Flash Volunteer

Flash Volunteer seeks to build community and increase volunteerism in Seattle through the creation of a sustainable, user-friendly online platform to connect, inspire and mobilize volunteers to effect meaningful change on a neighborhood level.

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"Flash Vee" Based on lyrics and music by Hugh Laurie Reimagined by Ajie Amir, Flash Volunteer board member

Flash Vee All my life I've been looking for thee You and I were always meant to be That's why I call my love for you a mystery Different city You and I have always lived in a different city I knew I had to move to Seattle from Cali So what kept us apart is plain for me to see That much at least is not really a mystery Voln-teering I'd always wanted to be voln-teering Yet long-term commitment was always so intimidating And all these looking online and regist-ring Voln-teering Introduced to Flash Vee One day I found you and you found me I thought I should go to a meeting and have a look see Maybe we're a match made in e-Harmony Flash Vee Together since Two-Oh-One-Three We've been together now ... wait a minute let me see One whole year come next January I think I can say we have history So why do I so long for you? Why is my love so strong for you? Why did I steal this song from Fry and Laurie for you? Well ... I guess it's just a mystery Mystery

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This is me. This is me on a Saturday morning. This is me windblown, without makeup, and bundled up to resemble the Michelin man. This is me dirty and tired but totally happy because I’m volunteering. A Glamour Shot it’s not, but I’m sharing this image because it represents to me the power of Flash Volunteer, which is about giving people a platform to connect through the causes they care about. The people I cropped out of this image (you're welcome, you two) are fellow Flash Volunteer board members who also give their smarts, their energy and their free time to this organization because they, too, believe in the power of giving back. Now I’m asking you to give a little back as well. Whether you’re a frequent volunteer who uses our site, or a not-so-frequent volunteer who admires the people who do, I am asking you to kick a few bucks our way on GiveBIG day, May 15. Flash Volunteer is powered by volunteers, for volunteers, and a little bit TRULY goes a long way for us. See below for more information about GiveBIG and how to participate. On behalf of the Flash Volunteer team, I sincerely thank you for supporting the Seattle volunteer community. Holly Wyrwich Flash Volunteer board member @hollywyr

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GiveBIG 2013

Flash Volunteer was built on the idea that we can all make a difference, by connecting with our neighbors and working together. That’s what GiveBIG, the annual Seattle donationpalooza, is all about.

On May 15, across King County, we’re all pitching in what we can to our favorite organizations and causes through the Seattle Foundation website. And the Seattle Foundation is stretching those donations even farther. Together, we can make a huge difference.

What does your donation to Flash Volunteer do?

A $50 donation enables us to recruit and onboard a new organization that will post events and contribute to the Flash Volunteer community.

A $20 donation helps us maintain our site for one week

A $10 donation gives us the power to recruit 60 new volunteers through outreach and social media

We are asking that you please consider donating to Flash Volunteer on Wednesday, May 15. Your donation to Flash Volunteer supports volunteerism and boosts our communities. Our online community service platform, which includes social media features, mobile app technologies and volunteer management tools, allow all residents to create, discover and participate in community service like never before.

So mark your calendar for May 15. On that day, visit the Flash Volunteer page on the Seattle Foundation website and make your donation. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the volunteers who power this organization, thanks for your continued support!

P.S. Please enjoy this funny video that we had a blast making. It illustrates how making a small change in your life can make a big difference for our community.

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Why I Volunteer: Band-aids and Chocolate

I’m great at starting things and bad at finishing them. For this reason, I try to avoid long-term plans and commitments. Who has the time? What if things change between now and then? What if tomorrow I’m mauled by a tiger while walking down Pike Street? What good will all my plans be then, hmmm??? You can never tell with this stuff. 

That’s why I liked Flash Volunteer even before I started working for them. Everything in our culture is going ‘On-Demand’, why not volunteering, too? If you’re a person like me, you don’t have to worry about long-term commitments or your ability to finish something; you can just start a bunch of good small things during your down time, and eventually- who knows- maybe you’ll have helped finish one good BIG thing. 

