July proved to be a very busy month for volunteers helping out Help From Home. I’m now sort of beginning to realise that the way you word a request for volunteers can make a huge difference to the take-up rate. I introduced a role called Odd Jobs which are the little jobs that once they’re done, they’re done. It’s all down to breaking up bigger jobs into littler jobs and for some reason it seems to be more appealing to people out there. But hey, it should come as no surprise to me seeing as the main aim of Help From home is to promote those ‘littler jobs’ in appetising bite-sized portions. Whilst we’re on the subject of Odd Jobs, one of the more quirky roles is the Pyjama Power one – snap yourself in your pjs and show the world how easy it is to change the world….. in just your pyjamas! Give it a go – pretty please.

Got contacted by the American Government to offer some advice on a microvolunteering platform they’re setting up. It’s designed to recruit U.S. Government employees to assist U.S. Government departments via  micro tasks. The U.S. Government has already piloted a microvolunteering scheme for their student volunteering service back late last year, which was deemed a success. I wonder whether any other Government from around the world will catch on to this microvolunteering lark?

vInspired have a major research paper being published soon. The reason why I know about it is because they asked me to contribute an opening article to kick start the launch of it. Unfortunately, that’s all I can say on the subject right now. Sorry! Mind you, they did blog about the top 5 microvolunteering actions on their database recently. You can have a read of it here, if you’re intrigued.

Met up with a senior lecturer in Youth and Community Work at a University located near me. There’s a possibility of a tie-in to get more youth involved in microvolunteering, perhaps via youth club activities and gaining work experience through micro tasks. Nothing’s going to happen til this coming September when the new University term starts up again.

Help From Home got through to the second round of NESTA’s Innovation in Giving competition. There’s up to £50k for each of the 15 winning organisations. Now that would be a tidy sum of money to play with.

Til next time.