Too busy (or lazy, admit it) to get down and dirty in the real world of good deeds? Take your pick from writing a letter to a sick child stuck hospital to a one-click donation of a cup of food to the hungry. Micro volunteering utilises all those hours you spend on Facebook and YouTube, to save the world, one lunchbreak-mouseclick at a time

Got half an hour to spare at work? Zoning out on Twitter isn't the only option anymore. Micro-volunteering is here to make sure you can do good without merely killing time on your computer.

All you have to do is lift a finger, or many, depending on the task at hand. From writing letters to prisoners to downloading a signature for your email with an ad on it that will donate revenue to a non-profit, being charitable has never been simpler. Or so convenient.

Plan a tree without getting your hands dirty
Take a look at Ecolution, an MTV channel initiative in partnership with Indian NGOs. The idea behind it is ridiculously simpleu00a0-- for every virtual tree that you choose to plant via the Ecolution application on Facebook, they will plant one for real, on the ground.

"Indian youngsters are connected with the city and country at large. They are keen on getting involved in social initiatives. Since MTV has an active Facebook page with a 1.1 million strong fan base, we decided to create an opportunity for youngsters to do their bit for the environment," says Ali Husein, Director-Digital Media, Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd.

Here's how it works: There is a list of cities that you can choose from to plant your virtual tree in. The top five cities for which they receive the maximum responses is where the social organisations that MTV has tied up with (Give India and Rotaract Clubs), will plant 10,000 trees in January next year. Perfect for the busy youngster who is juggling college, tuitions, a social life and recreation.

Eliminate hunger with a click
Back home, Bhookh (.com) helps you donate one cup of food to a malnourished child in India. Mumbai-based founder Jay V Sutaria says it works on a simple principle. "The site loads in a couple of seconds. When you click on the green 'donate' button, you are taken to a page that thanks you for your donation and displays ads
by our sponsors, who pay for your click."

Bhookh.com donates this money to the Indian chapter of UN World Food Programme (UNWFP) towards food for the chronically hungry.

Citing the basic premise as "convenience", Sutaria says it is the simplicity of the system that has helped Bhookh find a loyal base, and surge in popularity. "You may hear of it today, click, and tell a friend about it.

Because it's so simple, and takes a few seconds, if you have a minute to spare even a year later, you'll remember Bhookh and come back." And it's important that you come back to it, because hunger is the number one cause of death in India.

"No government will talk about it because it's a huge, endemic problem. Overu00a0 2.5 million Indians die of hunger every year. And this is chronic hunger from having been under-nourished for years, not hunger from having missed a meal."

Be a pyjama do-gooder
While Bhookh and Ecolution offer one niche micro-volunteering opportunity, Help From Home, a UK-based site, has aggregated a host of remote volunteering opportunities, bringing it on one platform.

Calling itself the place from where you can "change the world in your pyjamas," Help From Home breaks up activities into small time capsules, depending on how much time you have to spare. Got 10 minutes? Vote for a cause on TwitCause that then either helps spread the word, or donate to the said cause. Got two minutes? Fill out a short form and donate your airline miles to the Make a Wish Foundation, which will transfer them to make the wish of a terminally ill child come true.

"I had been doing this sort of stuff for a while, but I hadn't found one place where I could get all the information and resources I needed. That's how the idea to set up Help From Home came up," recalls Mike Bright, Founder of Help From Home.

"On the site, you can choose actions based on categories like the time you can spare (under one minute or under 10) and the kind of work you want to do (green, advocacy). Clicking on a category brings up a list of actions that fit the category. Clicking on any item on the list takes you to the third party site of that particular action. "There's no registration, no sign-up. It takes no time at all and makes volunteering accessible," says London-based Bright over a telephone conversation.u00a0

The response, obviously, has been tremendous. "In Britain, I'm actually seeing national organisations developing an interest in this type of volunteering, inspired by Help From Home." And with good reason. Up to 1.5 million pounds are generated by the simple activity of surfing the net. And it takes less than 10 seconds. Translate that into funds for non-profits, and you get an idea with tremendous potential.

Educate a child
Keeping it simple so that you return to the site is what Delhi-based Pratham Education Foundation is striving towards. Aimed at providing quality education to underprivileged kids of the country, Pratham is a new entrant to the social-media-for-non-profit space, but is catching on fast.

