Online Volunteering opportunities around the globe

Online volunteering

Online volunteering: what is it and why should you do it?

Online Volunteering

What is online volunteering?
Why volunteer online?
What difference can you make as an online volunteer?
What kind of online volunteer tasks can you work on?

What is online volunteering?

The image of a volunteer that usually springs to mind is the person who is physically out in the community lending a hand: building a house, cleaning up a park, reading with a child.
Yet all around the globe, at any given time, thousands (if not millions) of engaged citizens volunteer virtually, using their computers, Internet, and their phones.
Examples of online volunteering include fundraising, marketing and social media activities, web development, content writing, data analysis, and coaching

Why volunteer online?

Everyone can make a difference. Share your skills, knowledge and ideas – from a computer anywhere in the world. Online volunteering allows you to…

Experience flexibility: By volunteering online, you can directly assist development organizations, working from a computer anywhere in the world. Volunteering online gives you a great degree of flexibility, there is no travel involved and you can volunteer the hours that fit your schedule.
Gain knowledge and develop skills: while putting your expertise and talents to good use, you will, for example, gain knowledge on a certain development issue or on a specific region. Volunteering online will allow you to develop your existing skills, to take on new roles and assume responsibilities that your professional life may not necessarily provide.
Work in a multicultural environment: online volunteering is an opportunity to collaborate with people of different backgrounds from all over the world. Working in an international team will allow you to develop your knowledge of intercultural communication and understand the importance of cultural sensitivity.
Expand your networks: you will be in contact with people who share the common goal of advancing human development. Relations may last beyond the initial assignment and sometimes even life-long friendships may develop.
Remain engaged: after a period of volunteering on site, many volunteers remain involved in the project by becoming online ambassadors or taking on other tasks that can be carried out online.

Online volunteering provides organizations with new volunteers, new and additional talent and skills, and a more diverse volunteer base. It also helps promote organizations and their mission to a much broader audience.

What difference can you make as an online volunteer?

Enhance organizations’ resources: online volunteers provide organizations with additional skills and expertise that may not be available yet. Coming from various backgrounds and cultures, they bring new ideas and fresh perspectives.
Develop organizations’ capacities: online volunteers can increase an organization’s institutional capacities by training staff, teaching new skills or providing guidance and advice.
Extend organizations’ networks
Online volunteers learn about the organizations with which they collaborate and the people it serves, and in turn share this information with their friends and colleagues - mobilizing additional support.

What kind of online volunteer tasks can you work on?

Typical volunteer oportunity themes:

Develop, update, or manage the website for an organization or social, environmental, or political effort
Mentor a young person
Create a blog, podcast, video, or social networking profile for a nonprofit organization or grassroots movement
Staff a crisis hotline for domestic violence, suicide, or other critical issue
Review and provide feedback on an organization's strategic plan, marketing strategy, safety and security procedures, or website
Write a grant, get the word out on fundraising, or send emails and make phone calls to current or potential donors
Research and analysis
Writing and editing
Online marketing
Translation
Design (everything under the sun that can be designed)
Project development and management
Training and coaching (clients or employees)
Consulting
IT development
Coordination and facilitation

227 reads

Volunteer abroad - Theme

Crossroads: activities

Doing online volunteering

Volunteer abroad and around

Understanding another person and culture

SPOTLIGHT: PROJECTS

Online volunteering: selection of suggestions, stories and tips by WorldSupporters

Selected suggestions, stories and tips by WorldSupporters about Online volunteering

Online volunteering: what is it and why should you do it?

Online Volunteering

What is online volunteering?
Why volunteer online?
What difference can you make as an online volunteer?
What kind of online volunteer tasks can you work on?

What is online volunteering?

The image of a volunteer that usually springs to mind is the person who is physically out in the community lending a hand: building a house, cleaning up a park, reading with a child.
Yet all around the globe, at any given time, thousands (if not millions) of engaged citizens volunteer virtually, using their computers, Internet, and their phones.
Examples of online volunteering include fundraising, marketing and social media activities, web development, content writing, data analysis, and coaching

Why volunteer online?

Everyone can make a difference. Share your skills, knowledge and ideas – from a computer anywhere in the world. Online volunteering allows you to…

Experience flexibility: By volunteering online, you can directly assist development organizations, working from a computer anywhere in the world. Volunteering online gives you a great degree of flexibility, there is no travel involved and you can volunteer the hours that fit your schedule.
Gain knowledge and develop skills: while putting your expertise and talents to good use, you will, for example, gain knowledge on a certain development issue or on a specific region. Volunteering online will allow you to develop your existing skills, to take on new roles and assume responsibilities that your professional life may not necessarily provide.
Work in a multicultural environment: online volunteering is an opportunity to collaborate with people of different backgrounds from all over the world. Working in an international team will allow you to develop your knowledge of intercultural communication and understand the importance of cultural sensitivity.
Expand your networks: you will be in contact with people who share the common goal of advancing human development. Relations may last beyond the initial assignment and sometimes even life-long friendships may develop.
Remain engaged: after a period of volunteering on site, many volunteers remain involved in the project by becoming online ambassadors or taking on other tasks that can be carried out online.

