|
Myths About Online Volunteering
(Virtual Volunteering)
Online volunteering means unpaid service that is given via the
Internet, either via a computer or via a handheld device, even a
cell phone. It's a method of volunteering I have been using,
studying, documenting or promoting since 1995, first independently,
then with the
Virtual Volunteering Project, and then with the UN's
Online Volunteering service. It's also known as virtual
volunteering, online mentoring, ementoring, evolunteering, cyber
volunteering, cyber service, telementoring, and on and on.
Now, 15 years on, I'm stunned at how many myths are still out there
about the concept. Here is a list of 15 of the most common myths,
and my attempt to counter them:
1) Online volunteering is great for people who don't have time to
volunteer!
False. This is probably the biggest and
most annoying myth out there about the practice. Online volunteering
requires REAL time, not "virtual" time. If you don't have time to
volunteer offline, you probably do NOT have time to volunteer
online. Online volunteering should never be promoted as a way an
alternative volunteering method for people who don't have time to
volunteer face-to-face. Rather, the appeal of online volunteering
for individuals is that:
- it's another way for a person to help an organization they are
already helping in face-to-face settings
- it's a way for someone who cannot volunteer onsite because, while
they have time to volunteer, they cannot leave their home or work
place to do so
- it allows a way for people with disabilities who have problems
with mobility, or people no way of traveling easy, to volunteer
- it can allow a person to help an organization that serves a cause
or issue of great importance to the person but for which there are
no onsite opportunities in his or her area
- it can allow a person to help a geographic area that he or she
cannot travel to
2) People who volunteer online don't volunteer face-to-face.
False. According to research by the
Virtual Volunteering Project in the late 1990s, as well as anecdotal
evidence since then from various organizations, the overwhelming
majority of online volunteers also volunteer in face-to-face
settings, often for an organization in their same city or region,
and often for the same organization they are helping online.
3) There are online volunteers and there are onsite volunteers
and these are entirely separate groups
False. As stated in the previous myth,
rarely will you find an online volunteer who doesn't also volunteer
onsite, or an onsite volunteer that doesn't use the Internet in some
way to interact with the organization they support onsite. They are
all volunteers, and don't self-identify into separate online and
onsite groups.
4) People who volunteer online do so for organizations that are
geographically far from them.
False. Most online volunteers are
people who also volunteer onsite for the same organization; for
instance, a volunteer designing an annual report may go onsite to
meet with staff but perform most of the donated service via his or
her home or work computer. Also, most people who volunteer online
look for opportunities that are in their same geographic area --
just as do people who want to volunteer onsite. Indeed, there are
thousands of online volunteers who look for remote online
volunteering opportunities, and the
UN's Online Volunteering service
is an excellent avenue for them to find such.
5) People who volunteer online are mostly young, affluent and
living in the USA.
False. Online volunteers come from all
age groups who can use the Internet independently (usually starting
when a person is over 13), from various educational and work
backgrounds, and from various geographies and ethnicities. The
breakdown of online volunteers from the
UN's Online Volunteering
service is telling: more than 40% are from developing countries. Ofcourse, each organization that involves online volunteers will
have a different breakdown as far as online volunteering
demographics; in short, one cannot make sweeping generalizations
about who online volunteers are.
6) People who volunteer online are very shy and have trouble
interacting with others.
False. As noted earlier, according to
research by the
Virtual Volunteering Project in the late 1990s, as
well as anecdotal evidence since then from various organizations,
the overwhelming majority of online volunteers also volunteer in
face-to-face settings. In fact, online volunteers tend to be
excellent at interacting with others -- it's that hunger for
interaction that often drives their volunteering, on or offline.
7) Online volunteers engage primarily in technology-related
tasks.
False. Online volunteers engage in a
variety of non-technology-related tasks, such as advising on
business plans, human resources development, fund-raising and press
relations, researching topics, and facilitating online discussions.
A survey of online volunteering assignments posted to, say, the
UN's
Online Volunteering service, usually shows 50% of more assignments
that are non-tech-specific.
8)
Online volunteering is impersonal.
