»CIvolunteer« – A Goal-Aligned and Competence-Driven Volunteering Platform

Abstract

Voluntary commitment of citizens is an indispensable, supporting pillar of critical infrastructures (CRITIS), such as disaster management, rescue services, healthcare and social services or food supply. However, the long-term sustainability of the voluntary sector, is massively endangered due to the profound changes in demographics, social structures and volunteer motives driven by the individualization and pluralization of society. This paper addresses these pressing challenges by proposing a digital platform designed for goal-driven and competence-based networking and bundling of volunteer engagement across non-profit organizations (NPOs). This platform is intended to be a first step towards synergistically aligning the partly collaborative goals and competencies of volunteers with activity requirements essential for strengthening CRITIS.