There has been quite a bit of banter on a Charity Channel bulletin board lately about volunteer matching databases ‘battling it out’, whether or not more than one database is a good thing. Personally I thing new entries in this service is good news for the volunteer sector for three reasons and it’s even good news for those organizations (for-profit or nonprofit) that offer volunteer recruitment/matching databases (of which we are one).

Good news for the volunteer sector....

1. 'Competition' is great for new innovations. It keeps everyone asking "how can we make this even better" and "what if we could do this". It raises the bar on the sector's expectations. There are a lot of small custom matching databases out there that were pieced together with an inadequate budget and pale by comparison in effectiveness to larger initiatives.

2. The more places an opportunity is advertised, the more likely a great volunteer will be found. I know that a few volunteer centers will disagree with me here but, the principles of advertising tell us that no matter what you do, not every potential volunteer is going to end up on the volunteer center's website to look for opportunities. Each provider of this service has a different audience base. Opportunities advertised on Monster will get exposure to potential volunteers who may not even have been thinking of volunteering. Just Volunteers and Volunteer Match likely appeal to different audiences because of each of their own affiliations and the way each of their sites operate. Volunteer Match has a great corporate program for volunteering. Volunteer Squared takes a localized approach to how the database appears while others take a national or international approach. The point is that each service has its own strengths and with that will attract(and keep) different audiences.

Think of it this way, if your organization was looking to hire a new E.D. or Manager of Volunteers, would it advertise in just one place and assume that the best candidate will happen to find it in that one place?

3. News and word of mouth about that fact that there are a variety of new services available will help funders understand that there is obviously a need for volunteers and for matching volunteers. It will also filter out in the general media (which we should all help push along) as any general news about volunteering will help promote volunteerism in general and attract new volunteers. After all isn’t that what we want? This heightened awareness is also the good news for the organizations that offer services as well. The more volunteers are looking for opportunities the more the service's site is used. As more organizations understand that one of the functions of recruitment is advertising and that advertising in some cases is more effective when somewhat diverse in its approach, the more these site's services will be used.

The bottom line....While it is true that there will come a point where that sector is saturated and new systems will only replace previous ones, I don't think we are there yet. Whether motivated by profit, by a personal/organization desire to make the world a better place, or a combination of the two, we ALL (the organizations that offer the services, nonprofits and volunteers) benefit as the sector grows.

March 3, 2005

New Initiative Strives for Growth in Volunteerism Across Canada

Not-for-profit organizations in Canada have a new resource for recruiting volunteers. Community Hub, an online database of local volunteer opportunities is now available free of charge in every community in Canada. Not-for-profit organizations can register for a free account and post the volunteer positions for which they are recruiting. Volunteers go online to www.MyVolunteer.Page.com to search for or browse the volunteer opportunities in their community. When volunteers find an organization or opportunity that interests them, they fill in a form that sends all pertinent information directly to the relevant organization.

For volunteer centres in Canada, this new resource can be used as their own volunteer matching database if they don’t currently have one, or in conjunction with whatever they use now. To monitor the Volunteer Centre's success with the system, they will have access to reports indicating the number of matches conducted in this manner over any time period.

“It is always exciting to be involved in helping introduce such a significance new resource to the voluntary sector in Canada,” claims Darryl Peck, CEO of the Change Canada Charitable Foundation. “The Foundation is always looking for new approaches that will improve the ability of organizations in the sector to build additional capacity. Decreasing costs while at the same time improving an organization’s efficiency and effectiveness is an important component of capacity building. Existing volunteer matching software can cost a community thousands of dollars and custom-built solutions can cost a community tens of thousands of dollars more, and that is just to get started. Then there are the ongoing costs associated with keeping the service up to date with current technology, not to mention new applications. Another significant benefit for the sector with this initiative is the fact that participating volunteer centres will be able to provide input on how to make the system better in the future and will receive free of charge the updated versions, rarely the case in commercial software that is made available free of charge.” Mr. Peck noted that In the United States, a single Community Hub license like this sells for $2,000 US. Change Canada’s support for this project and our assistance in gathering other support helps makes this volunteer matching resource available at no cost.

