Volunteer Engagement 2.0 Author Spotlight: Mike Bright, Help From Home

VolunteerMatch’s new book, Volunteer Engagement 2.0: Ideas and Insights Changing the World, features chapters from 35 experts in the field of volunteer engagement. In this series of blog posts, get to know these #35experts and their areas of expertise.

Today’s expert: Mike Bright, founder of Help from Home.

First of all, what is your chapter about?
Microvolunteering: Its history and background, how it’s defined, the impact that it’s creating, information for nonprofits on how they can develop and market their own microvolunteering campaign, and the future potential of the microvolunteering arena.

Why is this topic important?
Although microvolunteering occupies a niche corner of the overall volunteering sector, it has growing momentum behind it. Increasingly, it’s playing an important part in reshaping how people and organisations benefit worthy causes.

Explain your background on this topic. (In other words, what makes you a “volunteer engagement expert?”)
I was initially engaged as a participant in micro-actions back in 2005, but I developed my initiative Help From Home in 2008 when I became aware that the voluntary sector was not promoting this type of volunteering, even though there seemed to be a demand for it. I collate micro-actions to encourage individuals to benefit worthy causes in their spare time, as well as act as a resource for the nonprofit sector on all things microvolunteering. Basically, I try to connect the dots so that organisations are not working in isolation of each other when looking at microvolunteering.

What did you learn and/or struggle with when writing your chapter?
I struggled with condensing my knowledge succinctly enough to convey all the areas of the microvolunteering arena that I’m familiar with, whilst impressing on people that microvolunteering is seemingly playing an important part in the overall volunteering sector. I’m also indebted to the editor Robert Rosenthal who converted my attempt at writing (which I don’t consider I’m good at!) into a more eloquent piece that my English teacher would hopefully be proud of.

What is the one piece of advice you would give volunteer managers to take with them to the future?
Keep an open mind of what is possible with smartphones and emerging technologies like smartwear and augmented realities, because the current young generation are and will embrace this technology to volunteer.

Mike Bright is the founder of Help From Home, an initiative that promotes and encourages people to participate in easy, no-commitment, microvolunteering opportunities. Mike has been involved in the microvolunteering arena since 2005, initially as a participant and then more fully from December 2008 with his Help From Home initiative. He is also the organizer behind Microvolunteering Day that occurs every April 15th.

To read Mike’s full chapter, Microvolunteering for Big Impact, order your copy of Volunteer Engagement 2.0: Ideas and Insights Changing the World today.