Microvolunteering, Crowd-Sourcing Virtual Volunteering

Revised with new information as of November 13, 2011

Microvolunteering and Crowd-Sourcing:
Not-So-New Trends in Virtual Volunteering/Online Volunteering

Back in the 1990s, when the Virtual Volunteering Project was documenting best practices in involving and supporting volunteers via the Internet, one of the methods for involving online volunteers was creating what I called byte-sized volunteering assignments. These are assignments that:

do not take long to complete (a few hours over one day, or just a few days, maybe even two weeks).
do not involve high security or handling of proprietary data.
do not require much supervision.
are important, as all volunteering activities should be, but not immediately critical (as in, if they do not get done within the next two weeks, it will not bring your organization to a screeching halt).
can be done by just one person, rather than needing an organized team with different members relying on the work of others in order to complete their part of the assignment.

Now, the hot-new term of this is microvolunteering. 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 lengthly 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 microvolunteering may get started on their assignment just a few minutes after expressing interest, if your organization has the right, tried-and-true volunteer management standards in place.

What does online volunteering as microvolunteering or a byte-sized assignment, really look like?

Translating one Web page, a flier, or a short brochure into another language.
Gathering information on one topic (identifying all nonprofit organizations in a large city focused on children, finding conferences in the next six months focused on human resources management, finding samples of volunteer policies online, finding samples of company social networking policies online, etc.).
Editing a press release, newsletter, or new Web site section.
Posting a request by a nonprofit to the volunteer's various networks (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), to see if anyone could answer or help ("We need a free meeting space for 30 of our volunteers to do a this Saturday, from noon to 3 p.m." or "We need a meeting table that could accommodate at least 10 people. Does anyone know of an organization that is looking to get rid of such? or "We have a survey for teenagers on our web site regarding what program activities they would be interested in. Please help us get the word out!").
Designing a graphic.
Setting up an account on an online social networking site for an organization, such as FaceBook, MySpace or Change.org
Analyzing information on a spreadsheet and offering a short narrative on what the data means.
Doing a Web search to seek out resources and activities that are needed for clients in a specific geographic location: summer camps, vocational training, child care, government programs to help a particular group of people, etc.
Checking grant proposal submission guidelines on the Web sites of various potential funders, such as foundations or corporations.
Creating a new Web page (putting up a newsletter article as a new Web page, for instance). Web site testing to make sure the site works on a variety of computers and Web browsers, and identifying any problems so that IT staff can take action to make a site more accessible.
Compiling a list of online communities relating to a particular field of expertise, a specific topic, a specific geographic area, etc.
Compiling a list of blogs relating to a specific topic.
Researching which Web sites link to your organization's Web site, and researching which Web sites should link to your organization's Web site but do not currently.
Identifying which groups on Flickr or another photo-sharing web site your organization might want to sometimes post photos to, in order to get the word about your work and events.
Adding new tags to your photos already uploaded on a photo-sharing web site, to ensure they will come up on a search of certain keywords.

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Again: these are tasks that will take just a few hours to complete, and this can happen in one day or over a few days, even a couple of weeks. To ensure success with such short-term tasks, these should have:

Written descriptions (the more detail, the better)
Deadlines (by when does this assignment need to be done?)
Mid-assignment reporting requirement if the deadline is a week or more after the assignment is given.

A volunteer can complete one of these assignments and then walk away from every volunteering with you again. However, your goal with these assignments is much more than to get work done; it is to create such a positive experience that the volunteer stays interested and takes on another small task, or a task with more responsibility, as well as becoming a fan of your organization, talking about your good work to colleagues, friends and family. You might even turn such a volunteer into a financial donor!

Crowd-Sourcing

Part of the microvolunteering phenomena is crowd-sourcing, a practice that is as old as the Internet itself (which makes it more than 30 years old). This is when a task or question is offered up online to anyone who would like to take it on. It can be as simple as writing, "How would you handle the following situation..." to an online community of volunteer resources managers. Or asking "How could we improve the our online volunteer orientation" to your online community of volunteers. Or asking on an online community for HR managers, "Would anyone be willing to share their company's dress code? We're looking for ideas." It is also called "distributed problem-solving." Before the World Wide Web, a popular Internet tool was USENET newsgroups, which were online communities put together around various interests, professions and topics, and much of the activity on these was what we now call crowd-sourcing (soc.org.nonprofit was a particularly popular crowd-sourcing resource for nonprofit representatives).

Crowd-sourcing is not just for discussion questions. For instance:

The free, open system software movement is driven by crowd-sourcing: anyone can participate, at any time, in helping to write the code for these software products.
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit at any time.
ClickWorkers was a small NASA project begun in 2001 that engaged online volunteers in scientific-related tasks that required just a person's perception and common sense, but not scientific training, like identifying craters on Mars in photos the project posted online. Clickworkers worked whenever and for however long they chose. You can read more about this now defunct project by going to archive.org and cutting and pasting in this URL:
clickworkers.arc.nasa.gov
(choose the earliest version of the site available).
NetSquared, an initiative of TechSoup.org, invites anyone to view proposed tech-networking projects listed on its site, post questions and thoughts about these proposals and to vote on the ones they believe will have the most potential for social impact. Most of the projects relate to cell phones and smart phones used in community-empowerment or humanitarian efforts. Partners for its project proposal competitions have included USAID, Microsoft and Yahoo!.
Blogher allowed members to manipulate its official logo on their own web sites to show their support of its first-ever conference in 2005, versions of which ended up being used by other members as well, and engaged in a variety of online and onsite activities to allow supporters to set the agenda for the conference workshops.

