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By Jeff Jones
Tech help is available if you need it
Batya Harlow, office manager at Abused Deaf Women's Advocacy Services
(ADWAS) in Seattle, admits she lacks computer skills. But last fall
she faced the daunting task of resuscitating her organization's recently
dormant newsletter using PageMaker, a desktop publishing software.
"I needed all kinds of computer help," Harlow said. "I
didn't know how to do a newsletter. The template was in place but I
didn't know how to do anything on top of it."
Frustrations mounted until she found a short-term and cost effective
answer -- a technical volunteer. She located one through a membership
volunteer matching program provided by NPower in Seattle.
A heightened need for technology know-how is increasing the presence
and availability of technical volunteers across the country. The technical
help available for free, or almost free, is available for hardware and
software.
The volunteer spent time with Harlow, about nine hours on site and countless
others at home, giving practical advice, such as where text overflow
went in the program. He also worked on the newsletter from home, Harlow
said.
ADWAS pays NPower a membership fee of $100, a significant savings compared
to consulting costs. NPower Seattle's yearly fee ranges from $50 for
an organization with less than a $100,000 budget to $500 for an organization
with more than a $5 million budget, according to its Web site.
"A lot of organizations are realizing that information communications
technologies (ICT), i.e. computers and the Internet, aren't just something
extra that nonprofits might be able to do if they can find some money,"
said Jayne Cravens, online volunteering specialist, United Nations Volunteers
in Bonn, Germany. "It's actually an integral part of meeting their
missions."
Nonprofits that grasp the importance of understanding technology place
more value on technical assistance, which often comes from volunteers,
Cravens said.
A lot of volunteers are salivating to contribute.
"You have individuals who are using ICT more and more, and I think
they're hungry to connect," Cravens said. "They're hungry
to add some meaning to their computer and Internet use. Volunteering
to give technical assistance feeds that hunger."
An abundant number of organizations that find technical volunteers exist.
Most are community based, but some such as NPower, are spreading their
wires across the country. The NPower Network reaches to New York and
includes a total of seven independent 501(c)(3) groups.
NPower Seattle has about 600 technical volunteers, and uses about 250
each year in projects, said Jaime Greene, director of community resources
at NPower Seattle.
CompuMentor, based in San Francisco, lists approximately 1,900 volunteers.
It doubles as the San Francisco Bay Area affiliate of the NPower Network.
Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA), of Arlington Va., offers
500 volunteers. It once boasted 5,000 volunteers but weeded out those
who weren't interested or are no longer around, said Gary Garriott,
director of informatics at VITA.
The IT Resource Center in Chicago, which is aligned with CompuMentor,
matches about 90 volunteers a year, said Associate Executive Director
Tim Mills-Groninger.
Expect technical volunteer numbers to increase as nonprofits get a better
idea of how to use them and volunteers find their way to organizations
with missions they support. Volunteer matching organizations, such as
CompuMentor, help nonprofits define a good volunteer project. Karen
Thomas, CompuMentor's senior program manager, low cost services, said
the best volunteer projects are those that can be done in a volunteer's
free time in about 20 to 30 hours during three months and aren't urgent.
CompuMentor takes about two weeks on average to find a volunteer and
charges $175.
VITA uses a different approach. The organization provides technical
and project assistance to individuals and groups in developing countries.
Questions are farmed out to volunteers who answer from their home or
office via email or written letters, Garriott explained.
A typical inquiry is how to build a biogas plant in India. Biogas is
methane produced from decomposition of human, animal or vegetable waste,
Garriot said. Plants are common in India and China where they have large
village and municipal biogas programs, Garriott said.
VITA publishes how-to books on such subjects compiled by volunteers
and charges organizations $5 to $15 for them.
VITA also is rolling out new ground stations this spring that will connect
people in rural areas to the Internet and email. VITA has used ground
stations for many years, but the updated ones, designed with Wavix Incorporated
of Landover, Md., will be spread across 15 overseas locations including
Africa, Asia and Central and South America, Garriott said. The boxes
will sell for about $3,000 and organizations will pay an annual $500
fee, that gains them access to VITA information as well as basic email
connectivity.
"Clearly someone who is dirt poor can't afford a $3,000 satellite
ground station," Garriott said. "But the people we actually
sell these to are not those living in the mud huts, but rather to NGOs
(non-governmental organizations). In some cases it can be American or
European-based NGOs that have projects in these areas. They're already
there doing some level of support, and to make their operations work
better they need this kind of communication capability."
Technical volunteers can improve organizations' operations and save
them money while doing it. But defining a volunteer's role isn't as
simple as it may appear.
