Volunteers are awesome. So the July 5 Net Tuesday is gonna focus on volunteer coordination.

Volunteers are awesome, but the relationship between a nonprofit and a volunteer can be tricky.

VOLUNTEERS: Maybe the nonprofit never got back to you? Maybe the job they offered kinda sucked?

VOLUNTEER COORDINATORS: Are your volunteers creating a ridiculous pile of administrative paperwork and overhead? Can you find volunteers with the right skills? Why is this so hard?

Net Tuesday can't solve all your volunteer-related challenges. We aren't MAGIC. But we've got a few tricks up our sleeves that might help. Check this out:

Microblogs like Twitter are a great vehicle to help organize political demonstrations in countries run by corrupt governments (and an effective way to spread misinformation), but how can nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), libraries, government programs, and other mission-based organizations really use microblogs to promote their work, increase attendance at an event, get donations or mobilize or support volunteers?

This post is cross-posted from the TechSoup blog. You can read the original post and any comments here.

Who can help? Has this been done before? What is the best route? How can this project be sustainable? Crowdsourcing is being used to help find the answers to these and many other questions. According to Wikipedia, "crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call." Organizations are crowdfunding, crowd voting, crowdsourcing jobs, and even crowdsourcing films (see Life in a Day). Presentations illustrating its use have also been made available at this year's CrowdConf2010.

Let's face it: finding good volunteers is tough. A good volunteer can be a priceless addition to the team, but the process of matching the expertise and timing needs of the project to the skills and availabilities of potential volunteers can take time and resources away from your organization. This month's Net2 Think Tank is exploring ways that organizations can use the internet to make finding volunteers more efficient and effective. Share your tools, tactics, and best practices with the NetSquared Community!

Topic:

I have to admit giving a heavy sigh over the recent post by the folks behind the Net2 Think Tank asking "How can organizations innovate to allow donors to effectively contribute their time, talent, and skills online?" It went on to say, "What are some examples of organizations allowing donors to contribute their time and/or talents virtually? Which specific tools or tactics are working for your organization and which are not working?"

Because, you see, there's a word for that. It's called volunteering.

The July Net2 Think Tank hopes to provide an opportunity to look at some of the changes in our organizations, our messages, and even our strategies because of the impact of social media.  We know that the Internet in general, and social technologies especially, have greatly impacted the way social benefit organizations do their work.  You can participate in the Net2 Think Tank by blogging your answer to the topic below - all submissions will be republished at the end of the month.

It's so easy to be proud of the NABUUR volunteers! Here's a little story about the Yoshinkel team...

I voted today.

When evaluating projects, I considered the six net2 attributes and also tried to imagine how, if implemented, they would affect the lives of Africans - and in particular the struggles of African civil society organizations to serve the needs of their communities. The projects I chose seemed to me to offer the most revolutionary impact across Africa (and indeed across the world) in part because they make creative use of Web 2.0 to leverage their impact.

Location

WOW! What a Difference a Week Makes! Where to start.... Since I began this blog and really launched my serious research into what WYSE needs to do to get our new web presence and WYSE Community Communication System (I just made that up...but I like it) in place, so much has fallen in my lap and I am energized and inspired. Day 1: I did an orientation with two new board interns who were recruited from RVLDP. http://www.lajcc.org/rvldp/index.html They are both women, although we tried to recruit men. These women are like walking/talking gifts to our organization. One of them has extensive web marketing and development experience and connections.