Expand Your Team: A Guide to Virtual Volunteering

The All-Too-Familiar Panic

It’s a scene that plays out in sport club boardrooms across the country. Your long-serving treasurer, the only person who truly understands your financials, announces their resignation. Or maybe your club’s social media has gone silent because the parent who ran it has a child who just aged out.

A familiar panic sets in. You look around the room, you think about your community, and you ask the question that keeps so many sport leaders up at night: 

“Who on earth are we going to find to do this?” 

For decades, we’ve operated under the assumption that the answer to that question had to be someone local—another parent at the pool, a former player in town, someone from down the street. We’ve been fishing in the same small pond, and that pond is getting crowded. The result? Overwhelmed leaders are burning out, crucial roles go unfilled, and your organization’s potential gets capped by your geographic footprint. 

But what if your next great grant writer lives three provinces away? What if the perfect person to modernize your policies is a recent university graduate looking for experience, logging on from their dorm room?

It’s time to change the question. Instead of asking who’s local, we need to start asking who’s capable, no matter where they are.

A Mindset Shift: From Local Hands to Global Skills

The pandemic forced us to deliver sport differently, but its most important lesson was about the nature of work itself. We now have the tools and the culture to collaborate effectively from anywhere. This opens up a transformative opportunity for nonprofit sport organizations: virtual volunteering.

Virtual volunteering isn't just a trendy idea; it's a strategic solution to your most persistent challenges. It’s about fundamentally shifting from seeking local hands to recruiting specific skills. When you embrace this, your talent pool is no longer limited to your town. It’s global.

Here are the benefits of making that shift:

• Access an Ocean of Talent: You’re no longer limited to finding a marketing expert who also happens to live in your community. You can now find the best person for the job, period. This is how you find a skilled accountant to be your treasurer, even if you’re in a rural community.
• Offer True Flexibility: Many brilliant professionals want to give back but can’t commit to weekly in-person meetings. Virtual roles allow them to contribute their expertise on their own schedule—late at night, on a weekend, whenever works for them.
• Create High-Impact, Low-Barrier Roles: Not every job needs to be a full-season commitment. Virtual volunteering is perfect for micro-volunteering—short-term, project-based tasks that have a clear start and end. This is a fantastic way to engage people without asking for a lifetime commitment.

Putting Virtual Volunteers to Work: A Framework for Action

So, where can you actually use virtual volunteers? Think of it in terms of your organization's core functions. Here are just a few ideas to get you started.

For Your Communications & Marketing:

• Social Media Management: A tech-savvy student or young professional can create engaging, non-time-sensitive content like coach profiles, program promotions, and “throwback” posts.
• Website Revamp: Is your website gathering dust? A volunteer with writing skills or basic web management experience can overhaul your content, ensuring it’s fresh, relevant, and professional.
• Newsletter & Content Creation: Someone with a knack for storytelling can take the lead on writing your monthly newsletter or creating blog posts that celebrate your club’s successes.

For Your Governance & Strategy:

• Policy Development: Writing and updating policies is critical work that can be done from anywhere, anytime. A logical, analytical thinker can draft policies for board review, saving your team dozens of hours.
• Grant Writing & Sponsorship Proposals: Finding funding is a constant pressure. A virtual volunteer with strong writing skills can research grant opportunities and draft compelling proposals to secure the funding you need to grow.
• Risk Management Analysis: Assessing risk is a vital but often-dreaded task. A detail-oriented volunteer can conduct an initial analysis and prepare a report for the board, making the process far more efficient.

For Your Operations & People:

• Volunteer Handbook Creation: A fantastic, self-contained project for a virtual volunteer is to create a comprehensive handbook that formalizes your processes and helps onboard new people. 
• Financial Analysis: If you’re struggling to find local financial expertise, a virtual volunteer with an accounting background can provide invaluable support, from budget analysis to financial reporting.
• Data & Research: Need to research new program ideas, survey your members, or analyze registration trends? This is a perfect task for a remote volunteer who is skilled in data analysis.

Finding Your A-Team

Once you’ve identified a potential role, the key is to define it clearly. Create a simple, one-page role description—nothing fancy—that outlines the tasks, the estimated time commitment, and the skills you’re looking for.

Then, post it beyond your usual channels. Share it on your provincial sport organization’s website, use platforms like LinkedIn, or post on national job boards like the Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC).

Building a Stronger, More Resilient Future

Integrating virtual volunteers isn't about replacing the dedicated local people who are the heart and soul of your club. 

It’s about augmenting them. It’s about filling critical skills gaps, reducing burnout, and building a more resilient, professional, and impactful organization. 

Imagine a future where you’re not in a panic when a key volunteer leaves. Instead, you feel confident, knowing you have a clear process to find the right skills from a vast and talented pool of people who are passionate about sport. That future is within your reach.