Archive for the ‘Thoughts on volunteering’ Category
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Digital things that will rock your charity's world in 2011
I’ve been catching up on various predictions for the charity sector in 2011 and thought I’d add a few of my own – all free to use, of course, in line with the current need for austerity, but genuinely valuable to organisations big and small.
1. Skype mobile video calling
As a former web content manager, I know that I would’ve cut off my own arm with a pen-knife to get hold of some decent video content from “the field” within a week of something happening. Now, Skype’s iphone app means that people can call your desk-top for free from anywhere in the world – and you can record the call and publish it to YouTube (or your site, or somewhere else) almost instantly.To me, this is so exciting that I felt a bit sick when I heard about it, and not just due to Christmas over-indulgence. It has the potential to open up a new world of virtual field-trips, video messages for donors, video blogs, instant vox-pops, citizen journalism… and it’s cheap.
Though there are some interesting projects going on in schools, I reckon the true potential of Skype to facilitate low-commitment, high-impact volunteering opportunities has yet to be fully explored and this app opens up even more possibilities.
2. Posterous
Do you know how to send an email? Yes? Then you can have a blog. For free. Without having to learn anything. Result!Posterous is the computerphobe’s dream. You literally send it an email, with a subject line and (if you like) a photo attached. You don’t need to remember a password to post by email – it will recognise your email address and do all of the hard work for you.
3. Simple CRB
This is still in development, but if they can pull it off (and I think they will), this might be a real, not-just-talk-but-action step forward in the quest to cut paperwork, free up time and still keep people safe. Imagine!
Simple CRB aims to develop a cheaper, quicker and more effective CRB service for charities and voluntary organisations. It will be run on a not-for-profit basis.
Sounds too good to be true? Help to make it happen by giving your views about how much the current system costs you in time and money and how you’d like to see it improved by filling in a short survey (guaranteed to be simpler than filling in a CRB form).
4. Ecomodo
Need stuff or a venue but got no money? Borrow it instead. I think 2011 will be the year when we all realise how much stuff there is festering in cupboards that could be put to good use. Apparently, electric drills only get used for 12-15 minutes in their lifetime, but 50% of homes have them – by pooling our resources, we can all reduce waste and make money go further.Ecomodo helps you to lend out the stuff you don’t want, and borrow the stuff you do. You can also set up private lending circles so, for example, your volunteers could share equipment or your supporters could share fundraising resources – I mean, how many sets of bingo balls can the world possibly need? Best of all, it’s a chance to meet new people and help them out – and anyone who volunteers knows how good that feels.
5. Monitoring & evaluation 2.0: quick, long-term and mobile
OK, so this doesn’t exactly exist yet, but surely it must be on its way, and if not, I’ll have to make it myself. Surely 2011 is the year when use digital technology to get rid of boring things like monitoring paperwork.Here is the story so far. In 2010, Mappiness proved how mobile phones can be used to map individual’s well-being over time, and new thinking about the promotion of national well-being inspired everyone from our friends Justin and Paul to the Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, research published by v, NatCen and Birkbeck made the case for more research on the long-term impact of volunteering, and v tested the effectiveness of sending surveys directly to participants, rather than expecting project workers to collect and compile data.
It seems to me that if you mashed all of these
ideas together, you could cut paperwork and get better, more interesting and more relevant data about the impact of volunteering programmes – not just at the end of a project but over time. And if participants could see value from providing this data too, like they do in the Mappiness app or the million Facebook quizzes my niece spams me with on a regular basis, you’d be onto a winner. In fact, if I get a minute, I think I’ll make this my project of 2011.
Over to you
So there you have it – my tips for 2011, and I didn’t even use it as an excuse to plug vinspired (which, since you ask, is free to use and here to stay). Now it’s your turn – tell me what I missed!
Format
I’ve been catching up on various predictions for the charity sector in 2011 and thought I’d add a few of my own – all free to use, of course, in line with the current need for austerity, but genuinely valuable to organisations big and small.
1. Skype mobile video calling
As a former web content manager, I know that I would’ve cut off my own arm with a pen-knife to get hold of some decent video content from “the field” within a week of something happening. Now, Skype’s iphone app means that people can call your desk-top for free from anywhere in the world – and you can record the call and publish it to YouTube (or your site, or somewhere else) almost instantly.
To me, this is so exciting that I felt a bit sick when I heard about it, and not just due to Christmas over-indulgence. It has the potential to open up a new world of virtual field-trips, video messages for donors, video blogs, instant vox-pops, citizen journalism… and it’s cheap.
