Did you know that in 2010 volunteerism increased by 11%, according to a study by Cone? Volunteers also reported giving close to $2,600 as compared to non-volunteers who gave just $230, according to study by VolunteerMatch. Furthermore, 67% of those who volunteer say they donate money to the same organizations where they volunteer.
It’s no secret that providing meaningful volunteer opportunities is a terrific way to engage activists, donors and members. It gives these important stakeholders a better window into how organizations run and the important work nonprofits do to fulfill their mission.
While engaging existing members with volunteer opportunities is a great way to deepen your relationship, it’s 
also important to expand your volunteer network that will help your organization connect with new people who care about your issue. Check out these six organizations that help connect nonprofits and volunteers.
All for Good
Inspired by the call of President Obama to engage more Americans in service, and Craig Newmark founder of Craig’s List and craigconnects.org, All for Good facilitates volunteerism and community service via a custom volunteer opportunity oriented search engine that is powered by the largest database of volunteer opportunities across the web. All for Good offers nonprofits free access to their search engine via their website, mobile apps, gadgets, and their search API to power volunteer opportunities directly within their own websites and gadgets. Click here to post your volunteer opportunities.
Hands on Network
HandsOn Network partners with nonprofit and government agencies to provide compelling volunteer opportunities and to effectively utilize the talents of people who serve. As one of the United States leading volunteer organizations, HandsOn offers training, resources, and networking opportunities that equip agencies to engage volunteers in meaningful service.
Last year, HandsOn Network mobilized over 30,000,000 volunteer hours across the country valued at $626M in human capital. Pretty impressive.
To promote your volunteer opportunities, nonprofits will first need to apply for membership here.
LikeMinded
LikeMinded is a new initiative to connect people with stories of how others are strengthening their neighborhoods through local action. It’s currently in beta and has enormous potential.
Currently, volunteers can discover two kinds of information about local issues they care about.
1. Resources such as articles, videos, tools, and audio from around the web related to local community change.
2. Projects that outline the story behind community change. What issue was addressed, how did the team do it, and did it work? Projects include visibility for the volunteers and organizations that did the hard work and info about where and when it all happened. It's a great way to get a snapshot into how volunteers and organizations addressed issues in their neighborhood.
You can discover information through the topics on the LikeMinded homepage, and you can explore more deeply through their full search page.
Sparked
As a nonprofit you probably have many needs, but limited resources. Perhaps you have a Google Adwords grant and have been trying to ramp up your click-through rates on your ads, but you are just not seeing results. Or perhaps, you would like to make your next fundraising appeal design much more compelling. Check out Sparked, an online volunteer network.
“Sparked is your place to get incredibly skilled and passionate workers for your next project... with a minimum of fuss. From copywriting, to research, to graphic design, these folks know their stuff! Of course, you can invite your own members too. Best of all, it's entirely free for nonprofits!”
Nonprofit’s can create their profile here.
VolunteerMatch
VolunteerMatch’s mission is to make it super easy for people and good causes to connect. The organization offers a variety of online services to support a community of nonprofit, volunteer and business leaders committed to civic engagement. Over 77,000 nonprofit organizations use VolunteerMatch to promote their volunteer opportunities.
Organizations will first need to register their nonprofits before submitting volunteer opportunities here.
Repair the World
Repair the World inspires American Jews and their communities to volunteer and help those in need. They have a search engine for Jewish service and service learning which connects Jewish individuals with local, regional and international service opportunities, as well as immersive service learning programs, while assisting Jewish organizations in attracting volunteers and participants. The search engine has some pretty cool features including:
- Profiles of participating organizations as well as individual service opportunities
- Online application and volunteer management framework
- Integration with national service databases including All for Good, VolunteerMatch and Serve.gov.
- Widgets that seamlessly integrate with organizations’ websites, providing embedded service listings.
- Analytics that present participating organizations with a detailed dashboard of visitors, signups and search engine usage.
- Individual user profiles with saved search criteria to identify new opportunities of interest.
- Integration with Facebook and social networking platforms to share stories about participation.
- Rating system to provide feedback on organizations and opportunities.
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