Volunteering in 2021

Things are getting back to normal, but not everything will go back to as it was. The pandemic has caused a lot of change in the way we have been working, formerly reluctant, tech-averse non-profit staff and community workers were left with no choice but to walk into the world of technology. ?It was also an opportunity for many NGOs to focus on things that are important but not really under scrutiny from a funding point, which is why these were ignored such as the website, the content and images on the website, posts for social media pages, and the most important in my view volunteer engagement. Non-profits were forced to innovate in the ways they communicate with and engage volunteers.

We as an organization at iVolunteer experienced a big demand for content-related volunteering requests from all parts of the country especially from the tier 2 and 3 cities. It was an opportunity for us as well to work closely with these NGOs which wasn’t really possible earlier. On the other hand, we also experienced a huge jump in volunteer registration, and this time they were not just registering but actively looking for opportunities where they could contribute in some or another way. Skill-based opportunities, something that iVolunteer has always been advocating suddenly became interesting. Volunteers were eager to take up projects as per their skills but off-course there was a huge demand to volunteer for causes that were directly linked to COVID-19 some volunteers were keen to get on the ground to extend their support however being a responsible organization we couldn’t allow that not at that time and so we tried and channelized all those volunteers and support to other non-profits who were struggling to survive in this crisis.

Now as we see things getting better we believe the NGOs will continue to think about how to further their use of technology to not only reach far-flung volunteers, but also to improve productivity, teamwork, and data collection. Both NGOs and volunteers are now comfortable with working online and even if things go back to normal the Virtual/Online approach is going to stay for good. People who want to volunteer either to contribute or to learn will continue to support through the online platforms and NGOs will continue to use technology for better outreach and growth.