Empowering Volunteering Through Online Donations
The mission of Pro Vobis is to promote volunteering in Romania as a viable and irreplaceable resource in solving society's problems. It started working in Romania in 1992 as an NGO that offered social services. Then, due to the huge demand for volunteer services, it became the first National Resource Center for Volunteering.
Nowadays, with only five employees who work in two different cities, the organization manages to implement transnational projects and change the way people see volunteering in Romania.
"With the help of technology, we've managed to have … national coverage for our work and to collaborate with hundreds of NGOs across the country," says Dana Temelie, programs coordinator for Pro Vobis. "Our online campaigns [have] raised volunteerism awareness among youngsters, organizations, and institutions."
The new technology helps the staff members work as a team, communicate and develop national and international partnerships, edit publications, and organize webinars. Some of their projects, such as the National Week of Volunteerism, bring together hundreds of local NGOs and volunteers from all over the country each year.
Access to affordable technology with the help of TechSoup Romania enables the organization to reduce its IT costs. "Because we work on many projects with different contributors, we need a stable IT infrastructure to support our work," says Temelie. Most of the organization's projects do not have special IT budgets, and TechSoup donations were meaningful and needed.
