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In The News
Matching Volunteers to the Right Missions
New York Times, Nov 2011Technological advances are aiding this push to properly match volunteers. A Web site called Sparked, which started a year ago, allows people to use their computers to help others in a variety of ways. "It's desktop volunteering."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/jobs/matching-volunteers-to-the-right-missions.html
Volunteering Rises on the Resume
New York Times, Nov 2011For skilled volunteers, commitments can be very short term: instead of once a week at a soup kitchen, they might sign on for a single project. The Web site Sparked, which calls itself "the world's first Microvolunteering network," seeks commitments of as little as 10 minutes.
ConsumerWatch: Website Connects Busy Professionals With Volunteer Opportunities
CBS, August 2011SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Finding time to volunteer isn't that easy, but a new website helps match service oriented people with worthy organizations that need their specific skills.
Despite working long hours as a Public Relations Manager at LinkedIn, Krista Canfield has managed to fit a few minutes of volunteering in her day by logging onto Sparked.com...
Volunteer Your Way Into a Job
Dow Jones, Finns, Sept 2011Job seekers should consider a new mantra: "Give back, and you shall receive." Including volunteer experience on your resume could help you land a job, according to a new survey.
"While I was looking for a non-profit job, my friend suggested I try volunteering in the interim," she said. "Some organizations have a time commitment -- such as a certain number of hours they'd like you to work each week -- but I was in such a state of flux as a job seeker that I didn't know what I wanted to commit to."
Kennedy began "microvolunteering" with Sparked.com, a San Francisco-based website which works to match the needs of charities with appropriately skilled volunteers. In Kennedy's case, volunteering helped her discover what she wanted to do professionally.
Mashable & United Nations present Eight Startups for Good
Mashable.com, Sept 2011From life-changing technologies that reduce poverty and disease to online volunteerism for busy professionals, the Startups For Good Challenge contestants proved they had more than just a great business idea: They also are working to make a positive impact on the world.
Sparked offers convenient online volunteerism for busy professionals who don't have time to lend their expertise through traditional channels. They make volunteering as fun, social and easy to use as Facebook, Farmville, or Twitter. It's volunteerism for the digital age, or "microvolunteering."
http://mashable.com/2011/08/19/startups-for-good/
Sparked: A Revolution in Virtual Micro-Volunteering
Huffington Post, June 2011There are many benefits to volunteering. You feel more connected to the world, and in many ways, empowered to make a difference. You can build a house for the needy, plant trees, tutor students, and help military families -- it's endless.
In fact, the rapid rise of microvolunteering has become buzz-worthy for the great conversation -- and progress -- its generating. Jacob Colker and Ben Rigby, the architects of this concept and founders of Sparked, took a look at a few things they figured would make volunteering faster, easier and more fun. Built to work with a love of technology and fast-paced schedules, it's way to help give back while adding a dose of passion to your day.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2morrowknight/sparked-a-revolution-in-v_b_870052.html
Top 12 Online Fundraising Platforms for Donors & Non-Profits
Mashable.com, March 14, 2011Thanks to the social web, each of us has the unprecedented ability to offer not only monetary support but also the reach of our own online networks in support of a cause. Non-profits can also tap into a myriad of sites enhanced by social media to turbo-charge fundraising campaigns and galvanize supporters.
Sparked is an online-only volunteer network that incorporates crowdsourcing principles to bring talented individuals together in support of non-profits.
http://mashable.com/2011/03/14/social-good-fundraising-tools/
Microvolunteering 101
Intl. Volunteer Card, June 2011You've just finished your first project of the day and have ten minutes before your next meeting. You log onto Facebook, comment on a few pictures, tweet something about wishing you were at the beach.
What if in that same chunk of time-- twenty, ten, even five minutes-- you could help a non-profit design a webpage, edit copy, or rename a program. Now you can. Sparked co-founder, Jacob Colker, hopes to see people change their mentality from I don't have time to volunteer to I'll use the odd time I do have. He says, "My hope is that at scale we have millions of people sharing their skills and expertise and helping to move humankind forward."
http://www.volunteercard.com/2011/06/microvolunteering/
Microvolunteering Talk at TEDxNASA
"The microvolunteering network that allows people to volunteer on-demand and on-the-spot using the Internet. Rigby's group is part of a new movement that combines tiny technology and huge social goals."
