Hey community members – what’s important to you? Our 2023 TWB Community Survey results are in!
Is TWB the world’s largest community of humanitarian language volunteers? We think so. Is it the most committed? Definitely!
The TWB Community: over 100,000 language volunteers provide language services to support humanitarian and development organizations worldwide. Together, we’re helping people get vital information and be heard when it matters most. The TWB Community is at the heart of CLEAR Global, the nonprofit set to improve global communication and access to information for speakers of marginalized languages.
In this blog post, you will find 6 important takeaways from your feedback, and learn what’s new for 2024.
Each year, we ask for your thoughts on the TWB experience. Your feedback shapes our strategies, how we support our community, and plan initiatives for the year ahead. At the end of 2023, we asked our community members to share their honest opinions anonymously, and we received nearly 1,400 responses.
The majority of community members remain motivated to volunteer to help others, contribute to a good cause, and gain experience to enrich their professional profiles. You are asking for more content to work on, and more training to help you grow your skills. We hear you and are doing everything we can to meet your needs! We aim to make our community and your experience as impactful and valuable as possible.
Watch the highlights in this multilingual video, prepared for you by some CLEAR Global team members!
1. New Partner Teams make it easier to volunteer, access projects, and collaborate
We know you’re busy! You are looking for shorter tasks and the option to plan your workload ahead of time. We are grateful to everyone who makes time to include volunteer tasks in their busy schedules.
For that reason, we want to make it easier for you to choose your projects and plan your schedule so it’s easier to get involved. That’s why we’re introducing new Partner Teams!
“Make the delivery times a little longer so that you can have the chance to accept a job; often I’m already booked out with my paid jobs and if the TWB schedule is too tight, I can’t take on any TWB jobs.”
TWB Community member, 35-44, Germany
TWB’s Partner Teams facilitate planning, communication, feedback, and knowledge sharing among community members. They also enable you to commit to your choice of projects and task types with pre-assigned workloads. We have already launched some teams to support partner organizations such as the Aquaculture Stewardship Council and UNICEF-Spotify.
“Thank you for all the additional information: it is quite luxurious to have all this at my disposal.”
TWB Community member Anne-Marie is grateful for the new Partner Teams experience.
2. You want even more opportunities – beyond humanitarian translation
“I would like to get more updates on tasks in my native language so that I can dedicate some time every week for volunteering.”
TWB Community Member, 45-54, India
What’s cited as the number one reason survey respondents haven’t volunteered with TWB yet or volunteer less frequently than they’d like to? There are not always enough projects available for everyone who wants to support us. So, we’re providing exciting new opportunities for volunteers to engage. By expanding our range of volunteer activities, we aim to ensure that everyone can find meaningful ways to contribute, learn, and make a difference. You can sign up for our newsletter for the chance to contribute to our awareness days and initiatives.
- In 2020, almost half of survey respondents said they had yet to volunteer with TWB.
- In 2021, a third of respondents hadn’t volunteered yet.
- By 2023, the situation had improved, only 24% of respondents flagged this issue.
You’ll also see us create new roles; you could volunteer as an advisor or training creator. And, we are working hard to diversify our service offerings to capture the skills and talents our community offers. In the first quarter of this year, we collaborated with volunteers and provided training so they could become plain language editors, forum advisors, content creators, and training experts.
We are grateful for the many ways you support our work and empower your language communities. And we are eager to take our collaboration to the next level.
“Being involved in other community tasks apart from translation, proofreading, and reviewing alone. Making more content available in my language pairs hence more information and engagement with my community.”
TWB Community member, 35-44, Uganda
Faria, TWB Community member 
Mariana, TWB Community member 
Kateryna, TWB Community member
3. Improving your user experience – centralized access to information
Some of you told us you need help finding relevant information on navigating the TWB Platform and accessing support. In response to your concerns, we’re making navigation and browsing easier. Soon, you’ll be able to access all essential resources and knowledge-based threads in one centralized place. The most important information will be separate from the other conversations and exchanges in the community forum.
We will dedicate the forum exclusively to conversations and community-building and try to foster a stronger sense of community. We are also committed to making it easier for community members to interact on the forum, bringing us to the next takeaway.
“Help by making instructions clear and simple. Provide simple instructions that are easily accessible directly to me.”
TWB Community member, 18-24, Malaysia
4. You want more interactions, networking, and connections
Your feedback raised another important point: our community members would appreciate more ways to interact with others who speak their languages. The remote nature of our work makes it difficult for people to interact face-to-face. We are transforming the community forum into a hub for connection. Our new Partner Teams are designed to facilitate deeper connections among individuals who speak the same languages and collaboration across linguistic boundaries.
“When a translation is split into separate parts, enable communication across all parts, not just within the same file.”
TWB Community member, 25-34, Germany
5. You’re ready to advance your skills: discover our training plans
You told us you like the TWB Learning Center and are excited to see more training courses become available. The most popular topic suggestions include language services, content creation, training development, data validation, and community management.
Last year, we launched our TWB Learning Center and made several new online courses available, from the most popular Basics of Humanitarian Interpreting to an Introduction to Machine Translation and Post-Editing. We recently introduced How Recruitment Works, designed to equip community members with essential insights into navigating the job market. This self-paced, interactive resource offers practical examples to enhance your employability and professional development.
Building on the success of our Translator Training course, upcoming courses will be designed to enhance your language service skills and professionalism. Stay tuned for future courses on the TWB Learning Center.
“To make my experience better it’s a matter of adding more skills, tools, and options.”
TWB Community member, 35-44, South Sudan
“Since I haven’t been able to volunteer yet, I would appreciate it if the TWB Learning Centre could open more classes so I can keep learning and expand my knowledge.”
TWB Community member, 18-24, Indonesia
6. We’re diversifying our community outreach
We are excited to see our community demographics evolve, with a growing number of seniors and retirees among our members. We are grateful for the experience and knowledge more seasoned professionals bring to our community. We also noted fewer students and younger members (aged 18-24) responded. This year, we will build communities among university students. We continually refine our onboarding, training, and feedback processes to ensure people just starting in the language industry have the right support to succeed.
If you know a language, localization, or translation student eager to make a difference, we encourage you to share the opportunity to join the TWB Community.
And share this blog with a friend!
“I’m really satisfied with my experience. You’re very kind and committed to your job.
You’re always happy to help volunteers with their tasks whenever there’s a problem, so you make us feel comfortable and supported doing our tasks.“
TWB Community member, 55+, Argentina
Reflecting on the TWB Community Survey Results for 2023, it’s clear that a commitment to humanitarian service and professional growth continues to be your main driver. As always, we are grateful to have the support of so many diverse, talented, and experienced contributors to our mission. Thank you for your dedication, passion, generosity, and unwavering support.
Have you joined the TWB Community yet? Sign up today.