As I have mentioned before, I have tried to do some virtual volunteering communications work to keep my hand in the pot, so to speak. Thus far, I have logged over forty hours of work. However, I haven't really found this to be much rewarding.

Three of the folks I found off of www.volunteermatch.org were organizations that sound great, but have no business plan, no communications plan, and no strategic objectives. They are going through the motions, accomplishing work each day, but without thought for tomorrow. That sort of situation does not really allow for great growth and makes trying to do communications work for them difficult.

Couple this with the fact that I have not had much appreciation or acknowledgement of the quite fine work I have been doing for free, and you might begin to understand why the whole experience has not left the best taste in my mouth.

Realizing this, I contacted a foundation here where I live. I still preferred the virtual aspect, but I figure that I might be able to accomplish something a bit more significant. It is an organization to which I applied for a job, and while I was not hired, neither has anyone else be. Therefore, they truly are in need of my services.

In contacting them, I took the opportunity to mention some of the observations I had made about their messaging while researching the organization to prepare for an interview. A free gift, really. Finally, the vp of operations got back to me and asked me to review their new website. I was a bit disappointed in the task, but went at it with careful thought. The resulting three page analysis pointed out that they still have yet to hit the mark with the potential messaging that could come from a solid website.

Since they have no visible collateral besides three newsletters, an annual report, and a 32-page research study, I suggested that they create some smaller brochures for folks. For example, the research study was a two-year examination of women and girls in the region, with critical observations and recommendations. But few would plow through the report, even though it was beautifully done.

So, I spent some time creating a four-fold brochure covering the recommendations. They could use it to easily share with potential stakeholders the focus of their organization. They could use it with potential funders to let folks determine what areas which they would like to support. They could also use it in meetings with officials to show where they could demonstrate the needs of their constituents and where they should focus their work. I used the organization's color scheme, but brightened up the piece a bit to show how to make such things attractive (their new website has a white background and is quite boring aesthetic wise).

I sent a PDF of the brochure off to the vp. Her response? Nothing.

The same response a president of another foundation gave me after researching and drafting a code of ethics for volunteers per her request.

Nothing.