Difference between revisions of "Reducing barriers to volunteering"

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answers their questions and gets them set up.  
 
answers their questions and gets them set up.  
  
This person checks in and
+
*This person checks in and
 
makes sure that things go okay. That person usually doesn’t exist at
 
makes sure that things go okay. That person usually doesn’t exist at
 
many non-profit.  
 
many non-profit.  
  
It would be most productive if that person is in the
+
*It would be most productive if that person is in the
 
non-profit who knows the non-profit.
 
non-profit who knows the non-profit.
  
A person that holds their hand
+
*A person that holds their hand through it. Volunteers go off on a code tangent.
through it. Volunteers go off on a code tangent.
+
 
  
 
The coding part is unique for developers. It’s a lot of set up.
 
The coding part is unique for developers. It’s a lot of set up.
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Onboarding
 
Onboarding
 
 
*Readiness checklist with examples - “if you don’t know git here’s a
 
*Readiness checklist with examples - “if you don’t know git here’s a
 
tutorial”
 
tutorial”

Latest revision as of 18:06, 21 November 2017

There’s some disconnect between non-profits and tech volunteers.

What are the challenges:

  • No dedicated community management role.
  • Defining bite sized of pieces of work.
  • Disorganization.
  • Projects that are like too big too quick. The non profit can’t support

the thing the volunteer wants to do.

  • Non-profits not knowing what to ask for. Not having a clear thing to say

“this is what we need you to do for us”

  • Onboarding process: Getting them to the process where they can actually work
  • “By the time I onboard that person, I should be hiring them”
  • The tradeoff of what that volunteer did vs. what a full time employee
  • Retention is a major issue. 70% come once twice and never again
  • Why the 30% of volunteers say - after their spent the first hour
  • It’s hard to identify something that the things that a newcomer can do

immediately

  • Organizations under-estimate how much work that it is to work with

volunteers

  • Onboarding is the burden. Once the on boarding is smooth, that will take

care of what is smooth.

  • Is anybody doing this successfully? Matching tech volunteers.
  • Less so with coders and developers
  • We have success with business analysts because they are consultative,

customer-facing.

  • “Discovery” -> “Design” -> “Build” -> “Maintain”
  • Team for tech - they do some great projects with non-profits. They

commit to work with a project for 3-5 years. They’re doing the project management for that non-profit.

Having a dedicated staff member. Project manager - the person that answers their questions and gets them set up.

  • This person checks in and

makes sure that things go okay. That person usually doesn’t exist at many non-profit.

  • It would be most productive if that person is in the

non-profit who knows the non-profit.

  • A person that holds their hand through it. Volunteers go off on a code tangent.


The coding part is unique for developers. It’s a lot of set up.

  • Have volunteers build the role itself.
  • Tech volunteers there is a hierarchy in tech - people don’t want to do

the volunteer on boarding work. Orgs want to retain the engineering staff.

  • Certain things lend themselves better to volunteers.
  • Bugfixes are much simpler but many people don’t want to do that because

it’s boring.

  • Putting a small team of volunteers onto prototyping projects might be a

good use of volunteers.

  • Skipped the onboarding, basically was just milestone checks for the day
  • The volunteer is looking for the bite-sized chunk. The non-profit needs

more comprehensive support though. So it feels like there is a disconnect between the two.

  • There is a minimum bar for contribution, some people might need to spend

some time going through some tutorials. Maybe there should be a “readiness” checklist - things you should know prior to contributing.

Onboarding

  • Readiness checklist with examples - “if you don’t know git here’s a

tutorial”

  • Dev environment spin up should be very smooth.
  • Really great documentation.
  • Needs finding has to go both ways - what’s the takeaway.
  • Have the contributor CLA verifying they’ve read the contributor guidelines
  • More time needs to be spent on devops if it’s not smooth.
  • Wikimedia has a matchmaking process where a volunteer fills out a form.
  • They have hundreds of volunteers to. What are the items to be done and

what can the volunteer do?

  • Need a checklist for both the volunteer and non-profit.
  • Direct contact with users.
  • “The journey is part of the experience”

Where is the most valuable place to use volunteers? Non-critical tasks that we still really want We have to focus on these critical tasks

Are hackathons useful?

  • Maybe, but often the non-profit doesn’t get much out of it.
  • One successful hackathon was where people came with particular area

problems, create prototypes, and it was long (9am-10pm).

  • Invite only hackathons are definitely useful.
  • Gone from a one day event to a three day event. The people that show up

for a three day event are way more committed. The quality of their presence is much higher.

  • Structured events go better.

Maybe some of the practices that have been acquired from the coding communities would be useful in other spheres.