Opportunities of the Month - August 2010

Opportunities are listed on this page because we've recently talked with the charity and we know that they are ready to work with a volunteer. Are you that volunteer?

If you think you can help click on the link on the opportunity name below to go directly to the opportunity - you'll need to sign in on the way

This page will be updated monthly with opportunities to help organisations that we know are struggling to find a volunteer. If you access this page later in the month you may find that the opportunities are no longer available. If so, feel free to search for opportunities in the normal way or to sign up to our RSS feed

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Opportunity Name: Create Website Including CMS, Forum, and Online Subscriptions
Skill Type: Website
Region: East of England
Locality: Norwich
Postcode: NR5
Virtual: No

Description: Here's an exciting challenge for your design skills. This new social enterprise based in Norwich aims to provide support mainly for immigrant women in Britain, on how to live, how to feel good, and how to cope with problems and day-to-day challenges, to end their isolation, by providing an internet based magazine. They would like you to build a website that has the look and feel of a glossy magazine. They want a contact form, a forum, and be able to take online subscriptions perhaps using PayPal, and they'll want to be able to have videos and audio. Of course, they'll need to keep it up to date by adding new pages, changing text, and pictures, so they would like you to implement a suitable content management system, and train them how to use it. They have a domain name, but would like guidance about choosing and arranging hosting.

Opportunity Name: Mentor for Implementation of ITIL Framework
Skill Type: Mentoring
Region: East Midlands
Locality: Grantham
Postcode: NG31
Virtual: No

Description: Here's an interesting mentoring opportunity that will look good on your CV.This national charity based in Grantham is involved in woodland conservation, campaigning on environmental issues, improving woodland biodiversity, and increasing the public understanding and enjoyment of woods.They're seeking an ITIL specialist to help them implement an ITIL framework. They're flexible about the time required and contact frequency, however they do want an initial meeting, and thereafter think they may need a few hours a week over a 3 to 6 month period.

Opportunity Name: Create New E-Commerce Website including CMS
Skill Type: Website
Region: South East
Locality: Rochester
Postcode: ME2
Virtual: No

Description: Here's a useful and interesting project that will help a successful social enterprise increase its income. This social enterprise is one arm of a charity based in Rochester, Kent; and it refurbishes donated obsolete computer stock within a purpose built workshop. The refurbished machines are distributed to various schools and organisations in the developing world, or sold to charities, or people on low income. The workshop is staffed by volunteers; many of whom who have disabilities of some kind and may not have worked for some time. Several members of the team have progressed to secure jobs elsewhere as a result of the training and skills developed. They need a new website partly as the first point of reference for potential equipment donors, and partly to help them sell stock, cables, components, and other equipment.. They'll need some information pages, a contact form, and an e-commerce capability, and you'll need to help them with the design. They need to be able to keep the website up to date frequently, too; so the site will need to be built around a content management system (CMS). They'll need training on how to update it and add new products, as well as add text and pictures for information pages. They have a domain name but will need advice about suitable hosting.

Opportunity Name: Create easy to update website
Skill Type: Website
Region: Yorkshire & Humberside
Locality: Doncaster
Postcode: DN1
Virtual: No

Description: This organisation is a branch of national advice-giving charity. They provide free, confidential advice on money issues, employment problems, etc. to all members of the community.They currently have only a single-page website and would like help to develop a fully functional site. The site needs to be easy to update and to expand in the future - a CMS (content management system) might be appropriate. They will need help to specify their requirements, design and implement the site. They may also need advice on hosting.

Opportunity Name: website/online/promotion help
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Lambeth
Postcode: SW9
Virtual: No

Description: This charity is a nearly 200 year old campaigning body that is committed to eliminating all forms of slavery throughout the world. Sadly, this work is still so important today and they campaign against all forms of slavery, servitude and forced labour. As you can imagine, their website is very important to them as are all other forms of online communication. They launched a new dotEditor (CMS) website last year and now have a project for someone to help take it to the next level. 1) review their Google Analytics site stats 2) search engine optimization 3) a review of their use of social networking sites and suggested improvements 4) help with the launch of the gallery & shop. In essence they are looking for a digital strategy from someone who also has the hands on skills who can help them implement it. Ideally they would like someone who could help with the strategy and then be a phone call away for the next 6 months or so (an hour a week maximum?). Can you help with all or part of this?