Though there are some interesting projects going on in schools, I reckon the true potential of Skype to facilitate low-commitment, high-impact volunteering opportunities has yet to be fully explored and this app opens up even more possibilities.
2. Posterous
Do you know how to send an email? Yes? Then you can have a blog. For free. Without having to learn anything. Result!
Posterous is the computerphobe’s dream. You literally send it an email, with a subject line and (if you like) a photo attached. You don’t need to remember a password to post by email – it will recognise your email address and do all of the hard work for you.
3. Simple CRB
This is still in development, but if they can pull it off (and I think they will), this might be a real, not-just-talk-but-action step forward in the quest to cut paperwork, free up time and still keep people safe. Imagine!
Simple CRB aims to develop a cheaper, quicker and more effective CRB service for charities and voluntary organisations. It will be run on a not-for-profit basis.
Sounds too good to be true? Help to make it happen by giving your views about how much the current system costs you in time and money and how you’d like to see it improved by filling in a short survey (guaranteed to be simpler than filling in a CRB form).
4. Ecomodo
Need stuff or a venue but got no money? Borrow it instead. I think 2011 will be the year when we all realise how much stuff there is festering in cupboards that could be put to good use. Apparently, electric drills only get used for 12-15 minutes in their lifetime, but 50% of homes have them – by pooling our resources, we can all reduce waste and make money go further.
Ecomodo helps you to lend out the stuff you don’t want, and borrow the stuff you do. You can also set up private lending circles so, for example, your volunteers could share equipment or your supporters could share fundraising resources – I mean, how many sets of bingo balls can the world possibly need? Best of all, it’s a chance to meet new people and help them out – and anyone who volunteers knows how good that feels.
5. Monitoring & evaluation 2.0: quick, long-term and mobile
OK, so this doesn’t exactly exist yet, but surely it must be on its way, and if not, I’ll have to make it myself. Surely 2011 is the year when use digital technology to get rid of boring things like monitoring paperwork.
Here is the story so far. In 2010, Mappiness proved how mobile phones can be used to map individual’s well-being over time, and new thinking about the promotion of national well-being inspired everyone from our friends Justin and Paul to the Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, research published by v, NatCen and Birkbeck made the case for more research on the long-term impact of volunteering, and v tested the effectiveness of sending surveys directly to participants, rather than expecting project workers to collect and compile data.
It seems to me that if you mashed all of these ideas together, you could cut paperwork and get better, more interesting and more relevant data about the impact of volunteering programmes – not just at the end of a project but over time. And if participants could see value from providing this data too, like they do in the Mappiness app or the million Facebook quizzes my niece spams me with on a regular basis, you’d be onto a winner. In fact, if I get a minute, I think I’ll make this my project of 2011.
Over to youSo there you have it – my tips for 2011, and I didn’t even use it as an excuse to plug vinspired (which, since you ask, is free to use and here to stay). Now it’s your turn – tell me what I missed!
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Is it time we started sharing our cock-ups?
When chariti
es or voluntary organisations get together at events, it’s usually the successes you get to hear about. So hurrah for Sidekick Studios’ latest (beta) innovation: Cocktails and Cock-Ups, an evening of confessional presentations from charities and social enterprises about the disasters you never got to hear about – and, most importantly, what they did to fix them.
Dan Jones from Amnesty International UK, Andrew Dick from Envision, and Darren Taylor from EcoComputer Systems were impressively candid about the mistakes they’d made and the lessons they’d learnt. What struck me was how sharing failure led to frank discussions and a sense of shared experience which is often missing from the usual “look what I achieved”-style presentations.
I was
surprised to notice how rarely – if ever – I’ve seen someone deliver a PowerPoint presentation which actually highlighted the things that went wrong. Reviewing mistakes is something we do a lot in Agile web development; at the end of each two-week section of work, the whole team comes together to talk about what went right, what went wrong, and what we could change to make the next iteration more productive. But sharing that learning with other organisations? I don’t do that much.
So what did I take from the event?
- In the third sector, we’re so used to reporting to funders, trustees and bosses on what went well, that we’re in danger of forgetting that the lessons we learn from failure are valuable – not just to us, but to others, too.
- Talking about failure, rather than pretending we can prevent failure, can help us to expect and manage it. It’s also fun, and quite cathartic, once you get past the initial fear.
- “Failing fast” – building prototypes, running pilots, get feedback early on, not trying to plan everything up front in immense detail and instead being willing to embrace negative feedback and change – can actually help to avoid more catastrophic mistakes on a bigger scale.
