Myths about Online Volunteering

Are myths about online volunteering preventing your organization from tapping into this valuable resource? In the following article, which first appeared on the Web site Coyote Communications, Consultant Jayne Cravens dispels some common misconceptions about finding and working with online volunteers.

Online volunteering means unpaid service given via the Internet. It's a method of volunteering I have been using, studying, documenting, and promoting since 1995, first independently, then through the Virtual Volunteering Project, and later through the United Nation's Online Volunteering Service. Online volunteering is also known as virtual volunteering, online mentoring, e-mentoring, e-volunteering, cyber volunteering, cyber service, and telementoring ... the list goes on and on.

Now, 10 years on, I'm stunned at how many myths are still out there about online volunteering. Here is a list of 12 of the most common myths, and my attempt to counter them.

1. Online volunteering is great for people who don't have time to volunteer!

False. This is probably the biggest and most annoying myth out there about the practice. Online volunteering requires real time, not "virtual" time. If you don't have time to volunteer offline, you probably do not have time to volunteer online.

Online volunteering should never be promoted as an alternative volunteering method for those who don't have time to volunteer face-to-face. Rather, the appeal of online volunteering is that:

• It's another way for people to help an organization they are already helping face-to-face.
• It's a way for those who have free time, but cannot volunteer on-site because they cannot leave their home or workplace, to volunteer.
• It offers a way for people with disabilities, limited mobility, or limited access to transportation to volunteer.
• It can allow someone to help an organization that serves a cause or issue for which there are no on-site opportunities in his or her area.
• It can allow someone to help a geographic area to which he or she cannot travel.

2. People who volunteer online don't volunteer face-to-face.

False. According to research conducted by the Virtual Volunteering Project in the late '90s — as well as anecdotal evidence from various organizations since then — the overwhelming majority of online volunteers also volunteer face-to-face, often for an organization in their same city or region, and often for the same organization they are helping online.

3. People who volunteer online do so for organizations that are geographically far from them.

False. Most online volunteers are people who also volunteer on-site for the same organization. For instance, a volunteer designing an annual report may go on-site to meet with staff, but perform most of the donated service via his or her home or work computer.

Additionally, most people who volunteer online look for opportunities that are in their same geographic area — as do people who want to volunteer on-site. Indeed, there are thousands of online volunteers who look for remote online volunteering opportunities, and the United Nation's Online Volunteering service is an excellent avenue to find these.

4. People who volunteer online are mostly young, affluent, and living in the United States.

False. Online volunteers come from any age group (typically over 13) that can use the Internet independently, as well as from various educational and work backgrounds, and from various geographies and ethnicities.

The breakdown of online volunteers from the United Nation's Online Volunteering service is telling: More than 40 percent are from developing countries. Of course, each organization that involves online volunteers will have a different breakdown as far as online volunteering demographics; in short, one cannot make sweeping generalizations about who online volunteers are.

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

False. As noted earlier, according to research by the Virtual Volunteering Project and subsequent anecdotal evidence, 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 that hunger for interaction that often drives their volunteering, on or offline.

6. Online volunteers engage primarily in technology-related tasks.

False. Online volunteers engage in a variety of non-technology-related tasks, such as advising on business plans, human resources development, fundraising, and press relations; researching topics; and facilitating online discussions. A survey of online volunteering assignments posted to the United Nation's Online Volunteering Service, for example, usually shows 50 percent or more assignments that are non-tech specific.

7. Online volunteering is impersonal.

False. Online interactions are quite personal. In many circumstances, people are often more willing to share information and feelings online than they are face-to-face.

Moreover, volunteers can more easily share photos of their families, and narratives about their interests, via the Internet than, say, at an on-site volunteer luncheon. Online volunteers with whom I have worked are real people to me, not virtual people. When they have gotten married or graduated from high school or college or had a baby or gotten a job, I have celebrated, and when they have died or lost a loved one, I have cried.

8. Interviewing potential volunteers face-to-face is much more reliable than interviewing people online.

False. Both methods of interviewing potential volunteers have advantages and disadvantages, and while one may be more appropriate than another for a particular situation, each is effective.

I have talked to plenty of people face-to-face who expressed great enthusiasm and interest in becoming online volunteers, and have wanted information on how to get started — and who never follow-through, while people online must show not only their interest but their commitment and skills almost immediately by responding to emails promptly and by writing clearly.

9. The Internet is dangerous and, therefore, online volunteering opens up an organization and its clients to many risks.

False. The Internet is no more, nor no less, dangerous than the offline world. When people, including children, have been harmed as a result of online activities, it has been because they or their parents did not take appropriate safety measures. It's amazing to me that parents who would never allow their children to go to, say, a bus station to play for the day allow their children to go into unsupervised chat rooms.

There is extensive information on how to ensure safety in online volunteering (and online mentoring) programs at the Virtual Volunteering Project Safety in Online Volunteering page.

10. The biggest obstacle to online volunteering is lack of Internet access.

False. For 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 on-site volunteers effectively, it won't be able to do it online.

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

False. There are plenty of people who want to volunteer online, far, far more than there are opportunities for them. Instead, much more needs to be done to help build the capacity of organizations regarding volunteer management, and to incorporate information about online volunteering into this capacity-building.

12. Online volunteering is a very new concept.

False. Online volunteering has been going on probably has long as there has been an Internet (which itself is more than 30 years old). Tim Berners Lee, in an online appearance at the United Nations Volunteers' event at U.N. Open Day in Geneva in 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, working together via the Internet.