Volunteer harmony: bridging gaps, fostering change

Abstract

NGOs in Ahmedabad have been running low on the number of volunteers as compared to the work at hand. The volunteers, on the other hand, are not available for a very long period and hence look for short-term volunteering opportunities. Our group has worked on a web portal that will act as a bridge between NGOs and interested volunteers. This will be a user-friendly portal as it will help the NGOs get in touch with volunteers according to their hiring criteria and the volunteers will have an easy and smooth application process by filtering out NGOs according to their area of interest, will get opportunities to work for short periods if they aren't available for long, and apply to the NGOs catering to their interest and passion. To make this portal more effective, we made a questionnaire for data collection through which we got to know the main challenges faced by both NGOs as well as volunteers. Keeping in mind the hurdles faced by both types of users, we inculcated some unique features to our portal to enhance volunteer engagement and help NGOs carry out their work better by serving them with more volunteers.