prefers that, and then be printed and mailed out to others. I believe that is a standard feature in donor management software.

Sasha

You might do well to develop a combination of both "push" and "pull" practices.

In a "push" method, your organization is sending the information proactively to the target audience. Email or outbound phone calls are examples of pushes. The downside is that not everyone may be in a position to receive your push. No computer, no telephone, etc. It is called a push technology because the impetus is on your organization to "push" the data to the reader.

In a "pull" method, the audience is expected to come to you. They pull the information they want by actively visiting your website or calling your offices to get the latest infromation. A website that your audience is expected to check on periodically is an example of a pull technology. It is called a pull technology because the impetus is on the audience to take the initiative to visit your website.

As you can see, neither method is going prove attractive to all constituents. The question is not whether to employ one method or the other, but rather what sort of effort you put into each of them. This balance point is determined by the demographics of your audience.

No one is ever served by just one communication method -- and never will be. Remember before the Internet, when you could divide up volunteers by who liked to talk on the phone versus who was face-to-face only?

With things like YahooGroups, users can decide how they want to receive information -- immediate emails, daily digest emails, weekly digest emails, web only, or RSS. I think that's always the way to go -- pick a tool that allows each person to choose how they want to receive information.

The problem is with those volunteers who are truly "non-Internet", who don't read email every day and don't have a cell phone. Or are there some that don't use the Internet at all (have no computer in the house)? How many volunteers are these? As you say, some of them are your most reliable volunteers and, therefore, you don't want to lose them. If it's a reasonably small number, I suggest talking to these people one-on-one, telling each your situation and asking them how they would like to receive time-sensitive information (I'm assuming by phone?). Would a reliable volunteer you have that does use the Net be willing to call these reliable but non-wired volunteers each time there's something time-dated they should know about? (provided the number of such volunteers is reasonable). Phone trees have been a tried and true method of activism for many years pre-Internet.

The other suggestions about creating a way for your non-Internet volunteers to be brought up to speed are also good. Could you host an onsite workshop for these volunteers to help them with basic Internet use?