VolunteerMatch(ing) Easier Than Ever with Redesign -- Showing True Respect for Time and Effort of its Base

The leading online volunteer matching service, VolunteerMatch (VM, can't get a name better than that), has just launched a redesigned matching site making finding the right volunteer opportunity easier than ever for its users.

Nothing speaks more strongly to your site users (or your program registrants or online donors), than making it easier for them to act. Such changes are the ultimate in respecting your base and so a powerful nonprofit marketing tool, bound to increase activity.

At the center of the launch are improvements to VM's pioneering Search & Match engine used by prospective volunteers to find active opportunities. With the changes, users can now just enter their location and a few words describing what they want to do to initiate a search. It's seriously really, really easy. As easy as using Google. And on the results side, the new system reveals better information that users can filter by location, description, organization and date. Brilliant!

Robert Rosenthal, VolunteerMatch's director of communications, is confident that "the new approach will lead to higher referral rates from volunteers, especially in areas of skilled volunteering  -- and 5 days worth of data seems to suggest this is the case."

There are two other interesting features to note:

• Ratings & Reviews – A nationwide platform for user-generated recommendations about specific volunteer programs. It's likely to lead to better volunteer-nonprofit matches and stronger, more effective, volunteer programs. Nothing means more to a user than a peer recommendation
  • But are nonprofits ready for this level of transparency??? Volunteer managers get to work.

• RSS Subscriptions – Users can subscribe to RSS feeds to track volunteer opportunities by “cause” or by organization as new listings enter the VolunteerMatch system. Again, making it so easy for prospective, and current volunteers.

Kudos to Volunteer Match for respecting its users, and for walking that talk.

What can you do to make it easier for your base to interface with your organization?

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