MSNBC Charities thrive with online volunteers

[Guest guest]

>Charities thrive with online volunteers

>Online volunteering is growing as Internet

>access improves worldwide, particularly among

>African and Latin American organizations needing

>assistance.

>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14515305/

Charities thrive with online volunteers

Improving Internet access worldwide means more opportunities to help

By Anick Jesdanun

The Associated Press

 

Updated: 6:09 p.m. PT Aug 25, 2006

 

NEW YORK - When it comes to volunteering, Caitrin

Murphy finds satisfaction in spending 10 months

helping Tijuana orphans or a Saturday building

low-income homes outside Washington, D.C.

 

But onsite projects aren't always feasible, so

Murphy instead turned to the Internet and, with

two co-workers, remotely created a Web site for

an organization that helps farmers in the West

African country of Cameroon.

 

" It's an adequate alternative, " Murphy said. " I

would prefer a hands-on, physical experience at

the site. At the same time...by doing a project

virtually we could affect the lives of people we

would never think of meeting. "

 

Online volunteering is growing as Internet access

improves worldwide, particularly among African

and Latin American organizations needing

assistance.

 

VolunteerMatch, a San Francisco group that helps

volunteers learn about onsite and online

projects, said 14 percent of its volunteer

opportunities last year were virtual, compared

with 1 percent in 1998.

 

Instead of building homes, volunteers like Murphy can build Web sites.

 

Or translate documents. Or prepare training manuals. Or mentor teens.

 

All from a computer hundreds or thousands of miles away.

 

" If I could send a volunteer to Chile to teach an

organization how to build a Web site, that will

be 10 times better than having us build it for

them, but it's a hundred times more expensive, "

said Charles Brennick, whose Seattle-based

InterConnection group links volunteer Web

designers with development groups abroad.

 

Online volunteering isn't practical for

everything. You still need to be somewhere to

serve soup to the homeless or coach a Little

League team. But over the Internet, you can order

the food or reserve the ball field.

 

Online volunteering isn't right for everyone, either.

 

" It takes real time, not virtual time, " said

Jayne Cravens, an independent consultant for

nonprofit organizations. " It takes commitment. It

takes persistence. "

 

It's a good option for those needing flexibility

- be it a disability, work schedule or budget

that rules out travel.

 

Sandrine Cortet, 36, sought to put her French

skills to work when she and her husband moved

from Paris to Edison, N.J. But they had only one

car, and a train to volunteer opportunities in

New York would have been expensive.

 

So she translates documents from home, most

recently for a refugee group's newsletter.

 

Sara Siebert, 23, wanted opportunities to improve

her skills in graphics design. Lacking funds to

travel, she built Web sites for groups in Kenya

and Belize from Montreal; InterConnection hosts

the sites in Seattle.

 

Volunteers and the organizations they help

generally communicate by e-mail or instant

messaging, rarely by telephone.

 

Phil Westman, program officer with Siebert's

group in Belize, said he doesn't even know where

his other Web design volunteer lives.

 

Murphy, 24, of Arlington, Va., said she gets

feedback every other day from Cameroon, along

with pressures to get the site done more quickly.

 

Francisco Filho, research assistant with the

United Nations Development Program's

International Poverty Center in Brasilia, Brazil,

acknowledges he was skeptical initially about

online volunteering.

 

" I was afraid we could not get the expected

results, " he said. " It was kind of a new thing

for us. It was a big and good surprise. "

 

Filho said that through the U.N. Volunteers

online service, he found volunteers fluent in

English, Spanish and French, skills not common in

a country dominated by Portuguese. Plus, many of

the volunteers were academics and professionals

well-versed in a specific subject matter, not

someone merely good at translating words.

 

He said his agency is also saving money in not

having to provide office space and other support.

 

Online volunteers hail from around the world -

U.N. Volunteers says 40 percent of the ones it

helped place last year were from developing

countries.

 

Nor are they all young.

 

Retirees like Tom Davis, 63, offer advice on

relationships, careers and other life matters via

the Internet's Elder Wisdom Circle.

 

" Typically this is associated with having skills

that we weren't taught when we were educated, but

I think that there's room for everybody, " said

Davis, a retired doctor and health care executive

in Monument, Colo. " We're proving that it works. "

 

While many of the early projects were

technology-related, VolunteerMatch spokesman

Jason Willett said, organizations now are

realizing they can farm out such tasks as

creating brochures and logos.

 

Through online volunteering, Bundles of Love is

getting more people to make diaper bags, baby

clothes and other goods for needy families in

Minnesota. Many volunteers can't make the monthly

gatherings, said Ruth Volk, 45, a regional

coordinator.

 

Cravens said a big hurdle these days isn't the

availability of volunteers but the projects for

them.

 

" A lot of organizations can't even get their

minds around online volunteers, " she said. " When

they hear about it, their first thought is, `I

don't know about computers.' You don't have to

know about computers. You do have to know about

people. "

 

Elise Bouvet, a specialist with the U.N. online

volunteers program, said online volunteering

assignments carry the same commitment,

communication and management requirements as

onsite opportunities.

 

" In both theory and practice, it's still

volunteering, " she said. " Only the tool that you

are using is different. "

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast,

rewritten or redistributed.

 

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14515305/

© 2006 MSNBC.com

 

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