What difference can you make as an online volunteer?

Enhance organizations’ resources: online volunteers provide organizations with additional skills and expertise that may not be available yet. Coming from various backgrounds and cultures, they bring new ideas and fresh perspectives.
Develop organizations’ capacities: online volunteers can increase an organization’s institutional capacities by training staff, teaching new skills or providing guidance and advice.
Extend organizations’ networks
Online volunteers learn about the organizations with which they collaborate and the people it serves, and in turn share this information with their friends and colleagues - mobilizing additional support.

What kind of online volunteer tasks can you work on?

Typical volunteer oportunity themes:

Develop, update, or manage the website for an organization or social, environmental, or political effort
Mentor a young person
Create a blog, podcast, video, or social networking profile for a nonprofit organization or grassroots movement
Staff a crisis hotline for domestic violence, suicide, or other critical issue
Review and provide feedback on an organization's strategic plan, marketing strategy, safety and security procedures, or website
Write a grant, get the word out on fundraising, or send emails and make phone calls to current or potential donors
Research and analysis
Writing and editing
Online marketing
Translation
Design (everything under the sun that can be designed)
Project development and management
Training and coaching (clients or employees)
Consulting
IT development
Coordination and facilitation

How to choose the right online volunteer opportunity?

The key to success is to choose opportunities that match your skills, interests and availability. An online volunteering opportunity description should contain all the information you need to decide whether the opportunity interests you, your skills and expertise match the requirements and your availability meets the organization’s needs. Reading the mission statement and visiting the organization’s website (and socials) will help you decide whether you would like to support the organization and its activities.

In addition to carefully reading the opportunity description and other information provided by the organization, you can consider the following:

Type of organization: would you like to support for example a community-based grassroots organization, a national or international NGO, a small or large profit or not-for-profit company, a local government? When making your choice, bear in mind that organizations’ needs, capacities, resources, communication styles and experience with online volunteer management are as diverse as organization types.
Time commitment: how much time per week would you like to devote to volunteering online? Would you like to get involved in a long-term project, or would you rather commit to a short-term assignment with a fixed end date? The amount of time indicated in most opportunity descriptions serves as an estimate by the organization, and gives you an idea of the task’s anticipated time-frame.
Task & Skills: what tasks do you enjoy undertaking? What skills would you like to share with an organization to support their work? You may opt to use your professional expertise to support, or you may prefer to engage in a task that differs from your everyday job. It is perfectly acceptable to search for an opportunity that will enhance your skills or allow you to gain experience, as long as you are confident that you are able to complete the assignment successfully.

How to prepare for online volunteering?

Preparations for online volunteering

Waht to consider before applying for online volunteering opportunities?
How can I make the most out of my online volunteer collaboration?

Waht to consider before applying for online volunteering opportunities?

Before applying for online volunteering opportunities, make sure you …

Have basic IT tools at your disposal: do you have an email account and adequate access to the Internet? Both are crucial for maintaining regular communication with the organizations you support.
Enjoy communicating online: collaboration with organizations and fellow volunteers will take place over the Internet. To engage successfully in online volunteering, you should feel comfortable working in an online environment.
Consider your expectations: what is your motivation? What do you hope to gain by volunteering online? What skills and expertise can you offer an organization? Answering these questions will help you identify volunteer opportunities that are right for you.
Are aware of cultural differences: online volunteering connects people of various backgrounds from around the world, making it a truly multicultural experience. Being aware of cultural differences, diverse working styles and the challenges that arise from communicating in different languages is crucial to successfully engaging in online volunteering.
Assess your self-motivation: you will have a great degree of flexibility in terms of the time you will be spending on an assignment. Characteristically, supervision of online volunteering is irregular. It is therefore imperative that, as an online volunteer, you are able to organize your own schedule, be self-motivated and enjoy working independently.
Set enough time aside: you should be confident that you can dedicate enough time for your online volunteering activities. Remember, once you have signed up for an assignment, you will have made a commitment to an organization – they will, therefore, be counting on you to complete the task for which you volunteered within a specified timeframe.

Collaborating with online volunteers remains a new experience for many organizations. The initial experience of volunteering online may leave room for improvement; every online collaboration should be viewed as a learning curve for both organizations and online volunteers.

How can I make the most out of my online volunteer collaboration?

