National Volunteer Week was last month, but Museum Africa proves that volunteers can help nonprofits all year and virtually, too! Our volunteer program has helped their organization develop a better web presence online. Read on to see how volunteer work has had a lasting impact on the organization.
At Museum Africa, Inc. our mission is to share in the preservation, exploration and appreciation of continental Africa's unique cultural and ecological histories through education, community and the pursuit of academic excellence. Founded in 2005, our collection currently holds over 200,000 individual items. The museum operates at two physical sites, the Chicago Metropolitan Museum and Library of African History and Kush University’s Library, and virtually through our web showcase.
Volunteers have been an integral part of Museum Africa's development from its inception. The dream of our organization’s web presence became a reality thanks to a team of volunteers from around the world. Grassroots.org, with its vast reservoir of volunteer talent, has been vital in helping us find the technical and creative skills we needed for a project of this scope.
Our initial need for a web designer to redesign our website led us to sign up with Grassroots.org. Through their volunteer programs, we were able to receive graphic design and web design assistance within three months. One volunteer, a talented and experienced web and graphic designer, suggested that we change our domain name from "museumafrica.us" to "museumafrica.org" to give us more credibility. This was something we hadn't considered before, and we promptly took her up on her suggestion. Another volunteer, who lives halfway around the world, is completing a re-design of our logo to reflect the overall purpose of a museum of this type, something that is missing in our current logo.
In addition to help with design, we received free access to the virtual phone suite, which will be helpful for future virtual meetings. Due to the success we have had so far, our organization anticipates use of the content filtering, project management and the "We Care" feature.
With a newly redesigned site we can host and develop our virtual showcase as well as display our mission globally. Check out our site at http://museumafrica.org.
Earl Smith
Chairman/Executive Director
Charles Franklin
Vice-Chairman/Volunteer Coordinator
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