Opportunities of the Month - July 2010

Opportunities are listed on this page because we've recently talked with the charity and we know that they are ready to work with a volunteer. Are you that volunteer?

If you think you can help click on the link on the opportunity name below to go directly to the opportunity - you'll need to sign in on the way

This page will be updated monthly with opportunities to help organisations that we know are struggling to find a volunteer. If you access this page later in the month you may find that the opportunities are no longer available. If so, feel free to search for opportunities in the normal way or to sign up to our RSS feed

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Opportunity Name: New Website Including Content Management System
Skill Type: Website
Region: South West
Locality: Wrington
Postcode: BS40
Virtual: Yes

Description: This new charitable organisation (on the way to becoming a registered charity) based near Bristol helps individuals and their communities to mend the gap between cultures, religions, generations and people of different wealth for current and future generations. They implement programmes in Kenya, Uganda and the UK, all of which are in their early stages of preparation and implementation. They would like a website to provide information about the organisation, and to document progress on projects in progress. They'd like to use the site to recruit volunteers to help in various ways, so they would like to include an application form and contact form on the site. They have some thoughts about the design and the content, but would appreciate professional advice. They need to be able to keep the site up to date, so they will need a suitable content management system, and to know how to use it. They want to have statistics on visitors. They need guidance about hosting, though this might already have been arranged. Although the charity is based near Bristol, the contact works in Central London during the week, and could meet you after work. Please contact in the evening or at weekends.

Opportunity Name: Mentor for Implementation of 6 Sigma Strategies
Skill Type: Mentoring
Region: East Midlands
Locality: Grantham
Postcode: NG31
Virtual: No

Description: Here's an interesting mentoring opportunity that will look good on your CV. This national charity based in Grantham is involved in woodland conservation, campaigning on environmental issues, improving woodland biodiversity, and increasing the public understanding and enjoyment of woods. They're seeking a 6 Sigma specialist to help them implement 6 Sigma strategies. You'll need to discuss with them which methodology they use, and which tools they're interested in. They're flexible about the time required and contact frequency, however they do want an initial meeting, and thereafter think they may need a few hours a week over a 3 to 6 month period.

Opportunity Name: Difficult to update website - can you advise?
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: N7
Virtual: No

Description: This Islington-based music charity plays concerts for disadvantaged groups and provide lessons so musicians can improve their skills.They have a website which is stylish and works well but it is difficult for them to update. The site is built in Joomla . Can you help show them how to use this CMS?

Opportunity Name: Oversee implementation of IT strategy
Skill Type: Consultancy
Region: Yorkshire & Humberside
Locality: Bradford
Postcode: BD6
Virtual: Yes

Description: This charity provides one-to-one literacy support to young people and offer training courses to schools, parents and community groups.They have developed an organisation-wide IT strategy that they plan to implement soon. They plan to use a CRM - probably Salesforce - as the main information repository and integrate other open source software where possible. They would like a volunteer to get involved in overseeing this project; ensuring that nothing is missed. Support will be available from one of their staff who has considerable IT skills.

Opportunity Name: Specify and advise on CRM solution
Skill Type: Consultancy
Region: East Midlands
Locality: Leicester
Postcode: le1
Virtual: No

Description: This Leicester-based organisation provides a link between businesses who wish to donate items and charities and voluntary groups who can make use of them. They reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill and help vulnerable people throughout the UK.They would like to implement a CRM (client relationship management) tool and have begun specifying their needs. They would like a volunteer to help them complete the specification, choose the appropriate software, install and configure it and ensure that they know how to use it.

Opportunity Name: Help define online communications strategy
Skill Type: Strategy
Region: East Midlands
Locality: Leicester
Postcode: le1
Virtual: No

Description: This Leicester-based organisation provides a link between businesses who wish to donate items and charities and voluntary groups who can make use of them. They reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill and help vulnerable people throughout the UK.They would like a volunteer to help them define an online communications strategy. They would like to explore the use of Web 2.0 to promote their services.

Opportunity Name: Advice and help creating a website
Skill Type: Website
Region: Yorkshire & Humberside
Locality: Rotherham
Postcode: S65
Virtual: No

Description: This charity is the local branch of a national disability charity. They provide a day service for disabled adults in Rotherham. They are looking to create a website to market their local services. They have a member of staff with some web design skills but they would like some input from an IT professional. The volunteer would need to help them put together ideas for the site, particularly how best to communicate with users. The volunteer could then oversee or assist with the development of the site.

Opportunity Name: Support Weekly Internet Cafe Session in the Evening
Skill Type: Technical Support
Region: South East
Locality: Winchester
Postcode: SO23
Virtual: No

Description: This community association with its own centre based in Winchester involves the council, voluntary and other organisations in a common effort to advance education and to provide facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation and leisure time occupation for the local residents. They have 9 PCs running XP, a Mac, 3 printers, MS Office and internet access. Their equipment is in regular use for dedicated training courses, however they would like to offer a drop-in internet caf? session in the evening too. They're looking for someone to support the sessions, make sure the computers are set up properly, and provide advice and support to anyone that needs it. They think a session of 2 hours once a week is about right, and they would prefer someone who could commit to at least 12 weeks. They're flexible about time and day, though it needs to fit in with the other courses. There's an associated opportunity to support a weekly internet caf? session in the daytime.

