Best Practice

Delivering Great Projects - RESPECT - Making IT Volunteering Succeed (or Fail)

"Do unto others as you would have done unto you..."

In a relationship, no one likes to feel cheap and used.

In a relationship between a volunteer offering professional skills and a charity seeking support, it's important for both parties to be happy about things. This need not require a great deal of 'relationship management' but it does depend on mutual RESPECT.

IT volunteers stand to benefit from the experience and opportunity of working with a voluntary or community group. It's a new environment, the change to transfer skills to new projects and learn a bit more about dealing with real people (scoping, project definition, execution and client management rolled into one). For charities, it's an opportunity to learn more about ICT, to develop new skills, to network with IT professionals and to have a specific piece of work done with no financial outlay.

So why does it sometimes go so horribly wrong?

In a commercial environment, the risk assessment would be evaluated as 'mismanaged expectations' and 'lack of respect between parties.'

Mismanaged expectations

Need is not the same as want. Most charities are realistic about what IT help can be provided by volunteers and are willing to work with both brokers and volunteers to define projects. All iT4Communities work offered to our volunteers are defined projects, some with more variable scope than others. We outline, both in 'match' notifications, telephone and email conversations and in our website toolkit, how to work with the charity to define roles and responsibilities. Project champions are important - as a volunteer it's important to know the project has merit, is accepted throughout the organisation and has someone committed to it within the charity. A single point of contact is important. We advise all our volunteers and charities to work with each other to define what they want out of it, how that will happen and to work together to make it happen.

Lack of respect

There are two concerns here.

(1) Volunteers leaving projects unfinished. It's easy for circumstances to change and for a previously time-rich volunteer to acquire a contract which all but eliminates their free time. In those cases, we expect the IT professional to 'manage' a transition, with the support of iT4Communities where needed, to ensure projects aren't left hanging in the air. In most cases, projects get completed by the same volunteer or a similar volunteer, in a similar timeframe. (Incidentally, most IT volunteering is done by people with full time jobs so a new contract needn't mean you have to quit volunteering).

(2) Charities treating volunteers without any care or thought. One of the problems throughout IT volunteering (it's not restricted to iT4Communities) is for charities to treat volunteers badly. This isn't common, but it does happen and it boils down to a lack of respect. An IT volunteer does not become the personal property of the charity to be 'called on' at will. There is a serious point about defining expectations in advance. Lack of communication is a serious issue - this isn't about forgetting to return one phone call, this is about ignoring five phone calls and three emails. Don't assume support will always be there (it won't be - if a volunteer offers support over a period of three months and it takes you four to give them the information to start the job, they're sure to have found something more interesting in the meantime).  The last thing iT4Communities wants is for IT professionals to become alienated from volunteering because of the 'bad behaviour' of some charities. Respect also applies the other way and we expect all volunteers to treat the charities professionally.

Conclusion
The bottom line... IT volunteering works and can provide benefits to both volunteer and recipient. The key points to bear in mind are:

(1) agree exactly what you will do,
(2) write it down (even if only two paragraphs on a piece of paper),
(3) treat each other professionally,
(4) RESPECT each others needs and communicate.

Respect, managed expectations and a clear plan for success will make the projects more enjoyable and give benefit to all parties involved.