The pandemic has transformed the way we live, work, and even volunteer. While deciding to volunteer was once a simple matter of signing up and going where you are needed, today there are added concerns of physical distancing, vaccinations, and making sure that vulnerable individuals are kept safe from the virus.
Fortunately, this time of limited physical interactions has brought about many creative ways to continue supporting causes close to our hearts. Remote or virtual volunteering makes it possible to still be active in championing advocacies while keeping you and your family safe from the virus.
With the unique opportunities, though, come the challenges of volunteering from home. You need the right tools and resources to stay active and connected.
Tools To Make Remote Volunteering Simpler
You can optimize your home setup to improve your virtual volunteering experience. Here are the best tools to adopt.
1. Smart Audiovisual Systems
Volunteering online still requires you to communicate with fellow volunteers and project heads to properly plan strategies and campaigns. Having to stare at your laptop or tablet can get exhausting quickly, so a handy solution to this is to install audiovisual systems.
A centralized audio system for your home allows you to sync your device and play audio from anywhere. This feature allows you to conveniently attend meetings and webinars in different parts of your home, helping you get a change of scenery when needed.
Audiovisual systems are also great for intimate gatherings with your team. You can celebrate milestones or do important in-person meetings with adequate equipment.
2. Virtual Planner
Tracking your daily activities and deliverables can be confusing since you work and rest in the same place. Keep all your responsibilities in order by having a personal virtual planner or project management tool.
Maintaining your own project management system also lets you extend these productivity methods outside of your advocacy. You can easily divide your pages for volunteering, work, and personal tasks. This way, you don’t mix up your to-do lists and are able to stay on top of each one daily.
Project management tools also have a feature that lets you set deadlines for certain tasks. You can get periodic notifications, which helps you to finish everything ahead of time.
3. Volunteer Management Tools
If you currently hold the responsibility of managing your volunteer team remotely, then you cannot rely on video conferencing tools and messaging apps alone. You need software that acts as a database of your active team members and enables you to update information in real time, which you can also forward to the team.
Hardly any tool provides a wealth of its features for free, so you should be ready to shell out some money for a subscription. A tip is to make good use of free trials offered by different tools before committing to one. Aside from its capabilities, it gives you an opportunity to check if the software offers good value for money.
4. Design and Video/Image Editing Platforms
When you are raising awareness for certain causes, you usually need to produce a significant amount of publicity materials on a daily basis. Creating these from scratch while juggling other tasks can prove to be too time-consuming. Take advantage of platforms that allow you to quickly create your graphics, edit photos, and create videos in one place.
The most popular platform today is Canva, which is primarily a graphic design platform. It has a wide variety of templates for social media posts, presentations, posters, and more to help teams quickly create designs that fit the tone of their campaigns. It also has features that allow for photo and video editing.
For those with subscriptions to Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Spark is one Canva alternative that similarly allows designers to create brand collaterals.
5. Donation Channels
Since you are working with a nonprofit, gaining financial support is not always straightforward and stable as a business. Open donation channels on all your online pages to encourage supporters to give so that you can continue doing your projects.
While this is not directly related to making your remote volunteering efforts easier, it has an impact on your ability to continue doing projects with your team. Funding is necessary to accomplish your goals together, after all.
Remote volunteerism presents unique challenges, but it does not skimp on its benefits, either. It helps you build a community with like-minded individuals of various backgrounds and it teaches life skills that you can apply in the workplace or in your personal life. Volunteering can be a life-changing endeavor if you allow it to be.
