Complete Guide to Remote Volunteering, Even When Geography Limits You.

My day doesn’t start when the sun is rising and the rooster starts cuckoo-ing. My day starts at 7 PM. When everyone here is preparing to rest, I open my laptop and begin my ‘workday’ with teams across the globe, starting my journey of remote volunteering. Though it gets tiring on some days, I have never felt burdened with this decision. I have learned not to let geography limit me. And for you, facing this struggle too, geography shouldn’t limit you either. 

It’s important to know what you want to do in the future and set your plans. As people say, planning a dream turns it into a to-do list, just waiting for you to cross it off. I realized that if I want to complete this to-do list, I have to go above and beyond. I can’t rely on opportunities that may come my way; I need to stand up and search for those opportunities myself. So I do. I make use of search engines, social media, and anything I can use to handpick my opportunities. 

I knew I wanted to help someone, but I couldn’t go there physically, so I got on the internet. When I found out remote volunteering exists, I decided to do just that. I used to envy people my age with high volunteer hours. But I realized, what’s the use of envying people, of whining that I can’t physically attend events? So I started applying through Google Forms, cold emailing people, anything I could possibly think of.

After landing some volunteer roles, I realized how this practice changed my whole lifestyle. In-person volunteering would have been ideal, but weirdly enough, I find it comforting to get to work with tons of people and build relationships without stepping outside of my bedroom. I get to yap to people about things I care about, and implement my interests and hobbies. At the same time, it’s also a learning experience. I’ve learned about the various cultures of different regions, and and I’ve taught myself techniques like emailing etiquette. I also learned how to easily fill the gap caused by digital constraints. Safe to say, remote volunteering gives the same experience and soft-skill training as on-site volunteering.

Time zones are your biggest ‘frenemies’ in remote volunteering. As I said before, if geographically, you’re living way across the globe, chances are high you’ll need to wake up when people near you are asleep. It can be hard to keep yourself sane on midnight meetings, and it’s not easy experiencing FOMO when the place you’re volunteering at has a physical event. Trying to keep up with other countries’ slang or cultures can be tricky, too. Some other struggles could be digital faculties like internet problems, regional-based apps, or miscommunications. 

During my time learning and remote volunteering, I have figured out some things I wish I knew before I started. 

• Your team won’t always understand you. 

Digital limitations are usually the number 1 reason this happens. Let alone texts, even calling can create miscommunications, too. Set daily reminders to be patient — it’s a powerful habit worth building. Good teamwork needs great communication and understanding among the members.

• Public Holidays sometimes don’t matter.

Whether your country is on a public holiday, like Independence Day or Eid Al-Fitr, if it’s not a globally recognized public holiday, you’ll still find yourself attending meetings and writing recaps. Yes, it might be tiring. This does not happen all the time, especially if you’re volunteering for a place that doesn’t need daily reports. You just need to learn how to manage your time, and finish all your tasks according to the deadline, without disturbing your schedule.

• Urgent help can’t be expected.

Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a struggle? Whether it is accessing the organization chat applications, or help with finishing a task? The cons of working far away from your team are that when you need help, you can’t expect it to be answered quickly. Most of the time, I leave my help request and go to sleep. Even then, it does not guarantee it will be answered by the time I wake up.

Now, how do you start? Here are some tips I learned throughout my time remote volunteering.

1. Know your “Why”. Why do you want to volunteer? Is it to help people or to gain hours? Gaining hours is a reasonable answer, just make sure this reason, since it’s not in your interests, won’t make you burn out.
2. What’s your limit? Understand each position you will be applying for, or find positions that you know you can put time and effort into. Make sure you know every bit. If needed, use a SWOT analysis or weigh pros and cons. Make sure you know your limit, like how many hours per week you will devote. Would you be okay with unpaid gigs? Would it disrupt your grades or school?
3. Find the right opportunities for you. The internet is all you need. Seems easy enough, until you realize mid-process that you’re not applying to the right places, or that a place does not align with your passions. You can contact open volunteering sites through their website or email. Places like VolunteerMatch, idealist.org, Catchafire can help you find the right opportunities. Or you can contact places you want to volunteer at, like I did to become a springboarder for Girlspring.
4. Learn to LOVE it.
   Yes, you are unpaid when you volunteer. But that does not mean you get to be negligent. Turning on a time-recording app without doing anything can get you kicked out of the organization and keep you from getting a certification. Leaving meetings, never doing anything- this is not what volunteering is. Aside from hours and certifications, volunteering also helps sharpen your soft skills. So not making great use of it won’t benefit you at all.
5. Keep track of EVERYTHING. Even when you’re not applying to or taking part in lots of organizations, still keep track. It’s easy to get lost and to forget things when there’s so much to focus on with school and your social life, too. Keeping track of your organizations, tasks, volunteer hours, specific links, and meetings could benefit you a LOT!
6. Reflect on post-actions. When it is the end of your term, make sure you reflect on what you have been doing. Make sure you understand what you did, your impacts, and prepare your answers if people ask about your time at the organization.

These are all written based on my own personal experience as someone who has dived into the remote volunteering world. Feel free to drop a comment and share your own experience! When you feel like you’re restrained from reaching your finish line, it’s your responsibility to find a way to stop that restraint from getting to you. If you are thinking of doing remote internships too, don’t fuss a lot, it is fun, I promise! Volunteer your heart out and never let geography limit you.

Cathleya Azalia

More Posts