Opportunities of the Month - March 2013

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

Opportunity Name: Create File Management, Retention & Archiving Strategy
Skill Type: Strategy
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: E8
Virtual: No

Description: This charity works with people, aged 11-25 years, who live, work or study in Hackney and whose mental health and well-being need support. They provide a range of counselling and therapeutic services supported by psychosocial support in the form of advice, information & guidance. They have a staff team of 17 plus volunteers. Their current shared hard drive needs reorganisation. There are discrepancies in the way it is organised. Staff find it difficult to access certain files as over time different conventions for naming and placing files have been employed by different people, partly due to the lack of a shared vision of how to organise the network. This has led to version control problems, with staff saving versions of key documents in places that make sense to them but may not to others. They would like a LOCAL London volunteer to help them create a file management, retention & archiving strategy including file naming conventions; and help them implement it, help them gain staff acceptance and agreement, and possibly some help with training. They will want to thoroughly test the revised structure on their backup server. Their premises are not wheelchair accessible.

Opportunity Name: Provide Advice/Training on Using Excel 2010 More Effectively [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Database
Region: East Midlands
Locality: Marston Moretaine
Postcode: MK43
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based in Woodbridge, Suffolk, is an environmental charity that works alongside the community to transform places and lives, involving volunteers and local businesses. They have 6 staff who use Excel 2010 to collect and analyse data. They would like advice on how to use Excel more effectively and some training/support on more advanced functions in Excel.

Opportunity Name: Word for Mac - causing problems [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Creative Design
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: E14
Virtual: Yes

Description: Can you assist an arts organisation that uses a mac? They work with children & one of their projects requires setting up a Word (for mac) template to print child-designed stickers. It's turning out to be a headache to work with. Are you confident with Macs (& have some graphic skills) to advise about the best way to approach this? A short amount of your time would make a huge difference to this small organisation.

Opportunity Name: Setup Server, Active Directory and Exchange Services
Skill Type: Network
Region: London
Locality: Romford
Postcode: RM1
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based in Romford, Essex, provides advice to the public on a range of issues. They have 32 PCs over 4 sites running Windows XP or Vista and are migrating to Windows 7 and MS Office 2010. They want a LOCAL VOLUNTEER to integrate their server more closely with their current network, and they would like you to help setup the server environment, Active Directory and exchange services. Car parking may be available.

Opportunity Name: Drupal and CiviCRM Guru Needed to Provide Advice
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Brent
Postcode: NW10
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based near Willesden Green tube station is striving to relieve poverty, disadvantage and social exclusion among vulnerable Irish people locally in Brent and across Britain. They provide a range of advice, information, support, recreational and welfare facilities as well as contributing to local and national developments affecting their client group. They currently have a static website. An iT4C volunteer was helping them on a networking project and he's now helping them create a new website and integrated intranet CRM and Case Management System based on Drupal 7, CiviCRM and CiviCase, though he's learning Drupal and CiviCRM as he goes along. He needs someone with Drupal 7, CiviCRM and CiviCase experience to review what he's done and possibly make corrections, provide advice and mentoring when he gets stuck, but also to do some web design so that the website looks professional. They'll also want you to review security when they move to a live system on a new host.

Opportunity Name: Recommend and Implement Video-Conferencing Solution
Skill Type: Consultancy
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: SE1
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based near Southwark tube station provides free tax advice and support to people on low incomes. They have a helpline, and volunteer tax advisers across the UK that meet with clients, complete tax returns and intervene with HMRC. They currently use software that allows them to video-conference with clients in remote offices (belonging to other organisations), control the remote office's PC equipment, view files and transfer files. The software is not very reliable and the supplier seems unable to provide support when it's needed. They would like you to analyse their requirements, identify a suitable replacement solution and suppliers, implement the solution as a pilot with another office and provide advice when it's rolled out to other offices.