Opportunity Name: Urgent New Website including CMS and Gallery
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: SW17
Virtual: No

Description: This social enterprise based near Holborn tube station provides free lectures to comprehensive schools helping students raise their aspirations and with specific career advice. They would like you to build them a new website quickly including information pages, a contact form, links to videos and podcasts, and a photo gallery. They want people to be able to leave comments about the site. They want to be able to maintain the site themselves so please implement a suitable content management system and train them how to use it. They've thought about the design they want for the site. They're expecting at least 100,000 unique visitors per year so they would prefer someone who has worked on building sites with lots of traffic.

Opportunity Name: Website Improvements Including Online Payment
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: East London
Postcode: E1
Virtual: Yes

Description: This charity and social enterprise is based in Tower Hamlets, East London and is working on regeneration, healthy eating and recycling with the disadvantaged communities. The charity has established a co-operative which aims to sell healthy fruit and vegetables to people at work. The aims of the project are to improve health, improve awareness of the benefits of 5-a-day and also to generate funds to support their charitable activities. They have begun creating a new website using the Squarespace hosted CMS system and they are looking for a volunteer to help them complete it. They quite like the basic design and are now seeking support to add additional information, change the order page and to import PayPal. Also they would appreciate some training in how to make changes themselves in the future once the work has been completed. Once the site is complete they will need help to move their domain name to point to the new site. They estimate that there is about 3-4 days effort involved and they are happy to work remotely with a volunteer.

Opportunity Name: Website for learning disability charity needs refreshing please
Skill Type: Website
Region: South East
Locality: Edenbridge
Postcode: TN8
Virtual: No

Description: This long established charity with its Communications based in Edenbridge, Kent, provides support to people with learning disabilities to enable them to live fulfilling lives as independently as possible. They have a website which is updated using Cubik CMS but their website is 1) hard to update and 2) not user-centered. Can you help them discuss their options? They would like to learn this CMS better to get more from it, or to have a volunteer who has good accessibility knowledge & a good design eye to help either on a regular basis or alongside their staff to get them all up to speed on this. A SEO and social media review might also be interesting to consider alongside this. They're quite happy for you to work remotely if you prefer, but they would like to meet you first. Thank you.

Opportunity Name: Provide Strategic Advice about Work Plan
Skill Type: Strategy
Region: North West
Locality: Liverpool
Postcode: L3
Virtual: No

Description: This social enterprise based in Liverpool recycles furniture and domestic appliances to improve the lives of people in poverty and unemployment, by creating training opportunities for the long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged groups. They have 3 offices with about 5 servers and 40 PCs, all sites are linked by a VPN. The network is mainly Microsoft software. With no investment for about 5 years they need your help to find a balance between replacing the infrastructure and supporting further business growth. Their IT manager has a detailed and prioritized plan but needs your experience in major infrastructure improvements to bring an independent view and assist with recommendations/the project roll out. They are considering secure remote access, virtualization, Sharepoint, a CRM & business reporting. Knowledge of bar code stock taking and telephone systems would also be an advantage. If you can assist with one aspect please consider offering advice in one area. Thank you.

Opportunity Name: Strategic Advice on Innovative Use of ICT
Skill Type: Strategy
Region: London
Locality:
Postcode: WC1H
Virtual: No

Description: Here's a really interesting project to think outside the box and guide a charity to use IT innovatively. This charity based in Cambridge works with rural communities in Africa to fulfil their aspirations. In a world in which girls have the least access to education, together they enrol and keep girls from the poorest families in school, and support them after school to lead change, champion girls' education and advocate for the rights and protection of all children. They have strong ICT systems (partly developed in house and partly off-the-shelf and have been a leader to date in their use of new technologies and communication tools (e.g. Twitter, Facebook and use of PDAs for data collection in a rural setting). They would like to develop a business plan which focuses on the role of new technologies and how an integrated ICT plan could work best them. They're looking for someone with senior level experience of developing and planning the implementation of innovative ICT strategies to facilitate and support the team in mapping out and determining how they could use the latest technologies innovatively, helping them work out how this would integrate with their scale up plans and priorities over the next 3 years, developing a prioritised plan which will be fully integrated into their business plan. You'll be expected to be up to speed on the latest developments in ICT and how they can drive a business, have facilitation skills to guide the team through this process and can draw up a plan which brings it all together. This project will need to take account of the specifics of the Africa context and any implementation, training and/or support factors which are key locally.