An organization has responded positively to your application to volunteer online. What to do next?

Clarify expectations and deadlines: make sure you have a clear understanding about what the organization expects you to do. Ask for details on how the collaboration will be organized, what support the organization will provide, and clarify schedules and deadlines.
Gather all relevant information: do not hesitate to ask for further information on the project, the organization's mission, programmes or policies, if you feel that the organization’s website or profile page do not answer all your questions.
Communicate clearly and regularly: respond to emails as quickly as possible. If you are not in a position to give a detailed response right away, confirm receipt of the message and let the organization know when you will get back to them. Regular progress updates and clear communication are imperative, particularly in an online environment.
Address issues with honesty: be honest about your progress and about the problems you encounter. Regardless of the reason, if you cannot or do not wish to pursue the collaboration, you must inform the organization and explain why you are no longer interested. This will help the organization adjust to the situation or improve its online volunteer management.
Consider working with other online volunteers: team work can be more effective as well as fun. If you realize that your work would benefit from additional support, do not hesitate to suggest to the organization to put you in contact with other online volunteers.
Give feedback: after completing your assignment, sharing your comments on the online collaboration is very valuable to organizations. It allows them to evaluate their own performance and make any necessary changes for the future.

Microtasking - Online volunteering voor Amnesty International

Amnesty International is op zoek naar vrijwilligers (Amnesty Decoders) die in hun vrije momentjes satellietfoto's van Darfur willen vergelijken. Met het maken van de vergelijking van oudere met recente foto's hoopt Amnesty te kunnen bewijzen welke grootschalige misdaden er de afgelopen jaren tegen burgers zijn uitgevoerd door de Sudaneese overheid.

Zet je beste beentje voor en doe vrijwilligerswerk in Afrika zonder vliegkilometers

Teach English songs to children online

Are you musical and looking for an online teaching job? Teach English songs to Chinese children between 5-8 years old.

You use music and songs to teach basic English.
You prepare English songs and other online teaching material suitable for the students' English level.
The classes are between 25 to 60 minutes and include up to 6 students.

Requirements:

You are fluent in English.
You love to sing!
You play at least one instrument.

Online Volunteering KNK Children Without Borders in The Philippines?

Want to be an Online Volunteer at KNK Children Without Borders?

Online volunteering of ook wel virtual volunteering genoemd is vrijwilligerswerk, maar dan online. Gewoon thuis achter de computer.
Mijn stage werkzaamheden bestaan uit het plaatsen van vrijwilligers bij de verschillende partner organisaties van WorldActivity Philippines.

Ik ben aan de slag gegaan en gaan kijken welke project organisaties interesse hebben in online vrijwilligers. Ik ben hierover in gesprek gegaan met de organisatie: KnK children without Borders, Phils, Inc. Een organisatie dat kansarme kinderen een warm thuis geeft en de kennis en vaardigheden die nodig zijn om zich te kunnen ontwikkelen. De organisatie biedt alternatief onderwijs voor de niet-schoolgaande jeugd in achtergestelde gemeenschappen. Zoals ze zelf zeggen. Educatie is de kans op een betere toekomst!

Om bij KnK Children Without Border te komen moest ik met het openbaar vervoer. Communiceren met de conducteur was lastig, want hij sprak maar een paar woorden Engels. (Ja je hebt hier in de bus een conducteur en een chauffeur) ik had het adres gelukkig op een briefje geschreven en 1,5 uur later was ik op mijn eindbestemming.

KnK is gelegen in een subdivision. Met natuurlijk zoals je dat hier veel ziet twee bewakers bij het hek. Gelukkig had ik hen gevraagd hoe ik het laatste stukje moest lopen, want ik kwam daarna niemand meer tegen. Wat een rust vergeleken met de drukte in Manila. Ik werd hartelijk ontvangen! De organisatie heeft uitgelegd wat zij doen en hoe ze aankijken tegen online volunteering en wat voor ideeën zij daarover hebben.

De organisatie vertelde mij dat het voor veel kinderen onmogelijk is om naar school te kunnen gaan. Zo noemde ze het volgende voorbeeld van een jongen. De ouders van deze jongen hebben niet genoeg geld. De jongen moet meehelpen om inkomen te generen voor het gezin. Hij verzamelt afval en verdient daarmee 50 Peso per dag (ongeveer 1 euro) hij heeft de droom om naar school te gaan. Maar hoe kan dat als zijn ouders geen eens het geld hebben om de kosten van de bus naar school te betalen en nauwelijks kunnen rondkomen. Deze organisatie helpt dus mee aan millenniumdoel 2: ‘alle kinderen naar school’ Helaas is dit nog niet het geval.