Crowd-sourcing can involve people who are not a part of your organization -- anyone visiting your web site, anyone on an online discussion group run by another organization, etc. -- or it can be reserved only for vetted volunteers on your online discussion group for such.

It's Always About Building Relationships

A misconception about micro-blogging and crowd-sourcing -- and, indeed, about all volunteering, including in its most traditional forms -- is that the goal is to get work done, or to get work done for free. These are old paradigms regarding volunteering that so many of us have worked for a very long time to move away from. Volunteering is about so much more: it's about building relationships with the community, increasing the number of people advocating for your organization and even supporting it financially, demonstrating transparency, and even targeting specific demographics for involvement in your work.

Never think of the primary goal of microvolunteering as getting work done. Your goal should always be to cultivate new supporters. You want to turn people who answer your question on a discussion group or take on a small online volunteering assignment into long-term supporters, people who tell family and friends about your organization, who have their perception changed about a particular issue your organization is involved with (why people are homeless, why the arts are important to teens, why there are misunderstandings about HIV/AIDS, why increasing literacy improves women's health, etc.), who take on more assignments for your organization and, hopefully, are so moved by your work that they make a financial donation.

Therefore, if your organization decides to make microvolunteering or crowd-sourcing activities available to people beyond your corps of vetted volunteers, make sure you have ways to capture their key contact information and provide followup to them regarding the project or issue they contributed to. Encourage these contributors to complete the briefest of online volunteering applications, to join an online discussion group, and/or to subscribe to your email newsletter.

If you found this page helpful, let others know:

Also see

Microvolunteering is virtual volunteering
A rebuttal on my blog to the claim that microvolunteering isn't virtual volunteering.
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.
Finding a Computer/Network Consultant
Staff at mission-based organizations (nonprofits, civil society organizations, and public sector agencies) often have to rely on consultants, either paid or volunteer, for expertise in computer hardware, software and networks. Staff may feel unable to understand, question nor challenge whatever that consultant recommends. What can mission-based organizations do to recruit the "right" consultant for "tech" related issues, one that will not make them feel out-of-the-loop or out-of-control when it comes to tech-related discussions?
Myths About Online Volunteering (Virtual Volunteering)
Online volunteering means unpaid service that is given by volunteers via the Internet. It's also known as virtual volunteering, online mentoring, ementoring, evolunteering, cyber volunteering, cyber service, telementoring, online engagement, and on and on. Here is a list of common myths about online volunteering, and my attempt to counter them.
Studies and Research Regarding Online Volunteering / Virtual Volunteering
While there is a plethora of articles and information about online volunteering, there has been very little research published regarding the subject. This is a compilation of publicly-available research regarding online volunteering, and a list of suggested possible angles for researching online volunteering. New contributions to this page are welcomed, including regarding online mentoring programs.
Creating One-Time, Short-Term Group Volunteering Activities
Details on not just what groups of volunteers can do in a two-hour, half-day or all-day event, but also just how much an organization or program will need to do to prepare a site for group volunteering. It's an expensive, time-consuming endeavor - are you ready? Is it worth it?
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.
Using Video to Support Online Volunteers/Remote Volunteers.
Video is a great way to further support volunteers, and your computer probably already has all of the tools you need to make a video, or to engage in a live video conversation with others. Video isn't something to use only with online volunteers or remote volunteers (those providing onsite service at a different location than yours). It's also a tool you can use with new and current volunteers. In addition to an organization producing videos for volunteers, it can also work the other way around: volunteers can produce videos for organizations. This resource provides information on your options, and links to my own short video on the subject.
Using Real-Time Communications With Volunteers
A growing number of organizations are using real-time communications -- including video conferencing, online phone calls, chats and instant messaging -- to hold online meetings with volunteers, to allow volunteers to interact with staff, clients, or each other, or to involve volunteers in a live, online, real-time event. This resource provides more information on real-time communications with volunteers -- what the various tools are, how agencies are using them to interact with volunteers, and tips to encourage and maintain participation in synchronous communications.
Recognizing Online Volunteers & Using the Internet to Honor ALL Volunteers
Recognition helps volunteers stay committed to your organization, and gets the attention of potential volunteers -- and donors -- as well. Organizations need to fully recognize the efforts of remote, online volunteers, as well as those onsite, and not differentiate the value of these two forms of service. Organizations should also incorporate use of the Internet to recognize the efforts of ALL volunteers, both online and onsite. With cyberspace, it's never been easier to show volunteers -- and the world -- that volunteers are a key part of your organization's successes. This new resource provides a long list of suggestions for both honoring online volunteers and using the Internet to recognize ALL volunteers that contribute to your organization.

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