Online or ‘Virtual’ Volunteering is a method of volunteering over the internet. The volunteer works remotely, or ‘off-site’ and uses the internet or email to complete the jobs and tasks specified by the voluntary organisation.

This means that you can get involved in projects in countries and communities, hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Some of the advantages of online volunteering are:

• Its flexibility; you can contribute wherever there’s a computer and an internet connection, at any time of the day.
• If you want to volunteer but would struggle to get away from your home or place of work
• If you are disabled, have trouble with mobility, or, have no way of travelling to local voluntary opportunities
• If there is a particular cause or charity that you want to volunteer for but there are no opportunities in your area

What you can do
Online volunteering allows you to work for charities, communities, governments, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and educational authorities almost anywhere in the world. All that is required is for both parties to have access to the internet. The types of activity you can become involved with range from:

• Research
• Translation
• Writing and editing
• Project Development and Management
• IT development
• Design
• Consulting
• Training and coaching

Getting involved

There are a few different ways that you can begin to get involved with online volunteering. If there’s a particular cause or charity that you’d like to volunteer for you could contact them directly and see if they have online voluntary opportunities. You can also use the Volunteer Centre Network Scotland website or Young Scot WOW website to browse for placements. Or you can check out some of the links at the foot of the page to get some ideas.