Around the world, there are organizations that need help and finding ways to volunteer from home might be the most effective way to help them.
Why?
Most organizations can’t afford to hire a full staff of salaried employees which means they are falling behind on modern trends like social media marketing, website rankings, and their audiences are dwindling.
This is tough when most organizations can only succeed through their fundraising.
So, we’ve noted seven ways you can contribute from home and make sure these worthy causes are staying trendy.
How You Can Help: Volunteering From Home
Below are some of the many ways you can volunteer from home:
1. The United Nations Needs Your Help
Use your skills for the good of the planet. The UN has an excellent web portal that allows volunteers to search for opportunities by sector (research, education, writing, advocacy, etc.) and join over 12,000 online volunteers who support them every year. Look for current opportunities and see if there is anything that interests you – many of the opportunities are related to children and refugees.
2. Tutor Online Voluntarily
If you are a teacher, assistant, doctoral student or professor and want to use your fields of study to help students learn, this may be the ideal opportunity for you. Each tutor goes through an intense selection process that includes tests, simulation tutorials, mentor evaluation, and background checks. From kindergarten through university to adult-aged students.
3. Converse with the Elderly
Although some groups already have experience with virtual volunteering, the pandemic has gotten worse in terms of having to start volunteering at home. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing: as seen from above, there are plenty of ways to help from home. And, in the case of those helpful socialites at retirement homes, they can no longer visit the homes to keep eldery people entertained. Instead, they are implementing senior citizen phone chains.
4. Help an Organization with Translations
If you’re bilingual, this is an opportunity you should really consider! Translators without Borders asks volunteers to translate millions of words for various worldwide organizations. Volunteers are used to translate medical texts and crisis plans, two areas that are currently urgent. They also call on volunteers to perform other tasks such as project management, graphic or web design, and fundraising.
5. Put Your Civil Engineering Background to Good Use
One Community is a not-for-profit panel of experts on sustainable development, operating only on a voluntary basis. The entire team is global and does almost all the organization’s work remotely through an open-source policy.
They are looking for a civil engineer in landscaping, irrigation, water collection and storage, road design, and pedestrian path planning for community sustainability plans around the world.
6. Answer the Crisis Text Hotline
Crisis lines depend on voluntary counseling professionals working from home. Trained crisis counselors react to people in crisis through active listening, joint problem solving, and safety planning.
The current pandemic has had a huge impact on mental health, and many people face uncertainty, panic, unemployment, and excessive demands from a confused society. More than ever, people in crisis need support. There are crisis lines in your region which may seek support.
7. Help an Organization with Social Media
Just as mentioned in the intro, in these fast-moving times, all organizations could use a little professional wisdom from the younger generation when it comes to being active on social channels.
If you have any experience in marketing or digital marketing – or, heck, if you know what it takes to build a social media following – these organizations could really use your help.
It doesn’t take much to volunteer your services. First thing you must do is ask. Usually, contacting the organizations main email and asking about their needs in terms of being active online is a good start.
Finding Ways to Volunteer from Home
Volunteering from home with specialized skills is one of the most effective ways of combating many of the nonprofit sector’s downfalls including (but not limited to) volunteer training, unthoughtful voluntourism, high program costs, and more!
If you are interested in learning how you can volunteer your specialized skills to help out organizations, email us at contact@volunteer-opportunities.org.
If you are a part of an organization who may have an interest in partnering with us, reach out to partner@volunteer-opportunities.org.