The latest post from our column on GOOD just went up all about a new organization called Catchafire. They match non profits with professional volunteers that are screened, vetted and given a series of specific projects they can do.
Read the excerpt below or the whole post here...
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Professional volunteering is not new. In fact, it fits a fairly classic strategy for people looking for meaning in their life: Go to work, go home, do something that makes an impact, and then go to work again. Volunteering is needed, it's important and, if done right, it can have a big impact.
The problem is that most professionals are stuck behind client relationships, deadlines, and the pressures of delivering that next mock up or strategy. The thought of wading into an unstructured, disorganized, and possibly unproductive volunteer opportunity simply is not high on the list.
Rachel Chong, an ex-investment banker and the founder of a new startup tackling this issue, explains: “I was lugging around a piece of wood the size of my body on a day-long build and I thought, ‘Why can’t I volunteer at what I’m good at?’" The result? Catchafire, which helps professionals go beyond the sorting, shuffling and lugging that typifies classic volunteering.
Catchafire acts as a buffer between the nonprofit world and the demands of corporate jobs, functioning essentially as your account manager for volunteering: It matches you with a client, and sets the parameters of how you work, the time you should allocate, and the deliverables for the project.
Continued....
