How charities can benefit from the power of micro-volunteering (2019)

25/05/2020

Published: 17 September 2019

Authors: Emily Burt

Published in: www.thirdsector.co.uk

With digital platforms taking charitable initiatives to global scales, micro-volunteering could be the solution to increasing the number of volunteers in the future. This article explores the challenges and opportunities of bite-sized action.

Micro-volunteering describes a low-commitment approach to giving time that people can perform in an easy and flexible way eg signing a petition, sharing a hashtag, picking up plastic on a beach.

Shortage of time is a well-established barrier for potential volunteers. As well as offering wider opportunities for charities, micro-volunteering can open the door to volunteers who might not be able to get out and about shaking buckets.

It would also be useful for people with disabilities who might find it difficult to engage in volunteering work generally.  E.g. "I have an iPhone, but I’ve never used it to its potential," writes one Be My Eyes volunteer, who suffers from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a genetic connective tissue condition that causes her to suffer from pain and limited mobility. "It seemed fantastic that I could be handy for somebody else… I could talk to anybody in the world and they could use the one bit of my body that’s still working."

Although micro-volunteering comes with a different set of expectations from the more traditional approaches, there is no reason for it not to open routes into longer-term commitments.

Shaun Delaney, a volunteering development manager at the NCVO, puts it this way: "Instead of expecting a volunteer relationship to go from nothing to something, consider that this idea of ‘trying before you buy’ can be an easy way to start building a relationship with a volunteer, who could then go on to support your charity, financially or with their time, for the rest of their lives," Delaney says. "We should think of micro-volunteering as a great first step."

The full article is available here.