Virtual Volunteering: So far, so close
Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2024 6:56 am
In these unprecedented times when we are changing our way of life to a virtual environment, corporate volunteering has also adapted to continue supporting social entities that now, more than ever, have to provide an immediate response to their beneficiaries, most of whom are vulnerable groups.
Although virtual volunteering is not new, in recent weeks the range of activities on offer has increased considerably and we are seeing that both social entities and companies are reinventing their way of collaborating so as not to be left behind by this crisis .
There are many charitable activities that volunteers can carry out remotely and that are really helpful for non-profit organizations: creating and maintaining websites, writing anguilla email list 7582 contact leads digital content, translation services, telemarketing for fundraising, mentoring, educational reinforcement, remote assistance for the elderly, etc.
Technology facilitates solidarity
This offer of remote volunteering shows that technology is becoming a great ally in the service of solidarity , which is currently emerging in all areas of our society, motivated, if possible, by the need to support in any way possible the groups that are on the front line of the emergency. The applause at eight in the evening is a collective display of that desire to express empathy and moral support to those who need it most and a recognition of all those who are responding to the emergency. In short, an expression of solidarity never seen before.
And this feeling of wanting to be useful has found a good ally in volunteering 'without leaving home'. At Sage Foundation, the company's foundation through which we manage all philanthropic actions, we are offering virtual volunteering to employees and we are doing it with the non-profit organizations with which we usually collaborate.
Virtual volunteering
Sage employees have 5 working days a year to volunteer. And we have not stopped in these weeks thanks to the fact that at Sage in Spain we already had a great culture of teleworking and technological foresight for 8 years that has allowed us to adapt quickly to the new situation and has also made 'televolunteering' possible.
Virtual volunteering is providing us with some interesting learnings that I would like to highlight:
Promoting professional volunteering : that is, the transfer of volunteers' professional skills to the service of NGOs. Now that we cannot volunteer in person, we can support social entities with our knowledge of Communication, Marketing, Technology, Consulting in any area of entity management, etc. It is a type of volunteering highly valued by medium and small-sized non-profit organizations with small staffs of collaborators.
Improving accessibility to volunteering for people who until now could not easily do so due to lack of time, availability outside conventional hours, geographical reasons or even some type of disability. Virtual volunteering is helping to overcome all these temporal or spatial barriers and physical limitations. Related to this, 'family volunteering' is also becoming possible, since, in some activities, parents can support social entities with the collaboration of their children.
Reinvention of conventional forms of volunteering that opens the door to a new way of connecting social entities and companies, just as is happening in other business, educational, social, etc. areas. New technologies bring us closer to people.
Although virtual volunteering is not new, in recent weeks the range of activities on offer has increased considerably and we are seeing that both social entities and companies are reinventing their way of collaborating so as not to be left behind by this crisis .
There are many charitable activities that volunteers can carry out remotely and that are really helpful for non-profit organizations: creating and maintaining websites, writing anguilla email list 7582 contact leads digital content, translation services, telemarketing for fundraising, mentoring, educational reinforcement, remote assistance for the elderly, etc.
Technology facilitates solidarity
This offer of remote volunteering shows that technology is becoming a great ally in the service of solidarity , which is currently emerging in all areas of our society, motivated, if possible, by the need to support in any way possible the groups that are on the front line of the emergency. The applause at eight in the evening is a collective display of that desire to express empathy and moral support to those who need it most and a recognition of all those who are responding to the emergency. In short, an expression of solidarity never seen before.
And this feeling of wanting to be useful has found a good ally in volunteering 'without leaving home'. At Sage Foundation, the company's foundation through which we manage all philanthropic actions, we are offering virtual volunteering to employees and we are doing it with the non-profit organizations with which we usually collaborate.
Virtual volunteering
Sage employees have 5 working days a year to volunteer. And we have not stopped in these weeks thanks to the fact that at Sage in Spain we already had a great culture of teleworking and technological foresight for 8 years that has allowed us to adapt quickly to the new situation and has also made 'televolunteering' possible.
Virtual volunteering is providing us with some interesting learnings that I would like to highlight:
Promoting professional volunteering : that is, the transfer of volunteers' professional skills to the service of NGOs. Now that we cannot volunteer in person, we can support social entities with our knowledge of Communication, Marketing, Technology, Consulting in any area of entity management, etc. It is a type of volunteering highly valued by medium and small-sized non-profit organizations with small staffs of collaborators.
Improving accessibility to volunteering for people who until now could not easily do so due to lack of time, availability outside conventional hours, geographical reasons or even some type of disability. Virtual volunteering is helping to overcome all these temporal or spatial barriers and physical limitations. Related to this, 'family volunteering' is also becoming possible, since, in some activities, parents can support social entities with the collaboration of their children.
Reinvention of conventional forms of volunteering that opens the door to a new way of connecting social entities and companies, just as is happening in other business, educational, social, etc. areas. New technologies bring us closer to people.