Volunteer Platforms for "Good" Need to Be Great
Through celebration and fanfare -- to the tune of a Presidential Summit on Volunteerism in Texas today, Presidents’ Obama and George H.W. Bush will come together to mark the 20th Anniversary of the Points of Light.
If you remember back to 1989 when President Bush spoke of a thousand points of light in his Inaugural Address (or even if you don’t), personal computers were becoming commonplace in the West, and mobile phones even if clunky and awkward were quickly becoming a symbol of status. Nintendo had just released its Game Boy, and Microsoft’s first version of Office was available to consumers. These devices and programs were so new and transformative – but never could we imagine their power to mobilize the “thousand points of light” the President spoke of to take action in their communities, let alone halfway around the globe.
And while today we have new devices and symbols of status that we attach to our ears, or on our belts – we have to think that we are only at the cusp of what’s possible when using technology to address some of our worlds most pressing problems. We can micro-lend or micro-volunteer but there’s so much more that could be done if we could collectively recognize the potential of these tools. Even so, we know that the tools alone can’t sit with a child who’s battling cancer or feed a single mother who just lost her home. What’s more, the tools themselves are only as effective as we enable them to be.
Sure, today’s unprecedented technology allows us to reach new audiences, or connect advocates to share their stories, but the call to action must be clear, it must be actionable, and it must show impact. Today’s volunteers may be savvier when it comes to finding volunteer opportunities on their iPhone, but they expect an experience that matches the ease to which they found it.
New platforms like All for Good, the uber-aggregator of many of the online volunteer matching sites like Idealist, VolunteerMatch and Network for Good - is a powerful tool, but then again, it’s only as powerful as the opportunities that nonprofits upload. When I enter my zipcode into a search engine and let it work its magic, I don’t want to find an opportunity that’s outdated or already over capacity. I’ve taken the first step, and I expect to be matched with an opportunity that makes sense and is available.
We certainly didn’t know the extent of what technology could provide back in 1989 – let alone the creative things people would do WITH the technology to change the world, but there are still endless opportunities to put it to better use. Perhaps it’s creating an individual profile that allows us to upload our skills, our interests and our availability and then be more appropriately matched with an opportunity to serve. This is worthy of a post itself, so I’ll save it for another day – but a best case scenario would be for people to be matched through an online platform, with something they enjoy doing repeatedly rather than a bunch of “one and done” experiences.
This may go beyond providing good volunteer opportunities, to making it more of a relational experience between volunteer and organization. So even if it’s a good opportunity, the organization should solicit feedback, provide follow up, ask what it could do better, etc. There are sites like Great Nonprofits that are allowing folks to rate their experiences and share knowledge so that others can make more informed decisions about where to give or volunteer. Or the new mobile iPhone app, Catalista, that enables you to find a volunteer opportunity in your area using your phone's GPS coordinates and then invite your friends to join you, and rate your experience.
The platforms can have all of the bells and whistles in the world, but the big question that remains is how do we get nonprofits to use these tools in a smart way that provides up to date, clear opportunities for engagement and that will make more people want to use them to volunteer? We can demonstrate their success, lift up examples, but we are already doing that, and it’s not changing the game. How do we help nonprofits get savvier about what they post? Is there a way to incentivize this behavior so that they will provide better data? Or, is this just something the market will have to decide?
Comments
Great post! I think that organizations need to devote the proper resources to working with volunteers. So many times, the volunteer hat is only one of many that a staff member will be wearing. There should be a person devoted to volunteers. Especially with all the tools available today. It is a big job to just keep up and then interact in a meaningful way with each volunteer. I had a bad experience just recently when the asst dir of an agency was trying to juggle the volunteer coordinator job along with everything else. I finally gave up after a series of dropped balls marred my volunteer experience. I went somewhere else.
I couldn't agree more. I just wrote a post about one new platform for online volunteering, The Extraordinaries: http://workingwikily.net/?p=983. What I discussed there was simply the possibilities that these new technologies open up, but you're quite right to point out that execution is critical.
Joanne, thanks for your comment. Unfortunately, it sounds like you're not alone with regard to your recent volunteer experience. While I'm certainly not suggesting that technology will solve all of the broader capacity issues that nonprofits have when it comes to managing volunteers - I do think technology can play a more integral role in matching volunteers with opportunities that complement their skills and interests. Hopefully this could result in more fruitful volunteer opportunities that make volunteers excited for the next experience rather than being turned off and going somewhere else.
Noah, just read your post on the Extraordinaries and appreciate your thoughts about micro-volunteering. I too am a big fan of what Jacob and Ben have created at www.beextra.org and look forward to watching as more people become comfortable with the idea of using their spare time and smart phones to "volunteer." It's still a very new concept - but has interesting implications for nonprofits to crowdsource volunteering in a non traditional way.
This is a really great post, Kari. And I think it hits a lot of key points that a lot of people and organizations are often forgetting. In this new world of Web 2.0., I think everyone is being swept away by the potential and promise that all these tools hold...what's often forgotten is, as you have said, that "the tools themselves are only as effective as we enable them to be". We need to think about the content we put out there, our message, and how exactly we want to achieve our goals. The tools can only do so much...the people behind them have to do their end of the work.
The organization that I'm currently working with, jhr (Journalists for Human Rights), is no exception...we're in a transitionary stage as well where we're trying to find the right balance of how to use this new technology to further the work that we're already doing. There's still a lot of work to be done but we're unbelievably lucky to be working in world that has opened up so many doors...
-- Justine
www.jhrnews.com
Hi there! I am commenting from the LoneStar state and I wholeheartedly agree about non-profits and the direction organizations must choose to navigate this "New Frontier". I sit on the Board of Directors for a charity in my city and this subject surfaces time and time again. How do we engage our donors, our volunteers, the public to BECOME a part of our group, our mission instead of just a checkmark for a donation? People want that connection but may not have the time to give, or feel they have the right resources. And as one of the comments above mentioned, the concept of volunteerism is starting to break traditional molds.
With so many charities strapped financially today, if not on the brink of closing their doors, it is sad to see that our non profit sector cannot meet the demands and needs of the public who are in such desperate need of it, more so than ever due to our current state of economy! Yet we cannot focus our efforts in any one particular area for roles, responsibilities and funds are stretched too thin. For example my charity, one of the oldest established in the city, has had federal and state funding cut by $500,000 this year. Full time, key employees that provide critical clinical help - they have been slashed to part-time ans some even being asked to donate free time! The President/CEO is having to wear many different hats from director to fundraiser/development officer. I would like to see our charity use tools such as micro-volunteerism, more sites like volunteermatch.com (which by the way is a widget I added to my newly formed blog = http://magnoliahouseparlor.blogspot.com/).
My point being the non-profit sector has come to a cross-roads and we need to help bridge our charities into the non-profits of tomorrow. Outdated modes of volunteerism, a key aspect, need to be refreshed and leveraged so our organizations can work smarter, more efficiently and still make those people connections, social impact needed in times such as these!
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