Abstract

Virtual volunteering and virtual volunteer program management are beginning to play a larger role in national and community service. Not intended as a substitute for traditional "in person" volunteering, this application of technology adds both to the quality of service contributed and helps attract people who may not have volunteered before. This effective practice describes how to create online programs that work, using a successful mentoring project as an example. Some of the materials are excerpted from The Virtual Volunteering Guidebook by Susan J. Ellis and Jayne Cravens. Jayne Cravens submitted this effective practice in June 2003.

Back to top

Issue

Numerous private companies, nonprofit organizations, and schools are interested in online mentoring programs, where online adult volunteers mentor young people, either one-on-one or as a group. However, many of these programs work in isolation, with no knowledge of the research regarding proven practices, and what elements are necessary for success. As a consequence, many of these programs last only one to two years.

Back to top

Action

It is necessary to engage in a number of activities before an online mentoring program begins. Steps to take include:

1. Identify the desired benefits of the online mentoring program, and assess the expertise inherent among organizers regarding mentoring.
• In general, experience with youth is more important than experience with technology. The concerns you will encounter with these types of programs will primarily revolve around people issues rather than computers.
2. Put into place systems needed to meet the basic key administrative and management tasks inherent in any online mentoring program, regardless of the model followed.
   • Start small, preferably with a pilot program.
   • Before you get started, prepare a written plan. Set goals so that everyone knows what you want to accomplish. When you have articulated achievable goals, you can then coach volunteers towards those goals, and later reevaluate and recognize success.
   • Make expectations clear regarding roles of all participants, including staff, on site volunteers and youth.
   • Identify potential problems before talking about the program with youth, so that the focus of the program is on positive relationships and online activities, rather than technical and programming concerns.
   • Define the criteria for measuring progress and ultimately, the success of the program.
   • Key administrative tasks include:
     • Have the necessary equipment and online services in place, as well as access to technical advisors (whether expert volunteers or your agency's staff).
     • Check to see that the people who will volunteer virtually all have the right equipment and Internet service too.
     • Customize the program handbook to include virtual volunteering issues.
     • Provide a virtual volunteer assignment description(s) — with as much detail as possible.
     • Target your audience and then market your project
     • Recruit volunteers, making certain to have an immediate next step for people who call or e-mail about opportunities. Keep opportunities listed on your website current by updating frequently.
     • Get to know virtual volunteers initially before delegating assignments. This should include background and/or reference checks.
     • Provide online orientation (in the form of e-mail).
     • Provide training (in the form of online handbooks).
3. The key element to sustaining an online mentoring program is the involvement of site managers, usually teachers.
   • Schedule regular meetings and reports — on or offline.
   • Develop a system for ongoing feedback.
   • Provide status reports to everyone involved.
   • Utilize active site managers who encourage young people to write mentors regularly.
   • Online interactive strategies can be modeled and made explicit by a facilitator who closely follows online conversations, helping participants to construct the online teaching/learning experience in mutually beneficial ways. Research has shown that the people best prepared to assist as facilitators are those having experience in both online communication and education.

Back to top

Context

These practices have been used at an online mentoring program at Sanchez Elementary School in Austin, Texas for the Electronic Emissary Program, one of the most successful online tutoring programs of its kind, and for the first online mentoring activities conducted by the National Mentoring Partnership.

The Electronic Emissary is an online mentor "matching" service that began in 1993 at the University of Texas at Austin, and is now based out of the College of William & Mary. The Emissary helps K-12 teachers and students locate experts in different disciplines. In this way, the face-to-face interaction that occurs among teachers and students in the classroom is supplemented and extended by exchanges that occur among teachers, students, and experts via e-mail and web conferencing. The Emissary is also a research project, which focuses upon the nature of telementoring interactions in which K-12 students are active inquirers.

Virtual Volunteering is a component of serviceLeader.org, a project of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas at Austin that provides information on all aspects of volunteerism.

Back to top

Outcome

Youth learned to engage with adults in a positive environment, reinforcing online safety practices as well as academic skills learned in the classroom. Other potential benefits of online volunteering include:

• Volunteers not reached by traditional off-line means may be reached online.
• People who prefer not to volunteer on-site may be willing to do so via their home or work computers.
• Virtual volunteering programs allow for the participation of people who might find on-site volunteering difficult or impossible because of a disability, mobility issue, home obligation, or work schedule. This in turn, allows agencies to benefit from the additional talent and resources of more volunteers.
• People in their twenties and thirties are more prone to use the resources of the Internet than other age groups and like the novelty and convenience of finding and signing up for either on-site or virtual volunteering via this technology. These younger volunteers can turn into long-time supporters, including financial donors.
• Online volunteering is environmentally friendly — no car exhausts and less paper wasted.

Back to top

Evidence

These practices were recognized from profiling more than 30 online mentoring and tutoring programs, with program directors themselves identifying what worked. With help from the Virtual Volunteering Project, Sanchez Elementary School has more than 30 online volunteers exchanging e-mails each week with two fourth grade classes (November 2000).

Back to top

Posted On

July 23, 2003

Back to top

For More Information

Back to top

Related Practices

• Providing online mentoring to students interested in public health professions
• Identifying ten characteristics of quality mentoring programs

Back to top

Related sites

ServiceLeader.org: Virtual Volunteering

Electronic Emissary

MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership

Topic Areas

• Mentoring
• Start-up
• Technology
• Program Director
• Staff
• Cross-Stream
• Program management

Back to top