Today, it has two web-based initiatives running with https://cms.mid-day.com/inc/www.seeyourimpact.org and https://cms.mid-day.com/inc/www.wishberry.inu00a0 (https://www.wishberry.in/users/productsearch?search=pratham) to create
awareness and raise funds simultaneously.

On Wishberry, a gift-registry service, you can donate towards any one of Pratham's requirements, ranging from Rs 500 for books for kids in a classroom, to Rs 2,000 for pre-school education for 25 kids. They are 'gifts' that you can ask friends and family to give you for any celebrationu00a0-- from your baby shower to your wedding.
"Instead of expensive gifts, if you want your gifts to be donations to a cause, you can add these to Wishlist, and send it out to friends and family.

They can 'buy you' presents off your Wishlist online by donating to Pratham, or any other cause you may have picked," explains Swati Kapur, Head of Media and Communications, Pratham Education Foundation. Ready to change the world? Go, switch on your laptop.

Achieved!
Replyforall (adverts in e-mails), September 2008 to December 2009: Provided a day of protective services for 10,114 animals, provided a year of clean water for 4,541people, and more.

Kibblekat (online charity donating quiz), up to October 2010: Donated 286,876,650 pieces or 280 tons of kibble (cat and dog food to animal shelters).

Everyclick (charity donating search engine), up to October 2010:u00a0 UK ufffd1,424,142 (approx Rs 1,03,339,077) raised for charity.

Hunger Site (click-to-donate), June 1999 to October 2010 328 million visitors clicked to give 25,000 metric tons of food or 447 million cups of food.

https://cms.mid-day.com/inc/Folding@Home (volunteer your spare PC power), up to October 2010: 4,00,000 active machines, received computational results from over 4.51 million devices, 75 peer reviewed scientific research papers published.

The handbook

How your non-profit can utilise social media effectively

1. Use a simple interface that's easily accessible and popular, like Wiki, Google and Facebook.

2. Use location based applications like Foursquare to promote volunteer opportunities that people can participate in. Also tie that in with your Twitter or Facebook account.

3. Offer people feedback of the impact their actions have created, via videos and pictures, where they can see how they have helped. That'll go a long way in building a loyal base and attracting more people.

4. Join other groups, pages and applications that share your cause or philosophy.

Micro-volunteering on the smartphone will be big

Ali Husein, Director-Digital Media, Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd.
"Micro-volunteering is going to grow. It's a fantastic concept, because at the end of the day, people are lazy or just too busy. They want to be part of a good initiative but don't know how, so they'll be happy to take simple steps to create maximum impact with minimum action."

Swati Kapur, Head of Media and Communications, Pratham Education Foundation
"It will be the medium to engage and network with the youth and give them direction. A lot of kids are on Facebook for fun. They may not know about Pratham, for instance. But through social networking, they could get sensitised, creating a wave of responsibility among youngsters."

Mike Bright, Founder, Help From Home
"I see micro volunteering initiatives using the smartphone as the next big thing. Help From Home already promotes this branch of micro-volunteering. 'Do good' smartphone apps from the HFH website are available at:
https://www.helpfromhome.org/links-goodcauses-phoneapps.htm.

This form of volunteering can be taken into areas of society that were not possible to reach earlier. We will be using micro-volunteering to encourage volunteering within actual class time to promote a sense of altruism at a
young age, at prisons to compliment other reform courses for prisoners and so on.

I also see a greater use of social media like Facebook and Twitter to extend the boundaries of micro-volunteering. This is already happening via initiatives like TwitCause, Progress Through Processors and Charity Champs (due for launch at end of this year). Here, good actions will be rewarded with points that can be cashed in to develop attributes of an avatar hero character, which can then be shared over social media sites like Facebook and Twitter."

'It's important, but can't replace traditional philanthrophy'

Jayu00a0V Sutaria: Micro volunteering won't replace actual social deeds, but just like email has became indispensable without making snail mail extinct, e-social work will become irreplaceable too.

Mike Bright: The difference between traditional charity and micro volunteering is that the latter is accessible and takes very little time. It can be done on-the-go, on your mobile, even at a bus stop.

It complements traditional volunteering while standing as a branch in itself. It also introduces people to regular volunteering, so it's an important tool.