This logic all sounds great until your friend uses it on you to convince you to volunteer on a dreary Saturday morning when you were planning on sleeping in. My friend mentioned he’d be doing some environmental restoration in West Seattle and I asked if it was part of Duwamish Alive!, an event we had been promoting on FlashVolunteer.org. His eyes lit up as if I had just signed a blood oath to become his volunteering sidekick, and he spent the next few minutes needling me to make it happen. We would feel great afterward, he said. It’s better with a friend, he said. He wore me down, and besides, I probably don’t deserve to work for a volunteer organization if I can’t join a friend for a few hours of environmental cleanup on an otherwise unoccupied Saturday. 

And of course, he was right. Have you ever actually heard someone complain about how unfulfilling and pointless a volunteer experience was? Me neither. Volunteering is a little like ripping off a band-aid, but then finding delicious chocolate underneath. Okay, that sounds gross. What I mean is- there are always some early nerves about volunteering. What do I have to do? For who? For how long? Once you get your feet in the water, though, it’s almost impossible to not enjoy yourself. 

My friend and I got a good breakfast, then joined other volunteers and leaders from Earthcorps and Nature Consortium in removing prickly invasive blackberry plants on the Duwamish Greenbelt. It wasn’t glamour work, but the weather cleared up just for us, and I swear I wasn’t the only one man-grunting with satisfaction when I would finally pull up a particularly difficult cluster of roots. 

We could see our work, too; the forest was significantly cleaner than when we started as we gave more space to native species and created large compost piles in the process. And volunteering with a friend, it never felt too much like work. We ate a grand Viking meal afterward, chewing with slow satisfaction as we sat covered in dry mud. 

I slept well that night, partly because I was exhausted, but also because it felt like I earned it. Everyone wants to do good, but the only way you can know if you’re doing true good is if your helping your community with no expectation in return. That’s why you don’t hear bad volunteer stories: the good deed is actually its own reward. 

I hadn’t finished anything, but I had helped start something, something important. And that’s all I have to do- keep starting things until one day I’ve helped finish something important. Who wants to join me?

-Blake Madden, Social Media Manager

Flash Volunteer

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Why I Volunteer

I volunteer because I like to make things better. I'm always looking for solutions to problems and wondering if there might be better ways to do the things we've done the same way for years. I ask "Why?" a lot, both of myself and of others. Everything to me is a work-in-progress and I always see room for improvement. But, this doesn't make me a perfectionist. Rather, I consider myself an eternal optimist. I'm optimistic that, together, we can make our neighborhood, city, and, eventually, our world, a better place through co-creating improvements across the spectrum of our daily lives.

What does that have to do with volunteerism?

In my experience, this type of work, the work that doesn't have a clear profit motive or that doesn't directly support a current strategic goal, is the kind of work that happens on nights, weekends and other in between times. It's the heavy lifting that lays the groundwork for future innovations and is usually fueled by compassion, empathy, and hope, not money. In short, it is the work of volunteers.

The volunteers that, day in and day out, take this big block of clay we call the world and, bit by bit, shape it into something more beautiful than it was the day before. The volunteers that find that in between time to improve their communities because they think their neighbors deserve it. The volunteers that want to leave the Earth in better shape than when they found it.

Volunteers aren't heroes. They're regular people that make the heroic choice to be part of something that is bigger than themselves. To contribute to a work-in-progress legacy whose thread will be picked up by each subsequent generation willing to find that in between time to build something extraordinary.

What do you want to make better?

J. Brad Wilke, Executive Director

Flash Volunteer

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Nurture our Nature: Flash Volunteer's Earth Day Instagram Contest

In honor of Earth Day (April 22, 2013), Flash Volunteer is holding a contest for photo submissions on Instagram, and the winner receives a FREE $25 gift certificate to a local establishment.

Prizes: The main prize will be a $25 gift certificate to a restaurant in the winner’s neighborhood. Other select entries will receive Flash Volunteer-branded merchandise.

    Rules        

*       Sponsored by Flash Volunteer, a volunteer organization that effects meaningful change on a neighborhood level.

*     Eligible: Individuals based in Washington state that follow Flash Volunteer on Instagram

*     Ineligible: Family of Flash Volunteer employees/ board members, as well as Flash Volunteer board members and employees themselves.

*       To enter, upload an original photo to Instagram of what inspires you to volunteer for Earth Day. Follow @FlashVolunteer on Instagram and hashtag your photo with #FV4EARTH. Contest will run from 9 a.m. Pacific time April 13, 2013, to 12a.m. Pacific time April 23, 2013. 