"There is something different about being a technical volunteer,"
said Greene of NPower Seattle. "We know what it looks like to be
a volunteer at a food bank or to give blood. We have a picture in our
mind when someone says they do that. But what's so challenging about
being a technology volunteer is that we don't yet have a shared picture
of what that looks like. So it's kind of mysterious for both the volunteer
and the nonprofit."
Nonprofits must consider several factors unique to technical volunteers.
Experts gave the following tips:
- Don't have unrealistic hopes. A volunteer can help an organization
learn to use a database, but rebuilding one may be too large for the
time commitment;
- Don't count on a volunteer for urgent projects critical to an organization's
mission. If a project, such as work on a database, is critical to
the organization getting funding, a volunteer isn't the answer;
- Don't expect a volunteer to work during business hours. Evening
or weekend hours may be the only time they're available;
- Don't think volunteers are a long-term solution. Search for them
on a project-by-project basis and;
- Create projects that attract technical volunteers. "A volunteer
isn't going to sign up for a project that they know is too big,"
said Thomas of CompuMentor. "They're aware if it's going to be
more of a time commitment than they're going to be able to give."
Nonprofits that use a technical volunteer face disadvantages. For example,
the pressures of a volunteer's job may prevent them from completing
the assignment. "There's always a risk that the volunteer won't
be able to complete the task," Mills-Groninger said. "You
need to do a back up plan."
An organization should consider three basic assets when thinking about
a technical volunteer: time, money and skill, Greene said. If time is
ample, but not money, plan to wait for someone with the right skills
to come along.
Once an organization finds a technical volunteer, approach that person
from a user's perspective, Cravens said.
Nonprofits should talk about what they want from the finished project,
and how they plan to use the software or hardware. Tell the volunteer
that the "receptionist should be able to sit down and do this with
it. The development director should be able to sit down and do this
with it," Cravens said.
"That gives a technical volunteer a much better idea of how to
approach what needs to be done."
Document the work a volunteer does so when that person leaves, a work
history stays, Thomas of CompuMentor said. For example, if a computer
crashed, a history will tell the organization what it needed and where
the volunteer found it.
Guide the volunteer to do less problem solving and more staff training.
"Use the volunteer for knowledge transfer as much as possible,"
Mills-Groninger said.
That's one lesson Harlow of ADWAS learned. Because she faced a deadline
when she originally produced the newsletter, the volunteer didn't have
the time to teach her in-depth. The volunteer convinced her to switch
to a different design program. It's one she likes better but is struggling
to understand, so she emails the volunteer simple questions. She's placed
another ad for more support.
"I really need someone who can come and sit with me for hours and
tell me what to do but not do it for me," Harlow said.
Her technical volunteer experience has opened a new facet of community
volunteering to Harlow. When she talks with potential volunteers, she
asks about their technical background.
"Only recently, it's like 'hey maybe we can get a volunteer to
do this'."
Where To Go For Help
Following is a list of organizations that provide low-cost or no-cost
volunteer matching services, or low-cost or no-cost technical consulting
to nonprofit organizations. Visit their Web sites for more information.
A significant part of this list was compiled from Techsoup.org and NPower
resources.
Action Without Borders
New York City
www.idealist.org
Austin Free-Net
Austin, Texas
www.austinfree.net
CharityFocus
Santa Clara, Calif.
www.charityfocus.org
CityCares
Atlanta
www.citycares.org
CompuCorps Mentoring
Ottawa, Ontario
www.compucorps.org
CompuMentor (NPower in Bay Area)
San Francisco
www.compumentor.org
Georgia Center for Nonprofits
Atlanta
www.nonprofitgeorgia.org
IT Resource Center
Chicago
www.itresourcecenter.org
National Executive Service Corps
Affiliate Network
New York City (national office)
www.escus.org
NetAid
New York City
www.netaid.org
New York Cares
New York City
www.nycares.org
Nonprofit Technology Resources
Philadelphia
www.libertynet.org/ntr
NPower Indiana
Indianapolis
www.npowerin.org
NPower Michigan
Detroit
www.npowermichigan.org
NPower Network
national network
www.npower.org
NPower NY
New York City
www.npowerny.org
NPower Seattle
Seattle
www.npowerseattle.org
SERVEnet
Washington, D.C.
www.servenet.org
TechBridge (NPower Atlanta)
Atlanta
www.techbridge.org
Technical Assistance for Community Services
Portland, Ore.
www.tacs.org
Technology Works for Good
Washington, D.C.
www.technologyworks.org
VolunteerMatch
San Francisco
www.volunteermatch.org
Voluntech
New York City
www.voluntech.org
Volunteers in Technical Assistance
Arlington, Va.
www.vita.org
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