Easy to do your bit
ACCORDING to Roshan Thiran, the problems NGO leaders and community organisations face is that although they have good intentions many of them don’t have the ability to run a sustainable outfit.
By talking with these NGOS, Roshan discovered that they actually need help in becoming better leaders, so Leaderonomics started conducting leadership workshops for NGOS.
“The biggest gap we found was the inability for these NGOS to connect with volunteers, so there was a need to develop the means to connect them,” he explains.
The opportunity came after a meeting in November last year that Roshan, CEO of Leaderonomics, a social entreprise subsidiary in The Star media group, had with Datuk Vincent Lee, executive deputy chairman and Ho Kay Tat, group managing director of Star Publications (M) Bhd.
A partnership was struck between Leaderonomics and The Star to launch a volunteer matching portal to link volunteers with NGOS.
With The Star’s direction in highlighting inspiring news and driving change in the community, Roshan reiterated that both Lee and Ho stressed that this volunteering initiative needs to be in action and not merely words.
“I think it’s great to see how serious the management of The Star is in seeing change and getting themselves involved through funding and giving time off to their employees for volunteer work.”
He adds that “they are finding programmes or projects that the employees and the management themselves can get involved in.”
“With The Star’s over four million readers online and 1,078,000 print readers it will reach more people and they will get to know about volunteering through this portal. Generally, people want to volunteer so, together with The Star, we are making it easier for them to find out what is out there and where they can help,” he says.
Currently, Roshan and his team are working on the volunteer matching portal which he says is “the heart of how we can connect with volunteers” and this portal will be launched in June.
“Like any website, what is important is the advertising and promotion, so by partnering The Star we will be able to take it further,” he says.
He adds that there is so much wasted time and productivity, and if more people just volunteer a bit of their time it will truly change their lives and the lives of people in need.
While the objective of Leaderonomics’ volunteer matching portal is to ensure communication between two parties, that of the volunteer and the organisation that needs volunteers, Roshan stressed that they are not endorsing the projects listed by the NGOS.
So, how does the portal work? According to Roshan the volunteer matching portal is basically a conduit to inform and connect volunteers with organisations that need help.
The website will list current programmes or projects by different NGOS where volunteers can offer their time and also a list of all NGOS.
“Also, the portal is not limited to volunteering projects listed by the NGOS. For example, if someone wants to clean up or improve the field in their residential area so kids won’t get hurt while playing, they can list their project in the portal and get volunteers to help,” he says.
This way, if someone cannot find a service to match them through the programmes or projects, they can also see other types of volunteering opportunities available through the listed NGOS.
“People can expect a website that is not static, but instead interactive. We will push emails to registered volunteers to match their criteria and keep them informed of volunteering opportunities near their chosen location. What we are doing is basically making
Generally, people want to volunteer so, together with Thestar, we are making it easier for them to find out what is out there and where they can help — ROSHAN THIRAN, CEO OF LEADERONOMICS
it easier for volunteers and the organisations to get in touch with each other,” he explains.
Roshan points out that any other NGOS who are not listed with them and would like to be included in this portal should contact them for this purpose.
A gem about this portal is the opportunity for volunteers to provide feedback on the projects that they have been involved with.
After a project, volunteers can post their comments on the project, like whether it was successful or what could have been done better and include pictures as well.
“This way, volunteers looking for projects or organisations to work with can see previous projects, and at the same time, the organisations or NGOS can build a portfolio of their work,” he says.
“We want to ensure that the portal is alive and we encourage volunteers to load up photos of the projects that they were involved in so people can see the progress of the projects. At the same time, we have the right to pull out projects that are poor, and there will be ranking for the projects that have been completed,” he explains.
To find the ideal volunteering opportunity that matches your interest, Roshan advises potential volunteers to ask as many questions as possible to ensure that the experience will be right, to make sure you know what is expected before starting.
If an experience is not what you expected, he recommends that the volunteer talk to the organisation about it and maybe consider changing the focus or look for another match.
However, if the volunteer is not enjoying himself then he should find out the cause of what is bothering him to help him decide how to proceed.
“Most importantly, make sure you’re having fun. The best volunteer experiences benefit both the volunteer and organisation,” he says.
The volunteer matching portal will be launched in June. Organisations that wish to be included in the portal can contact Leaderonomics at people@leaderonomics.com.