www.voluntariosonline.org.br The IVA was created in 1998, an initiative of leaders of the city of Florianópolis (Brazil), who responded to an invitation from the chairwoman of the Council of Solidarity Community, Mrs. Ruth Cardoso, who encouraged the creation of civil society organizations to work spreading the culture of volunteerism. And that is how IVA was born, with the role to work for Santa Catarina with the purpose to have more and better volunteers, people who devote their time, labor and talent to community causes. Through a financial support that was granted for 3 years, in decreasing order - support of 60% in the first year, 40% in the second year, and 20% in the third year - IVA went growing and searching for new partners to keep their activities through financial and services partnerships with companies and private individuals who provide the funding and maintenance 1 - Voluntários em Ação Institute – IVA Voluntários Online Portal Three years bringing the power of the web for volunteering and the social causes July 2011 We are building a better world
Transcript
www.voluntariosonline.org.br
The IVA was created in 1998, an initiative of leaders of the city of Florianópolis (Brazil),
who responded to an invitation from the chairwoman of the Council of Solidarity Community,
Mrs. Ruth Cardoso, who encouraged the creation of civil society organizations to work
spreading the culture of volunteerism.
And that is how IVA was born, with the role to work for Santa Catarina with the purpose
to have more and better volunteers, people who devote their time, labor and talent to
community causes.
Through a financial support that was granted for 3 years, in decreasing order - support
of 60% in the first year, 40% in the second year, and 20% in the third year - IVA went growing
and searching for new partners to keep their activities through financial and services
partnerships with companies and private individuals who provide the funding and maintenance
1 - Voluntários em Ação Institute – IVA
Voluntários Online Portal
Three years bringing the power of the web for volunteering and
the social causes
July 2011
We are building a better world
www.voluntariosonline.org.br
of the organization.
After completing three years of activities of the Voluntários Online Portal, we want to
share the results of this work, especially with our supporters, volunteers and organizations that
trust in our work and in the POWER OF VOLUNTEERING.
Since 1998 the IVA began its work of spreading the culture of volunteering, first
presenting its function to organizations that needed volunteers, showing that they had to
dedicate attention to recruitment, selection and management of their volunteers, because they
are an important part of their work and could contribute significantly to better achieve their
goals in serving the community. The IVA played a crucial role for the organizations of Santa
Catarina, especially in the region of Florianópolis. On the other hand, IVA worked with potential
volunteers, spreading to all the public the significance of volunteering, its important role in
organizations serving the community, their responsibilities and challenges, trying to motivate
more people to become volunteers. It’s important to remember that along the way IVA was
able to show, especially in Santa Catarina, that we can all be volunteers. The idea that
volunteering is an opportunity only for those who have no occupation or concerns for their
livelihood has been completely demystified. It shows that we all have a contribution to make,
regardless of our professional, educational or social activities, and the profile of volunteers
mobilized by IVA has completely changed the characterization above, as we will present later in
this document.
With the mobilization and involvement of all segments and age groups for volunteering,
and the increasing involvement of young people and students, the communication between
IVA, volunteers and some organizations was no longer in person or by telephone, and became
predominantly through Internet. The weekly training meetings held at the IVA headquarters no
2. IVA’s operation from 1998 to 2008
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longer had effective participation of potential volunteers, as the interest of volunteers with this
profile was more immediate, and as they were motivated, they wanted to quickly attend their
wishes to exercise citizenship and solidarity. In addition to this, there were mobility issues that
put off volunteers. To make the commitment to come to IVA headquarter to choose the work
to be done made their engagement more difficult.
From these findings the IVA began a process of benchmarking with other Volunteer
Centers, especially in European countries, Canada and the United States. These studies led us to
identify that volunteers were being mobilized, recruited, selected and trained through Internet
portals, facilitating this intermediation work. Thus, Canadians, Americans and Spanish portals
helped us to get this new way of action, the Voluntários Online Portal, established when IVA
was completing 10 years of experience in the region of Florianópolis.
With the release of the Voluntários Online Portal a significant change happened in the
operating strategy of IVA (“Voluntários em Ação Institute”), expanding its operation which was
just “onsite” in the Florianópolis region to “online” and all over Brazil.
The idea of expanding the field of operation was quite significant for the IVA, but this
activity through a Portal on the Internet was mainly due to the changes that occurred in recent
years, especially in relation to communication, by making available the use of information and
communication technologies and their synergies, as well as the introduction of its use into the
daily life of most Brazilians. The work accomplished by IVA through the Portal also made
available the systematization of online volunteering, a type of volunteer work that can be done
via the web, without leaving home, enabling a greater number of people to engage in volunteer
activities. However, it was known that many challenges awaited us, and the main one would be
3. The Voluntários Online Portal
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to work for the digital inclusion of the third sector organizations. Our experience in the previous
ten years working “onsite” in the Florianópolis region showed us that potential volunteers were
using the Internet on a frequent basis, a situation that led us to conduct studies and decide to
create a volunteer portal on the Internet. Nevertheless, the social organizations that receive
volunteers were not in the same situation. On the contrary, the use of Internet was still a major
barrier because the concern regarding the main activity of the organization, which means:
attending its target public did not enable them to search new alternatives to accomplish their
activities, such as administration, recruitment and selection of volunteers. Besides that, another
great challenge that presented itself was the ability of these organizations to work with online
volunteering, because if the use of computers was not a common reality in the organizations,
then managing online volunteers became a much greater challenge. But none of this prevented
us from accomplishing this work and introduce a tool that assists non-profit organizations and
public schools all over Brazil, and share with our partners the work in this new perspective of
inclusion through Internet.
The Portal has become a unique tool because the Voluntários Online Portal is the only
one that allows the registration of non-profit organizations, public schools, where they can put
their volunteer opportunities, and volunteers who can choose from the opportunities offered;
also allowing organizations to search for volunteers by their profile, inviting them to work for
their causes. It is certainly innovative because it allows the placement of opportunities onsite
and online, the only one that offers this type of volunteering. Also it is a pioneering tool
because it has systemized online volunteering, a modality widely searched today by young
people, students and professionals who have limited time but want to give their voluntary
contribution. It is also recognized because it has the seal of approval of international bodies like
UNESCO and the UN, through its volunteer program, UNVolunteers. The Voluntários Online
Portal has also been recognized by two important media vehicles in Brazil: Jornal Nacional from
Rede Globo (Globo Network) and Veja Magazine from Abril Editor.
www.voluntariosonline.org.br
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COJQ9-Mh850
The online volunteering is one of the differentials of the Portal. Since the period we
were studying the portals, we planned the possibility to implement and systemize it.
Researches had shown us that since 2000 the UN Volunteering Programme – UNVolunteers –
keeps a portal Volunteering.org.br that only offers online volunteering vacancies, and its
results has shown how volunteers from all over the world can be engaged and make the
difference to the organizations around the world. This experience motivated us to make the
4. The Online Volunteering in the Voluntários Online Portal