Opportunity Name: Upgrade WordPress Version [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: SE1
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based near Southwark tube station provides free tax advice and support to people on low incomes. They have a helpline, and volunteer tax advisers across the UK that meet with clients, complete tax returns and intervene with HMRC. Their website uses WordPress 3 with several plugins and widgets and they would like to upgrade to WordPress 3.4. They would like you to test and carry out the upgrade and also explain how to do it - they hope to be able to do future upgrades themselves.

Opportunity Name: Provide Advice about Creating Collages of Pictures and Text [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: N1
Virtual: Yes

Description: This charity helps emotionally isolated, physically and socially disabled people to form new deep friendships and find partners. They have a website based on Drupal 5. They want their members to be able to create a collage of pictures and/or text, that could be loaded as a file into a member's page on their website.

Opportunity Name: Migrate Small Office to Microsoft 365
Skill Type: Network
Region: Scotland
Locality: Galashiels
Postcode: TD1
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based in Galashiels represents the interests of local people in the planning and provision of health and social care services. They have 6 staff, a server-based network of 7 PCs running Windows XP and MS Office 2010. They want to migrate to Microsoft 365, especially to facilitate sharing calendars and files. They would like you to analyse their needs, plan and implement the migration.

Opportunity Name: Provide Advice on New Hardware and Software [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Technical Support
Region: London
Locality: Islington
Postcode: N1
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based near Angel tube station campaigns on behalf of older people. They have 1 PC running Windows Vista. They need advice about buying another computer and advice about what software they need to support their work and whether it should be connected to the current PC. They would also like you to set up the new computer and install the software.Their office is not wheelchair accessible.

Opportunity Name: Resolve Network or Technical Problem with PCs [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Network
Region: South East
Locality: Brighton
Postcode: BN1
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based in Brighton bridges the gap between the community arts and the professional arts sectors mainly in Sussex. They provide talented marginalised (with mental health problems, learning difficulties, homeless people, substance misusers, offenders & ex-offenders) artists and writers with opportunities to earn income from their creative work. They give those excluded by society the chance to reintegrate through their own talents by providing training, support, exhibiting and publishing opportunities, selling & promoting their work at the highest levels. They have a peer-to-peer network of 4 PCs running a mixture of Windows. The 3 older PCs have become very slow. They would like you to inspect them and resolve the problems.

Opportunity Name: Create New Website with CMS
Skill Type: Website
Region: Wales
Locality: Cardiff
Postcode: CF24
Virtual: No

Description: This social enterprise based in Cardiff works to reduce re-offending by helping offenders by helping them to gain skills and think positively. They would like you to build them a website that includes videos and information pages and a form on which users can nominate inspirational individuals. They want to be able to update themselves so please implement a content management system (CMS) and train them how to add new pages and maintain text and images. They use domain email. They want to discuss the site layout and design with you, and they need advice about hosting. Their building has wheelchair access.

Opportunity Name: Kent Volunteer Coordinator
Skill Type: Technical Support
Region: South East
Locality: Kent
Postcode: CT1
Virtual: No

Description: This charity is a network of volunteers with IT skills who provide free assistance to disabled people in their homes. This role is Kent Coordinator and the responsibilities are allocating client calls from the office to IT Support Volunteers, assisting in the recruitment of volunteers, meeting potential volunteers, publicising the network locally, providing quarterly statistics of calls in your County, supporting your volunteers and visiting clients. The required skills include good interpersonal and communication skills, access to computer and email, able to travel to meet potential volunteers, adequate IT skills, some administrative or management experience, and the ability to work from home. Travel expenses will be reimbursed. Although visiting volunteers is not a necessary part of this role, as someone handling client and volunteer data an enhanced CRB check will be required for this work.

