Have you thought about being a digital volunteer? find here how you can catch up with this trend in pandemic times and help others from home.
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Being a volunteer is not something new. To achieve their objectives different kind of organizations have been calling for volunteers for decades. And in return, many people are willing to donate their time, work and knowledge to organizations or even companies with which they sympathize or share common goals.
Virtual volunteering is, as you can imagine, the digital version of volunteering, and although it has been an option for volunteering for some years now, it is with the Covid-19 pandemic that it has become more popular, establishing itself as a viable option for those interested.
Even so, I suppose many will still wonder if being a digital volunteer is something they could do. Thinking about this, I came up with a list of tips to be a good digital volunteer.
It should be remembered that you can volunteer when you are young or old, as a student, worker or retired, regardless of your profession or trade.
So, before becoming a digital volunteer it is advisable to carry out several previous steps. Here are the ones that I consider essential:
1 — Assess your digital skills. Although it is not necessary to be a digital expert, a minimum of knowledge is required. For example the use of email, messaging applications and basic office applications in the cloud, such as Google Docs or others.
2 — Identify the field in which you want to volunteer. This will depend on the area of knowledge in which you are an expert and will help you find where to volunteer. As a reference, among the most sought-after profiles are communicators, psychologists, translators, lawyers and others.
3 — Determine the time you can donate. Organizations generally ask how many hours a week you are willing to collaborate. It is good to have done this calculation in advance.
4 — Make a list of the organizations where you could volunteer. Maybe you already have some in mind, but it is convenient that you broaden your spectrum. Keep in mind that not all of them will be recruiting volunteers or some may even have closed some activities.
5 — Research these organizations. The worst that can happen is to discover that the organization you are collaborating to has bad practices or dubious ethics. Google will help you with this. Finding testimonials from other volunteers would be the best to help you decide.
Once you have chosen an organization to volunteer and they have accepted you — you may have to knock on several doors before completing this step — we have to focus on volunteering itself.
6 — Read carefully everything they send you. Organizations that accept volunteers usually have what is called a Welcome pack, which contains all the necessary information about the organization, what you will do and other things you should know.
7 — Learn about their organizational culture. Identifying which are the principles of the organization, which things are well regarded and which are not, will help you have a more satisfactory experience.
8 — Identify the chain of command. Knowing with whom you should coordinate your actions will avoid bad experiences and trouble. Remember that not everyone has to know the scope of volunteering, so it may happen that someone asks you for more than agreed to, either due to ignorance or omission.
9 — Don’t commit yourself beyond your limits. The excitement of starting to volunteer may be a great thing, but don’t let that make you commit yourself beyond your real capabilities.
10 — Don’t be afraid to ask. It is natural that at the beginning you have doubts and questions, but do not keep them to yourself. Asking those questions will help you identify who you can rely on for similar cases in the future.
And well, from this point on, it depends on you and the degree of commitment you can reach with the objectives of the organization for volunteering. It also depends on the organization, and its knowledge on how to take advantage of your interest and effort.
One last tip. When you consider that, for whatever reason, you can no longer collaborate, do not just disappear, let them know that you are stopping collaboration. It will make you look good and you will be doing a favor to those who plan the daily activities in the organization.
