Skilled Volunteers Help Empower Vietnam Nonprofits

Dear LIN Friends,

Hello from Ho Chi Minh City! It has been a busy and exciting time for all of us at LIN in the past few months with several new initiatives to promote and enhance our skilled volunteer-oriented progams, including an online survey, a meeting, and a recently launched corporate volunteer challenge.

1. Online survey and meeting

In March 2011, the LIN Center conducted an online survey of skilled volunteers based in Ho Chi Minh City. The goal of the survey was to identify challenges skilled volunteers face while providing assistance to Not-for-profit organizations (NPOs) and strategies to overcome such difficulties.

70 people took the time to respond to the survey. Through this survey, we found that volunteers face similar challenges and there are opportunities to address and/or prevent those challenges. Balancing work, personal and volunteer responsibilities was a concern for over a quarter of skilled volunteers. Lack of clear instructions and/or defined volunteer roles and responsibilities was a challenge for 11% of survey respondents.

To solve the challenges that volunteers faced, 50% of the survey respondents said that they would talk directly with the organization. Others found support in sharing their experiences with another volunteer(s).

In addition to their recommendations for NPOs, respondents also suggested ways for the LIN Center, as a “matchmaker”, to support skilled volunteers. For example, LIN could host events for skilled volunteers where they can meet and share their experiences.

This was one of the reasons that the LIN Center decided to host a meeting for skilled volunteers on April 7^th. Through such events, LIN Center hopes to support a network of individuals who have similar interests in improving our community and give them an opportunity to share and learn from one another’s experiences.  

2. LIN’s Corporate Volunteer Challenge

Launched on May 7, 2011 to mark the International Day of Service, LIN’s Corporate Volunteer Challenge is a call to companies and skilled professionals in Ho Chi Minh City to apply their skill sets and experiences over a three month period (from 7 May- to 7 August 2011) to benefit the community through service with a local not-for-profit organization (NPO). 

We are thrilled to see the vibe the challenge has generated in the local volunteer community. 10 days into the launch, we have received almost 20 pledges from skilled volunteers to contribute their time and skills for the community, half of whom have already started to record their volunteer hours. The hour tracker is ticking. We can’t wait to see how far we’ll go in the next 80 exciting days of the challenge.

For more information about the Challenge, please go here:

http://www.linvn.org/?mod=content&act=view&cid=28&section=vol&lang=en

If you read Vietnamese, please download our monthly Volunteer Newsletter  at http://www.linvn.org/?mod=content&act=view&cid=10&section=volunteer

Thank you for your generous contribution to LIN Center's Skilled Volunteer programs! Stay tuned for a full report on the Corporate Volunteer Challenge in our next project update, along with other news on our Volunteer programs.

Sincerely,
Truc Nguyen

LIN Volunteer Coordinator

Links:

• LIN's Corporate Volunteer Challenge