Sparked Blog

Here at Sparked, we’re constantly seeking to improve the microvolunteering experience for nonprofits and volunteers. While we’re always tracking the stats, last week we did a more thorough quantitative and qualitative deep-dive into the question “How do we maximize Nonprofit Happiness on Sparked?” We want to share these results with you, so have compiled the findings below.

We started with the premise that successful challenges make for happy nonprofits and looked for validation in data from closed challenge and survey answers from nonprofits. If successful challenges were the key to nonprofit happiness, then analyzing closed challenges would be our first step to finding the ingredients to a successful challenge. To test our hypothesis, we sent surveys to three groups of nonprofits: “On Fire,” “Fizzled,” and “Pre-Sparked.” Each group of nonprofits was categorized in the following way:

Quantitative data included how many respondents per challenge, while qualitative data such as quality of challenges and ease of Sparked was gathered. In our analysis of challenges, we looked at the last 150 closed challenges, of which 127 were marked successful and 23 were marked unsuccessful. Of the surveys we sent out two weeks ago, we gathered 147 responses from “On Fire” nonprofits, 79 from “Pre-Sparked,” and 94 from “Fizzled.”

By looking at closed challenge data, we sought to identify the traits of successful and unsuccessful challenges. Right away, intuitive conclusions were validated, such as successful challenges tend to have a higher number of respondents. Also, there is a major correlation between description quality and challenge success, but surprisingly the opposite was true for title quality–there is little correlation between titles and success. We also took a look at the views per challenge, and since views for unsuccessful challenges are high, the lack of responses are not from a routing problem, but may stem from a poorly written challenge description. The amount of nonprofit interaction with the microvolunteers was also positively correlated with challenge success. To look at these characteristics of challenges in the bigger picture, we fit them into the picture with nonprofit happiness.

To better understand the why nonprofits were either “On Fire,” Fizzled,” or “Pre-Sparked,” we analyzed their survey answers for trends. It turns out that our first hypothesis – that successful challenges make for happy nonprofits – corresponded with the data. Findings on Pre-Sparked nonprofits were that they tended to have more difficulty with Sparked, including the sign-up process, website usage, Sparked learning process, and posting challenges. As expected, On Fire nonprofits had the opposite experience, with much higher ratings of ease. Pinpointing the top reasons for not closing challenges, Fizzled nonprofits cited: “Slipped my mind,” “Thanked the volunteers already,” “Wasn’t clear how to do it on the site,” and confusion over what “closing” means.

So how can we make the unhappy nonprofits happy? From the results of the closed challenges and surveys, and that successful challenges make nonprofits happy, we’ve come up with the following hypotheses:

Nonprofits will close more challenges successfully if,…

1. they write better challenge descriptions (clear, detailed, all resources provided).
2. we make Sparked easier to understand.
3. they understand why challenges they posted are successful or unsuccessful.
4. the closing process is streamlined and easier to use.

Want to know how we got all of our conclusions? We compiled a bunch of graphs from all of the data, all included in the rest of the post.

Got a fresh batch of data today and thought I’d share it with you.

We’re closing in on 2,500 nonprofits and growing fast.  Below, I’ve mapped these data on a visualizer to show the organizations geographically. Note, these data are primarily pulling from the location of the nonprofit headquarters, so if an organization does work in India (but is based in Washington, D.C.) then it would show up in D.C. — hence the concentration of U.S. map points.

Anyways, it’s interesting stuff! Click the image below to enjoy in more detail.

Becky Lyons is a young volunteer coordinator for Literacy Action, Inc., the oldest and largest community based adult literacy program in the state of Georgia. She has been using Sparked on the organization’s behalf for several months – having closed four challenges to date. This week, something pretty extraordinary happened to Becky in the course of her work, and we thought it warranted sharing with the rest of you in the Sparked Community. Here is her story:

About 2 weeks ago, I posted a challenge asking for creative ways our organization could show volunteers we care during the National Volunteer Week coming up in April. One microvolunteer suggested we use a flip video to capture students sharing stories of volunteers.

Microvolunteer: “Everyone likes to know that they made a difference and how they made that difference. Maybe you could get a Flip camera to have people just share their stories….”

I commented back: “We don’t have a flip camera (it’s on our wish list), but we do use a digital camera to capture teacher and student stories. I think this could be expanded to our students talking about volunteers. I will look into this. Thanks!”

I appreciated just having someone respond to our challenge, but didn’t think it out of the ordinary. Then, today I received a mysterious package (it was just addressed to Literacy Action and not a specific person). I handed it off to a colleague. Later, that coworker told me it was a flip camera and was accompanied by the following note:

“Becky Lyons posted a challenge on Sparked.com. In a response she said a flip camera was on your wish list. I wanted to make this little wish come true.”

I was not only surprised, but overjoyed by this donation.  Our organization is grateful for the donation, and we look forward to posting videos of students and volunteers in action. This is definitely a win for adult literacy and will help us spread the word!

Rob, a volunteer, helps student Anna with her homework. Photo courtesy of Literacy Action, Inc.

