November 30, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
An effort to develop so-called microvolunteering has received a lot of positive press, but one charity consultant argues it should be “slated for extinction.”
The Extraordinaries, a company that is developing technology so busy people can help charities and local governments using their cell phones, has been featured by CNN, Time magazine, and The Chronicle.
While using an iPhone or similar device to help a nonprofit group has its limitations, Jacob Colker, one of the group’s three co-founders, told The Chronicle in its article that the collective effort can produce results.
“Even a few minutes of brainpower is helpful. Especially when you have tens of thousands of people doing it,” he said.
But David Henderson, chief executive of Idealistics, a consulting company that works with social-service groups, writes on his blog that such volunteering does little to help the world and may in fact hurt charitable efforts.
“One in five children in the United States lives in poverty. What can you do about that with your mobile phone? Not a darn thing,” he says. “Efforts like the Extraordinaries create an illusion of social engagement that I argue is actually a threat to people like us who work on social issues in a serious way.”
He concludes: “If someone does not volunteer, is not engaged in their community, why should we sell them a placebo application to make them believe otherwise?”
What do you think? Is microvolunteering a positive development or could it hurt efforts to get people to donate time to charity? Click on the comment button below to share you views.
