Virtual Volunteering

If you would like to give time but are unable to turn up in person, then virtual volunteering could be the answer. It is already well established in North America and is now taking root here.

Virtual TimeGiving is a new way of enabling you to complete tasks from your desk, either at home or in your workplace. The tasks could be for groups around the corner, overseas, or indeed they may exist only on the internet.
Giving time over the web is convenient and flexible and allows people to give time who would otherwise be unable to get involved in social action. Contact can be made over the internet, by telephone or post, and suits people who have little free time or cannot go out.

What sort of tasks could you do?

• Researching on the web - about time your surfing was put to good use.
• Tracking relevant legislation - take your interest in politics further to benefit a local voluntary organisation
• Giving specialist advice - think how useful your legal skills or management expertise could be to a small voluntary group.
• Creating databases - saves time and makes an organisation more effective.
• Designing a web site or newsletter - copywriting and other communications experience can make all the difference.
• Provide translation facilities - make sure a local ethnic community gets the message or help a group communicate with counterparts in other countries.
• Providing telephone or e-mail mentoring - if face-to-face meetings are out of the question, you can still help
    others.
• Supervise or moderate a chat room, news group or e-mail discussion group - another net benefit.

This is a new area - be willing to convince a community group or a volunteer group that this could really help them and that you could make an important contribution. Look at the virtual volunteering section of our internet directory to get involved with the very first UK initiatives enabling people to give time in this way.