05 December 2003

Bonn, Germany: In her last interview, the late UNV Executive Coordinator Sharon Capeling-Alakija, (1944 – 2003), was joined by On-line Volunteering specialist Jayne Cravens to reflect on three years of the programme’s activities and discuss its future with Caroline Stiebler.*

You have long been a strong advocate for on-line volunteering…

Sharon Capeling-Alakija:
… I love the idea of this easy avenue through which people everywhere can use to connect in real, meaningful ways.

Nothing totally replaces volunteering on-site – expressing solidarity by donating time and skills and "showing up" face-to-face. For more than 30 years, more than 30 thousand UN Volunteers have made a difference in people’s lives by supporting them to actively participate in their own development – on-site, at the grassroots level. We're going to keep doing that!

But on-line volunteering is a way to allow even more people to volunteer, and to allow organizations to mobilize an even greater number of supporters. Through on-line volunteering, we offer an additional avenue for people to participate. Now, people anywhere with the needed skills, expertise and commitment -- and an Internet connection -- can participate in the UN Volunteers programme. It is a way to allow people to be involved in projects without leaving their own home, in a way that goes beyond making a financial donation.

The other aspect of on-line volunteering that excites me is the idea of on-site volunteers getting additional support from on-line volunteers while they are serving in a country, and also becoming on-line volunteers themselves when their service ends. On-line volunteering has an enormous potential to supplement, extend and maximize the engagement of on-site volunteers and NGOs .

The dot-com bubble has burst, and the media and general public seem to no longer get excited about computer technology and the Internet. How does that affect on-line volunteering?

Sharon Capeling-Alakija:
On-line volunteering isn't about technology nearly as much as it's about people. It is not about connecting computers; it's about connecting people and ideas. Creating those kinds of connections is not a fad.

A group of on-line volunteers researching and creating material for an organization in Tanzania to talk more-effectively to young people about HIV and AIDS, is not about hardware, software and computer networks; it is about commitment, value, passion, and community. It is about people. It is about volunteering! The message we need to get across to people about On-line volunteering is that it is about real people creating real impact in real time.

What makes UNV's on-line volunteering service special?

Sharon Capeling-Alakija:
The on-line volunteering service is more than a web-based matching service. It is a service supporting development, and it is a capacity-building service.

Jayne Cravens:
We believe in helping users as much and as quickly as possible. UN Volunteers staff talk organizations through the process as much as we can when needed, through email or even phone calls, to help organizations use the service and get connected as quickly as possible with on-line volunteers.

It is the users of the on-line volunteering service that drive what we do with the service. We provide ongoing opportunities for feedback, and we solicit feedback whenever possible. Finally, a thing that makes the on-line volunteering service unique is that it is more than a matching service -- it's a management service. Based on user feedback, we have made this service into a platform that allows organizations to not only recruit on-line volunteers, but to manage them as well. Most on-line matching services for volunteers are simply sign up services, and while there's nothing wrong with that, we -- and our users -- felt there was a real need for organizations to have a tool that went beyond just sign ups. And I believe that in using the advanced features of our on-line volunteering service, we help build the capacity of organizations in managing ALL volunteers, on-site or on-line.

What are the biggest challenges to further expand on-line volunteering?

Sharon Capeling-Alakija:
We must always remember that volunteers give a lot. They donate their time and share their expert skills without commanding a salary. To make their volunteering experience an enriching one, we should try to give them something in return – recognition, guidance, management. And we need to take great care when creating or reviewing assignments – to ensure they can be a fulfilling experience for the volunteer. It takes time and effort on the part of the organization that is hosting these on-site volunteers. Well, the same is true for on-line volunteers -- as we say, there's nothing "virtual" about on-line volunteers! These are real people, and they take real time and management and support.

Jayne Cravens:
Lack of experience in volunteer management and in managing people on-line, as well as a lack of time, are the biggest obstacles to getting more organizations to post on-line volunteering assignments. We have more than 12,000 people who have signed up on this service in order to volunteer on-line, but we have a far fewer on-line assignments for them to participate in.

Rather than simply putting up a matching service and hoping that people used it correctly, or targeting only those organizations with experience in on-line management, UNV staff devote a lot of time to developing resources to help organizations create on-line volunteering assignments, screen the people who apply for those assignments, accept or reject applicants, help on-line volunteers feel supported during assignments, and so forth.

UN Volunteers would very much like to partner with organizations that are engaged in training others in volunteer management, so that we can make on-line volunteering a part of such courses and workshops. We also highlight volunteer management trainings to our on-line volunteering users whenever possible, so that they can access the information they need to help them use our on-line volunteering service more effectively. UNV is prepared to contribute to these volunteer management workshops, courses and publications with information about on-line volunteering, to help build the capacity of thousands of organizations, through means that already exist.

What are the next steps, then?

Sharon Capeling-Alakija:
Our service is three years old, and we have had many successes to celebrate. I believe that if we can get the word out about how on-line volunteering has had real, sustainable impact on so many organizations serving developing countries, it will grow exponentially.

We want to get other organizations talking about on-line volunteering. We want to get more UN-affiliated organizations using the on-line volunteering service. We want to get more UN Volunteers serving in the field to create on-line volunteering assignments to support their on-site activities, and to get more UN Volunteers signing up to be on-line volunteers when their on-site service ends.

Jayne Cravens:
I would also like to see the bar rise on the kinds of on-line volunteering assignments out there. Right now, most are focused on a person volunteering alone, one-on-one with the staff at an organization, to do translations, build web sites, design graphics or provide expertise. Wouldn't it be great for a group of women farmers to have their knowledge and skills around, say, organic farming, enhanced through on-line mentoring by women farmers from all over the world? Or to see a physical building that was designed, even in part, by on-line volunteers? I think it's only a matter of time before these types of things start happening through our on-line volunteering service.

Sharon Capeling-Alakija:
Of course, what's most exciting about on-line volunteering, other than the very real results it generates for organizations serving the developing world, is that people's imagination and vision will create new ways of volunteering. We at UNV don't come up with the new ideas as much as the people using the service do. The OV service opens UNV to the global community in a way we've never before experienced. I have ideas about what will happen next, but I'm sure many others out there are going to surprise me -- and the world -- with their own ideas about on-line volunteering.

I believe that the benefits of UNV's on-line volunteering service even go beyond volunteerism. It's helping on-line volunteers to see themselves as global citizens, to see that they are a part of a global movement. On-line volunteering is developing a new constituency for development, and has the potential to increase support for the Millennium Development Goals among this new constituency. These are people that can become advocates for other countries and for an increase in aid to developing countries.

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* UNV Executive Coordinator Sharon Capeling-Alakija passed away, peacefully and in the company of her family and closest friends on 04 November 2003. Ms. Capeling-Alakija was a strong advocate of volunteerism for more than 30 years.

Prior to joining UNV in 1998, Ms. Capeling-Alakija was Director of the Office of Evaluation and Strategic Planning (OESP) at UNDP's New York headquarters. Previously, she was Director of UNIFEM, the UN Development Fund for Women. Before joining the UN in 1989, she held various senior management positions with the Canadian organization CUSO – where she also began her career as a volunteer.

Her dedication, determination, leadership and vision will continue to guide us now and in the future.