Friday Freebie

That was quite a hiatus I took - my apologies. It's been a busy month, with travel to Ontario, Maine and New Hampshire. By rights, I should owe you about four Freebies, so I'll do my best to make good on that.

1. If you're in the market for volunteers, or you're looking to promote your upcoming event, visit The Nova Scotia Volunteer Forum: http://www.nsvolunteerforum.ca/ (it's free!)


2. Funding Opportunities for Youth-serving Organizations. Check out today's post, under "On Giving" at http://www.bloomfornonprofits.com/


3. Funding opportunity - True Sport Community Fund: Funding to help children and youth participate in sports. Visit http://www.truesportfoundation.ca/ for details


4. This one may seem like a no-brainer, but if you find yourself with hours of research to do and you're not sure where and how to start, check out your local library, either online or in person. You might be surprised at what you find there.

Happy Friday!

Virtual Volunteering

Ten years ago, articles about the untapped potential of virtual volunteer opportunities were being published on Charity Village's website, in Canadian FundRaiser magazine, and throughout other websites and publications frequented by those of us involved in the charitable sector. The realm of vitual volunteer opportunities being touted included:

• conducting on-line research
• providing professional consulting
• designing brochures, newsletters, logos, etc.
• translating documents
• maintaining a database
• electronically "visiting" people in hospitals or homes
• providing on-line mentoring or instruction
• supporting group members via chat rooms or newsgroups

In 2002, the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy (now Imagine Canada) published a study, Virtual Volunteering: Current Status and Future Prospects. At that time, the study revealed, only 16% of volunteers reported volunteering in a virtual capacity. Of those, only 11% of virtual volunteers were involved in fundraising, and social networking was not even on the radar screen - at least not as its own separate "task".

Today, we are surrounded by virtual volunteers - most of whom have no "formal" relationship with, or assignment from, a particular charitable organization. They are the Facebookers, the bloggers, the Twitterers, and the thousands of everyday people advocating and raising money and awareness online on behalf of their communities and the entire planet.

For charities, there exists a great opportunity to tap into the vast resources available through virtual volunteering. And for many potential volunteers, the virtual world has opened a door to volunteer opportunities that may not have been accessible to them before - due to physical limitations, geographical separation, scheduling conflicts, or a host of other impediments to on-site volunteering.

More on engaging, supporting, and recognizing virtual volunteers later this week. In the meantime, check out the February 2009 Twestival, which raised more than $250,000 for charity:

http://twestival.com/