In talking to nonprofit managers and staff about microvolunteering, there are certain questions that come up quite often, and one of them is about project scope. Microvolunteering tasks are, by definition, small, but nonprofits often have large projects or campaigns they need help with too, many of which require expert help to get off the ground. How can we reconcile the two?
The answer is actually pretty simple, and the key is in one of the four defining characteristics of microvolunteering: bite-sized tasks. Large projects can be broken up into smaller pieces, and tackled by different teams of volunteers, one-by-one.
One of the best examples of this we’ve seen is from Building Tomorrow, an international nonprofit organization that empowers young people to invest their time, talent and >resources in providing access to education for millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa. A few months ago, with an exciting new project in the works and limited resources, Maggie from Building Tomorrow (pictured right) came to Sparked, and saw an opportunity to increase capacity. By strategically breaking up her needs into reasonably-sized, skill-specific challenges, she was able to use microvolunteers to not only complete her project, but also to provide the extra polish that only comes from expert help. Here’s what she had to say about her experience:
“At Building Tomorrow, we just launched a new online tool enabling anyone that went to public school in the US to quickly & easily calculate the cost of their education, www.calculateit.org.
The site was the subject of our first big project on Sparked.com. Thirty-two microvolunteers lent their time and talents to helping Building Tomorrow streamline our message, simplify our calls-to-action, clean up the copy, optimize the site layout, create Google AdWords campaigns and target key bloggers and media to contact about the launch of the tool. Since it’s launch in late January, more than 3,500 people have checked out the calculator and Building Tomorrow has received nothing but rave reviews.
I think that people underestimate the value and potential of online and microvolunteering. I was really involved in Building Tomorrow as a student, before coming on board full-time after graduation, and I remember a friend who was a computer science major saying to me, “I would love to help out and get involved with non-profits and humanitarian work, but I’m a computer science major – what good could I do?” A lot of good, if you ask me.
While the motivation behind a non-profit may differ drastically from that of a for-profit company, the recipe for success is, more often than not, the same. Non-profits need a clear mission, a long-term “business plan”, financial stability, an effective marketing strategy, a strong online presence, a secure means of accepting payment and sharing information online, etc. The list goes on.
What I mean to say is that microvolunteering is not “lazy volunteering” as I’ve often heard it called. Sparked’s version of microvolunteering gives non-profits access to a wealth of knowledge and expertise that they likely wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise. And with technology where it is today, there’s no end to the good people can do online, computer science majors included.”
Try Building Tomorrow’s calculator tool for yourself at www.calculateit.org.
