Nowadays there is an element of digital in most volunteer offerings; either as a pure digital/virtual offering or to make a new or already existing program more efficient.

Overall, we clearly can say the digital revolution has made volunteering more accessible and provides a wider choice of programs since it connects people very faster and benefits from relative short set-up time. With that offerings become more transparent and lowers barriers to accept for potential volunteers; especially for those who want to provide help, but for whom onsite-volunteering is impossible. Further, it provides insight in niche offers, which might be overlooked otherwise. Despite all these positive catalysts we shouldn’t ignore the fact how actively involved employers are. The more they focus on and support corporate volunteering the more successful it could become. For example, do they offer a platform or encourage employees to develop a platform for volunteering? Do  corporates encourage employees with taking additional days off for onsite-volunteering or providing dedicated working time for digital volunteer offerings? In case of the latter how can they control this. Unfortunately in this respect, not everyone can work for Google which allows their employees significant room for engagement. But there are still limitations to digital volunteering since you cannot solve all onsite problems, especially if the technological infrastructure is insufficient or even non-existing.

While outbalancing pros and cons, community and social benefit appear to be constant. However, trends in social media and mobile connectivity present an opportunity to rejuvenate or even revitalize the volunteer offer since you can reach out to more people than before.

Prepared by Ulrich Kaiser, Moderator

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