Sparked - microvolunteering. By The Extraordinaries.

Microvolunteers to the rescue: Website Hack

The nonprofit: Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest (CSNW) was founded in 2003 to provide sanctuary for chimpanzees discarded from the entertainment and biomedical testing industries. Located on a 26-acre farm in the Cascade mountains, due east of Seattle. CSNW is one of nine sanctuaries in the country that cares for chimpanzees.

The challenge: Help! Our website has a persistent hack.

 

The result: After almost a year of dealing with a persistent website hack that caused CSNW to show up in searches as having pornographic content, and having several people attempt to help eradicate the hack only to have it return 24 hours later, Diana was at her wit's end. So she gave sparked a try, and asked microvolunteers to look into the issue.  Thanks to SIX awesome Sparked volunteers Diana was not only able to locate and remove the hack, but to amend her security settings to prevent it from returning ever again.  Thanks to Jitendra, Matteo, Kiera, Joe, Jason and Christopher, 2011 is already off to a great start for CSNW.

 

Microvolunteers to the rescue: Tricky Translation

The nonprofit: Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Cincinnati provides a supportive "home away from home" for families and their children receiving medical treatment at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, regardless of their ability to pay.

The challenge: Translate our welcome letter into Arabic.

 

Photo: Volunteer playing with Children, courtesy of RMHC Cincinnati

The result: The Ronald McDonald House of Greater Cincinnati hosts families from all over the world -- many of whom do not speak English.  Because of this, says Lisa, Meals and Activities Coordinator for the facility, "we try to have our forms and documents translated into multiple languages so everyone can be properly informed of our policies and procedures."  But professional document translation is expensive, and for some languages, the results of an automated translation generator can be unreliable.

So when Lisa needed the organization's welcome letter (and house rules) translated into Arabic, she posted a challenge on Sparked asking for help from microvolunteers. And she got it: Eyad S. took the document, and in his spare time, translated it from English into his native Arabic.  Thanks to his efforts, RMHC of Cincinnati can now welcome families from Arabic-speaking countries in their native language, further fulfilling the organization's mission of creating a "home away from home."

 

Microvolunteers to the rescue: Focus Grouping

The nonprofit: Nutrition & Physical Activity Coalition of Hawaii

The challenge: Help us choose the logo for our new public health awareness campaign. 

The result: Marketing mavens Doug P. and Sebastian S. provided a thoughtful critique of NPAC’s various logo options for the campaign, as well as suggestions about how to fine-tune the best one.  Now, just over a month later, the final design is printed on the first set of “Hawaii 5210 – Let’s go!” flyers (pictured below), and being used to help spread NPAC’s message of raising kids with a healthy lifestyle.

 

Microvolunteers to the Rescue: Mapping Impact

The nonprofit: Hug it Forward builds “bottle schools” in Guatemala made of non-compostable trash, cleaning up towns and fostering community engagement along the way. 

The challenges:

1) Create a simple interactive map to showcase the location of bottle school projects.

2) Design the marker for the map that will represent the schools. 

The results:

GoogleMaps whiz and micro-volunteer extraordinaire Matthew B. worked with Heenal to create the map and make all the necessary code adjustments for it to integrate seamlessly into the Hug it Forward's website. 

At the same time, graphic designer Adrien P. from Google gave the map the final touch it needed -- designing a snazzy school and bottle graphic that Heenal could use to mark project locations.  It was crowd-sourced collaboration at its finest, and we think Heenal said it best: “Within a week of this idea being proposed, it's implemented, tweaked, perfected, and very nearly ready to launch! Who knows how long this might have taken if we'd tried to do it through "traditional" means.”

You can view the final product on Hug it Forward's website, here.

Children playing at a school construction site in Guatemala.  Courtesy of Hug it Forward.

Microvolunteers to the rescue: Newsletter 911

The nonprofit: The Miquon School is a small independent coed school in Conshohocken, PA for children ages 3 – 12, committed to progressive education, the preservation of childhood, and environmental awareness.

The challenge: Translate our newsletter from MS Publisher to Adobe InDesign. 

The result: In less than a week, superstar volunteer and graphic designer Tim S. created a workable and beautiful InDesign template, using the school’s previous newsletter as a style guide.  For his work on the project, Tim was given an Award of Excellence  by Arabella P. of the Miquon School, who pointed out that his template "saved [the school] a lot of time and money that we can better use for more mission-related activities.” Hats off to Tim for putting his spare time and software savvy to such good use!

 

                                                                                          Photo courtesy of The Miquon School.

Surfrider Foundation’s Portland Chapter "bags" new business card design, with help from micro-volunteers

In an attempt to cut down on marine pollution, the Surfrider Foundation’s Portland chapter has been hard at work this year on their Ban the Bag campaign. Seeking to shift consumer behavior in the region, they have been hitting the streets and local events – encouraging Portland’s residents to ditch single-use plastic bags, and opt instead for more eco-friendly options.

With all those public appearances and tabling events, the Foundation’s Chapter Leaders needed business cards that they could use for networking, and sought help from Sparked volunteers in creating them.

“We don't have the budget to hire a professional graphic designer," says Mason Brock, Treasurer for the Portland Chapter. "I posted a challenge to Sparked with our logo and an explanation of what the cards would be used for, and within a week a micro-volunteer had come up with a beautiful, custom design, ready to go to print."

