Myths about Online Volunteering

Virtual Volunteering: The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly

Online Volunteering is great for people who don’t have the time to volunteer!

• FALSE. This is probably the biggest and most damaging myth around. If you don’t have time to volunteer offline, you probably do NOT have time to volunteer online.

• It should never be promoted as an alternative volunteering method for people who don’t have time to do it face-to-face.

The Appeal of Virtual Volunteering

• It is another way for a person to help an organization they are already involved with

• It is a way for someone who cannot volunteer onsite because they cannot leave their home or work to do so

• It allows a way for people with disabilities who have problems with mobility and transportation to volunteer easily

• It can allow a person to help an organization that serves a cause they are passionate about but for which there are no onsite opportunities to do so in their area

People Who Volunteer Online Don’t Volunteer Face-to-Face

• False. According to research by the Virtual Volunteering project in the late 1990s, as well as anecdotal evidence since then from various organizations, the overwhelming majority of online volunteers ALSO volunteer in person—often for the organization they are helping online.

People who volunteer on line for organizations geographically far from them

• False. Most online volunteers are people who ALSO volunteer onsite for the same organization.

• Most people who volunteer online look for opportunities in their same geographic area.

• There are thousands of volunteers who look for remote online opportunities, like through the UN’s Online Volunteering service, but it is usually a secondary action for them.

People who volunteer online are mostly young, affluent, and living in the USA

• False. Online volunteers come from all age groups who can use the Internet independently (usually starting around age 13.)

• These people come from various education and work backgrounds, and from various geographies and ethnicities.

• In fact, the numbers from the UN’s Online Volunteering service shows that more than 40% are from developing countries.

People who volunteer online are very shy and have trouble interacting with others

• False. The overwhelming majority of online volunteers ALSO volunteer in face-to-face settings.

• In fact, online volunteers tend to be excellent at interacting with others.

• It’s a “hunger” for interaction that often drives their volunteering, on or offline.

Online Volunteers engage primarily in technology related tasks.

• False. Online volunteers participate in a wide range of tasks.

• Common areas include advising on business plans, human resource development, fund-raising and press relations, research and facilitating discussions.

• A survey of online volunteer assignments posted to the UN’s Online Volunteering service shows about 50% of the assignments are NON-tech-specific.

Online Volunteering is impersonal

• False. Online interactions are actually quite personal. In many circumstances, people are often more willing to share information online than in person.

Also, they can more easily share photos of their families or narratives about their interests online than at a luncheon.

Interviewing potential volunteers in person is more reliable than interviewing people online

• False. Both methods of interviewing have strengths and weaknesses. One may be more appropriate than another in different circumstances, but each is effective.

• If anything, people online have to prove their skills and show their interests almost immediately by responding to promptly and clearly to emails.

The Internet is dangerous, and it opens an organization to risks

• False. The Internet is no more or less dangerous than the offline world.

• There is extensive information about how to ensure safety in online volunteering programs.

• For example, the Virtual Volunteering Project.

The biggest obstacle to online volunteering is lack of Internet access

• False. For most organizations, the biggest obstacle to involving online volunteers successfully (or at all) is lack of experience in basic volunteer management practices.

• If an organization doesn’t know how to involve onsite volunteers effectively, they won’t be able to do it online either.

Much more needs to be done to get people to volunteer online

• False. There are plenty of people who want to volunteer online. Far more people than there are opportunities in fact.

• Capacity building regarding volunteer management is crucial.

• Incorporating information about online volunteering into the capacity building is also critical.

Online Volunteering is a very new concept

• False. Online volunteering has been going on probably as long as there has been an Internet. (at least 30 years)

• Tim Berners Lee, in an online appearance at the UN Volunteers’ event at UN Open Day in Geneva, 2001, noted the role volunteers had played in his development of the World Wide Web—people donating their time and experience to a cause they believed in via the Internet.