The “Microvolunteering for a Cause Guides” were originally created for Help From Home in 2014.
This is a collection of ideas for using Microvolunteering (understood as short term volunteering) to the benefit of various social causes and nonprofit goals.
What is microvolunteering ?
Microvolunteering can be described as those actions that benefit a worthy cause, where the main bulk of the task can be completed in one or more sessions of up to 30 minutes, either from a person’s home or on the go.
The diversity of microvolunteering tasks covers almost all imaginable jobs and occupations, going from simple play to quasi-professional work.
Many microvolunteering actions are designed to be performed online.
What is a worthy cause?
It can be anything related to human rights, education, poverty, democracy, gender equality, environment, art, etc.
Three benefits of Microvolunteering:
Microvolunteering can be conducted from almost anywhere in the world.
Microvolunteering empowers people who couldn’t otherwise volunteer, nor contribute their time to meaningful goals.
Microvolunteering is safe, fun and meaningful.
Microvolunteering for A Cause
This collection of Microvolunteering ideas might be useful to charities, social entrepreneurs, innovators, app developers, artists and activists.
The majority of the suggested actions fit the criteria for remote, internet-based volunteering, but there are also proposals for local activism and crowd-powered initiatives.
Most of the ideas included in this collection have already been applied in different parts of the world, while a few others are still at concept stage.
The original Help From Home Guides featured many up and running microvolunteering projects as successful case studies. However, many of these initiatives have regrettably been discontinued since 2014.
This updated list of microvolunteering ideas features less project names, yet better organized tasks lists. The reason why I choose to focus mostly on ideas is that ideas stay fresh, while programs and projects may be terminated (Sadly).
Nevertheless, the continuous development of technology (VR, AR, AI) opens the door for new and exciting engagement possibilities.
Microvolunteering for a Cause Series:
Microvolunteering for Campaigning
Microvolunteering for Democracy and Civic Action
Microvolunteering for Education
Microvolunteering for Social Inclusion
Microvolunteering for Social Justice
Microvolunteering for Ending Poverty
Microvolunteering for Migrants and Refugees
Microvolunteering for Ending Hunger
Microvolunteering for Sustainability
Microvolunteering for Disaster Relief
Microvolunteering for Improving Urban Life
If you read any of the Microvolunteering Guides and feel there is something missing, please let me know. I see this list as an open-source project to be improved and updated. I would be very glad if you could contact me in order to share new ideas and/or correct omissions or mistakes. I don’t have a tech background, so feedback from people who can write code or design an app would be very welcomed.
