Monthly Archives: April 2014

Position Description: IVPA Internship – Media and Communications

Approximate Dates: May 5 – August 22, 2014

Application Deadline: April 26, 2014

Location: This is not a location specific internship.

Wage: Internship is unpaid but a small stipend of $500 or discount on volunteer travel program options are be available.

The International Volunteer Programs Association (IVPA) is a 501c3 nonprofit association dedicated to promoting awareness and access to quality volunteer aboard programs. IVPA is committed to standards of excellence in the field of international volunteering and IVPA member organizations must uphold the IVPA’s Principles and Practices as guidelines for good programming as well as meet stringent membership criteria. IVPA is an association of volunteer sending organizations but does not organize or run its own volunteer programs.

The Main Duties of this position are to support the online branding and marketing presence of IVPA 

The Responsibilities of this position will vary but may include the following:

• Take part in the rollout of a new social media campaign
• Curate content for dissemination on social media platforms
• Contact and liaison with potential social media partners
• Author special topic IVPA Blog Posts and Newsletter articles
• Support administrative projects and other duties as assigned

Qualifications

• Demonstrated interest in international volunteering, cross-cultural exchange and/or previous international travel or study abroad experience
• Ability to work independently, remotely and manage multiple tasks and deadlines
• Understanding and experience with social media platforms
• Experience with Microsoft Office
• Strong writing and copy writing skills

Hours and Length of Service:  Intern hours are flexible and will be arranged prior to start date. Intern must be willing to offer a minimum of four months of service or 125 hours. A longer commitment is preferred.

Supervision:  Intern’s responsibilities and work arrangements will be coordinated with and supervised by the IVPA Director.

To Apply:  Interested candidates should submit a cover letter & resume.  Please email your application to jobs@volunteerinternational.org

Only applications received electronically will be reviewed.   No calls please.   Deadline:  April 26, 2014

Thank you for your interest.

International Volunteer Programs Association: Website Redesign

 Request for Proposals

Project Summary

This Request For Proposals (RFP) is for the redesign of International Volunteer Program Association’s (IVPA) current website www.volunteerinternational.org.

The main purpose in a site redesign is to create a more visually appealing and adaptable site to increase visitor traffic. 

Company Information

IVPA is a small 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to promoting awareness and access to quality volunteer aboard programs. IVPA is committed to standards of excellence in the field of international volunteering and IVPA member organizations must uphold the IVPA’s Principles and Practices as guidelines for good programming as well as meet stringent membership criteria. IVPA is an association of volunteer sending organizations but does not organize or run its own volunteer programs.

Audience

The main target audience for the IVPA website is US Americans interested in volunteering abroad. Secondary geographic target location would be English speakers and those interested in volunteering from Canada, UK and Australia. The target age ranges from 16 – 65 years old with prime target being 19-24 year olds. 

The majority of the visitors to the site are from the United States followed by Canada, United Kingdom, China and Australia.

Tools and High Level Functionality

The functionality of the IVPA website should include the following features and tools:

• Content management so that text can be easily added to and updated
• Integration of IVPA blog (currently hosted on free version of WordPress)
• Email sign-up for newsletter (currently run by Campaign Monitor). Would like to add a bot prevention
• Links to social media: Twitter, FB and IG
• Map or search feature for current countries where IVPA Members have programs.
  • Currently we have a search feature that allows visitors to search by project type and/or location. This is a valuable feature but is problematic for the redesign. The search function is written in Flash which limits our alternative host options

Design Look & Feel

• Clean lines
• Nice use of white space
• Good use of graphics and photography
• Easy to read and digest information.
• Trustworthy
• Promotes international volunteerism

 SEO

In a search of “volunteer international” IVPA’s website comes up first. Yet with other similar searches like “volunteer abroad” IVPA does not come up on the first page.

In 2013, the IVPA website averaged 13,057 visitors a month with 51% absolute unique visitors.

A large portion, 55%, of traffic came through organic searches and 14% came to the site directly. Key words and phrases used in searches by visitors included variations of the words international, volunteer, programs.

SEO remains a high priority for the IVPA site and there is concern about a website redesign altering our Google ranking. We would like to increase our SEO with the new site.

Traffic Reporting

We currently use Google Analytics and would like to continue to do so for our web trafficking needs.

Budget (including hosting and maintaining)

We do have an alternative hosting options that cost around $60/yr. Current web changes are done pro bono by the previous designer of the IVPA site. With the redesign we would not have a dedicated webmaster and any updates would be done in house.

Our budget allotted for this project is up to $7,000.

Proposal Instructions

All proposals should be received by 8:00pm ET on April 30, 2014. Submit your proposal by e-mail to Genevieve Brown g.brown@volunteerinternational.org

As part of your proposal, please address the following:

• Sample Project Plan
• Project Budget
• Your approach to web design
• Details regarding your website project management process
• A summary of website development experience
• A list of at least two client references
• Identify who will be involved on your project team, including their relevant experience and credentials

 Please be sure to include the name and contact details of persons to be approached for clarification of the proposal if needed

 Proposed Timeline

The desired delivery date for the revised website is August 31, 2014.

Contact Info

Genevieve Brown, Executive Director

International Volunteer Programs Association

g.brown@volunteerinternational.org

646-505-8209

IVPA member Service For Peace just finished an exciting month of March hosting six alternative spring groups. These six groups of  university students chose to take part in alternative spring breaks, participating in service projects and learning about new cultures in Guatemala and Dominican Republic.

Students and staff members from Alternative Breaks@UCSD joined the Service For Peace Servicio Para la Paz República Dominicana team in La Represa, Dominican Republic to continue construction of two new classrooms, a new computer lab and an administrative office/library, AND learn to make organic chocolate courtesy of the new Empowered Women’s Cooperative. In Guatemala another Alternative Breaks@UCSD group joined Service For Peace to continue building three new classrooms in the Community of Peace of El Quimal.