Search for You, Help for Others
If you’re looking for a place to volunteer and don’t want to scan through a bunch of possibly-relevant search results, then just go to VolunteerMatch. You type in your city, you type in your interest, and they give you a list in a 20 mile radius.
Want to know more? Watch this excellent video:
By the numbers, Volunteermatch has matched 3,560,826 people to volunteering positions, and there are almost 52,000 opportunities listed throughout the US, though referring is not the only thing they do. The organization offers a variety of online services to support a community of nonprofit, volunteer and business leaders committed to civic engagement. It also offers professional business services to support corporations, campuses, and national nonprofits committed to managing successful community involvement programs. The recipient of Webby Awards for “Activism” and “Services,” VolunteerMatch was selected as a “Top 10 Web Site” for 2007 by TIME and voted “Best .org Web site” at the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference.
The most functional component of the search engine is the advanced search. Otherwise, you are unlikely to get specific results. For example, a simple search of “environment” in Miami, FL yields a whole bunch of volunteering opportunities, few of them actually connected to the environment. But if you go into the advanced search, you can narrow your interests to specific opportunities and only get those.
Some of the other new features one the site include:
• Ratings & Reviews – The first nationwide platform for user-generated recommendations about specific volunteer programs, VolunteerMatch’s Ratings & Reviews lead to better volunteer-nonprofit matches and stronger, more effective, volunteer programs.
• Subscriptions – Users can subscribe to track volunteer opportunities by “cause” or by organization as new listings enter the VolunteerMatch system.
“Our service has always been about removing barriers to volunteering,” said Greg Baldwin, president of VolunteerMatch. “These new features will make it even easier for all of us to find meaningful opportunities to give our time.”
VolunteerMatch’s suite of web-based administration tools gives program coordinators the power and flexibility to set up, manage, track, and report corporate volunteer activities and community impact. Both scalable and customizable, these tools are designed to fit your program’s specific needs.
Each day, VolunteerMatch brings together the internet’s largest active community of volunteers and nonprofits to address the needs of communities across our nation. Through VolunteerMatch, employees find places to volunteer that meet their passions while aligning with corporate giving strategies, and nonprofits benefit from the skills these volunteers deliver.
