Volunteers will be answering the questions RISE participants have regarding the specific industry they are looking at entering or creating businesses in. These questions range from marketing and pricing strategies, startup needs, target market brainstorming and competition research, tips, products or other services to offer, general industry or business ownership questions, licensing questions, etc.

Materials for research will be emailed to volunteers on Thursday, August 7th by 12:00pm.

Deadline to Register: August 25th, 2025

Deadline to Complete: Wednesday, September 10th at 5:00pm.

Time Commitment: 2-3 hours

This is a self-paced, at-home volunteering opportunity.

Type of Online Volunteering:

Business research for RISE’s In-Prison Program participants.

This is self-paced and done at your leisure, wherever, whenever…so long as you meet our deadline. There is no actual “event” or meeting of any kind.

Where:

Anywhere you have access to a computer and internet.

Again, this is self-paced and can be done at your home, your office if your boss allows, the library, or from your laptop at your kid’s double header baseball game.

We do not actually meet in person for this volunteering opportunity.

Requirements:

2-3 Hours of time to work at your leisure.

Computer (A phone or tablet will get wonky and frustrating for you - we’ve had people try, and we don’t want to put you through it.)

Do you need to be an expert?

No! While being an expert and/or having experience in a specific field is extremely helpful, it's certainly not required! Volunteers can (and are encouraged to) use Google and other resources available to provide the research our participants need.