The My Volunteer Page websites exists for communities as small as 500 people. “This is especially exciting for smaller communities that can not financially support their own volunteer centre”, according to Michelle Quintyn, Executive Director for the Foundation for Rural Living. ”It makes some of the resources that were typically only available in urban centres, now available in rural areas as well. It really helps level the playing field.”

Bill Smith, formerly of Volunteer Barrie sees the value of this initiative from a unique perspective. He was the E.D. at Volunteer Barrie when the board was faced with the difficult decision to close the doors due to a lack of funding. “Volunteer Barrie had to close its doors because of the challenge that many community organizations face in constantly raising enough money to stay open. There was a significant void left in the community when Volunteer Barrie closed. This new service is really something that can help communities by creating a virtual volunteer centre that requires little to no funding or by helping an existing volunteer centre to become more self-sufficient. It provides the community with valuable volunteer matching software that they don’t need to purchase and if volunteer centres are looking for a way to raise more money, this is an alternative worth considering.”

The system has just launched so the database in most communities has only a few volunteer opportunities. In each community, local volunteers are being recruited to help build local volunteerism. One position being recruited in each community is an Agency Coach who will help organizations who would benefit from assistance in using a web based resource. Another is a Communications Coordinator who will help promote the local website address and volunteerism in general. “This represents a great opportunity for youth volunteers. In addition to helping build a strong local community, students can gain valuable job related experience”, states Wendy Blair of South Simcoe Youth Promise.

Once the database has a sufficient number of opportunities in it, the system will share the data in a variety of ways to promote volunteerism in new and innovative ways such as, localized random opportunities appearing on high traffic national websites and specific types of opportunities appearing on company intranet sites.

“This is truly a unique opportunity for national organizations looking for grass roots help in every community,” according to Gabriel Atele, president of The Organ Donation and Transplant Association of Canada. “Our association is dedicated to encouraging Canadians to become organ donors and given the personal nature of this type of gift, a volunteer who can speak to the cause at the local level is an important component of the life saving work that we do. I am very excited about the opportunity to advertise our volunteer needs at the local level, all across Canada.”

Community Hub is being provided by Volunteer2 and is sponsored in part by the Change Canada Charitable Foundation. Volunteer2 works all across North and South America with a mission to foster growth in the volunteer sector. “Canada lost 1,000,000 volunteers between 1997 and 2000 and Volunteer2 is going to help get them back!” claims Volunteer2 founder, Tony Goodrow of Burlington Ontario. “Volunteer Centres deserve all the support they can get in their efforts to promote volunteerism and communities that are too small to operate a physical volunteer centre can still promote volunteerism through a virtual volunteer centre. Especially with the recent closure of Volunteer Canada’s VOE, we are very happy to be working with The Change Canada Charitable Foundations to be able to offer this service for free in Canada.”

Volunteer2 will be making Community Hub available in French as well. Through the efforts of volunteer translators in Paraguay and Brazil, a Spanish version is being released next week and a Portuguese version in the spring. If you would like to contribute translations to the French version, contact Volunteer2.

Information on Volunteer2 or the Community Hub software can be found at www.volunteer2.ca. The Change Canada Charitable Foundation website is at www.changecanada.ca. To see an example of Community Hub site that has been in operation for a few months, visit www.MyVolunteerPage.com/Oshawa.

For additional information or interviews, contact:

Tony Goodrow
Volunteer Squared
tony@volunteer2.ca 1-905-637-0512 ext 20

Darryl Peck
The Change Canada Charitable Foundation
darryl@changecanada.ca
416-596-1799

Michelle Quintyn
Foundation for Rural Living
mquintynfrl@on.aibn.com
519-826-4126

BillSmith
Formerly of Volunteer Barrie
wmsmith24@sympatico.ca
Gabriel Etele
Organ Donation and Transplant Association of Canada
getele@organdonations.ca
416-487-3232

Wendy Blair
South Simcoe Youth Promise
wendy@nottawasaga.com
705-431-8020