*      From all eligible submissions received, Flash Volunteer will choose one grand prize winner and up to 5 ‘honorable mentions’ and announce them on Facebook by 5 p.m. Pacific time April 24, 2013. Decisions made with respect to the contest are final.

*       By participating in the contest, the entrants agree to have their name and Instagram image used on Flash Volunteer’s social media, web presences, and other materials, with financial or other compensation limited to the prizes listed, and determined solely by Flash Volunteer.

*      The winner will be determined solely by Flash Volunteer

*      Flash Volunteer reserves the right to disqualify any nominee in violation of the rules. It also reserves the right to cancel, terminate or modify the contest if it is not capable of completion as planned. If due to circumstances beyond the control of Flash Volunteer, any competition or prize-related event is delayed,rescheduled, postponed or cancelled, it reserves the right, but not the obligation, to cancel or modify the contest and shall not be required to award a substitute prize.

*       One winner will receive a $25 gift card to an establishment in the winner’s neighborhood. All legitimate entries will be eligible for ‘Door Prizes’ consisting of FlashVolunteer-branded merchandise, and up to five will be given. No prize substitutions. The prize value varies by items; maximum value $25 plus shipping costs.

*       No purchase necessary. Contest subject to all federal, state and local laws and regulations; void where prohibited or restricted by law. Flash Volunteer shall not have any obligation or responsibility with regard to entrants that submit inaccurate information or do not comply with these rules.

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Flash Volunteer Partners with VolunteerMatch in Seattle

Wondering where all of the new events on Flash Volunteer are coming from these days? We've partnered with VolunteerMatch to deliver the best community service opportunities in Seattle to our users via VolunteerMatch's Events API. That means you get all of the great features of Flash Volunteer's mobile and web platforms with brand new, top-of-the-line events from our new partners, VolunteerMatch. Doesn't today feel like a great day to get out and volunteer?! Check out the official press release for all of the juicy details: http://bit.ly/XBJyYK

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If you have ever received an email from Flash Vounteer, it was likely signed by a guy named Charlie Buttons, who identifies himself as the Flash Volunteer CEO. But like the astute volunteers that you are, you will notice that we don’t have a CEO on our staff list. Charlie Buttons is in fact the nickname our executive director and founder, Brad Wilke, gave to his son, Charles Wilke, who was born in spring 2011.

We use Charlie’s name and picture to represent the Flash Volunteer team in our customer service emails because it’s friendlier than a bland customer service identity – plus Charlie is cute as all get-out.

Feel free to write to Charlie by name – at [email protected] – but just know that it’s actually a team of enthusiastic volunteers who are working together to write and respond to our users. And look for Charlie’s snapshot on our About Us page to grow along with the real-life boy!

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Spotlight on Flash Volunteer!

Flash Volunteer friends have been talking about us, and we are super excited!

GeekWire sat down with our founder Brad Wilke to talk about how Flash Volunteer makes volunteering social and easy.

Flash Volunteer found Brad Wilke on KOMO News

Bus 52 is a really cool project and Flash Volunteer is really lucky to be a part of it. Watch this video!

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Flash Volunteer Launches iPhone App, Upgrades Award-Winning Social-Change Platform

Online, Mobile Volunteerism Includes Community Tools, Real-Time Event Check-in, Other Social Features

SEATTLE – Sep 10 – Seattle-based Flash Volunteer today announced its first major redesign of its growing social-change platform, flashvolunteer.org, and the launch of a brand new iPhone App (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flash-volunteer/id353017547?mt=8).

“With this new app, and the many upgrades across the Flash Volunteer platform, we are empowering community building through volunteerism,” said Founder and Executive Director Brad Wilke. “By improving our easy-to-use online tools and adding mobile integration, we help connect volunteers to neighborhoods, nonprofits to volunteers, and people to projects.”

In just under three years, Flash Volunteer has grown into a stable, effective tool for nonprofits and volunteers to harness the spirit of community, provide a path of least resistance, and channel widespread altruistic good intentions into results. Flash Volunteer has helped organizers of events secure many additional service hours through the power of the social graph. Recent new feature releases have attracted even more volunteers to the system and they expect a major leap in user growth following the mobile release.

Built by volunteers, for volunteers, Flash Volunteer continues to grow and evolve with the help of professionals from diverse fields. Along the way, it has amassed in-kind design and development work valued at close to $1 million.

