Are you ready to volunteer online?

Before applying for online volunteering opportunities, make sure you …

Have basic IT tools at your disposal

Do you have an email account and adequate access to the Internet? Both are crucial for maintaining regular communication with the organizations you support.

Enjoy communicating online

Collaboration with organizations and fellow volunteers will take place over the Internet. The most common means of communication is through email; telephone calls and video conferences are used on an occasional basis. To engage successfully in online volunteering, you should feel comfortable working in an online environment.

Consider your expectations

What is your motivation? What do you hope to gain by volunteering online? What skills and expertise can you offer an organization? Answering these questions will help you identify volunteer opportunities that are right for you.

Are aware of cultural differences

Online volunteering connects people of various backgrounds from around the world, making it a truly multicultural experience. Being aware of cultural differences, diverse working styles and the challenges that arise from communicating in different languages is crucial to successfully engaging in online volunteering.

Assess your self-motivation

You will have a great degree of flexibility in terms of the time you will be spending on an assignment. Characteristically, supervision of online volunteering is irregular. It is therefore, imperative that as an online volunteer you are able to organize your own schedule, be self-motivated and enjoy working independently.

Set enough time aside

You should be confident that you can dedicate enough time for your online volunteering activities. Remember, once you have signed up for an assignment, you will have made a commitment to an organization – they will, therefore, be counting on you to complete the task for which you volunteered within a specified timeframe.