Sevak - Social Volunteering Reimagined
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SEVAK aims to engage more young people in community-based volunteerism. Current efforts to mobilize individuals place the burden of discovery on volunteers and are biased towards those who are already civically engaged. SEVAK adopts a proactive approach driven by a ‘social recruitment’ philosophy. We complement organization-created requests with personalized appeals from registered volunteers, and use intelligent algorithms combining task-compatibility with social affinity to recommend relevant opportunities. This drives conversion of un-engaged youth to civic causes and rewards existing volunteers by giving them additional ways to make and measure their impact. The SEVAK solution consists of a web-based engine with mobile/web applications for volunteer use. Sevak was selected as a finalist for the Civic Data Challenge launched by the The National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC). Currently we are in the implementation phase, and looking for non-profits and volunteers interested in beta-testing Sevak! Visit our site: sevak.meteor.com Follow us on Twitter: @SevakApp Email: sevakapp@gmail.com
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Sevak - Social Volunteering Reimagined
- 2. We are… Heyu Xiong PhD Candidate Northwestern U. Economics Sehj Kashyap MD Candidate Duke U. Nitya Narasimhan Senior Software Professional Mobile R&D
- 3. A motivator .. but also the catalyst
- 4. Volunteering is good for the community, good for the individual
- 5. But aggregate volunteerism shows signs of decline and stagnation
- 6. And millennial participation rates are the lowest among all age groups
- 7. This runs counter to the fact that millennials are generally very engaged
- 8. It’s not for a lack of opportunity .. so we ask..
- 9. How can we engage more young people in volunteerism?
- 14. Reduce Opportunity Cost Increase Impact Visibility Most common volunteering activities have immediate and visible impact
- 15. Reduce Opportunity Cost Increase Impact Visibility Enable Social Volunteerism
- 16. Reduce Opportunity Cost Increase Impact Visibility Enable Social Volunteerism
- 17. Reduce Opportunity Cost Increase Impact Visibility Enable Social Volunteerism
- 18. Reduce Opportunity Cost Increase Impact Visibility Enable Social Volunteerism
- 19. Existing tools are predicated on the user already feeling engaged .. or being in a network of engaged people
- 20. But this leaves many people out…
- 21. …and places the burden of search and engagement on ONE PERSON
- 22. Our vision..
- 25. Elevate Promote awareness Recruit Advocate opportunities Mobilize Mentor participants Flexibility of actions Dimensions of impact Serve Fulfill needs For Users
- 26. For Partners The “Doers” The “Advocates” The “Mentors” Low volume, high impact High volume, low impact Sweet spot for growth &engagement Passive “Push” (throw over the wall) Active “Adapt” (engage in conversation) Profiling & Recommendations Engine
- 27. Not volunteering directory but a complement to existing services SEVAK provides real time feedback and information from the very target audience that volunteering directories and organizations are trying to reach
- 28. Our application…
- 29. In Progress at: http://sevakapp.meteor.com
- 30. Thank you
Editor's Notes
- People were more likely to volunteer when they didn’t have to give so much time for it.
- Similarly, if you look at volunteer rates in all 4 regions of the US,You see that the donation rate is much higher than the volunteer rate.We think this is again a matter of opportunity cost. People prefer giving money over time, mostly because these donations and money can be scaled and personalized
- By promoting transparency in contribution results and impact, we can further incentivize people’s inclination to volunteer in activities not as public or possessing immediate gratification.
- Lastly, what we saw in the data that could be the key to improving participation – enable social volunteerismWhile the volunteering rate has declined and stagnated in recent years, activity in community is actually up***activity in what sense?
- So to recapNot only do we see a lot of demand for volunteersWe also see a lot of opportunity for greater growth and engagement.
- Current tools are set up to not make much of an impact I this.Theyre directory services. Non profits come and list volunteer opportunities, and then these services wait till a user comes to their site and searches for tasks in their community or in a particular area – and then they connect them with this. Some of them are focused on getting institutions involved- busineses, universities, schools.This is problematic for two reasons – these tools that just dump the information and wait for users to find them - creates an overhead on the guy who wants to volunteerAND…We’re going beyond the directory model – dump the tasks, and the guy who wants to volunteer has the additional overhead of finding itWe have a push methodThe demand is higher than supply
- ….It leaves plenty of people out.People who arent necessarily part of institutions that are engaged, or are individuals who don’t know where to start, what organization to volunteer at for the first time.
- These people are alone and left out.
- This is a work in progressBut we’re really excited
- We understand that volunteerism is not a “one size fits all” model. Two kinds of users – the ‘connected’ and the ‘disconnected’ – both wanting to make an impact, but in a meaningful way.The ‘connected’ have volunteered before – but may not always have the time/expertise to fulfill current needs for a cause. How can they still find fulfillment in volunteering?The ‘disconnected’ have latent interest in volunteering but lack the awareness/expertise needed to find the right causes/opportunities to fit their mindset. How can they be ‘bootstrapped’ into finding their niche?Sevak supports a gradation of activities to encourage different levels of volunteerism”: - elevate = promote awareness of a cause/opportunity (e.g., simply by sharing or commenting on it) - recruit – actively advocate opportunities (e.g., target people or profiles) by adding your voice to the call-to-action and personalizing the request - serve = contribute directly by signing up to the opportunity yourself - mobilize = go beyond serving, to also acting as a mentor to new recruits or taking initiative to multiply impact made on that task
- Value to partners --- understand profiles of various users, and their strengths/weaknesses to a cause. Today focus is only on “doers” (who take on the task) but neglects mentors/advocates both of whom play critical roles in growing volunteerism Increase the effectiveness of task fulfillment by improving the probability of users accepting it. --- understand motivations of each profile – why did a user choose to be a doer/advocate or mentor. Find the ties that matter and use those to both create new ways to engage your core volunteer cadre, and to sustain (and reward) your EXISTING volunteer cadre once a user volunteers in any capacity, find ways to sustain their interest and keep them coming back and adding value.Key to Sevak is to instrument all tasks with “new” verbs (recruit, mobilize, assist, like, save ..) that give us insights into the kinds of interests and levels of engagement of each user. We can use these to not only understand the user’s relationship to a cause/organization or group, but to also improve that user’s experience (and reduce friction) in making the kind of impact he/she desires. For instance, our success metric would be to get to the point where some percentage (e.g., 50%?) of opportunities that we recommend to the user are immediately acted upon because of the context in which we present themWhat is the value to our partnersIf bob volunteers, you don’t know why he cameWe doWe have the information thatSymbiotic relationshioWe don’t want just the data and descriptionBut we want to give you fullfillment – If you are a partnerThey will give us ‘access’ to his account - analyticsIf we are the ones who referred him to you, We have ways to figure out 4-5 ways to discover jobRight now the directories are just search. We have Search with socialSevak is a recommender engine and connection marketplace We want to connect volunteers to each otherWe don’t want to just connect volunteer with tasksIf we’re just linking to emailNpos don’t know how he got thereAnd we just know he contacted – don’t know how long, with whoIf we have more intelligent system join button
- By unifying interface across volunteer directorsConnect volunteer across all the different Causes in oneCauses in other