Catchafire. Connect With Your Purpose.
By Marilyn Machlowitz
Catchafire offers one-stop shopping for hundreds of virtual volunteer opportunities. If you are unsure about what nonprofits are out there, what kinds of help they need, what you can offer, and how much of a time commitment is required, this is a wonderful place to start. If you don’t want to be limited by geography because you divide your time between two locations, Catchafire is perfect. If you don’t want to commit a year, Catchafire has many projects that require only an hour.
What Is Catchafire?
It started in 2010 to mobilize the world’s talent for good. To date, Catchafire has connected volunteers to 40,000 projects for 10,000 nonprofits. Some organizations request multiple projects at once or return after their first. It is completely remote. The nonprofits are found across the United States and around the world. Volunteers complete time-limited projects from wherever they are.
Catchafire knows that nonprofits need professional help – be that coaching or copywriting. This is a way for nonprofits to access talent they cannot afford but can tap. Catchafire knows that professionals and retired professionals want to volunteer their skills. Rather than focus on traditional volunteer opportunities such as park clean up, Catchafire focuses on help that will build the capacity of the nonprofit going forward.
Catchafire offers a taste of nonprofit experience, and demonstrates how transferable many skills are. Prior nonprofit experience is welcome but is absolutely not expected or required. Anyone searching through the project list on Catchafire will be amazed by the variety of nonprofit missions and causes represented from Hip Hop Caucus to One Arizona.
What Does Catchafire Offer?
Catchafire offers a wide variety of non-profit volunteer options.
You get to choose what you do. With Catchafire, you may focus on any of 24 specific causes (military and veterans is one, housing and homelessness is another) or you may be mission agnostic. You may highlight any of 35 transferable skills including data analysis, entrepreneurship, graphic design, and many more. You can select either one-hour consultations or multi-hour, multi-week projects –-or both.
Catchafire scopes the project with the nonprofit. Volunteers contribute skills ranging from video editing to writing to accounting and more. Nonprofits seeks help with websites, strategic plans, succession planning, fundraising events, board building, and training.
Typical Projects
I did one-hour consultations on talent recruitment with three different organizations scattered around the US. In each case, the client was prepared, motivated and appreciative. Current project requests include crafting a press release, creating an elevator pitch, writing an individual donor letter, translatingmaterials into another language, creating an org chart, planning event logistics, and conducting online research.
Examples:
Holy Stitch in California seeks a one-hour call about brand messaging.
Healthy Climate Communities in Hawaii seeks an accounting systems review over two to four weeks.
Geriatric Services in New Jersey seeks a brochure graphic design plan, slated to take two to six weeks.
Reading Between the Lines in Illinois seeks a one-hour call about expanding their social media footprint.
How Do I Use Catchafire?
The first step is to log on to Catchafire and to create a password and profile.
Then browse through the projects to find one or more that interest you. You can search hundreds or set easy-to-use filters to limit those you consider.
Apply for any that you’d like to do. Applying involves answering two questions.
Catchafire will schedule phone interviews between the nonprofit and the candidate. You may not be selected each time as some opportunities receive many applications.
When a match is made, then your project starts.
Marilyn Machlowitz is an expert on executive search and a novice volunteer.
With Marilyn’s posts, we are offering occasional intel on meaningful volunteer opportunities for Lustre readers. It can be challenging to unearth volunteer opportunities and even harder to find those that fit—offering schedule flexibility and satisfaction. We will focus on those experiences that use or stretch your professional skills—not those for stuffing envelopes. Our goal is to acquaint you with opportunities available in metropolitan areas in the US as well as virtually from anywhere. Let us know what you think!