- Sometimes a perceived failure actually leads to something better.
- It’s easier to admit mistakes with a cocktail in your hand.
So if you’re looking for valuable lessons, I reckon you’d learn more from inviting others like you to share their cock-up tales over drinks than from any of the usual seminars or conferences. Find out more about Cock-Up Cocktails on the Sidekick Studios blog.
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Cybermentors virtual volunteers take on the bullies
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CyberMentors, the online peer mentoring scheme run by BeatBullying, is in the headlines today after its hard-hitting new advert was banned from TV for being “too brutal for younger audiences”.
But it is CyberMentors’ ability to
forge partnerships with social networks that really stands out for me. YouTube is featuring CyberMentors on its front page all day today. And back in November, Bebo became the first social networking site to install a CEOP “report” button on the profiles of its 8 million users, featuring a link to the CyberMentors site.
By using social networks to offer reach out to young people in the very spaces where they might be bullied, CyberMentors helped over 176,000 young people with bullying and cyberbullying since its launch in March last year.
Lots of young people who’ve had horrible experiences are motivated to help others in the same situation. What’s great about CyberMentors is that it genuinely helps them to do that.
Young people, aged 11-25, are trained as CyberMentors, in schools and online, so that they can offer support to their peers. They’re also supported by trained counsellors, available online if needed, so site visitors always get the appropriate level of help, and younger volunteers are not in danger of having to deal with issues they’re not able to manage.
This video shows
how using her experience of bullying to help others helped CyberMentors volunteer Georgia get her confidence back.
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Young volunteers can create income for charity
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Ethical fashion label 50FIFTY clothing, which is run by ex-teachers and youth workers, is pioneering an innovative way to combat the rising tide of gun and knife crime affecting young people in the UK.
They’ve combined their business knowledge and their previous lives in youth work to show young people (many of whom facing social exclusion) how to make money legally by designing, making and selling clothing and promotional goods. Through their Made by Young People project, the team says they’ve helped dozens of young people move from criminal activities into entrepreneurial ones.
With research warning that charities will lag behind the rest of the UK economy in recovering from the recession, it’s interesting to see Made by Young People offering to work with voluntary organisations to show them how to raise money through social enterprise. I’m
really inspired by the thought of harnessing the talents and entrepreneurship of young volunteers and diversifying funding as a result.
Trekstock is a great example of this approach. It started as a simple idea from a young volunteer, Sophie Epstone, who wanted to put on a gig to raise money for a Teenage Cancer Trust trek. Since then, Trekstock has launched its own fashion line during London Fashion week, toured the UK festival circuit, gained charity status, attracted support from big name celebrities and raised thousands of pounds in the process.
Sophie says: “It may look big now but it all started with a small idea to hold a little fundraiser for a trek and over time the ideas and the drive grew along
with the hope that it was going to make a difference to the charities that it supported. I think that you have a great idea, how ever big or small, you must believe that it’s always doable and there is always support out there to help you make it grow.”
I’m sure there must be countless young volunteers out there bringing innovation and money to charities, and I’d be really interested to hear more about them.
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Crowd-sourcing funding for voluntary projects
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I’ve just discovered Kickstarter, a US-based website which allows budding entrepreneurs to crowd-source the money they need to bring their ideas to life. A service designer I know called it “my favourite website of all time”, and I can see where he’s coming from.
Project creators can offer products, services or other benefits (“rewards”) to inspire people to support their project: A hot-air balloon ride to the first person to pledge $300, an invitation to the BBQ for anyone who pledges more than $5. It’s up to each project creator to sculpt their own offers to inspire people to invest.
From crocheted yurts to plans to write everyone in the world a letter, the site is packed with weird and wonderful ideas, but it’s the voluntary projects which really got me thinking – such as this appeal to save a local community garden. Could it be that by stepping away from the format of traditional funding applications, we could actually inspire more creative volunteering opportunities? The very act of selling a simple idea, rather than a huge project plan, seems like a more natural way to test out your idea on the general public. Winning public support could inspire courage to test the boundaries and be really innovative.
I’m a big fan of Junction 49 and its commitment to supporting young volunteers in working together to bring their ideas to life, as well as v‘s vcashpoint project. I’d love to see what would happen if we could add crowd-sourced funding into the mix. Something tells me that these young volunteers could teach hardened fundraisers a few tricks, and inspire new creative approaches to promoting charitable giving.
I love the
idea of voluntary projects having a whole group of supporters, right from the start, who care enough about a project to dig into their pockets to help make
it happen. As Kickstart says, a large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.
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