Principled Innovation LLC

The future of volunteering is mobile

February 19th, 2009

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be leaving for Miami and ASAE & The Center’s Great Ideas Conference.  I understand that some of my blogging colleagues are organizing an impromptu “future of volunteerism unsession” that will take place during the conference.  This is a topic of considerable interest to me, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts in advance of the “unsession” and also invite your association to participate in a VERY EXCITING project I am trying to organize…please keep on reading!

Here’s my bottom line:  the future of volunteering is mobile.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, 74% of the U.S. population did not volunteer during the 12-month period that ended September 2008.  My friend, fellow blogger and unsession organizer Peggy Hoffman questions this figure, but those concerns notwithstanding, its a dismal, even embarrassing number, especially when you consider the enormous challenges we face.  So what if we could find a way to make it easier, more convenient and more compelling to get a large share of that 74% engaged without them having to make an in-person appearance or a long-term commitment?

Barring some dramatic reversal of our current societal course, our lives won’t be any less busy in the years ahead, nor will we feel less stress, distraction and exhaustion than we do today.  So associations interested in attracting capable volunteer contributors to their work need to think deeply about how they are going to help those contributors manage the physical and cognitive demands of meaningful engagement.  Add to this mix the financial challenges of a deep and protracted economic downturn, and you have a serious challenge that demands an inventive solution.  I believe that solution is mobile.

Take the next 90 seconds and watch this video:

When I first discovered The Extraordinaries, I was incredibly excited about the possibilities of a mobile platform for supporting micro-volunteering that actually uses the capabilities of the device itself.  What a brilliant insight!  And what an elegantly simple way to manage the time and energy levels of potential volunteers who can now easily and meaningfully contribute whenever and wherever they are ready to do so.

My enthusiasm for the possibilities of this platform inspired me to reach out to Jacob Colker and Ben Rigby to explore how we might collaborate to bring The Extraordinaries technology to the association community.  I’m pleased to say that Jacob and Ben were very excited about my idea to organize a Mobile Volunteering Learning Consortium, a group of up 6-10 non-competitive associations working together, with facilitation from me, to learn how to effectively use The Extraordinaries platform to create and coordinate new forms of mobile volunteering.

I can’t begin to express how thrilled I am to be working on this project.  This is an enormous innovation opportunity for associations.  Now we need to identify the forward-looking associations in our community that are ready to take bold action in support of a critical need:  the robust engagement of a new generation of volunteer contributors.  The associations that participate will build new capabilities and have a decided advantage in thinking about how to design sustainable business models.

If your association is interested in learning more about the Mobile Volunteering Learning Consortium, please e-mail me or, if you’re going to be at the Great Ideas Conference this weekend, please ask me about it!

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