Idealists and volunteers to merge – Nonprofit News

Image by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Idealist and VolunteerMatch, two leading nonprofits in the digital volunteer recruitment space, are merging, according to an announcement this week.

The merger has implications for nonprofit volunteer recruitment at a time when the future of volunteerism is in flux after volunteering rates plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic and then appeared to be rebounding recently. I’m sure it will be given.

Founded in 1995, Idealist attracts tens of thousands of visitors every day, nearly 2 million of whom have created accounts on the site, and has connected volunteers with more than 150,000 organizations.

Meanwhile, VolunteerMatch, founded in 1998, calls itself “the largest network dedicated to connecting nonprofit organizations with individual and corporate volunteers.”

In fact, VolunteerMatch is the foundational technology for volunteering across the country, said Masaoka Yan, co-chair of the philanthropy project.

“In many cases, people don’t even realize they’re using VolunteerMatch,” Masaoka told NPQ. “So, for example, if you have a local volunteer center and you say, ‘Here is a list of volunteer opportunities that we offer,’ VolunteerMatch is the back engine for that.”

A press release states that as one combined organization, the companies will “build the world’s most powerful platform for individuals, nonprofits and socially responsible businesses to connect forever.”

Once the merger is complete, the two organizations will be known simply as Idealist and will be led by Ami Dar, Founder and Executive Director of Idealist.

Earlier this week, Dahl announced the merger on LinkedIn, posting:

We have some good news. After a few months of flirting and dating, Idealist and VolunteerMatch have merged. actually. (The merged organization will be called Idealist, and I will lead it.)

Practical Details: Nothing changes at this point. Both sites will continue to function as before. Over the next few months, we will build out one unified platform that can be accessed from both URLs. This allows any social impact organization to find all the talent they need, including staff, interns, and volunteers.

But one step at a time. Today we are just happy.

For organizations using the platform, the merger will not have an immediate impact on the user experience, the press release states. their respective API and syndication partners; ”

Volunteers “underpin the foundations of civil society,” says nonprofit watchdog Independent Sector. Independent Sector continually measures the average time value of volunteer time for nonprofit organizations ($33.49 as of last spring), much of which relies on volunteer work.