Get (or be) a skills-based volunteer

Posted by Philadelphia Foundation on March 26, 2018

Skills-based volunteers to provide free capacity building support

The Philadelphia Foundation (TPF) has announced a formalized partnership with Catchafire, an online service that connects social good organizations with a network of skills-based volunteers. The partnership will provide nonprofits in the Greater Philadelphia area access to free consulting support in fields including marketing and communications, web development, operations, strategy and more.

In 2017, The Philadelphia Foundation launched a year-long pilot program with Catchafire, during which Greater Philadelphia nonprofits benefited from over 5,100 hours from Catchafire’s pool of skills-based volunteers.

“This has been one of the most valuable things that The Philadelphia Foundation has offered,” said Linda Wolfson, Executive Director of Vita Education Services. Vita’s projects through Catchafire included refining an employment policy manual, a data and analytics project, graphic design and animation assistance for a podcast collection.

“It was great to work with people who had the exact expertise that we had been looking for,” noted Austin Eagan, Director of Development and Communications at the Center for Grieving Children. The Center used Catchafire to revamp its budget planning process so it could forecast finances more frequently and communicate financial needs to donors more effectively. It also developed a new communications plan.

“Philadelphia is fortunate to have talented consultants that work with nonprofits and we are pleased to continue to provide capacity building support in our grantmaking. The Catchafire partnership broadens the number and types of nonprofits that can access high-quality consulting support as well as the types of expertise that can be made available to nonprofits,” said Pedro A. Ramos, President and CEO of The Philadelphia Foundation. “Whatever a nonprofit’s mission may be, the services these experts provide can strengthen that organization and allow it to better serve the residents of our community,” Ramos added.

About The Process

Nonprofits can register quickly and easily – courtesy of The Philadelphia Foundation – to match with skilled volunteers on projects and consultation calls here.

https://philafound.catchafire.org/

Subject-matter experts will provide nonprofits with tangible deliverables (i.e. Excel training, leadership coaching, copywriting, infographics), give answers to burning questions and help solve organizational challenges.

Organizations can select the right fit after reviewing posted resumes and portfolios. They also can provide feedback on their experience.

Experts who wish to volunteer their assistance can create a Catchafire profile here.

https://www.catchafire.org/howitworks/volunteers

About The Philadelphia Foundation
Founded in 1918, The Philadelphia Foundation grows effective philanthropic investment, connects individuals and institutions across sectors and geography, and advances civic initiatives through partnerships and collaboration. A publicly supported foundation, TPF manages more than 900 charitable funds established by its donors and makes over 1,000 grant and scholarship awards each year.

About Catchafire
Catchafire is a leading social impact startup helping social good organizations and talented, pro bono professionals effectively engage on short term, well-structured and compelling projects. These engagements often solve critical needs and enable social good organizations to build capacity efficiently and sustainably. Catchafire sits at the intersection of many disparate worlds (for-profit and nonprofit; business and causes; talent development and civic engagement), and is seeking to break down the barriers between these silos to allow talent and resources to flow more freely to community and social needs.