One of the greatest evolutions to take place in recent years in the world of Non For Profit organizations (NPOs) is the concept of “ePhilanthropy” - volunteering and social activism using websites and other online tools.

The incredible successes the Obama campaign had during the recent Democratic race should be proof enough of the effectiveness such campaigning can have for an NPO or social activist.

Sadly, despite Israel’s strong web based high tech sector, the state of Israeli NPOs online presences and campaigns is more often than not simply embarrassing…
Many Israeli NPOs have no online marketing strategy whatsoever while others are only beginning to scratch the surface of the online world.

This sad state of affairs does not in my opinion stem from a lack of will or intelligence on the NPOs part but more from a limited amount of resources coupled with an ignorance regarding the opportunities that the online world holds.

But there is hope…

Based on my faith in the excellent people that compose Israel’s high tech sector, and with the help of Ms. Ma’ayan Alexander from the New Israel Fund’s Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change Organizations in Israel (aka “Shatil”), we put together the facebook group “Desktop Volunteer“, with the aim of bringing together
big hearted high tech professionals with the 1,500 NPOs that Shatil works with that and are in need of some web savvy volunteers…

Hey, I’m “Web Savvy”, what can I do to help an NPO?

There are lots of ways that anyone with even the most rudimentary web skills can volunteer online and greatly help an NPO or social activist.
Here are a few ideas that Ma’ayan and I came up with based on our acquaintance with the challenges faced by NPOs today:

These are just a few of the ideas that we came up with - I’m sure that there are many more opportunities that we missed out on.
Any ideas you may have are warmly welcomed as comments for this post. In fact posting your idea here may well help promote positive change for an NPO that is struggling for ideas you believe in…

Are you ready to get your feet wet?

Meanwhile, if you feel that you are up for the challenge of using your skills and intelligence in order to promote positive social change in Israel, and if you are prepared to commit at least two hours a week to an NPO that really needs your help, please log into your facebook account and join Desktop Volunteer.

Remember - Change for the good begins when you will it…

Thanks for taking the time to read this and remember that even by simply helping expose this post and the facebook group Desktop Volunteer you are already beginning to make a difference and for this, I want to say THANK YOU…

: )
Mike