Celebrating Microvolunteering

15 March 2021 | Articles

April 15 marks Microvolunteering Day when volunteering is recast as an activity that needs not be constrained by stereotypical views of volunteering being a time and commitment intensive activity. This is an internationally celebrated day that takes place on 15th April every year. Organised by Help from Home, it is a unique opportunity to demonstrate the power and potential of the microvolunteering concept.

Celebrating it as a community is an opportunity to inspire individuals to engage in microvolunteering tasks and to inspire organisations that involve volunteers to embrace the idea and find ways to offer opportunities for individuals to connect or contribute to their cause.

Microvolunteering Day is also a unique opportunity for microvolunteering platforms, volunteer involved organisations and individuals to join together in a synchronised effort to demonstrate the empowering potential of the microvolunteering concept.

What makes Microvolunteering unique?
Micro-volunteering tends to take place online (more than 80%, a 2016 study by Help From Home, a business that pairs people with micro-volunteering tasks, found) and the volunteers are often spread across a wide geographical area. Microvolunteering has three specific features:
• typically there is no application or training process
• the volunteer-tasks take generally no more than 30 minutes to complete and
• there is no expectation of an ongoing commitment between organisation and volunteer.
Microvolunteering may also be called ‘byte-sized volunteering’, ‘speed volunteering’ and ‘micro-actions’.