False. Online interactions are quite personal. In many
circumstances, people are often more willing to share information
and feelings online than they are in face-to-face. Also, volunteers
can more easily share photos of their families, and narratives about
their interests, via the Internet than, say, at an onsite volunteer
luncheon. Online volunteers with whom I have worked are real people
to me, not virtual people. When they have gotten married or
graduated from high school or college or had a baby or gotten a job,
I have celebrated, and when they have died or lost a loved one, I
have cried.
9)
Interviewing potential volunteers face-to-face is much more reliable
than interviewing people online.
False. Both methods of interviewing potential volunteers have
strengths and weaknesses, and one may be more appropriate than
another for a particular situation, but each is effective. I have
talked to plenty of people face-to-face who expressed great
enthusiasm and interest in becoming online volunteers, and have
wanted information on how to get started -- and who never
follow-through, while people online must show not only their
interest but their commitment and skills almost immediately, by
responding to emails promptly and by writing clearly.
10)
The Internet Is Dangerous and, therefore, online volunteering opens
an organization and its clients up to many risks.
False. The Internet is no more, nor no less, dangerous than the
offline world. When people, including children, have been harmed as
a result of online activities, it has been because they or their
parents did not take appropriate safety measures -- it's amazing to
me that parents who would never allow their children to go to, say,
a bus station to play for the day, allow their children to go into
unsupervised chat rooms. There is extensive information on how to
ensure safety in online volunteering (and online mentoring) programs
at the
Virtual Volunteering Project.
11)
The biggest obstacle to online volunteering is lack of Internet
access.
False. For organizations, the biggest obstacle to involving online
volunteers successfully, or at all, is lack of experience in basic
volunteer management practices. If an organization doesn't know how
to involve onsite volunteers effectively, they won't be able to do
it online.
12)
Working with online volunteers is completely different than working
with onsite volunteers.
False. The key to success in working with online volunteers is the
application of basic volunteer management standards - the
fundamentals that make any traditional volunteering program work.
All volunteers, whether online or onsite, need support, feedback,
guidance and recognition.
13)
Online volunteering requires building a dedicated online platform or
using a specific tech tool.
False. If an organization has email, the organization can involve
online volunteers. An organization can effectively involve and
support online volunteers with Internet tools they already have
(email, instant messaging, an iVisit or Skype account, etc.).
Organizations can also use free Internet tools to support all
volunteers (not just online volunteers), like
YahooGroups or
GoogleGroups, the online calendars provided by both
Yahoo and
The
Google. And organizations recruit online volunteers via the same
offline and online avenues as their onsite, face-to-face volunteers.
14)
Much more needs to be done to get people to volunteer online.
False. There are plenty of people who want to volunteer online, far,
far more than there are opportunities for them. Instead, much more
needs to be done to help build the capacity of organizations
regarding volunteer management, and to incorporate information about
online volunteering into this capacity-building.
15)
Online volunteering is a very new concept.
False. Online volunteering has been going on probably has long as
there has been an Internet (which itself is more than 30 years old).
Certainly the Internet itself, particularly USENET, could be
categorized as a form of online volunteering -- users helping users.
Also, Tim Berners Lee, in an online appearance at the United Nations
Volunteers' event at United Nations Open Day in Geneva in 2001,
noted the role volunteers had played in his development of the World
Wide Web back in the 1980s. But the earliest example I have been
able to find of formal online volunteering, where volunteers were
mobilized specifically to contribute to a specific not-for-profit
project meant to help others (other people, the environment,
animals, etc.) via their home, work or school computer, is
Project
Gutenberg, which began in the 1970s and which mobilized online
volunteers to create electronic versions of public domain books.
More about the history of online volunteering/virtual volunteering
is detailed on this
page on Wikipedia regarding online volunteering.
Also see this
list of research about online volunteering undertaken
by various organizations and individuals.
On a related note,
Volunteer Program Mythology by Ivan Scheier,
which identified myths relating to volunteer management in 1992,
myths that are still common today, including in relation to online
volunteering.
First published by Jayne Cravens of
Coyote Communications
Current as of January, 2010 |