(This post is a side step from our normal nonprofit capacity / employee volunteering posts. But, I’m sure there are lessons here that can apply.)

I fly a lot for work and for personal reasons (my fiancée lives in Seattle for the near future). Foursquare tells me that I’ve checked-in at SFO at least 35 times in the last year — and that’s only the times that I’ve remembered to check-in. And, as comedic as it may sound, I can relate to George Clooney in Up In The Air. I’ve got the grab-two-trays-remove-belt-unpack-laptop-whip-off-shoes-drop-keys/phone-go-go-go routine down with such efficiency that it would impress a Japanese automobile assembly line manager.

With all of that travel, there are few major hubs in the U.S. that I haven’t passed through recently.

And the Seattle-Tacoma TSA is night-and-day better than the rest of the TSA system.

There are a few things that really make it stand out:

1. FAST. I can get through the opening of the security ropes, past the ID check, through the X-ray machine, and out the back within 5-8 minutes. I’ve timed it. And, this has a direct affect on the second point…
2. FRIENDLY. When you don’t have passengers standing around pissed off about a 30-45 minute wait, passengers are actually quite nice. When passengers aren’t staring you down with raging angry eyes, you feel better about yourself. When you feel better about yourself, you are actually much nicer to the passengers — and the cycle repeats itself. The mood here is incredibly positive.
3. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE. The Seatac team seems to have real customer experience vision. Because the lines are fast, and the mood is friendly, this team isn’t reactionary. They’re not scrambling to keep up with overflowing lines or dealing with irate passengers. As a result, they seem to actually be moving the ball forward and taking the whole experience to the next level. They have been able to tweak efficiency points to make things smoother, have polite people telling you that it’s 3 minutes less if you take that lane, and I am regularly asked “how my day is going?” — BY A TSA AGENT.

This has had me thinking:

1. How is it possible that this one airport security team can be so much better than the rest of the entire system?
2. What is Seatac TSA management doing to inspire and engage their team members to be so good at what they do?
3. Why do these TSA agents seem to have a deeper sense of purpose about their work than any of the other agents in the system?
4. What other factors make this user experience so good?

I’m actually quite curious and I don’t know the answer. I’m quite keen to learn from these lessons here. Thoughts?

(image courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobileedgelaptopbags)

MUNI. For those of us that live in San Francisco, that single name evokes all kinds of emotions. But hate it or love it, MUNI buses are the heart of the public transit system, and they are directly responsible for helping tens of thousands of people get around the city each day.

I ride the 38 Geary bus to and from the office each day. It’s a bumpy, stinky, hot, packed, cattle car experience. But, I actually like it. It’s a chance to mingle with all kinds of people, brought together by the randomness of going in the same direction, at the same time, on the same day. And, at two bucks, you can’t beat it.

A few days ago, an elderly woman at the front of the bus was waving a piece of paper at the bus driver trying to ask for directions. The problem was… she didn’t speak English, and the driver didn’t speak Russian.

I grew up speaking Polish (my mom was born outside of Krakow and hopped the pond in 1970), so I could tell that the lady was speaking Russian (the languages are somewhat similar). Yet, unfortunately, my grasp of the Russian language is restricted to the names of classical music composers and vodka brands.

As the lady continued to struggle with orienting herself in a foreign city, her anxiety about being lost began to grow. She raised her voice, tried communicating with other passengers, and frankly seemed on the verge of tears. We all wanted to help her, but none of us — not me, not the driver, not even the well-dressed guy with the slick suit and shiny shoes — could get it done. None of us had the right skills.

And then, when all seemed lost, we were all taught an important lesson.

At the front of the bus, was a young, short, Asian teenager, bumpin’ Jay-Z in his gigantic Dr. Dre Monster Beats headphones, with his pants sagging around his ankles, and his SF Giants hat perfectly tilted at a 15 degree angle from his head. He looked like he was right out of central casting for the next Kanye West hip hop music video.

When the kid saw the commotion (remember, the lady was asking everyone trying to get help), he took his headphones off to see what was going on. And then, in absolutely perfect Russian, he proceeded to spend the next five minutes answering all her questions and helping her get the info she needed.

It was one of those moments that made you feel amazing to be alive.

The lady thanked him profusely, got off at the next stop, and walked down the street with a sense of confidence that only comes from, well, knowing where you’re going. The kid sat back down, put his headphones back on, and resumed the semi-comatose state we all find ourselves in when riding the bus. And we all sat there — amazed, humbled, and simultaneously purchasing the Russian version of Rosetta Stone from Amazon.com using each of our respective wireless devices.

The lessons are clear and numerous. And, they are lessons that I see replicating themselves everyday in Sparked. It amazes me to see so many quality, effective, and thoughtful solutions being provided to cause after worthy cause. And those solutions come from every type of age, race, skillset, place of employment, and gender.

So, as it would seem, love isn’t the only thing that is blind — skills are too.

(Image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tehf0x)

Reposting some questions we recently received about microvolunteering from Randy Tyler (http://www.randytyler.org).

