TACSI Bold Ideas, Better Lives Challenge Application

BOLD IDEAS, BETTER LIVES CHALLENGE 2010: APPLICATION FORM

Project name
2 Bob's Worth

Organisation name (if applicable)
Two Bob's Worth Ltd

Project Leader
Enough about me, let's move on to the project!!

In 100 words or less – what is your idea?
2 Bob's Worth is a micro-volunteering platform. Through the 2 Bob’s Worth website, by e-mail or phone, disadvantaged people can request a bit of help. People who would like to do their “2 Bob’s Worth” in the local community can go onto the site and browse current opportunities, search for opportunities that meet specific criteria (eg < 10 hours, within 5km of home and/or reducing poverty). The person can also elect to receive e-mail notification when a request matching their criteria is submitted, so they can immediately respond, and we can source the opportunities people are looking for perfect optimizer.

What is the social need or challenge your idea could address? Who are your beneficiaries? (300 words)
People would like to do things to help disadvantaged members of their community and causes they care about, but often don't know where to start. Many people feel they don’t have enough time for conventional volunteering opportunities and have no affinity with traditional volunteering organisations like church groups. Two Bob's Worth empowers people to directly find opportunities to make a real difference in small ways. It allows those receiving help to offer their own skills to help others in the community, eliminating the stigma that asking for help is asking for "welfare".

People are increasingly channelling their social interactions through the Internet, which while building one form of connectedness, could also result in social dislocation. The 2 Bob’s Worth platform is designed to build social inclusion by connecting, recognising and rewarding people for doing their “2 Bob’s Worth” in communities of interest to them, preferably local communities, so that they feel empowered to make a contribution to society rather than feeling helpless and disconnected. Through 2 Bob’s Worth, people can turn their words into actions and build their self-esteem and resilience by making a measurable difference in someone’s life.

Conventional volunteer programs appeal to specific groups of people. Two Bob's Worth offers the opportunity to volunteer to a whole different group. In one case, people who ordinarily find themselves poorly placed to work with existing volunteer agencies. Many people have families, long working hours and other commitments that leave them with some time, but perhaps insufficient to help long term, or just not time they can regularly offer during business hours.

The platform will build capacity by creating a new pool of volunteers and opportunities, and empower traditional volunteering organisations to find people with specialist skills required for particular tasks that may be a small part of a larger project.

What inspired you to come up with your idea in the first place? (300 words)
Attending the Parramatta Social Innovation meetup, we were challenged to come up with ideas to use technology to fix a social problem. Andrew was wondering what little thing we could do to help people that wouldn't create a huge ongoing commitment on top of his organisations’ other work/philanthropic commitments. He thought about the fact that other people also would be looking for small ways they can help out and that most people are happy to give their "2 Bob's Worth" (which also has connotations for a $2 tax deductible donation).

The attendees at the meetup were so enthusiastic about the idea of 2 Bob’s Worth, Andrew decided to invest further time in its development and contacted colleagues with decades of experience in volunteering and online trust/security, to get their assessment of the projects merits and deliverability. Through this consultation, Andrew quickly realised that the 2 Bob’s Worth platform could help organisations around the world, including the other organisations he is involved with, to be more efficient and effective, and would be a unique way he could bring together the legal, open source software, online communications, volunteering and fundraising skills of his wide network of friends and colleagues, to make concrete improvements in the lives of disadvantaged people around the world – while also building self-esteem and resilience in volunteers (particularly young people) and increased social inclusiveness.

While there are some fairly traditional websites for volunteering and donating to needy causes, Andrew found there was no free, open source platform, that would empower both individuals and organisations to connect needs and volunteers organically – or to provide small and achievable tasks, with measurable results and recognition, that would give volunteers the buzz and the confidence to keep doing their little bit whenever they can spare a moment.

What’s really new about your idea? Has anyone else done something like this (are there any models to base your project on)? (300 words)
2 Bob's Worth is unique in many ways, and as far as we know, there is no similar organisation in Australia. Internationally, we have identified other websites that provide related services, including http://flocklocal.net, http://www.nycservice.org/ and http://app.beextra.org/home/, however these websites are not directly comparable. The first two have a strong focus on volunteer work that is relevant to the immediate local community, while the third focuses on micro-volunteering for online projects.

Key areas where 2 Bob’s Worth is innovative compared with existing Australian services are:

Part of the key to this is making the process as easy, transparent and rewarding for people as possible. In building an interactive website and peripheral items, such as our Facebook application, 2 Bob's Worth offers an interface that is familiar and not daunting to users as well as being something that can integrate into other aspects of users online lives.
 * 1) It provides an online trust framework and educates users on how to assess whether to trust the people who are asking for, or offering to, help
 * 2) It enables "micro-volunteering" of a couple of hours here and there, on tasks submitted by individuals in need as well as organisations
 * 3) It rewards volunteers through earning points/hours and star ratings, that will appear on their volunteering passport, “iVolunteer@”, which is a Facebook application that enables individuals to promote the work they do and the causes they support to their online friends – to harness more volunteers or sponsors/donors
 * 4) It empowers help recipients to also help others - or "pay it forward", so you are not just a "welfare recipient" but a potential contributor
 * 5) The platform is open source and can be used by a wide range of organisations, including organisations managing projects, organisations managing volunteers, and organisations seeking to meet corporate social responsibility targets

