Virtual Volunteering: Best practices and future potentials

Virtual volunteering presents a number of unique challenges and potentially significant benefits for volunteer-involving organisations.

Virtual volunteering is not as well established in Australia as other parts of the world, although it is a growing field. The increasingly mainstream nature of social media gives an added sense of urgency for Australian organisations to embrace digital engagement and virtual volunteering.

This form of volunteering breaks down the geographical restrictions inherent in traditional, face-to-face volunteering. The National Volunteering Strategy Consultation Report found that 43 percent of respondents would like to be able to volunteer from home or online in the future.

As demonstrated in this paper, there already are some valuable resources on virtual volunteer management, on the use of social media and other online tools for volunteer engagement, and on youth leadership and volunteering.

Photo via (cc) visual velocity pc