When most of us think of the work that volunteers do, it’s common to have an image of someone helping others face to face. It could be sorting through donations of food and other necessities at a food pantry, or volunteering in hospitals and pet rescues. There are many ways that volunteers can make a difference in their communities, however. One strategy that is making it easier for others to serve is through online volunteer opportunities.

The following is a list of seven of the many reasons why nonprofits should consider expanding opportunities for online volunteers.

Online Volunteers Perform Tasks that Free Up Time and Other Resources for Nonprofits

When nonprofits enlist the assistance of online volunteers, they free up time and other resources which extend the quality and quantity of the good work they can accomplish.

Common tasks that online volunteers perform include: handling paperwork and administrative duties, advocating to raise awareness about the nonprofit’s mission and goals, creating and posting blog posts, and other social media tasks. Online volunteers can also assist with fundraising, planning, networking, and even providing services directly to recipients in the community, such as offering counselling, guidance and mentoring.

By using technology such as VOIP and video cameras, your online volunteers can even participate in “face-to-face” activities even though they are online.

Online Volunteering Increases Inclusiveness and Diversity

There are many individuals who want to volunteer, but, they face limitations and other barriers that prevent them from being able to help in person. Illnesses or conditions that cause mobility issues, lack of reliable transportation, or simply not being able to physically get away to volunteer can all stand in the way of someone who wants to volunteer.

Online volunteering even makes it possible to recruit members that are interested in your cause but who are physically located in faraway places, including other countries or on the opposite side of the planet!

By being flexible, and increasing your nonprofit’s online volunteering opportunities, you make it easier for individuals to be able to overcome these obstacles and achieve their goal of helping others, while also increasing inclusiveness and diversity within your organisation.

Increase Outreach to Millennials and Other Youthful Populations

It’s not a secret that younger generations have been faster to adopt online and mobile technologies such as smartphones and tablets. Take advantage of this trend and ensure that your nonprofit can continue to recruit all of the volunteers that it needs in the future by reaching out to and offering them opportunities to interact with and support your cause.

Simplify Management of Projects and Volunteers

It can be difficult for nonprofits to keep up with all of the activities performed by their volunteers, especially when non-profits have several service projects. Online volunteering creates a virtual paper trail that makes it easier to know where everyone is and what they are doing at any given moment.

It also makes it easier to pair volunteers with projects and tasks based on their specific skills and backgrounds. It can also help administrators ensure that the work is spread around more evenly to help prevent volunteer burnout.

Simplify Record Keeping

Do you know how many hours each of your volunteers have donated each day, week, month and year? Do you have a database that shows you this information, along with other helpful info such as contact details, location, and skills? Online volunteering doesn’t just make it easier to keep up with how many volunteers you have on a specific project – it can simplify all of your record keeping needs for your nonprofit without having to go to the trouble of creating separate databases to keep up with this information!

Be Kinder to the Environment

When online volunteers donate their time and effort to completing tasks virtually, they use fewer resources that can be harmful to the environment. For example, there is no need for online volunteers to use gas or other fossil fuel to be transported back and forth to your nonprofit’s physical location.

Virtual management and record keeping systems not only help you to keep up with the work performed by your online volunteers, it means that  less paper and resources are used by your NFP. Overall this helps your nonprofit to reduce its impact on the environment.

Increase the Amount of Good that You Can Accomplish by Making Your NFP a 24/7 and 365 Day Organisation

By using only local volunteers on site, you limit the amount of good that your organisation can accomplish. By enlisting the help of online volunteers, you make it possible for individuals all over the world, in every conceivable time zone and location to help your cause. This act can only increase the amount of work that you can achieve and enhance your reputation as a charity to work alongside!