Opportunities of the month

 

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?

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Opportunity Name: Occasional support for CRM system
Skill Type: Database
Region: South East
Locality: Surrey
Postcode: KT8
Virtual: Yes

Description: This charity aims to encourage and promote the art of embroidery. They provide workshops, educational resources and a library. They maintain a museum of historical needlecraft artefacts and publish two bi-monthly magazines. The charity use the ProgressCRM contact management database to manage details of their members and the magazine subscriptions. They have a standard installation of the system and they don't use all of the modules available. However, it is an old version of the software - version 3.65. The smooth operation of the database is vital to the organisation - it stores details of over 10,000 members. The charity would like a volunteer they can call on for ad hoc support for the database. They rarely have problems but they'd love to have someone they could talk to if something goes wrong. In addition, they will need to replace their server sometime in the next twelve months and when that happens they would like the volunteer to speak with their external IT support people to ensure the database is transferred smoothly. They're happy to work remotely with a volunteer who has previous experience of this software.

Opportunity Name: Advice on Setting Up a low cost Audio Studio [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Consultancy
Region: South East
Locality: Slough
Postcode: SL2
Virtual: Yes

Description: This Slough community group works towards empowering families to raise healthy happy children, through back to basics courses like baby massage, baby yoga, parenting skills training, and providing workshops and coaching. They would like to offer a new service to parents by creating a CD that contains reasonably good recordings of the baby's sounds and voice, stories, lullabies, and nursery rhymes read and sung by the parents, but also be able to mix in music. They're expecting this to be low volume so while using a PC or laptop would probably be suitable for creating the CDs, their current laptop doesn't have a CD writer. They would like your advice on what equipment and software to buy, and help in setting it up.

Opportunity Name: Strategy and planning for craft charity
Skill Type: Strategy
Region: South East
Locality: Surrey
Postcode: KT8
Virtual: No

Description: This charity aims to encourage and promote the art of embroidery. They provide workshops, educational resources and a library. They maintain a museum of historical needlecraft artefacts and publish two bi-monthly magazines. The charity needs to review their entire IT systems and they would like a volunteer to work with them to put together an IT strategy and a plan for the medium term future. They know that they will need to replace their server within the next twelve months and the supplier of their CRM software is encouraging them to upgrade to the latest version. But what else should they be considering? They have a network of about a dozen PCs running Windows XP. As well as the standard Office applications they have a number of database packages, Sage accounts, an EPOS system and software to manage the museum stock. They also support their website in-house. They would like a volunteer to look at current system, talk with them about their requirements and help them put together a realistic plan for their IT systems.

Opportunity Name: Charity working for sustainable living needs CMS help
Skill Type: Website
Region: South East
Locality: Oxford
Postcode: OX2
Virtual: Yes

Description: This charity exists to provide information and educational resources relating to sustainable development across the full range of human activity. Central to their work is the concept that it is possible for the individual to make a difference. Their website is vital to promoting their work, promoting the commitment of individuals and for fundraising. They have recently adopted the Joomla content management system and wish to give the website a complete overhaul, not only of the content but also of the functionality and visuals. They say "we are looking for a technically astute and visually creative self-starter who can work with minimal supervision and turn our exciting intentions into an attractive, stimulating and most importantly compelling site so that visitors feel inclined to donate to the cause. We want to incorporate a blogshpere and various standard add-ons such as Google Maps an integrate them with the information in our CMS." If you are a volunteer who is knowledgeable with CMS please get in touch with the charity. Even if you do not feel you have the artistic skills they maybe able to work with another volunteer to provide this.

Opportunity Name: web 2.0 advice for sustainable living charity [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Website
Region: South East
Locality: Oxford
Postcode: OX2
Virtual: Yes

Description: This charity is looking for a volunteer who can help them utilise the fundraising and campaigning potential web 2.0 particularly social networking sites. They are looking for someone who knows this area well and can advise them about using these online tools in the way they work. This charity exists to provide information and educational resources relating to sustainable development across the full range of human activity. Central to their work is the concept that it is possible for the individual to make a difference. Their website and online presence is vital to promoting their work, promoting the commitment of individuals and for fundraising. This is not as technical an opportunity as we usually offer but we think that there will be volunteers out there who are very interested in how web technologies can help charities make the most of this exciting way of communication.

