Taking Christian Volunteerism to the High-Tech Level
by Ed Thomas
October 23, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A spokesman for an organization that has launched a new website to provide Christian volunteers says it will tap into the largest pool of volunteers available in the country. TechMission executive director Andrew Sears says its new site -- ChristianVolunteering.org -- can be the missing link in bringing together people with specialized skills and interests, with opportunities for them to serve. Until now, he says many of those with special skills -- from professionals like lawyers and accountants, to web designers and computer programmers -- have been looking for a way to volunteer.
"One of the main ways they can do that is through virtual volunteering opportunities, where people can volunteer on the Internet remotely and provide services like web design or legal support or grant writing," Sears explains.
According to TechMission spokesman, many faith-based organizations, looking for those who can donate unique professional skills, do not want to place opportunities with secular matching services. Sears says ChristianVolunteering.org tries to provide an answer.
"The Christian volunteer market, or the overall faith-based volunteer market in the U.S., brings over $50 billion worth of time to communities and churches," he explains, "and we would love to see that market grow. And I think the Internet has great potential to do that."
Sears says the U.S. Department of Labor numbered faith-based volunteers at nearly 35 percent of total recorded volunteers in 2005. He also cites a study by a national non-profit on the monetary value of faith-based volunteers' donated time in the same year, from which he derives a potential value of more than $5 billion toward local communities -- if "virtual volunteering" were to bring in just a ten percent increase in number from the faith community.
He contends that by using the clearinghouse approach that Internet websites afford -- including allowing hundreds of free postings for organizations, and facilitating searches for specialty skills or interests on the site -- the potential for expanding the number of Christian volunteers is greatly increased.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