Opportunity Name: Make Improvements to Plone-based Website
Skill Type: Website
Region: South West
Locality: Bristol
Postcode: BS3
Virtual: Yes

Description: This fairly new unincorporated not for profit association based in Bristol is dedicated to raising the profile of local green businesses, organisations and initiatives. They aim to engage the wider public in making the Bristol region sustainable, help them adopt more sustainable lifestyles and stimulate green business. They feel their website is holding them back from reaching their full potential. They want you to help them increase the interactivity of the site by making it more flexible for their users, allowing them to upload films and images and aggregating feeds from other local sites. The site was set up using Plone so you will need Plone experience. They create newsletters on the site, but there's something wrong. Either it won't let them complete the newsletter, or more commonly sending out the newsletter crashes the site, and it has to be restarted. They would prefer someone local if possible.

Opportunity Name: Urgent help with IT research project/IT audit
Skill Type: Consultancy
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: SE16
Virtual: No

Description: This major national charity located near South Bermondsey station in south London helps blind and partially sighted people. They have a large ICT team and support 200+ staff. They are a member of the Charities Consortium IT Directors Group (CCitDG), the premier network for IT Directors of major UK Charities. This group has commissioned a benchmarking report to look at the IT resources of the group's member charities. The charity would like to partake in this questionnaire but cannot provide the staff time to complete it. Are you familiar with IT systems for medium/large enterprises and able to commit probably 3 to 4 days per week for 6 to 8 weeks during June, July, and August to spend time with this team to answer the detailed IT audit questionnaire ? They would like to be able to submit the return by mid-August. You will need to be self motivated, diplomatic and persistent to project manage this through to completion in a short timescale. Your time will contribute to a valuable body of knowledge about IT in the charity sector and help inform this charity as to where they fit within that. This is a sociable team and you will be very welcome!

Opportunity Name: Revamp Website Design
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Ealing
Postcode: W3
Virtual: No

Description: This go-ahead charity based near Acton Town tube station helps the unemployed back into work helping them with their applications, improving literacy, numeracy and basic skills particularly in IT, and they have a number of other projects. They feel their main charity website looks out-of-date. They want you to revamp the design to give it a fresher and more contemporary look.

Opportunity Name: Create Website Strategy and ITT for Website Redevelopment
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: SW15
Virtual: Yes

Description: Here's an interesting project that will look great on your CV. This children's charity and housing association based near Putney Bridge tube station is committed to working for a better future for disadvantaged young people and vulnerable adults. They run children's homes, a homelessness intervention project and a full range of support in areas such as further education, training and employment. They feel that their website needs to become the primary method of communication with their various audiences. The current site, first launched in 2005, is now ripe for development. They've produced a scoping document and they have ideas about needs to be in the new website. They would like you to help them develop a clear and achievable web strategy, provide advice on how to best use new technologies, create a requirements specification for the new website, and help them write a invitation to tender document to find a company to do the redevelopment of the site on time and within budget.

Opportunity Name: Create Filemaker Pro Contacts and Events Database for PC Network
Skill Type: Database
Region: London
Locality: Westminster
Postcode: W1D
Virtual: No

Description: Here's an interesting project that will look good on your CV. This long established charity based near Leicester Square tube station makes grants to organisations helping those suffering hardship through HIV or AIDS round the world or to those suffering hardship through any long term illness within the entertainment community. They have a server based network of 5 PCs, 4 running Vista, and 1 running XP; and MS office 2003. They've installed Filemaker Pro 11 database but don't know how to use it. They have a large contacts list in Outlook, and a mailing list that can be downloaded from their website. They would like you to discuss their needs, and create a database will store their contacts, supporters, donors, appeals. They also need to be able to maintain data on events and shows, and people who have bought tickets, or attendees. They need to be able to segment their contacts by the role(s) in which they are known, and they'll need reports for management information and funders. They would like you to train them to create reports too. They would like you to work in their office.

Opportunity Name: Create IT Strategy for Small but Expanding Charity
Skill Type: Strategy
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: W4
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based between Hammersmith and Shepherd's Bush tube stations provides information for children in the community and their parents on healthy eating and positive body image; running courses for children and workshops for health-care professionals. They're just about to start managing a summer programme with about 500 participants starting in August, who are persuaded to attend courses by schools or youth clubs. They have 3 PCs running XP or Vista, and a Mac Powerbook. They would like you to create an IT strategy for them. They're wondering how they can share data and applications, use IT more effectively, improve their online presence, whether they should use Sharepoint. They're also worried about data protection, particularly in regard to sensitive data, and they have ideas they would like to discuss.