Het probleem is dat de organisatie niet genoeg fondsen heeft en dus ook niet het geld om experts in te huren, Toch hopen ze dat mensen via het internet hen kunnen helpen. Het lastige hier in de Filipijnen is de soms slechte internet verbinding.

De organisatie had nog niet eerder van online volunteering gehoord en ziet hier dus kansen in, maar hier hebben ze natuurlijk wel online vrijwilligers voor nodig!
Zou jij een online vrijwilliger willen zijn?

Volunteers needed in the field of regenerative agroforestry

reNature is a Dutch initiative to make the world a little greener again. In many countries intensive and or monoculture agriculure have degraded the soil. Through training of farmers and local organisations reNature tries to change the way farmers use their land. Agroforestry is their solution. By planting trees in combination with other crops the soil will be more resilient against drought, have rain and erosion. Agricultural land that has bevome unproductive can be restored with this method. On model farms reNature shows the result: higher and more diverse income and a vast incline of biodiversity. On model schools they teach farmers how to handle the transition from old school to new school agriculture

reNature offers several opportunities to become a volunteer (also online). If you get inspired by renatureing the world and are inpired to make this world green, inclusive, complete and rich again, you are welcome to sign-up. Since they focus on agroforestry a certain level of prior knowledge will open up more opportunities. If you wish to engage in field work a minimum availability of one month is required. Want to know more about opportunities around the world? Get in contact

Join one of the weekly beach clean-up actions as a tourist in Thailand, Vietnam, Romania and more

Volunteer for one day. Making a difference during your holiday is not so easy. But, with the local trash hunting events of Trash Hero you can easily join a beach clean-up or nature clean-up just for one day and make a part of your tourist destination better. It is a great way to meet local people and leave your holiday destination cleaner than when you arrived. No costs are involved, no experience needed and no further obligations. When you travel to Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Georgia, Germany, Netherlands, Kuwait, Cambodia or Japan there are active volunteer groups of Trash Hero that regularly/weekly host clean-up events. The best way to check upcoming events is on the specific Facebook pages that the local chapters host.

Note: they also offer options for online volunteering - to promote their worldwide activities from your living room.

708 reads

Vrijwilligerswerk in het buitenland - Thema

SPOTLIGHT: NL

Online vrijwilligerswerk: uitgelichte tips, vacatures en verhalen door WorldSupporters verzameld

Uitgelichte tips, vacatures en verhalen van WorldSupporters met betrekking tot online vrijwilligerwerk

Zet je op afstand in voor Vlaamse, Afrikaanse en Zuid Amerikaanse bossen

De Vlaamse organisatie Bos+ zet die zich specifiek in voor bosbehoud, beter bos en meer bos in Vlaanderen en de wereld. Naast een sterke aanwezigheid in het Vlaamse, heeft deze organisatie via internationale partnerschappen al hele mooie projecten opgezet in Tanzania, Ethiopie, Oeganda, Ecuador, Peru en Bolivia.

Bos+ zoekt doorlopend mensen die een deel van hun beschikbare tijd willen investeren in hun doelstellingen. Als organisatie staan ze open voor vrijwilligers die sporadisch of op meer vaste basis actief zijn. Je kunt hierbij denken aan het schrijven van webteksten, vertalen van teksten en onderzoeken, implicaties van nieuwe wetgeving onderzoeken, het helpen ontwikkelen van educatieve materialen. Neem vooral contact op met Bos+ om jouw competenties en interesses te koppelen aan hun openstaande wensen. Fysieke aanwezigheid in Vlaanderen is niet vereist.

Op safari in de Amazone zonder dat het je iets kost - cameravallen analyseren

Help onderzoekers bij het analyseren van grote hoeveelheden data uit de Amazone. De cameravallen die ze hebben geplaatst hebben zoveel beelden opgeleverd dat ze graag jouw hulp inroepen bij het identificeren van de dieren die langs de vallen liepen.

Je moet steeds bij een 'still' aangeven welk die je ziet, of dat er op dat beeld helemaal niets te zien is. Je hebt een uitgebreide lijst met foto's van de te verwachten dieren tot je beschikking. Een beetje dierenkennis is zeker handig maar niet vereist.

Veel plezier en alvast bedankt!

Online Volunteering - vrijwilligerswerk in het buitenland over Nederland

Vrijwilligerswerk is er in vele vormen en projecten. Nog maar zelden heb ik echter iemand gesproken die vanonder een kokospalm op de wifi van de strandhut gratis en vrijblijvend zijn handen uit zijn zwembroekzakken haalde

Help op de website van VeleHanden mee met het digitaliseren van Nederlandse archieven.

Momenteel draaien er projecten rond georefereren van oude kaarten van Groningen en Amsterdam en bijvoorbeeld het uittypen van de bevolkingsregisters van verschillende Nederlandse regio's.