Opportunity Name: Support Weekly Internet Cafe Session in the Daytime [This is a short task]
Skill Type: Technical Support
Region: South East
Locality: Winchester
Postcode: SO23
Virtual: No

Description: This community association with its own centre based in Winchester involves the council, voluntary and other organisations in a common effort to advance education and to provide facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation and leisure time occupation for the local residents. They have 9 PCs running XP, a Mac, 3 printers, MS Office and internet access. Their equipment is in regular use for dedicated training courses, however they would like to offer a drop-in internet caf? session in the daytime too. They're looking for someone to support the sessions, make sure the computers are set up properly, and provide advice and support to anyone that needs it. They think a session of 2 hours once a week is about right, and they would prefer someone who could commit to at least 12 weeks. They're flexible about time and day, though it needs to fit in with the other courses. There's an associated opportunity to support a weekly internet caf? session in the evening.

Opportunity Name: Review Needs and Help Pick Replacement Membership CRM
Skill Type: Consultancy
Region: East of England
Locality: Cambridge
Postcode: CB22
Virtual: No

Description: This long established charity based in Cambridge works to keep Cambridge and its surroundings special by positively influencing planning development, delivering environmental education and managing 2 country parks and 3 historic buildings for the benefit of all. They have a network of a server and 5 PCs running XP and Office 2003. They have a very simple Access database of 1400 members at present which can only perform limited tasks, and a number of other data sources, including paper ones. They want to be able to do more including managing PR and press contacts, donors, service users, producing mailing lists, and fundraising, and significantly increase membership. They've documented their needs in an Excel spreadsheet. They would like you to review their needs and help them decide if there are others; recommend options, and help them pick the best package solution (probably some kind of customer relationship management (CRM) system) for an organisation of their size. If you can also help them implement the package and migrate the data, that would be even better.

Opportunity Name: Provide Advice about Creating Webinars
Skill Type: Website
Region: London
Locality: London
Postcode: NW6
Virtual: Yes

Description: This charity based near Queen's Park tube station works to develop better understanding, co-operation and respect between people of different faiths, and arranges lectures and conferences. They have a website incorporating a blog and YouTube videos. They want to reach out to members in the whole world by providing live webinars with the capability for viewers to pose questions to the presenter. They would like you to help them explore the options, and determine the probable costs and other resources needed.

Opportunity Name: Create Specification for Website Redevelopment
Skill Type: Needs Analysis
Region: East of England
Locality: Luton
Postcode: LU3
Virtual: No

Description: This established charity based in Luton, Bedfordshire delivers theatre productions in the community, and in schools and young offenders institutions, with particular emphasis on inter-cultural understanding, and specialises in tales of wisdom. They have a website of 12 pages plus a hosted photo gallery. They want to get their website redeveloped but as the first step they would like you to create a requirements specification that translates their aspirations into a brief that can be used by someone to redevelop their website.

Opportunity Name: Implement Email Management System and Create Template
Skill Type: Consultancy
Region: East of England
Locality: Luton
Postcode: LU3
Virtual: No

Description: This established charity based in Luton, Bedfordshire delivers theatre productions in the community, and in schools and young offenders institutions, with particular emphasis on inter-cultural understanding, and specialises in tales of wisdom. They currently have 6 Macs running OS X, and Mac Office, and wireless broadband; and they will shortly be acquiring 2 more Macs. One of the Macs runs MS Office for Windows too. They manage email through Google Apps. They would like to send out an HTML newsletter to between 3,000 and 5,000 recipients, each quarter; though they might work up to monthly in the future. They would like you to identify a suitable email management solution, create an appropriate template, help them migrate their recipients from Outlook, and guide them in using the system.

Opportunity Name: Mentor required for small team of graphic designers
Skill Type: Creative Design
Region: East Midlands
Locality: Grantham
Postcode: NG31
Virtual: No

Description: This national charity based in Grantham is involved in woodland conservation, campaigning on environmental issues, improving woodland biodiversity, and increasing the public understanding and enjoyment of woods. They are looking for a volunteer with skills in InDesign and Illustrator to mentor members of a small team of experienced graphic designers. It would be useful if you also had some coaching and/or training skills. They anticipate that a commitment of around 3 months would be required although they are flexible. They are also willing to consider remote working after an initial face-to-face meeting in Grantham

Opportunity Name: Create Social Media Strategy
Skill Type: Website
Region: Yorkshire & Humberside
Locality: Leeds
Postcode: LS1
Virtual: No

Description: Here's a really interesting project requiring knowledge of social media that will look good on your CV. This charity based in Leeds is a grant-making body that works with individuals and companies to help them raise and distribute money, in the form of cash grants, to local community initiatives. They have a website, but don't use social media at all, so they need your advice about tools they should be using, what outcomes they should be working towards, and what resources they'll need to implement the strategy. There is an associated project to specify their needs for a new website.

Opportunity Name: Create Spec for Website to Report/Improve Inaccessible Websites
Skill Type: Needs Analysis
Region: South West
Locality: Stroud
Postcode: GL5
Virtual: Yes

Description: Here's a really interesting project that will look good in your CV, and will make the web that much easier to use for people with disabilities. This established charity based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, focuses on digital inclusion. Their aim is to have a web enabled mechanism in which disabled people can report an e-accessibility issue with a website in under one minute. An IT volunteer will manage the issue and work with the web owner to resolve it.This will need mechanisms for sign-up of volunteers and disabled people, an easy to use and quick method to report the e-accessibility issues and identify the websites, a means of marking fixed issues, as well as management processes and reports, and support mechanisms and links to resources for participants.They have prepared a project overview.They would like you to produce a detailed outline specification, so that the options for its delivery and the likely resources needed can be discussed.Part of this will involve taking part in one or more conference calls with project sponsors and other interested parties early in the project.They're expecting to come back to iT4Communities to find volunteers to create a detailed design specification, build the functionality needed, and someone to do the project management.