Technology

In this Research to Practice, author Laurie Mook reviews the use of social computing technologies by volunteer coordinators at nonprofit organizations. Mook looks at research on use and non-use of technology, based on interviews with 23 volunteer coordinators from three different metropolitan areas of the western United States. The study was conducted by Amy Voida, Ellie Harmon and Ban Al-Ani of the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.

As background, the researchers take the perspective that the work of volunteer coordinators is bridge-building work—bringing together numerous public constituencies as well as constituencies within their organizations. And one might expect that this class of work would be well supported by social software, some of which has been found to enable bridging social capital. However, the researchers find that, in many ways, this class of technology fails to adequately support volunteer coordinators’ bridge-building work.  The study then offers a number of strategies for bridge-building via social computing technologies, reviews the numerous challenges faced by volunteer coordinators in their use of these technologies, and presents opportunities for designing social software to better support bridge-building between organizations and the public.

How can texting a friend raise significant funds to help patients and families who are battling brain tumors? The answer is simple for Judy Zocchi and Olivia Questore, the two driving forces behind “Text for 10,” a unique fundraising event to benefit Monmouth Medical Center’s Davis S. Zocchi Brain Tumor Center in Long Beach, New Jersey.

In 2007, Zocchi had just learned to text. Questore, like all teens and tweens today, could nimbly text like the best of them. And both shared the experience of losing a loved one to a brain tumor. So Zocchi, the CEO of a multi-media company, and Questore, then a middle school student, created an innovative fundraiser – one that has been repeated every year since.

e-Volunteerism Senior Editor Margaret O. Kirk interviews both Zocchi and Questore for this story, which presents their creative, replicable idea and probes the volunteer management challenges that both faced in this inter-generational, modern media effort.

If your organization still hasn’t fully embraced the Internet to support and involve staff and volunteers, this Training Design is the key to bridging your organization’s digital divide. Jayne Cravens, who directed the Virtual Volunteering Project and helped pioneer the concept of involving volunteers via the Internet, has created a development plan that successfully introduces five crucial Internet tools, helps explain their importance to your organization, and provides tips to help your staff and volunteers finally embrace online technology. This Training Design is also a wonderful resource for those who are somewhat Internet savvy but might need a refresher course on how to use online forums, social networking sites, audio and video programs and automatic alerts. Cravens’ “Personal Online Skill Development Plan” will help shrink the digital divide for everyone.

Founded in 1904, the American Lung Association is the nation’s oldest voluntary health agency. Our work throughout our first century has been innovative – ours was the first disease-specific organization to couple the skills and expertise of the medical professional with the dedication and commitment of the lay volunteer, which is now the model most other voluntary health agencies follow. Volunteers were integral to the founding of our organization almost 100 years ago and still play a significant role in our efforts to prevent lung disease and promote lung health nationwide. With 1,300 staff and 130,000 volunteers working to achieve our mission in our 200 Lung Association offices, you can imagine the enormous challenges we face to stay connected and offer the essential learning needed to help those with lung disease.

As Director, Volunteer Management and Learning and a member of our organization’s Learning Center, the use of technology and e-learning techniques is an essential part of my efforts to enable idea sharing and learning opportunities no matter where our staff and volunteers may be located. The following article outlines some of the methods that we are employing.

The Internet increasingly provides a means for nonprofits and government organizations to engage with people in their circles of influence. More and more organizations are blogging and posting YouTube videos and, more importantly, a great many organizations are asking their volunteers to blog on their behalf, to share photos of their events and to tweet about upcoming opportunities. In this way, organizations reach  volunteers in the spaces where they are already comfortable and engage them around their passions. And while working to increase the volunteers’ connection with the organization, we also spread our message to all of their friends.

This Training Design is not intended to be a how-to for online volunteer engagement. Rather, it will help participants identify opportunities to use social media in their volunteer engagement strategy. After the training session, participants will be able to develop the strategy for one or two small and simple Web2.0 initiatives. Those who started the training feeling overwhelmed or apprehensive about social media will leave feeling excited about the abundant opportunities that these technologies afford.

It’s official.  YouTube isn’t just for silliness anymore.  The richness and variety of the videos that people now post online are quite amazing, and so it should come as no surprise that volunteering is among the subjects represented.  In this Voices from the Past, we’ll link you to some of the more fascinating online historical video clips and photograph archives and show how you can use the Internet to get a perspective on our mutual past.  You may find materials you can use for volunteer (and staff) training or as something different to show at a recognition event.

In the spring of 2001, e-Volunteerism published a feature story about online training efforts called “Workshops the Wired Way.” Now, in our periodic feature series called “Whatever Happened To . . .”, e-Volunteerism revisits modern technology training and how it is used for volunteers. What was a pioneering effort eight years ago is now a fully-accepted training practice, complete with self-study Web modules, Web sites, e-newsletters and online research reports and resources. Once again, we talk about this important development with online training innovators Vicki Trottier, Project Manager, Community Literacy of Ontario, and Joanne Kaattari, Co-Executive Director, Community Literacy of Ontario.

When Elizabeth Ellis was Volunteer Development Manager for the Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys, she managed, promoted and expanded their “Talent Match” database. This database listed the specific skills, preferred service locations, age group preferences and availability of individuals specifically recruited for this database. Both staff and adult volunteer Girl Scout leaders utilized this resource through a password-protected search to match their unique needs to volunteer interests and availability.

In this feature story, Ellis reviews the multiple benefits of creating a similar "talent" database for organizations, and explores the potential of “banking on volunteer talents” and time. She also reviews the multiple benefits of developing a similar "skills bank," and shares a model for how to make it work. Says Ellis, “Being on the front lines of volunteer recruitment, I had the opportunity to experience the growing interest of potential volunteers using this model, as well as experience first-hand the impact of this end user-friendly matching technique."