Opportunity Name: Provide Advice about Accessing Video Content
Skill Type: Consultancy
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: W1S
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based near Green Park tube station is dedicated to connecting people with the world of science. They have an interactive museum guide with rich content, which is accessed through PDAs available at the museum reception. The PDAs are wearing out, the technology is less appropriate to the audience, but the content (currently Flash) is exceptionally high quality, being image and video-rich. They are looking at exploring possible ways of delivering it over more appropriate technology. They will need to get funding in due course but first they want to explore the possibility of reusing this content. They would like you to research and advise them about the technologies that could help them achieve their aims.

Opportunity Name: Create Requirements Specification for New Database
Skill Type: Needs Analysis
Region: Scotland
Locality: Ayrshire
Postcode: KA6
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based in South Ayrshire helps current and ex-services personnel with mental health troubles improve their social, personal, and motivational skills through horticultural therapy in 4 locations in Scotland and England. They currently manage data on attendance, fundraisers, volunteers and work activities, and staff records by using spreadsheets. They would like to manage the data more effectively by using a comprehensive database that could provide the statistical analysis and reporting that they need and provide access to some staff in other locations. They would like you to analyse their needs and create a requirements specification that an iT4C volunteer can use to create a suitable database.

Opportunity Name: Tayside/Dundee Volunteer Organiser
Skill Type: Technical Support
Region: Scotland
Locality: Dundee
Postcode: DD1
Virtual: No

Description: This charity is a network of volunteers with IT skills who provide free assistance to disabled people in their homes. This role is Tayside/Dundee organiser and the responsibilities are allocating client calls from the office to IT Support Volunteers, assisting in the recruitment of volunteers, meeting potential volunteers, publicising the network locally, providing quarterly statistics of calls in your County, supporting your volunteers and visiting clients. The required skills include good interpersonal and communication skills, access to computer and email, able to travel to meet potential volunteers, adequate IT skills, some administrative or management experience, and the ability to work from home. Travel expenses will be reimbursed. Although visiting volunteers is not a necessary part of this role, as someone handling client and volunteer data an enhanced disclosure check will be required for this work.

Opportunity Name: Create Requirements Specification for New Website
Skill Type: Needs Analysis
Region: South West
Locality: Devizes
Postcode: SN10
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based in Devises provides a range of volunteer and community services to Wiltshire, and helps bring together community, charity, social enterprise and volunteer groups in the area. They want a website that will encompass the work of several infrastructure charities and help site users decide which organisation to contact, and then be linked through to their website. The website needs to include a mechanism where people can log in, have discussions and share documents; both public and confidential. They also want to incorporate a single phone number that could be answered by any one of the organisations and the call put through to the right person whichever organisation they work in. They would like you to create a requirements specification that one or more iT4C volunteers can use to build and implement the website and functionality they need. They can meet you in Chippenham or Salisbury if that's more convenient. They have parking.

Opportunity Name: SQL Server database in Tanzania for health charity
Skill Type: Database
Region: South East
Locality: Chichester
Postcode: PO19
Virtual: No

Description: This UK based charity delivers dental training in Tanzania and has grown very rapidly in recent years. Key to the success of further growth plans is a centralized monitoring and evaluation database. Due to the constraints of limited Internet access & computer skills of the front line staff it is vital that this is a simple interface & data is readily available at any place with internet connection. The charity has already outlined the software requirements (document available) and have chosen Microsoft SQL Server (after researching options & seeking advice). We are able to give a full outline of the data that will be collected and inputted into the database. Expertise in database development, deployment and user training is vital. Ideally, a volunteer would be prepared to work overseas with project staff in Tanzania for up to a period of 6 months, beginning ideally in the first quarter of 2013. Discussions can be had with the right candidate regarding support with expenses for such a visit. We look forward to hearing from you.

Opportunity Name: Review Salesforce Usage and Make Recommendations [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Database
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: W1T
Virtual: No

Description: This charity carries out high quality, independent research into new and existing health, education, social and other interventions in autism. Their goal is the improvement of quality of life and outlook for the individuals affected and those around them. They use Salesforce to manage their contacts, project management and to take payments online foe membership and conferences. They would like you to review their usage of Salesforce and their workflow, identify any problem areas and make recommendations for using Salesforce more effectively.

