The much buzzed about volunteering 2.0 startup Catchafire has just opened its public beta. Based in New York City, the platform is trying to be the best place to connect nonprofits with skilled volunteers. Here are three reasons it matters:
1. It actually takes on the core challenge of volunteering - management: The transformation needed in volunteerism is not just a more efficient mechanism for finding volunteer opportunities, but a better managed execution of the volunteer relationship. Managing volunteers is really tough - their incentives aren't all the same, their effort can be inconsistent, and they can leave at any time. But being a volunteer isn't easy either. It's often unclear to feel like your effort actually contributed to something meaningful.
Catchafire takes this on directly in the way its product is design. Volunteering isn't just about matching a person to an organization, but about matching them to a specific, discreet project that has a specific timeline, hourly requirement, and deliverables. It's more like a pro-bono consulting engagement than what we normally think of as volunteering. And instead of a bill, the volunteer can prominently see how much they're saving the organization.
2. Their product is really well designed: Most products - whether nonprofit platforms or new consumer web technology - just aren't very well thought out. Catchafire has a clear simple user experience. Volunteers come to the site, sign in, fill out a skills profile, and can browse projects by organization, field, or by the type of skill required. Catchafire also makes�suggestions�about projects that seem like a good fit for the volunteer.
As a volunteer becomes interested in a project, they can ask the project managing nonprofits questions for clarity. For example, if a nonprofit has asked for a set of new logo ideas, the potential volunteer could ask "how many options are you looking for." In this way, the volunteer and manager can get to know each other before they begin working together. When a volunteer accepts a project, they're given a basic quiz to confirm that they are the type of person who has the right skills for the project.
From a pure interface perspective, things just flow. It reminds me of Kickstarter, where the anchor of the user experience is the project page. The difference is obviously that instead of crowdfunding, Catchafire is providing organizations with talent.
3. They're challenging the economics of the sector: Catchafire is a for-profit company that charges nonprofits for the volunteer placements. Currently, nonprofits pay $200 for each volunteer that Catchafire places with them. When the projects are things like logo design that are saving nonprofits literally $10,000+, this is a steal, yet its still a price point that makes Catchafire a viable business. And the opportunity to grow is clear: in the future they'll be offering corporations placing a large number of volunteers with a powerful dashboard and analytics suite for understanding their employee's impact.�Catchafire has raised a not insignificant amount of seed capital, and whats more, recruited the former VP of Technology Andrew Lin at Hulu as its CTO.
What's clear after watching Catchafire's demo is that they're playing this to win and transform the way volunteering works. They're thinking about this better than anyone I've seen and I'm thrilled to see how they grow.
Check them out at Catchafire.org and look for our Q&A with founder Rachael Chong and CTO Andrew Lin.
Photo credit: Screenshot from Catchafire.org
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