JVN Blog

#Microvolunteering

This year JVN will be adding a bit of a twist to their #YoniJesner Awards. We won’t just be celebrating volunteering that night but we’ll be doing some too!  We believe that, if all participants join in, this will be the single largest ever instance of volunteering in one location in the Jewish community!

What is #Microvolunteering?

Microvolunteering is a relatively new term   to describe a form of #volunteering that has been with us for ages, but since the  internet came along has taken on a new meaning.

A quick scout around the web reveals many definitions, but one that seems most apt would be ‘small, quick, low commitment actions that benefit a worthy cause’. The actions might be a task that could be accomplished as a whole unit from start to finish by one person within, say, 30 minutes, or it might be an action that could be broken down into its component parts where an individual is just one of many people performing the same task to achieve an end result.

Microvolunteering evolved from the concept that even very small acts that only take a few minutes can make a huge difference to the lives of others. And, like normal volunteering, it’s enjoyable, it makes you feel good, and it doesn’t cost you a penny.
Giving spare time to good causes via technology allows volunteers to give quickly, easily and on their own terms. You can spend anywhere between 30 seconds and a couple of hours doing a microvolunteering activity, and there is always something to do.

Why should I get involved?

–      Can be conducted anywhere, at any time.

–      Control of environment = safer

–      Most micro-actions are non-committal.

–      Dip in and dip out = less barriers than traditional volunteering to

participating

–      Empowers people to realise they can make a difference on their own terms

–      More flexibility = more control with regards to impact achieved

–      Can be conducted while watching tv, on the bus or in your pyjamas.

–      No more meetup commitments = volunteering goes wherever you go

–      Huge diversity of actions that traditional volunteering tasks just simply do not cover.

–      Enables more disabled and housebound people to contribute to society.

–      People can be pooled from the whole world to help out, rather than just a local or national area.

–      Micro-actions are easy and simple to accomplish.

–      Usually no requirement for a DBS check.

–      Practically all microvolunteering tasks require minimal training. 

What Can I do?

There’s plenty of actions out there that benefit a worthy cause that can be completed in under 30 minutes. Here’s a few:

–      Donate your hair to disadvantaged children suffering from long term medical hair loss

–      Use the spare processing power of your PC to fight cancer or predict climate change

–      Play short online games where a donation, at no cost to you, will be donated to charity upon completion

–      Micro-loan £10 to projects and then get paid back to reloan again

–      Write a letter to a seriously ill child and put a smile on their face

–      Contribute to abolishing slavery by signing an online petition

–      Help astronomers classify galaxies with your PC

–      Knit, crochet or sew items of clothing for the elderly or needy people

–      Participate in plant, bird or insect counts for research projects

–      Put up free posters that engage people to think about peace and not war

Where can I find information on Micro-Volunteering?

Help From Home, is a leading promoter of Microvolunteering actions. They have been running since December 2008 and they provide information on over 500 micro volunteering actions / initiatives that can all be performed in under 30 minutes, plus another 300 that take slightly longer.
There are numerous activities to participate in form home based opportunities via their ‘Change the World in Just Your Pyjamas’ project, office work through their ‘Lunch Break’ initiative, ‘One Hour Taster’ and ‘Two Hour Go For Good’ Volunteering schemes, and much more.

NCVO has created a practical guide to exploring and developing the potential of micro-volunteering for organisations, you can find it here.

A sample of achievements of Microvolunteering so far:

Kibblekat (online charity donating quiz), up to July 2012: donated 8,195,339 nutritious meals to dogs and cats in animal shelters

Everyclick (charity donating search engine), up to July 2012: £2,704,078 raised for charity

Hunger Site (click-to-donate), January 2012 to July2012 over fifteen millions clicks which generated 20,956,186 cups of food

Folding@Home (volunteer your spare PC power), up to July 2012 241,904 active CPUs, 19,980 active GPUs and 17,533 active PS3s

GalaxyZoo (armchair astronomy), up to August 2012 over 250,000 people taking part, and over 60,000 galaxy classifications recorded

Project Linus (creating handmade blankets and afghans), up to July 2012 donating 350 blankets every month to local children

The Petition Site (petition portal), up to August 2012 104,025,007 petition signatures collected

Distributed Proofreaders (converting public domain books into e-books), up to August 2012 23,364 public domain books proofread and converted to ebooks for future generations to read.

To summarise, Microvolunteering is easy to participate in, takes just a few seconds or minutes to complete and can be tailored to suit your own lifestyle. It’s designed for people of all ages, abilities (or disabilities) and for quite a few of the opportunities out there, it can be conducted from almost anywhere in the world.

For more ideas of things you could do whilst out and about with friends or even when you’re in bed please visit our website,  Facebook,  Twitter or call us and we will be happy to help 020 8203 6427.