knowledge networks
and entrepreneurship
Project report
Just-in-Time Volunteering
Submitted to
Prof. Anil Gupta
Submitted on
3thMarch 2007
Submitted By
Vikas Agarwal
Vision:
To develop a common platform that will act as a link between various NGOs and volunteers. The basic idea isto act as a bridge between people who had wanted to contribute their limited time and energy to a cause but did not know where they could contribute significantly. The online portal will provide a channel to people who are interested in organizing social activities. It will also make people conscious of their social responsibility towards community services. The movement shall be initiated in one city and once it starts function smoothly, the movement shall spread to different parts of the country.
The Origin:
It has been noticed that most of the people engaged in NGO related activities are involved only in few “popular” activities such as child education, due to which NGOs involved in other activities such as drug and alcohol addiction, woman empowerment, old age etc find it difficult to volunteers. It has also been noticed that there are volunteers interested in contributing to these activities but there is no link between them. The proposed model will match the volunteers to NGOs involved in their interest areas.
Also, people do have free time but they are not sure when will they have free time. We know that time is precious and we value your time. So, the proposed model will also reduce this problem to certain extent by sending reminders at regular intervals before the actual event so that volunteers can plan their activities in advance. Volunteers just have to keep in touch with us and contribute whenever they have free time.
Target People:
Targeted volunteers are youth people (students, working people) who want to do some community services but cannot do so because of absence of proper channel, lack of information, opportunities, time, location, interest or any other reasons. The assumption is everybody wants to contribute and will feel lucky that if one can help others. We are proud citizens of India and it is our duty to do community service, to make better India. Everybody should contribute; even small contribution from someone can make difference in someone’s life. Remember, Youth is not useless but just used less!
Model Description:
The schematic of the model is shown in Fig 1.
Fig 1. Clearing house mechanism of volunteers
The model required building database of volunteers and NGOs.The data about all NGOs (involved in regular activities such as teaching) and specific events(blood donation camps, eye check up, workshops etc) happening in the city will be stored in a database. Initial focus will be on small NGOs because they are doing good work but need more help in comparison to bigger ones to run their operations smoothly. NGOs will be stored in database according to
i) Area where they are operating so that people living in that area can contact and work for them easily.
ii) Work/activities they do so that people can choose NGO according to the kind of work they want to do.
Some of the activities targeted are as follows: Teaching underprivileged children, Medical camps, Tree plantation, Donating clothes/books, some other stuff for poor children and NGOs or in some schools, volunteering in raising money from corporate/ individuals or any other work. We are not asking for monitory donations as many people are not comfortable in giving money but they can donate useless items such as old newspaper etc which can be sold in market. The idea is even small contribution by large number of people can become big amount. Also, the idea is to increase awareness and do any sort of activity beneficial to society. For ex.,if someone wants to reduce plastics use he can spread this message in companies where he is working, buying rural handicrafts etc.
Benefits:
The proposed model will facilitate community service and thus give personal satisfaction to volunteers. It will also lead to sharing of resourcesas same people can now contribute to multiple organizations/ activities and can also share infrastructure thus promote co-operation. The increased co-operation will lead to sharing of knowledge. The biggest advantage of model is that it is easilyextensible model. The portal will be very useful in critical situationssuch as a blood of a particular rare blood group is needed urgently. If a readily available database of large users is available, one can search for people of that blood group and contact them directly. Also, volunteerism is ahygiene factor for some people and help in networking.
Website Development:
The content development for the website involves concept description on homepage, links to all NGOs websites, the activities conducted, list of forthcoming events, discussion forums. The users will be asked to register and details needed are name, Age, Preferences, Location, Blood Group, Phone number and E mail address. Auto reminders/ Scheduling facility, newsletters are need for smooth functioning of website. The back end requirements consist of server, database andmaintenance team.
Proposed Solution:
We will position ourselves as a transparent and independent organization which is driven by the spirit and enthusiasm to do community service. Target youth (working population and college students) in the initial phase and start activities in only one city. The idea should be promoted through word-of-mouth/ personal publicity as it is most effective one. The medium for contacting volunteers will be through emails (and SMS) primarily. Yuva ( is one organization which is currently working on a similar model. It is better to incorporate our model in an existing organization to cut costs by sharing their infrastructure and benefits from their learning.
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