What stage of development is your idea in (idea? piloted project?)? Explain more (100 words)
Two Bob's Worth has undertaken significant research having run twelve focus groups across Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne and Derby (WA) in connection with a range of social issues including aged care, women's refuges, indigenous health matters and drug rehabilitation. These have helped identify the need for specialist and micro-volunteers across a wide variety of areas, but also to help highlight the importance of geographical targeting and consultation with the community on these issues. A pilot of the website has been developed and is currently accessible online at http://beta.twobobsworth.org.au/ and for contributions by the public, our wiki is available at http://wiki.twobobsworth.org/Main_Page

Who are your stakeholders? Do you already have any contact with them? (100 words)
Our stakeholders are all the people in the world who need a bit of help or are willing to give a bit of help, together with the organisations that help connect and manage the engagement between these people in a way that reduces risk and improves efficacy.

We have been engaging with a range of volunteering organisations from ADRA, which operates internationally, PILCH NSW, operating at a State level, through to the Parramatta City Council, to determine how the platform could best meet their needs in both matching opportunities with volunteers and measuring the results and their achievements.

What risks can you foresee for your project? (300 words)
There are a range of risks with connecting volunteers with people who are disadvantaged through an online platform, that we are working to overcome.

Those risks include:


 * 1) Identification of a person and their reputability, both as a volunteer and help recipient
 * 2) Building sufficient numbers of volunteering opportunities and volunteers in a particular area for the platform to develop momentum
 * 3) Security of personal information in the platform
 * 4) Security of financial transactions made through the platform
 * 5) Ensuring the platform can be delivered sustainably and that there is a solid financial backing
 * 6) Reticence from existing traditional volunteering organisations to engage through the platform

We have brought on a team of highly qualified contributors to address these risks by working with selected organisations and local communities to build and pilot the platform.

''They didn't ask for all our solutions to address these risks, but in hindsight it would have been valuable to put them in. We'll just have to add them here!''

How will you measure/evaluate your impact? (300 words)
Because it is a web platform, it is easy to measure the impact of such a project in terms of volume of clicks or number of signups. But the best example of users (both volunteers and those seeking help) who are most well served by this project aren't necessarily those who simply sign up then leave. These numbers are no doubt important but they're not sufficient to really measure the impact of the project, because the value of Two Bob's Worth isn't in the sheer number of volunteers or people looking for help, but the continued interaction and breakdown of the division between these groups. Viewing statistics like how long a user spends on the website, how frequently a user chooses to help with multiple problems and how often they both help others and request help for themselves are examples of categories where we can see salient examples of the diminishing stigma associated with asking the community for help and with people growing stronger ties and connections to the community around them.

There is so much more to say about all the really powerful measurement things that 2 Bob's Worth will be able to do, like report on


 * 1) what issues people are most willing to contribute to
 * 2) what are the most common issues people need help with
 * 3) what is the most popular amount of time to contribute
 * 4) what is the most common amount of time required
 * 5) what is the average time between request and offer
 * 6) what is the average rating of helpers and opportunities
 * 7) what are the most common issues people want to be notified about
 * 8) what is the distance people are willing to travel to help
 * 9) how often do people volunteer
 * 10) what is the median number of projects a helper contributes to
 * 11) what percentage of volunteers want to be notified of opportunities near them
 * 12) do people prefer to be notified daily, weekly, monthly
 * 13) do people using the Facebook application generate new volunteers in the system (ie friends who want to pitch in)
 * 14) do people using the Facebook application generate donations to the causes they volunteer to
 * 15) what percentage of people who give help, also request help
 * 16) what percentage of people who request help, give help
 * 17) how many hours of volunteering is done by my team/organisation

''and of course all of this can be sliced and diced based on a bunch of demographic information such as age/gender/region/organisation/team, be tracked for changes over time, and be reported to relevant participants in a way that protects the privacy of the individuals involved in the system while also empowering government, corporates and NGOs to better understand "their people" and what their needs, concerns and skills are. ''

What are your estimated project costs (outline your total budget and key budget lines)? (100 words)
Wages $40,000 (volunteer liaison)

Technology Build $50,00

Promotions $10,000

''Oops, there wasn't much space for this one and we didn't allow enough time to translate all the detail from our budget spreadsheet into the tiny little box so we ended up just cramming the top line items in here.

We would have liked to have got the detail in - I'd put it here but I am running late to get home :=/''

Person 1: Name
Andrew Perry

Person 1: Organisation
legal.consult pty ltd / Community Builders Australia Pty Ltd

Person 1: Role
Project Management and Legal / Risk issues

Person 2: Name
Gary Christian

Person 2: Organisation
Two Bob's Worth Ltd

Person 2: Role
Volunteer group liaison, mentoring, recruitment, procedure development, risk assessment

Person 3: Name
Neroli Hills

Person 3: Organisation
Community Builders Australia Pty Ltd

Person 3: Role
Public Relations, Corporate Communications and Fundraising

Person 4: Name
Alastair MacGibbon

Person 4: Organisation
Surete Group (formerly Trust & Safety Director at eBay Australia & New Zealand)

Person 4: Role
Trust & Safety

Person 5: Name
Pat Allan

Person 5: Organisation
Freelancing Gods

Person 5: Role
Platform Development Lead

You can watch our supporting video on YouTube here