Opportunity Name: Update IT Strategy for large charity
Skill Type: Strategy
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: SE1
Virtual: No

Description: This fairly well known charity based at Waterloo works with children and young people with behavioural and emotional problems, providing therapeutic care, education and treatment in both residential settings and in the community. Apart from their London office, they have sites in Northamptonshire, Norfolk, and Kent. All sites have networked PCs with XP, Norfolk and Kent sites are peer-to-peer networks. They have proprietary databases for human resources and fundraising and use Sage for accounting. They need your help in updating their IT strategy, as well as some general advice. They're not expecting you to visit their sites outside London unless you think it's necessary. Their Waterloo office is accessible with advance notice.

Opportunity Name: Patient person needed to train disabled people
Skill Type: Training
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: SE17
Virtual: No

Description: This charity provides support, training and advice to disabled Spanish and Portuguese speaking people in London. Many of their clients are asylum seekers and have a physical or learning disability or are suffering from a chronic or terminal illness. One of the services they provide to their clients is basic IT training and they are looking for a volunteer to help with this. You'd need to plan the lessons according to the ability and requirements of the students and they could range from how to switch on the computer and use the mouse to basic word processing, using the internet and sending e-mail. Training would be one-to-one or in small groups depending on your preference and the needs of the students, Ideally you'd need to be able to commit to at least a day a week for a minimum of six months. Although the students have various disabilities no special skills are needed apart from the patience to help people learn at their own pace. Lessons are delivered in English but Spanish or Portuguese speaking could be an advantage. Other trainers have found this work very rewarding.

Opportunity Name: Simple poster template online for innovative CIC [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Herne Hill
Postcode: SE24
Virtual: Yes

Description: This Community Interest Company is a dynamic and innovative new way to help raise much needed income for charities. Working like any other established mortgage advisor, giving high quality financial advice and brokering mortgages, but with the one very big difference - they use their trading income to generate cash for mortgage client's chosen charities. Every mortgage or remortgage will generate �100s of a donation. Can you help get them to provide a poster template online? This can be used by the Charities that benefit from donations to advertise the service and spread the word. There is a very clear brief for this and although a small piece of technical work this will make a big impact on the all important advertising of this service.

Opportunity Name: New Brochure-type website with CMS and online donations
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Ilford
Postcode: IG5
Virtual: Yes

Description: This charity based in Ilford helps immigrants and refugees settle in, get help, translation; they also help young people from minority and ethnic communities by providing taster courses for employment, and booster lessons and self-esteem improvement for school children. They need a mainly brochure-type website including a contact form to engage young people and inform stakeholders of their work. They'll need to be able to keep the website up to date, so they need you to implement a content management system, and show them how to use it. They would also like to take donations online, perhaps using PayPal, and they'll need you to guide them in applying for a PayPal business account. You'll need to check that their domain name is still active and guide them in arranging hosting. You'll need to be there to train them, and discuss design but most of the work will need to be done remotely.

Opportunity Name: Suggest further improvements to disability information site
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Fulham
Postcode: SW6
Virtual: No

Description: This charity works to promote equality for disabled people mainly in the Hammesmith and Fulham areas. They aim to provide high quality accessible services and to campaign for inclusion and the removal of barriers to opportunity. They have recently launched a new website aimed at providing information for disabled people. Naturally they've made a huge effort to make the site accessible to all. The site is not getting as many hits as they'd expected although it features well in the search engines. They have a feedback form but aren't getting much feedback. They would like a web professional with an understanding of accessibility to take a look at the site and make some suggestions for improvements. Perhaps the navigation doesn't work as well as it should? Maybe the feedback form is broken? They would also like advice on getting more people to the site and engaging them once there. They have already had good advice from two iT4C volunteers but more comments would be welcome.