1. What specific routine and meaningful micro-volunteering tasks can be performed in what (reasonable/realistic) time frame and how will these said micro-volunteering tasks mesh (conceptually and in practice) with similar/same virtual volunteering tasks?

Design, human resources, marketing/promotion, social media, translation, web development — any discreet project that can be completed in a reasonable amount of time. 
Check out our success feed to see examples: http://www.Sparked.com/success or read our blog to get more detailed breakdowns of case studies: http://blog.beextra.org/nonprofit-successes

2. For those micro volunteers involved with sensitive information or non-profit clients, what type and extent of screening will/should be undertaken?

That's up to the nonprofit. We're simply the facilitator. 

3. With limited resources, how will a non-profit manage (e.g., screen, co-ordinate, appropriately assign, supervise, document and evaluate) numerous volunteers involved in micro volunteering (such as, 100 volunteers involved in two minute tasks)?

They don't need to manage microvolunteers, that's the whole point. 

Traditional volunteering: Outline a problem –> write up a volunteer job description –> post that job description on numerous websites –> wait for resumes/applicants to come in –> screen –> interview –> appropriately assign –> supervise –> document and evaluate –> possibly repost volunteer job description if the first candidate didn't work –> repeat. With this arduous process, it's no wonder nonprofits often can't afford the cost of bringing more volunteers in the door, despite the overwhelming need for more skilled help. 

Microvolunteering: Outline a problem –> write up a challenge post –> watch the responses come in and participate in the dialogue –> decide which response was the best one and give out an award of excellence. Done. 

4. What motivates individuals to engage in what types of micro volunteering?

Traditional volunteering: decide that I want to volunteer –> search for opportunities –> submit application –> wait for phone call from nonprofit –> interview –> schedule time in my busy life to get involved –> drive down to a physical location or call into a webinar to get trained –> commit to long term engagement –> repeat. With 60-hour workweeks, kids, errands, and the stress of everyday life, most people can't afford to go through this process on a regular basis, if at all. 

Microvolunteering: decide that I want to volunteer –> log on to Sparked and tell the system what my interests/skills are –> begin volunteering within 60 seconds. Done. 

5. Are there certain types of non-profit organizations (based on such variables as: mission, structure, size, geographic area, resources and/or budget) that are best suited for micro volunteering (meaning micro volunteering efforts will result in the most impact, however that may be defined, for the non-profit)?

We have over 1,000 nonprofits that have signed up and we are growing at a rate of 10-30 organizations everyday. They range in size from a small organization in rural Africa to a massive global organization with headquarters in D.C. 

6. Are there specific types of tasks with certain types of non-profit organizations which attract specific micro volunteers?

Challenges are grouped by cause, nonprofit, or skill. Designers tend to stick to design challenges. Social media experts to social media challenges. The variance comes with each person's unique affinity for a particular cause. 

7. Continuous recruiting is a significant resource drain. What methods and strategies will assist in retaining micro volunteers?

Each new company we sign on as a customer brings thousands of employees into the fold. 

8. What specific types of devices using what type of Internet connections are best for micro volunteering?

A computer or laptop.

9. What motivates non-profits to embrace micro volunteering?

See question #3.

When we founded The Extraordinaries in mid-2008 as a for-profit social enterprise, we did it after months of debate around business entity structure. Both Ben and I had worked in nonprofits before and neither one of us wanted to have to deal with the challenge of constant fundraising or restrictive IRS regulations. Taking inspiration from Muhammad Yunus, we chose to use the power and efficiency of business to have the greatest impact possible. 

Today, we're excited to announce that The Extraordinaries is joining a long list of socially conscious companies called B Corporations. Hundreds of companies in the U.S. and around the world have taken the step to build a community of businesses committed to social good. We're happy to join them. 

To learn more about B Corps, click here: http://www.bcorporation.net

To see a list of all the companies that are certified as a B Corp, click here: http://www.bcorporation.net/community/search

We were quite excited when we found out that we had scored a 122 on the B impact assessment report. As we understand it, this is among the highest scores possible for the survey. 

We also want to take a second to thank Bart, Heather, and the whole B Labs team for continuing to push for important legislation in all 50 states that allows for purpose-driven businesses to make the world a bit better tomorrow than we found it today.

Onward,

Jacob Colker
CEO and Co-Founder 

We just added a new feature to TweetNotes that allows you to track multiple search terms… so if people aren't tweeting to the hashtag that you want them to… if despite your best efforts, they've all started using a different tag or even just a regular phrase, you can now collect all of these into the same TweetNotes. 

This new featured was motivated by a post from a member of the Progressive Exchange mailing list who's documentary film called "No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson"  ran on ESPN… and people started tweeting about it using all kinds of tags and terms such as "#nocrossover" "#iverson" and "allen iverson no crossover." 

Unfortunately, we couldn't save the Tweets for this event (they expire from Twitter fast!), but with our new feature, you won't have to loose Tweets the next time you have an event and you want to both track and improve the Tweetstream – turning it into a lasting public resource. 

You can setup a new TweetNotes Project here: http://app.beextra.org/create/microapp/name/tweetnotes