Online volunteering

I recently posted this on The Internet Wishlist,

I wish there was a website where NGO could ask for what they need (report, program…) and people could work for them from home #theiwl

— ths1104 (@Ths1104) February 25, 2011

I got some interesting feedbacks. Here is the summary:

• Onlinevolunteering.org – This is exactly what I was looking for. It is powered by the UNDP which is a guarantee of seriousness. The interface is rather classical but clear.  I really wonder why NGOs are not taking more advantages of this website. I even could find some technical projects I would be able to volunteer.
• Catchafire – It could be what I was searching for but it only serves organizations in the Greater New York City area. Moreover I couldn’t find any technical project.
• Nabuur – It focuses on helping communities by putting them directly in contact with specialists. The projects proposed are not necessarily supervised by a NGO so volunteers should take care when applying.
• Social actions – This is a kind of search engine for online volunteering. Nevertheless, the interface is not clear, a lot of results are linking to donation websites and it is difficult to find concrete projects.
• If I ran the world – The concept behind this site is to connect people who need something and people who want to help. It doesn’t seem that there are projects proposed by NGOs but the way they connect people is interesting. “If I ran the world, I would…”
• Sparked – Similar to Aardvark in the way they identify common interests of people to connect them. They just need more projects/people. Great interface. Have a look !