for volunteers
volunteering/interning with
the virtual volunteering project
NOTE
The VV Project is not currently accepting new volunteers. We are concentrating our assignments on our current volunteer ranks.
If you are looking for an online volunteering assignment, please see our resources for volunteers, which provides many leads and strategies.
The information below has been archived here to help other organizations who want to provide initial materials online to potential volunteers.
Just as a traditional organization will seek the involvement of people from surrounding communities, to give their neighbors a look at the organization from the inside and to build community support for its programs, the VV Project works to involve members of the cyberspace community as volunteers. This volunteer involvement adds credibility and diversity to our activities, and helps the Project put its volunteer management resources to the test. We hope our opportunities give individuals a sense of "giving back" to communities, as well as helping them to exercise and develop various skills.
Most of our online opportunities relate to online research, Web page development, and project coordination and management. All of the assignments require a great deal of reading and great attention to detail.
View this section to see what types of online assignments volunteers and interns have undertaken for us.
The Virtual Volunteering Project is part of the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and some online volunteer assignments managed by the VV Project staff are in support of other Dana Center programs. We also occasionally coordinate online volunteer involvement for collaborating organizations.
We have both short-term (one - two week) and long-term (three month) volunteer opportunities and internships (unpaid) in support of the Virtual Volunteering Project.
Each assignment requires a minimum of five hours in one-two weeks.
For short-term assignments, deadlines are one-two weeks.
Respect for deadlines and commitment to seeing a task completed are critical for all online volunteers involved with the VV Project.
Online volunteers and potential interns are initially given a short virtual assignment (usually online research using Web search engines, and compiling this information into a text or .html file) that can be completed via their home or work computer in about five hours, with a two week deadline, so that they can get a feel for what it's like to volunteer with us, and we can get an understanding of a volunteer's skill level, work style and interests. After that initial assignment is completed, volunteers may be given longer assignments or another short assignment, or can withdraw from the program. Volunteers may take breaks between assignments for as long as they wish.
The Virtual Volunteering Project needs volunteers to:
- help with database management (particularly but not limited to people with experience with and access to FileMaker Pro for the Mac)
- translate some Web site material and e-mails into Spanish [fluency in English and Spanish necessary]
- design graphics [past experience in graphic design, even for personal web sites, and ability to submit material in jpeg or gif format necessary]
- research subjects online, using online search engines and directories [excellent attention to detail and lots of online reading necessary]
- compile, review and summarize data, submitted by both volunteers and agencies involving online volunteers via online surveys, to present trends in virtual volunteering [we are interested in particular in involving a graduate student for this endeavor, as part of that person's graduate studies and thesis preparation]
- help connect us with materials and organizations that can assist agencies in involving people with disabilities in volunteering programs, on and offline
- research news articles online, using online news search engines
- develop web pages for both the Project and collaboratives efforts with which we are involved [experience creating .HTML documents, even for personal use, necessary, as well as an understanding of basic page layout]
- develop online forms and interactive areas for our web site [understanding how to create .cgi and .pl files and how to work within the limitations of certain servers necessary]
- write articles for our Web site [good researching skills and excellent command of written English and attention to detail necessary]
- work directly with organizations to help them develop virtual volunteering programs [extensive experience as a volunteer, on or offline, and excellent people skills necessary].
If you are looking for a paid internship, we recommend these internship resources.
The VV Project does not have paid internships.
If you are interested in working directly with a particular population (such as youth or the elderly), or, if you are interested in online mentoring or other direct service activities, please see our page Finding a Virtual Opportunity; the Virtual Volunteering Project itself does NOT have these type of online opportunities available, but volunteering with us will give you the chance to develop skills and experience you can then use at such organizations.
More Online Resources for Volunteers
Handbook for Online Volunteers
This handbook includes the text of the Project's online volunteer orientation, which covers commitments, how assignments are made, reporting procedures, code of conduct, etc. This handbook also includes a section on "Resources and Tools for Online Volunteers," developed in large part by online volunteers who assisted the Virtual Volunteering Project and with advice from various collaborating organizations in the past year; this section offers suggestions for using web search engines, shareware, freeware, preventing computer viruses, learning .html, finding news articles on a particular subject, creating databases, moderating online discussion groups, and other resources and tools to help a volunteer undertake an online assignment successfully.
Information for those who wish to
quote from, copy and/or distribute the information on this Web site
If you find this or any other Virtual Volunteering Project information helpful, or would like to add information based on your own experience, please contact us.
If you do use Virtual Volunteering Project materials in your own workshop or trainings, or republish materials in your own publications, please let us know, so that we can track how this information is disseminated.
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