New platform helps charities find vollies

A new platform is helping Australian not-for-profits find volunteers with various skill-sets.

Vollie is an online volunteering platform currently being utilised by not-for-profits Australia-wide who are seeking skilled professionals to complete a range of projects online from anywhere in the world.

Volunteer and 2015 RMIT Graduate Miranda Dix is remotely volunteering her skill-set to help design a costume for a child with a life-threatening medical condition. The project posted by Make-A-Wish Australia on Vollie was seeking a costume designer to create a ‘pirate princess costume’ for a four-year-old girl and her 11- year-old sister.

After meeting a Make-A-Wish recipient at her previous job Dix was inspired to be involved with the organisation but wasn’t sure how to utilise her skill-set. “I felt like doing something to help out and learnt about the costume design they needed via Vollie so got involved straight away; it was a perfect fit.”

Make-A-Wish Volunteer Services Coordinator Tess Melville said all of the organisations wishes are unique and bespoke to the child’s imagination. “This pirate princess has such a vivid imagination, she knew exactly what her costume should look like.”

“In order to make this little girls imagination come to life we needed a designer to create a custom-made costume. Vollie has enabled us to reach out to the community to help make this wish as unique as the child,” said Melville.

Projects posted on Vollie by not-for-profits can range from copywriting, marketing plans, bookkeeping, and social media all the way through to full website builds, with each project having a clear start and end date, meaning volunteers aren’t locked into a long-term commitment.

Since launching in November last year, Vollie has signed on 25 not-for-profits including names such as Foodbank, Make-A-Wish Australia, Starlight Children’s Foundation, EarthWatch and The Butterfly Foundation.

Vollie Founder and Managing Director Matthew Boyd said Vollie is unlocking a new way for people to volunteer as they can do it online, from anywhere in the world, all while utilising their skill set for the greater good.

“Vollie is opening up new avenues for not-for-profits, as they’re realising during their weekly meetings that there are projects they can put on Vollie to get assistance with,” said Boyd.

“We will see more and more remote online volunteering in the non-profit sector, as there’s demand from the Australian public to volunteer in this way and charities are understanding that.”