Opportunity Name: Loading Oral Histories on to Website
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Brent
Postcode: HAO
Virtual: No

Description: This lively north London community project based near Alperton tube station has been collecting oral histories from young and old using mini-disk recorders and taking pictures to accompany them, as well as creating summary text transcripts. Some were loaded on to their website as part of a funded project, however the funding ran out. They would like you to devise a process to take these recordings (currently stored on CDs) and digital images, if necessary converting them, upload and store them on the website, so that visitors can enjoy them. They want you to train them in the process so that they can do the remainder and more in the future. They also intend to write up the process as an online tutorial, so that other organisations can record and present oral histories. Their community building is accessible.

Opportunity Name: New Brochure-Type Website with CMS
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Brent
Postcode: HAO
Virtual: No

Description: This lively north London community project based near Alperton tube station arranges assignments for volunteers aged 16 to 25 in promoting environmental work, healthy lifestyles, sport, education and enterprise. They work mainly in the borough of Brent but are starting to expand into other areas. They want a website to promote use of volunteers with information pages, links, opportunities for volunteers, case studies on volunteer projects, and a contact form. They have a good idea of what they want and lots of content, however they'll need guidance on the layout and structure. They already have a domain name, and they want you to implement domain email. You'll need to: define the structure in detail, guide them in signing up for suitable hosting, build the website, implement a CMS, and train them in its use.

Opportunity Name: Website Improvements
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Brent
Postcode: HAO
Virtual: No

Description: This lively north London community project based near Alperton tube station has a nice website created as part of a funded project, however the funding ran out. They want to be able to maintain the site themselves, so they need an easy to use CMS, and they have one or more volunteers who would like to work together with you to learn about updating the website. Their community building is accessible.

Opportunity Name: Online booking system for community resource centre
Skill Type: Database
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: N7
Virtual: No

Description: This busy community centre has a room hire facility where local groups can hire affordable rooms. They have a bespoke database that links to their Sage Accounts that enables the bookings and invoicing to happen seemlessly. They have been asked to make the booking system available online so that groups can manage their own bookings. They are looking for a volunteer who is able to help them scope and plan this project. Preferably they would like to work with someone who has had previous experience of the introduction of online bookings and payments to advise them.

Opportunity Name: Basic website for older people's charity
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: Brent
Postcode: NW10
Virtual: No

Description: This local charity works in the Brent area to provide services to older people. They aim to help people remain independent and living in their own homes. Their services include a day centre, an accident prevention scheme which involves doing small maintenance jobs in peoples' homes, a volunteer gardening scheme and activities such as drama, singing and yoga. The charity would like a volunteer to build them a simple website. They will need help throughout the whole process - they have no firm ideas about what they want from the site. They see the site as adding to the services they provide to older people - perhaps providing links to other relevant services and eventually a small chat room or forum. Ultimately they will want to maintain the site themselves. They are not strongly IT literature so this may be a candidate for an easy to use CMS. Ideally the volunteer should be prepared to discuss ideas for the site with a number of members of staff and help them decide on the design, colour scheme and content of the site. They'll need guidance in choosing and registering a domain name and in signing up for suitable hosting. Since they hope a volunteer would be able to work to some extent with the staff and service users, this opportunity is not suitable for anyone who is only available to them at weekends. Please make initial contact via telephone.

Opportunity Name: Strategic advice for small charity
Skill Type: Strategy
Region: South West
Locality: Plymouth
Postcode: PL9
Virtual: No

Description: This small Plymouth charity provides play, social and recreational activities for children and young people disadvantaged by disability. They also run trips for the children and parents. They're in the process of installing 2 new PCs, upgrading to broadband access, and they have a website. There are 2 other opportunities to provide them with a booking and invoicing database, and advice on creating email newsletters, however they would like advice about how they could use IT in the future to support their objectives and make them more productive.

Opportunity Name: Advice on Creating Email Newsletters [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Consultancy
Region: South West
Locality: Plymouth
Postcode: PL9
Virtual: Yes

Description: This Plymouth charity provides play, social and recreational activities for children and young people disadvantaged by disability. They also run trips for the children and parents. They provide services to about 100 local families, and currently they send out paper newsletters. They would like to move to sending email newsletters, but are unsure how to do this, and they're keen to avoid common mistakes. Your advice on how to do this, what problems might occur, and how to resolve them, would be much appreciated. If you could also set up a template that they could use, that would be even better.

