Goodwill Yenta at Your Service

Every time I talk about volunteering, I wind up referring people to VolunteerMatch.org, the great site that lets you search by keyword, location, or organization to find the perfect volunteering opportunity for you. It’s like Monster.com, but for volunteering.

Curious to know more about “the Web’s largest and most popular volunteer network," I spoke to Director of Communications Robert Rosenthal, and Victoria Pacchiana, communications associate.

VolunteerMatch was launched in 1998, with the deceptively simple-sounding goal of making it easier to volunteer. In 11 years, they’ve matched up millions of volunteers with nonprofits, learning along the way and helping organizations apply those lessons.

It’s a circular process, in the best way possible.

There are several dimensions to the services that VolunteerMatch provides. Of course they help people find a place and project to use their skills. They also help nonprofits attract and manage those volunteers, with advice on how to make their listings appealing to volunteers, educational programs and webinars.

“We’re seeing a surge in skilled volunteers, and one things we do is help nonprofits make the most of those talents,” Rosenthal explained. “From setting goals, to making the volunteers feel valued, it improves everyone’s satisfaction with the volunteer experience.”

“One of our newest programs is a set of webinars (online seminars) that address working with the older adult population.” Pacchiana added. “Baby boomers are retiring, and now they want to give back. But they’re very different from younger volunteers, with a different level of experience and abilities.”

A third aspect of their service offering is helping organizations manage their employee volunteer programs.

“It can range," Pacchiana said, "from their employees using the VolunteerMatch site to find opportunities, all the way to a customized, privately branded intranet site with incentive programs and specialized tools for administrators and executives to track team-member activity.”

This experience from every angle of volunteering is part of what makes VolunteerMatch successful. What they learn in one place, they can leverage across all of their services, for all of their clients. And they are successful -– earlier this month they celebrated 4 million volunteer referrals!

VolunteerMatch expects things to keep getting busier. National Volunteer Week starts on April 19, and with President Obama encouraging people to participate in public service -– plus all of the recently unemployed with time on their hands -– there are plenty of willing and able folks looking for a way to get involved with their communities.

Are you one of them? Here is Rosenthal’s advice.

“Focus on the organizations in your community. Look within yourself and ask, what am I passionate about, what am I good at and how do I want to spend my time? Then come to VolunteerMatch.org, and use the search engine to find something that matches those answers.”

By the way, you can also join VolunteerMatch’s Facebook group and follow them on Twitter!