Opportunity Name: Create Templates for New Brochure and Stationery [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Creative Design
Region: Wales
Locality: Cardiff
Postcode: CF5
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based in Cardiff is the umbrella organisation for lots of children's clubs in Wales. They're in the final stages of building a new website, reflecting a change of branding including name and logo, which has been created. They would like you to create a template for a new multi-page brochure booklet and new headed stationery.

Opportunity Name: Provide Advice about Integrating MailChimp with SurveyMonkey [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Consultancy
Region: Scotland
Locality: Galashiels
Postcode: TD1
Virtual: Yes

Description: This charity represents the interests of local people in the planning and provision of health and social care services. They use MailChimp and would like advice how to link it up to SurveyMonkey and what they can do with the integrated product. There is an associated project to create a MailChimp template.

Opportunity Name: Create MailChimp Template [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Creative Design
Region: Scotland
Locality: Galashiels
Postcode: TD1
Virtual: Yes

Description: This charity represents the interests of local people in the planning and provision of health and social care services. They would like you to create a MailChimp template for their newsletter and help them get started in using it. There is an associated project to provide advice about integrating MailChimp with SurveyMonkey.

Opportunity Name: Review IT Infrastructure, Create IT Strategy and Specify Costs
Skill Type: Audit/strategy
Region: London
Locality: Kensington & Chelsea
Postcode: W10
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based near Latimer Rd tube station runs a community centre and a variety of community activities for adults and young people.They have 3 PCs (2 running Windows XP, the other running Windows 7) 'networked' via a router and a slow stand-alone PC running Windows XP connected to a projector. They would like to have remote access, wireless broadband and a more robust backup strategy. They would like you to review their IT infrastructure, advise them how they could use IT more effectively, develop a strategy for future IT and specify costs for implementing your recommendations.

Opportunity Name: Implement New civiCRM/civiCASE System
Skill Type: Database
Region: South East
Locality: Reigate
Postcode: RH2
Virtual: Yes

Description: This charity based in Reigate provides free mediation services to residents of East Surrey to resolve conflicts and disputes of all kinds within the community. An iT4C volunteer created a test civiCRM system for them to try out and they liked it. She's no longer available and doesn't have civiCASE experience. They would like someone (preferably with civiCASE expertise) to implement a civiCRM/civiCASE system for use with their mediation service induding the set up and best configuration, links, and so on. Experienced Civi person required please.

Opportunity Name: Redesign Website Search Page [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Southwark
Postcode: SE1
Virtual: Yes

Description: This charity based near Southwark tube station promotes environmental education across Greater London. They have a search page as a plug-in on their Expression Engine CMS-based website that allows visitors to search for environmental trainers that match particular criteria. They're looking for someone with creative design and usability skills to redesign the look and feel of the search page and the search mechanism; working with an existing iT4C volunteer who is working on improving the database aspects.

Opportunity Name: Create Requirements Specification for New Database(s)
Skill Type: Needs Analysis
Region: South East
Locality: Alton
Postcode: GU34
Virtual: No

Description: This charity based in Alton, Hampshire, works to improve the quality of life for adults and children with chronic kidney disease and offers financial support to kidney units and patients and their families in times of financial difficulty. They have a server-based network of 8 PCs running a mixture of Windows and MS Office versions and Sage. They use a mixture of Excel spreadsheets and databases to manage data on hospitals, renal units, medical staff, grant applications, patients, financial expenditure, clients, gift aid, donors and fundraisers. They would like these replaced with one or more new databases that will allow them to store other data, like GP surgeries, clinics and solicitors, to provide more integration with Sage, minimise duplication of data entry and to provide better information and reporting. They would like you to create a requirements specification that can be used by an iT4C volunteer to deliver the new database(s) they need. Their premises are not wheelchair accessible.