One hundred percent open source, Flash Volunteer is constantly attracting more designers and developers to the cause. By setting up specific top-priority projects for coders to knock down, a nimble core team enables the organization to incorporate new talent on the talent’s terms.

“What makes us tick, just like any other nonprofit in Seattle, is the people who generously contribute to our mission,” said Holly Wyrwich, Flash Volunteer Board President. “Our open door policy means key projects get completed, the help comes and goes as they please and Flash Volunteer can continue to advance towards the most innovative community engagement and volunteer service features available on the web.

More than 550 events have been posted on the site since its inception and the pace of new event creation is accelerating as a result of recent improvements. Likewise, positive user base growth over the past 12 months has proven the popularity of upgrades like improved recommendations based on user skills and interests, the ability to give a user “props,” the addition of past events timelines, hours volunteered and other features to user profiles and improvements to the site’s search function. With more than 1,000 users on the system now, the new features have attracted a new wave of interest with dozens more joining each month largely through word of mouth, social media sharing and new organizations adopting the platform for their event-organizing needs.

ABOUT FLASH VOLUNTEER:

Flash Volunteer (www.flashvolunteer.org) seeks to build community and increase volunteerism in Seattle through the creation of a sustainable, user-friendly online platform to connect, inspire and mobilize volunteers to effect meaningful change on a neighborhood level.

Contacts: Nate Cole Daum for Flash Volunteer: [phone] Brad Wilke, Founder, Flash Volunteer: [phone]

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Flashvolunteer board changing the world one bratwurst at a time.

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7/8 Weekly Deployment

Hey Volunteers,

Another week, another deployment! This week, we focused on two features after analyzing user feedback & site metrics.  We noticed people using the search feature we released last week to search for help topics - so we made help topics search-able!

We also made recommended events smarter.  Now, when you look at your recommended events, the events should be more relevant to your skills & interests.

As always, we're always monitoring the site and fixing minor bugs & doing UI tweaks, but nothing to get too excited about.

As always - have an idea or suggestion? Comment and let us know!

-Logan

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7/1 Weekly Deployment

Hello Volunteers,

This week's weekly deployment has a few fun features we whipped together.

Search You can now search for events, users or organizations.  The search is really basic right now, but it's been a highly sought-after feature.  We will be upgrading the search experience in the future, but we believe this is a great start!

Organization Management We've added the ability to add & remove users as admin of your org.  In order to add a user as an admin for your organization, you must be logged into your organization's account, then there is a link for "Make admin of this org" link on the user's timeline view:

I hope you enjoy these updates - and stay tuned for future releases!

Your Tech Guru, Logan

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6/24 Weekly Deployment

Hello,

This week was a minor release, here are some of the highlights:

Added more visibility into hours volunteered

Timeline shows past events and events you've organized

Minor UI improvements & bug fixes

We also noticed an error with our user migration - we messed up which neighborhood to set as the neighborhood you want to volunteer in.  Whoops!  Be sure to check & update your profile with the correct information.

Your guru of tech, Logan

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6/17 Weekly Deployment

Hello Fellow Volunteers,

We just released our 6/17 deployment, and we're really excited about this one.  It has a couple of improvements that our users have been asking us, and a brand new feature, Props!

Props Props are a way to give other volunteers recognition for a job well done.  This can be accomplished by visiting another user's profile, and clicking the Give Props.  After giving them props, an e-mail is sent to the user, thanking them for their volunteering efforts.

Contact Event Attendees Event organizers can now contact the volunteers signed up for an event if something about the event changes, or they have some extra information to send them.

More User Control All of these features involve us contacting the user, and we wanted to make sure that there is a clear user's choice about what to get e-mailed about.  With these new features came the ability for users to specify which notifications we deliver to the user.  These notifications can now be updated by clicking on "settings", in the upper right, then "notifications" on the left menu.

Your Tech Guru, Logan

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6/3 Weekly Deployment

Hey Seattle Volunteers,

We just launched our weekly deployment with a few minor improvements including

Adding visibility into how to create new events

Updating help content

Minor bug fixes throughout the site

Any features you're looking for, that we don't provide? Let us know, and we'll add it to our radar!

Happy Volunteering!

Your tech guru, Logan

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Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.