We recently launched Firstgiving’s partnership program, and periodically, we’ll be blogging Partner Spotlights to introduce you to our new partners. Like us, our partners work with non-profit organizations doing wonderful work for a variety of causes, and we’re helping them raise more money online. Today we’re speaking with Karen Bantuveris of VolunteerSpot.
How did you get started working with non-profit organizations?
For a long time, I had regularly volunteered at events like serving Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless, park cleanups, etc. When Hurricane Katrina sent thousands of evacuees to my home town of Austin, I saw for the first time how difficult and time-consuming it was to organize and coordinate grassroots volunteers.
Many people were moved to help, but I kept seeing the same pattern – a few people did most of the heavy lifting, and they quickly burned out from trying to coordinate too many small administrative tasks in addition to their other responsibilities. Volunteers sometimes found it too difficult to get plugged in, or they became overwhelmed by excessive emails and phone calls. I wanted to make it easier for non-profits to benefit from volunteers’ time and for volunteers to get involved.
It sounds like you got a very clear picture of how precious a resource time is. How does your organization help non-profit organizations use time efficiently?
VolunteerSpot solves one pain point in the volunteer experience – volunteer signups. We make it easy for anyone to organize, schedule, and keep in touch with volunteers (think Evite, juiced for volunteering). We cut scheduling and coordination time dramatically. For example, a small organizing job might be cut from 1 hour to 7 minutes, and a complex activity from days to 20 minutes.
Our free web tool is powering all kinds of local volunteering for non-profits, from staffing soup kitchens and water tables at races, to afterschool mentoring and literacy programs, to community art and film festivals.
Why did you decide to work with Firstgiving?
At VolunteerSpot, we’ve learned that people are usually happy to help if you ask them to do small bite-sized things and make it SUPER EASY for them to participate. We believe the same holds true for fundraising. For small nonprofits, schools, and congregations, the fundraising committee is typically the ‘hot potato’ committee – one or two people reluctantly step up for a job that isn’t the easiest or most glamourous. That’s why we’ve partnered with Firstgiving, to make it easy for ANY nonprofit community group to leverage their volunteers in raising money online.
Thanks, Karen!
You can learn more about VolunteerSpot at their website, here and their blog, here.
Want to learn how you can earn rebates for you or your favorite non-profit? Find more information about becoming a Firstgiving partner here.
