• electronically visit with someone who is homebound, in a hospital or a rest home; this can be done in addition to onsite, in-person visits

• provide online mentoring and instruction via e-mail or private intranet (helping students with homework questions, helping an adult learn a skill or find a job, helping someone to prepare a resume or explore career options, or help prison inmates with studies or programs)

• help with language instruction (for instance, help people learning English)

• staff an e-mail or chat room answer/support line, like a phone answer/support line, where people write in questions and trained volunteers answer them; or, be part of an online support group, where members provide advice to each other via a chat room, list or newsgroup

• supervise or moderate an agency-sponsored chat room, e-mail discussion group or newsgroup

• provide advance "welcoming" of people about to enter the hospital, go to summer camp, etc. from volunteers, via email or a special Web page or Intranet, and post-service follow up to the same group via email or the Web

• work with other volunteers and/or clients to create a project, such as writing about the news of their neighborhood, school, special interest group, etc., or gathering history information relating to a particular time or region, to post on a web site or use in printed material

• distance learning: training volunteers in a subject via the Internet

• volunteers who supervise any of the above activities via the Internet and provide guidance, or ask for staff guidance, as appropriate

• Virtual Volunteering Project Collaborating Organizations
  We've profiled more than 100 organizations with outstanding programs involving volunteers virtually, many of whom have put the VV Project's suggestions into practice.

• Examples of Experiences Involving Online Volunteers and Youth With Disabilities
  Real-life examples of how volunteers and youth with disabilities are interacting with others via cyberspace, to give you more ideas of the limitless possibilities and benefits of virtual volunteering.

Absolutely! There are thousands (millions?) of online discussion groups that aren't formally affiliated with or supervised by any agency. On these groups, anyone can ask questions and anyone can provide support to others for just about any subject imaginable. These online support groups deal with everything from using a particular type of software to parents home-schooling their kids to people with a particular disease to fans of a particular hobby.

To participate, a potential user merely signs up via the web, subscribes via e-mail, or points a newsreader to a newsgroup. There are many advantages to such groups from the volunteer point of view: no application or screening process, no set time commitment -- people volunteer whenever and however they like. Thousands (millions?) of people benefit from these informal online groups -- many are of tremendous value to participants.

There are materials on our Web site participants in these informal groups might find helpful, such as our index of Resources for Volunteer Moderators and Facilitators of Online Discussion Groups.

Some of these online groups are profiled on our list of organizations involving online volunteers, because they've initiated or demonstrated an effective or outstanding practice or activity in engaging online volunteers that other groups could learn from and adapt for their own use in effectively involving online volunteers.

However, the Virtual Volunteering Project is focused on organized volunteering efforts designed to show measurable results and impact, and those designed to demonstrate a certain degree of quality in the type of volunteer service provided. Most agencies need to evaluate volunteer abilities before matching volunteers to assignments and supervise activities to ensure quality. These agencies also must make sure all volunteer activities fit within the agencies' mission. They must also be able to say how many volunteers participated, track and document all volunteering activities, report how many people were served by these volunteer activities, etc. Our materials are geared primarily to this audience of agency staff and volunteers.

 
Benefits of using the Internet to find and involve volunteers

• Virtual Volunteering Resources
  How to find and involve volunteers working from home or work computers, online resources for volunteer managers, advice for individuals who want to volunteer virtually, etc. These pages are updated and added to each month.

• How Your Agency Can Utilize the Virtual Volunteering Project
  Tips on how to use this Web site, information about our offline services, and how we can help you introduce or expand virtual volunteering in your agency.

• Virtual Volunteering Project home page

 
If you find this or any other Virtual Volunteering Project information helpful, or would like to add information based on your own experience, please contact us.

If you do use Virtual Volunteering Project materials in your own workshop or trainings, or republish materials in your own publications, please let us know, so that we can track how this information is disseminated.

If you are interested in more up-to-date information about virtual volunteering, view the Virtual Volunteering Wiki.