Rolex Awards
Rolex, 2010"Tapping into the latest trends in information and telecommunications technology, Jacob Colker has combined volunteering, the internet and mobile phones to pioneer a new form of activism in which almost anyone can devote spare time - waiting for the bus or to see the doctor - to a useful charitable or scientific task."
http://young.rolexawards.com/laureates/jacob_colker
Micro-Volunteering via Mobile Phones
About.com, 2009The microvolunteering movement is being led by an organization called The Extraordinaries.
Basically, micro-volunteering will allow us to do small volunteer tasks in small snatches of time through our mobile phones. Let's say you're waiting for your bus to go to work. You'll be able use your smart phone to quickly do a little translation for your chosen nonprofit, or maybe spot some urban birds for a university research project.
http://nonprofit.about.com/od/volunteers/a/microvol.htm
The Extraordinaries: Will Microvolunteering Work?
NPR 2009Got five minutes? Got a cell phone? Want to do good? The Extraordinaries can help. It's one of a number of newly hatched social-media enterprises that champion speedy cooperation. Here is the 30-second elevator pitch: The Extraordinaries delivers microvolunteer opportunities to mobile phones that can be done on-demand and on-the-spot
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106118736
Tech companies try to help Haiti search, relief
ABC, 2010http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/technology&id=7220104
Log on to Help Haiti
NBC, 2010http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Log_On_to_Help_Haiti_Bay_Area.html
San Francisco-based website offers microvolunteering platform
ABC News, 2009http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/assignment_7&id=7162300
Mobile-volunteering puts thumbs to work for good causes
CNN, 2009Combining the strengths of mobile technology, non-profit organizations and crowdsourcing (i.e. calling on members of the public to complete small tasks as part of a bigger project, like Wikipedia), new mobile-phone applications are making volunteer work all the more accessible.
The Extraordinaries is one such app, available for iPhone, that targets twenty-somethings who suffer from short attention spans but thrive on instant gratification.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/28/digitalbiz.microtasking/index.html
Microvolunteering? Doing Good on the Go, by Cellphone
Wall Street Journal, 2009Now, a new service may help more time-strapped people squeeze in volunteerism. Called The Extraordinaries it delivers "microvolunteer" gigs to your cellphones, that can be done "on-demand and on-the-spot," according to this NPR profile. The idea is to use any downtime you may have, even just a few minutes, to do good.
http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2009/09/21/microvolunteering-doing-good-on-the-go-by-cellphone/
New Year's resolutions? There's an app for that
USA Today, 2009The Extraordinaries lets you volunteer wherever you are. It lists microvolunteerism opportunities, many of which can be completed on a phone. For example, tag photos or translate text.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kimkomando/2009-12-31-resolutions-apps_N.htm
Too busy to volunteer? Not if you've got a spare couple minutes
The Globe And Mail, 2009The Extraordinaries, a San Francisco-based organization launched in 2007, is capitalizing on the fact most people have a cell phone to deliver micro-volunteering opportunities to mobile phones.
"People are excited to figure out that they can use two minutes of their spare time to connect with something they're passionate about using their phone or personal computer," says co-founder Jacob Colker.
Smart-phone app lets you do good deeds in your spare time
Christian Science Monitor, 2009Call it on-demand volunteerism.
That's the idea behind The Extraordinaries, a San Francisco-based group, whose mission is to get people to volunteer whenever it's convenient.
New Ways to Make a Difference
TIME, 2009For anyone with a jammed schedule, a new group called the Extraordinaries offers ways to devote even just a few minutes of free time to something worthwhile. Micro-volunteering opportunities abound on BeExtra.org, from using your smartphone to view and label photos (to help digitize museum archives) to snapping a picture of a local park (to help build a map of places where kids can play).
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1921577,00.html
Just-In-Time Volunteering
MobileActive.org, 2008Ben Rigby imagines people sitting in airports during a layover, using their mobile phones to do something for a cause. Using an application called Volunteer Now!, potential volunteers could instantly be connected with short-term "mini" volunteer opportunities near their present location. "We could utilize people's spare time to do good in the world," he said. "There's no method right now for that kind of thing, but there should be."