Opportunity Name: Create Booking and Invoicing Access XP Database
Skill Type: Database
Region: South West
Locality: Plymouth
Postcode: PL9
Virtual: No

Description: This Plymouth charity provides play, social and recreational activities for children and young people disadvantaged by disability. They also run trips for the children and parents. They need you to create an easy to use Access database to help them manage the activities they run, record details of families and their children, record newsletters sent, take bookings for sessions and trips, record usage and non-attendance, the reasons for non- attendance, and create invoices. They want you to provide reports for usage (perhaps analysed by disability, ethnicity, or location) for their funders, alert management to under-booked sessions and trips, and an invoice register. They're using Office XP including Access. A CRB check will be necessary.

Opportunity Name: Develop Excel spreadsheets to automate reporting
Skill Type: Database
Region: East of England
Locality: Stevenage
Postcode: SG1
Virtual: No

Description: This large Stevenage charity offers legal advice services over the telephone, in the areas of debt; employment, housing, welfare and benefits. They have key performance indicators to report on, and they need help to automate their production. They use MS Office 2000 and MS Office 2003. They have a Case Management System which they use to export spreadsheets in Excel, and combine them with staff timesheet spreadsheets via an Access database to produce the reports they want, but it's labour intensive and fiddly. They want your help to automate the process. They think it should be possible to do the whole thing in Excel by using macros, however, they're open to other ideas. Some of the work could be done remotely, but you'll certainly need to visit them to understand the current process and the problems. Their offices are accessible.

Opportunity Name: help with a new maintenance contract for small charity please [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Advice
Region: West Midlands
Locality: Telford
Postcode: TF1
Virtual: No

Description: *This small charity works to increase an awareness and understanding in Shropshire of different cultures, especially African, the scale of poverty in less developed countries and what we can all do to build a fairer, more sustainable and poverty-free world. They work with schools and other groups running sessions and workshops. * They have a 3 computer peer to peer network and self-taught staff. They really need some advice as to how long their donated computers are going to be reliable, how to improve their current set up with the minimum of distruption and then advice on how best to ask/procure ad hoc support. * A very interesting organisation, your contribution would make all the difference and it would be one or two days work. Can you help?

Opportunity Name: Disaster recovery plan for charity for disabled people
Skill Type: Advice
Region: East Midlands
Locality: Ripley
Postcode: DE22
Virtual: No

Description: This charity works throughout Derbyshire to support disabled people in living independently. They provide advice and support enabling people to gain control of their lives. They also provide volunteering opportunities for people with disabilities. They have a small head office and a number of satellite offices and the administration responsibilities for 2 social enterprises for disabled people. Their trustees are keen that they have a good disaster recovery system in place. They are a very organized charity with good back up policies and take IT budgeting & planning seriously; they are looking for an experienced volunteer who can help them write this disaster recovery plan.

Opportunity Name: Website Improvements including e-commerce
Skill Type: Website
Region: North East
Locality: Hartlepool
Postcode: TS26
Virtual: No

Description: This Hartlepool based charity educates children about caring for wildlife and the environment.They have many interesting projects, making bird and bat boxes, clearing sites, and creating new habitats. They have an existing basic website which they created, but they don't have the skills to improve. They would like to have games, quizzes, video clips, sound clips on the site, and also enable visitors to buy goods or make donations online, with payment perhaps via PayPal or Google. The video and sound clips have been created. They also have ideas for flash animations but no artwork has been done yet. This is a separate opportunity, however you'll need to create a place for the animations on the website.

Opportunity Name: Create Flash Animations for Wildlife Website
Skill Type: Creative Design
Region: North East
Locality: Hartlepool
Postcode: TS26
Virtual: No

Description: This Hartlepool based charity educates children about caring for wildlife and the environment. They have many interesting projects, making bird and bat boxes, clearing sites, and creating new habitats. They have an existing basic website which they created, but they don't have the skills to improve. They have ideas for flash animations but no artwork has been done yet. You'll need to discuss their ideas with them, and create the animations from scratch.Improvement of the website is a separate opportunity, however with placeholders to be created ready for the animations.