Mission:
To help everyone find a great place to volunteer.

Background:
VolunteerMatch was launched in 1998 by Craig Jacoby and Jay Backstrand, who conceived of the idea of an Internet service to help people find volunteer opportunities in their local communities when they were students at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. VolunteerMatch has been as a recruiting tool for more than 35,000 nonprofit organizations and has facilitated more than 2 million referrals. It also provides support services to corporations with community-involvement programs. It is funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, William and Margaret Hearst, and the Ford, James Irvine, W.K. Kellogg, John S. and James L. Knight, Omidyar, David and Lucile Packard, Sand Hill, and Surdna foundations.

Outstanding Web Features:
The redesigned VolunteerMatch Web site offers three distinct searches: an opportunity search, a search for a specific organization, and a virtual-opportunity search for anyone who wants to work from home using a computer, Internet connection, telephone, or fax. Interested volunteers enter their ZIP code on the homepage to find volunteer opportunities locally or throughout the United States. When they find a listing of interest, they can click on its title for additional details and then click "I like this opportunity." At this point, they must register for free as a VolunteerMatch member, and an automatic e-mail is sent to the organization notifying it of their interest. Web site tools for volunteers include opportunity-alert e-mails and Group Invite, which allows them to volunteer with friends, family members, and co-workers. For nonprofits, the site offers Contact Manager to help manage volunteer-staff turnover and keep volunteer listings up-to-date. Registered members also receive nonprofit sector news and VolunteerMatch updates.