How volunteerACT is Converting is Followers into Volunteers with Dedicated Hosting
Omar Uddin is a change agent of social change. His goal is to help solve the problem of getting people to volunteer and become the new first responders for causes around the globe. His company, UVision Consulting, developed a solution known as VolunteerACT, that enables people to not just follow causes, but get involved as volunteers with those causes and learn something at the same time. So, beyond the traditional meet-up sites that exist, VolunteerACT helps organizations and causes gain measurable value from a volunteer through productivity and results from the work just like any other staff would be part of the team to help.
Seeing that there were large number non-profits in the metro Washington, DC area, Uddin saw a greater opportunity for change when our nation was going through a giant economic downturn. Even though the economy is slightly turning around, Uddin learned that people have been donating less and becoming more active as volunteers since 2008 when the recession started. Research also suggests that volunteers are now more likely to donate money or motivate others to donate than simply just marketing to donors. Above and beyond traditional volunteer management, he envisioned a reactive force of a range of volunteers from micro-volunteerism, on-site volunteers and remote volunteers who could collaborate to aid causes such as becoming, if you will, first responders to a natural disaster such as earthquakes and tsunamis. With his premise that people tend to self organize to not only have their voice heard, they want to show action and leadership and engage others who are like minded. VolunteerACT is a platform that helps connect what have traditionally been followers into volunteers wanting to make a difference.
With the economy still rebounding, the reality is that with 10% unemployment in the US, increasing school tuition and decreasing funding to educational institutions, it’s tough for many people to both look for jobs and find a way to stand out from the saturation of job applicants. Volunteering over time can be a way to build a civic and social transcript that may one day become the norm. In fact, Change.org provides a guide for how you can include your volunteer experience on your resume.
VolunteerACT is a great way bring volunteers and causes closer together and create a new culture of volunteerism. Check out their beta and test drive a better way to measure volunteer productivity to further your collective cause.
As for hosting, they are using a combination of dedicated and cloud based services. The site is hosted on the cloud, and volunteer information – due to privacy issues – remain on dedicated servers.
Uddin represents a generation of social entrepreneurs who are using external hosting providers that lets them focus on core mission of doing social good.