Since that first design was posted, several other designers decided to get in on the action, providing Mason and the Surfrider PDX team with four professional card designs to choose from, all of which were designed for free. (see below)

  Now the only challenge is to find some eco-friendly paper to print them on! 

 

Next Door Solutions gets an Extraordinary critique of their website from micro-volunteers

Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence is all about helping people - last year alone, over 7,700 victims of domestic violence in Santa Clara County, California benefited from their advocacy programs, support groups, and youth programs.  So when they needed a little help of their own, the Extraordinary volunteers were happy to oblige.  Micro-volunteers from all over the country, including several members of corporate team Kraft Foods, responded with enthusiasm when Next Door posted a challenge requesting feedback on their website (pictured).

"Next Door lacks an abundance of marketing resources so [the volunteers] time and effort in helping us strengthen our image and messaging on our website to increase awareness of our mission is much appreciated." said Joshua Krammes, Fund Development Director for the organization, calling the volunteers' input "truly invaluable".

The best part about this challenge? The impact. By their own estimation, Next Door saved up to ten hours of employee time and $1500 by using micro-volunteers for the project -- precious resources that, thanks to a few dedicated volunteers, can be spent furthering Next Door’s mission “to end domestic violence in the moment and for all time.”  

Micro-volunteers help MEJOR Communities establish Extraordinary partnership in Peru

Superheroes are always teaming up to fight crime. And there’s a reason: it works. Joining forces is the fastest, most efficient way to solve most problems, and superheroes aren’t he only ones who’ve figured it out.  

 

Many of today's smartest nonprofit 

organizations use partnership as a means of increasing efficiency and impact -- combining resources and expertise in their efforts to rid the world of things like disease, poverty, and hunger.

One such organization is MEJOR Communities, an Oregon-based nonprofit aiming to increase opportunity in rural Peru through the advancement of health education programs in the region. 

Operating largely in resource-deprived and difficult to reach communities, MEJOR seeks to effect change by empowering Peru’s youth -- training them to recognize the health priorities of their communities, and to contribute their own ideas for how to effectively distribute health education.

This summer, in an effort to increase MEJOR’s impact in the region, Executive Director Katie Masferrer decided to seek out organizations based in northern Peru for potential partnership. Lacking the time or resources to spend on an exhaustive search of local nonprofits, she turned the the Extraordinary Volunteers to lend a hand.  

Within days of posting the challenge, MEJOR received a flurry of responses from micro-volunteers containing the names and contact information of nonprofit organizations in the region. MEJOR used the information to send out partnership inquiries, and has heard back from several interested organizations.

Masferrer is currently in Peru meeting with those organizations to solidify a relationship, and contends that her search for potential partners “would not have been as comprehensive in such a short amount of time without help from the Extraordinaries.”  

Like-minded organizations from two continents teaming up to create greater opportunity in rural, resource-deprived communities in Peru? Now THAT's Extraordinary!

Photographs courtesy of MEJOR Communities, www.mejorc.org

Room to Read taps micro-volunteers to create Extraordinary game for kids

"It's the Web 2.0 version of the old adage, 'Two heads are better than one,' and in The Extraordinaries' case, it's hundreds!" -- Jill Carlson, Room to Read

Earlier this month, our micro-volunteers were called upon to unleash their inner-child for a good cause, and they more than rose to the challenge!

International nonprofit organization Room to Read, which promotes literacy and gender equality in education, recently published a new children's book, Zak the Yak with Books on His Back. The proceeds from the book, which tells the story of a sturdy, lovable yak determined to bring books to a rural village in Nepal, will help fund the organization's programs in Asia and Africa. 

To get kids excited about Zak the Yak and promote the book, Room to Read decided to add a fun online game to their website, and turned to the Extraordinary Volunteers for some inspiration.  A few days after posting a challenge asking volunteers to brainstorm game concepts, Jill Carlson from Room to Read received tons of suggestions, saying:

"The answers to my challenge were thoughtful, engaging, and didn't stop with a one-word answer. In many cases the answers to my challenge were just the beginning of a longer dialogue on how to best solve my problem."

Room to Read has now reached out to the micro-volunteers with a follow-up challenge to take the organization's favorite ideas from the brainstorm and create a user interface for the game.  Think you have what it takes? Sign up to become a micro-volunteer, or if you already are, you can respond to the challenge, here.

 

  

Children reading in Room to Read libraries in Asia and Africa. All photos courtesy of Room to Read.

School on Wheels tutors homeless kids with Extraordinary techniques

Every week, hundreds of School on Wheels’ volunteer tutors give hope, educational assistance and support to the thousands of homeless children living in Indianapolis. Last week, School on Wheels received a slew of new techniques to use in class - all from Extraordinary Volunteers. Vice President of Development, Nathan Hand, says of the effort:

 "School on Wheels is the 'army corps of engineers' for homeless kids - and we needed a collection of fresh tutoring tips. We posted a challenge on The Extraordinaries and had a plethora of new tips (and a bunch of new volunteers interested in our cause) in a few days." 

Nathan provided these photos of the tutors at work. 

 
Sammy L. listens attentively

 
 

Markus S. gets a high five from School on Wheel's tutor, Allen M.